
Declined?
I haven't declined, I just didn't fancy doing the update when on the road.
Never understood all this rush for the latest and greatest OS within days of release anyway. It's usually bugged no matter what flavour of OS you wish to use.
Members of the Apple faithful have so far updated less than half of their iPhones, iPads and iPods with the newest refresh of the firm's mobile operating system, iOS 8. Five days after the new mobile OS was released, Cupertino reckons 46 per cent of iThings have been given software updates, where possible – iOS 8 isn't …
I don't understand the problems about space. I ran into that a while back, and all I need to do is to disable music tracks and sync - voila, plenty room. Update, then sync again with music on and all is well. I did that to myself by just buying the 16GB model, so I learned how to cope.
If people would spend the time *thinking* instead of finding something to whinge about they would not have problems other than maybe some first release bugs, and that too is a matter of deciding to wait and be stable or upgrading and taking into account you may have some quirks to deal with - it's not exactly new, is it? That decision has been around since the beginning of the home computer era.
Less talk, more thinking. Solves quite a few problems IMHO.
I know, right! I also got the smaller iPhone 5s. Plugged it in to my computer, ran iTunes, a little while later I was all updated.
BTW, no battery problems, have not noticed any WiFi problems. The only issue so far is that some apps displaying lists of items will freeze. No scroll up, no scroll down, have to exit via home button and then go back to app.
Final thought: I REALLLLLLY LIKE THE NEW SIRI!! Text to speech in real time is fun to watch and seems more accurate then before.
The stats aren't meaningless because they're compared to similar stats from when iOS7 was brought in last year. If I recall correctly that worked on exactly the same devices, the update to 8 is rolling out to the same kit, i.e back to the iPad 2 and iPhone 4.
So what the story is telling us is that Apple stuff is getting updated a bit slower than it used to be. Which is slower than it used to be before the somewhat negative reaction to iOS7. But still much faster than Android.
That change may be random, or down to changing percetptions of Apple's quality control, or just the size of the update and effort required. Or it might even be down to the conspiracy theory I've sometimes heard that they slow older kit down with updates to get you to buy new ones. I don't buy it as it did happen to my iPad 1, but not to my iPad 3, or work iPhone 5.
If you're not interested in that, then don't click on the article. But this is supposed to be a site for techies. I am interested, because at some point I'm going to hit the button on my iOS devices.
I doubt Apple are any buggier than anyone else's new releases. It's just that they seem to often have WiFi and battery bugs on their updates. And have less excuse, given they totally control their hardware and exercise more control than most on the software.
But they usually fix stuff reasonably quickly as well. So iOS 8.01 will probably be out in the next couple of weeks...
Cyanogenmod is great. But for ordinary users having root access to the device isn't exactly a perfect idea. Although it has its good points as well.
Also from my experience of Cyanogen, now very out of date I admit, it's not always easy. If the manufacturer have cooperated then it's just a download and go. But if they've locked the phone's bootloader you need to jump through all sorts of hoops, that no ordinary user is going to touch with a 20 foot bargepole.
Cyanogenmod is a minority interest for techies. And a very good one. But what matters is everyday users. And for them you get updates on Apple, and are much more likely not to on Android. Due to manufacturers and/or networks, and Google's decision to let them get away with it.
It would also be interesting if Apple users were losing faith in their updates. But this data isn't enough to draw any conclusion like that from.
"But still much faster than Android."
This is what Apple fanbots constantly bleat. What they don't understand, is the version of Android is mostly meaningless these days. All the functionality is delivered via Play Services, a layer ontop. So whilst they get once a year updates, ALL android owners get once a month feature releases.
Remote wipe, device location, the gaming platform, Wearables support and so forth. Supported all the way back to Android 2.3
https://developer.android.com/google/play-services/index.html
In essence, the Android version matters less than your Linux kernel version, it's everything onto that the user sees and uses, and that's updatable.
The iPhone 4 has been left behind on this update (prolly for the best), so although the stats aren't meaningless, they are not exactly equal. The iPhone 4 is a very popular device. I still see tons of them around (and no, they do look different)... I'll wager that that is a major factor in the few percent drop from last year.
I find percentages not all that much use when comparing things that are not of exactly equal value.
Without knowing how many users that 46% represents, compared to the previous 49%, doesn't mean much.
If the overall user base has increased from (for example) 100 people, to 200 people, then that 46% (of 200) is significantly more actual bodies, than the 49% (of 100)
(yes, of course there is the possibility that there has been an overall decrease in users, in which case the percentages are equally meaningless)
Also, it seems that every year I read these stories of it taking people hours to update iOS, and then finding that they have lost half their stuff, and the battery is crap and the Wi-Fi doesn't work, where as every year, it takes me half an hour to download, back up and update, and everything works fine. I can't be the only one, right?
Saying that though, I am the only person I know that doesn't passionately hate iTunes.
D@v3,
I've had an iPad hang halfway through the update and have to be hard reset. Can't remember which OS, or even which iPad. I had the 1 and now the 3. So I've tended to do my iPads via iTunes since. It wasn't a problem, I know these things can happen, and I'd backed it up, so it just needed to be done and plugged into Mr Pooter for a recovery. But people are likely to squawk a lot louder if they've just expected everything to work, and not backed up immediately.
Apple can't really complain about that, as they do sell on the 'it just works' idea. So it's then hard to complain when their users don't do basic stuff like backups. Hence having Cloud do it for them.
On the other hand I've got a work iPhone 5, and that's always updated flawlessly over the air. And I never back it up, because all it has is links to the work Exchange server and a few useful apps. It's never been plugged into my computer.
Actually I've been seeing that for at least a couple of months now on my iPad. Of course, I keep tabs around forever, sometimes I'll have a couple of reference pages loaded for weeks that I occasionally switch to and they reload if I haven't viewed them for a day or so. Probably an automatic page refresh feature
I would have thought that getting 46% to upgrade in 4 days was an incredibly high percentage. Given that most new software has problems, whoever makes it, people have to be either really brave or really stupid to upgrade until a few million other schmucks have given it a whirl and let the manufacturers sort out their cock-ups.
I'll leave it to the reader to decide how the 46% of Apple earl adopters are split between really brave and really stupid.
Stupid is unfair.
A combination of ingorant and uninterested is more accurate. I know people who really don't want to care about how pooters work. They just want to get on and do stuff. They're intelligent enough to understand them, but just don't want to. I don't really understand that, given how dependent we are on the damned things. But on the other hand, not everyone can understand every area of modern life or technology. There just isn't sufficient time. And people have things to get on with doing.
46% early adopter rate may be incredibly high, but we know from the last time that it's a falling rate. The question that no one can answer yet is whether this represents the downward death spiral that world+dog predicted for Apple upon the death of Fearless Leader. I'm not so sure it is, mainly because there's not remotely close enough evidence to draw such a definitive conclusion.
And of course, anyone who rushes to get the bleeding edge has NO right to be shocked when they end up bloodied on some level.
It's only if you install the update on the device itself. Not really a surprise that if you do that, there has to be free space for the download on-board. The download isn't a tiny incremental file like point releases, it's the whole iOS 8 image.
If you do it through itunes, it's not an issue. Given the size of the update, it's worth doing it while attached to a computer anyway.
@returnmyjedi
there really is no pleasing some people!
either update from the iPad over the air (requires free space on the device)
or plugin to a pc and use iTunes, you know the tool apple built to service iDevices.
Not sure how Android or Windows does it but Apple have covered all the bases with their update procedure.
What would be your third option?
Two down votes by two overzealous fanbois who don't really want to hear the truth? I have an iPad 3 and want to use it the way that I want to use it. Dare say, I use it the way that it suits my life. I can watch mkv files without transcoding them and copy stuff to and from it almost as easily as I can with my Android phone using iFunbox.
So, justify to me what iTunes does better than a tiny bit of software that "Just works"
@qwertyuiop
yes Apple acquired SoundJam and rebuilt it into iTunes. What's the big deal? i don't see any soundjam competitor still out there that are as ubiquitous as iTunes.
i really don't understand this fascination with highlighting things that apple bought/acquired and made successful.
when i look under the bonnet of my car i see loads of items made by other manufacturers, i don't hear people banging in about how the car company didn't make it themselves though.
...now that doesn't yet work. Bummer.
In ios 8 you can make the interface look good if you turn on grayscale, and then invert colors. Problem is it inverts and grayscale everything, like pictures and content. If it only did so for interface that's how I would run it.
Back to iOS 6 design, I liked imitation of paper and leather, not necessarily that the interface also imitated the analog world, but the looks were good.
I'd say that's true of all the high-end phones now.
My friend has a Motorola G, and it's really rather nice. Another has a Galaxy Note 2, and that's also excellent. Can't you pick them up for under £250 now?
If I was paying, my next phone would probably be a mid range Lumia. 725, or whatever they're up to now. But if you don't like that UI, then there's plenty of great 'Droids to choose from at sensible prices. And I just think all the top-end phones over £400 are now a rip-off. One that only works because people aren't actually seeing the phone prices in their contracts, and can avoid noticing they're paying for an expensive hire-purchase with their data contract.
You might want to avoid the Lumia if you do anything but use it to make calls.
They are still REALLY buggy. Bluetooth audio is choppy, they reboot pretty often, they get insanely hot when they are in low signal areas, and battery life can suck horribly. They are still very much alpha products.
You can get a Nexus5 for a great price these days, and soon be updated to the latest Android L. The camera is really good (even more so with the new high speed camera hardware APIs in the L preview).
I think you may have a faulty phone.
I had a Lumia 710 and the bluetooth audio worked perfectly. It got slightly better signal than my work iPhone if anything, and I don't recall it getting warmer than any other phone. The only phone I can recall getting toasty was my old HTC Wildfire after a hard workout. And it was never that bad.
Actually the bluetooth problem could be your speakers as well. Given how piss-poorly unreliable I've found bluetooth to be over the years. When it works, it's great. When it doesn't it's a bastard to diagnose - and random multiple reboots and re-pairings seem to be the only way to go. Except for a sledgehammer...
I've not read any reviews saying any of this, alhtough I've not looked that hard. And they're on their 4th (5th?) generation of Lumia phones now. As for the software it has its faults, but then so do Android and iOS. The People hub is way better designed than Apple or Google's efforts, and better than any of the other contact managers I've tried on Android. It's horses for courses.
If I go Android it'll probably be something with a stylus. So that's LG or Samsung I think.
I've just inherited my other half's 16Gb 4S as my work phone (in exchange for a nice new 6...). It works just fine with newly upgraded iOS 8. I've used the accessibility settings to turn off the additional motion in the UI - you should try that (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5595). It compares favourably in speed to my previous work phone, an iPhone 4 running iOS 6.
Switching on Bluetooth post-upgrade has been default behaviour for iOS upgrades for a while now. A bit annoying, but at least I now remember to switch it off.
Meanwhile I have a sneaky feeling my 4S battery is draining a bit faster since iOS8 was installed...
My iPhone 3G to IOS 2.1 whilst charging through the laptop on the train to visit a family member at their new house. Completely bricked my baseband and lost all cell connectivity. Not very helpful when you get off the train with no idea where to go and no way to contact anyone.
Last time I ever trusted an Apple update that's for sure..
.. last time I ever bought an Apple product come to think of it!
There's still a lot of iphone 4 in the wild, mine included, which are over the obsolescence threshold for this update. Most of us don't really need a better phone, it does what is needed, and more importantly fits in your pocket (exactly where do you all stick your phablets?). The aim of the updates is to bloat older models into a crawl, to encourage uptake of a shiny new model.
Keep in mind that
1. Many of us have older iThings which don't run iOS 8 very well.
2. The first 12-24 hours, the iOS 8 will do a lot of housekeeping and updating, thus draining battery and causing sluggish operation. Put it on the charger, leave it on overnight, see if that helps.
3. Many are waiting for iOS 8.01 update to fix the inevitable release bugs.
Mine was pretty poor for quite a few days, but oddly today it seems to have slowed its battery use considerably (still have 64% left today whereas yesterday at the same time it was about 15%.
Probably more to do with me using it less but does seem to have got better. I'm sure 8.01 will sort it out.
The battery drain on my iphone 5 and ipad 3 really is ugly. The phone was never great on ios 7, but it must drain a good 20 percent quicker than previously. The ipad is worse. It gets a bit of not too heavy daily use, and a full charge would usually be down to 30 percent after a week or so; now its down to 50 percent after two days with no increase in use.
There's a new notice that pops up every now and again informing that so and so app (usually weather or something) has been using location in the background, something that was rare previously (indicated by the purple arrows in location services), and that would seem like a good candidate. Odd though since no settings have changed unless they are newly added.
The tablets not a problem, but the phone running down is now really getting to be a pain.
I'm still sticking with iOS6 until my contract runs out and I can jump ship, because I utterly loathe the aesthetic of iOS7+. I recognise that I'm in a minority here, and that Flat Design probably won't go away unless and until something terrible, yet hilarious ironic happens to Jony Ive, like getting crushed to death by a few pallets of design textbooks labelled "Flat". And actually, even then it probably wouldn't die either.
Anyway, that doesn't mean, or at least shouldn't mean, that I have to use it. It'd be nice if I could choose a skin within my existing OS, but instead that probably means going to Android instead. (Please don't even suggest WinPho, which is even worse, with large, flat monochrome tiles reminiscent of the worst of VGA design.)
Does anyone remember when software added options, rather than took them away?
Yes, while everybody knows that Apple invented 'Rounded Corners™' ;-] Flat, they did not. Flat seems to be an industry-wide movement towards an overall aesthetic, which when done properly reduces eye clutter, garish clashing themes and UI overload, but which -when done typically- just gives managers a penis-hardning opportunity to reduce the number of graphic designers in a company, hence its popularity.
Absolutely agree with the iOS7 style - it really sucks (IMO). I have an iPad 2 which I have left on iOS6 and will leave it there until hell freezes over (or until there's an app I REALLY want but "needs iOS7"!). I have a work-supplied 4s on iOS7 - it's HORRIBLE, and I suppose I'll have to upgrade to 8 fairly soon, simply because the company I work for has an app that I have to support for other users.
iOS7 was designed by children for children - I'm staying with 6 for as long as I can. Oh, and my 3GS still works perfectly, with great battery life.
Updated an iPhone 5 (16 GB) and an iPad 3 (first retina version) with 8 on the day. Took a little while for the phone and had to restart it for the update to install (downloaded fine), but no problem at all with the iPad (32 GB). Subjectively it seems faster on both, especially the iPad. Took a little getting used to in Safari especially (the change of the bookmarks from right to left on the screen). No apparent battery difference; so I'm upgraded and happy with it.
No one comments on the article's context - which is one of multi billion dollar market rivalries and 'news' media outlets sowing hatred and provocation in order to either make clickbait out of such rivalry or perhaps profit from 'planting' such headlines in the subconscious - for that is what the corporates and politicos do now. They don't use reasoned honouring modes of communication, but seek to manipulate.
All consumers/readers/populations are to do now is react.
Not unlike a rat-maze, people are conditioned by their OWN reactions that are set up and anticipated in advance.
The framework that is set forth in this provocation of an 'article' is puerile in its appeal. The whole thing stinks but once one reacts to the bait, one is essentially serving to set the framework as if it were discussion rather than propaganda (propagating hates, invalidations and disinfo).
The article says; "Hate Apple" and "Apple are hateful" and uses recent update stats as a cover to attack under.
Those who love to hate, hate to love ...and fear it - or they would not seek out and invest in conflict as an escape for their own lack of substance.
I invite a positive extension of value from news vendors and aggregates. One can be critical within an honest communication. Truly what one gives out is what one gets back. Hating is a form of self-harm. Manipulative deception can seem to get a hit of pleasure and self-righteousness from it in the short term, but mental sickness is neither pleasurable or validating to who you truly are.
Had a couple of movies, on my first generation iPad Mini, that I'd forgotten about. I had to delete these before it would let me upgrade. The process is longer than previous upgrades. I haven't noticed too much (if any) of a performance hit, so far, but I get the sense that the next upgrade would be an upgrade too far. Should you upgrade? It looks awfully similar to iOS 7. Unless you want or need the new features (no on both counts, for me), I'd say no.
I only got the push notify for IOS8 today. More likely Apple is just trying not to overload its servers by having a billion or so iCritters update to IOS8 at the same time.
Android is soooo much less of a problem, the market is fragment city, no more than a few tens of millions could be updated at one time as the manufacturers drag their feet and providers resist giving their customers anything new ... after all, those customers are already captive, "what have you done for us today" say the execs... you want fixed security bugs and revamped OS shiny shiny, then buy a new phone!! hahaha (no I did not say "sucker", but I was thinking it!)
So am I now the only person with an IPhone 4S still running iOS 5.1.1
Apart from the wifi suddenly stopped working last November and once this year it's frozen and wiped the contact list but aside from that pretty stable and keeps it's charge, I really don't see the point in updating and risk more going wrong.
I rolled my ipad 2 back to iOS 7 today, the old guy simply doesn't have enough RAM (512MB). The iPhone 4S works perfectly fine for me on iOS 8 though.
In any case my new Moto G 2nd gen was shipped today because I'd like a bigger screen but am fed up with expensive contracts.
In a month time or two I'll buy the next ipad, to be announced, retiring the iPad 2.
Why both iOS and Android? Because they both work well for me, they both have bugs, because I'm not a blind zealot either way and because I get whatever match my buying criteria.