Why does keyboard stop working properly on older iPads?

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surfisup1000

5288 posts

Uber Geek

#198592 15-Jul-2016 10:41

When I first purchased my iPad 3, I noticed how responsive the onscreen keyboard was to use, and how smoothly screen swipes would transition .

Now it is on the latest version of iOS, and the onscreen keyboard sometimes takes up to a second to register a key press. The basic functionality of the iOS keyboard and background OS does not seem to have changed much yet dreadful performance almost renders the ipad useless.

Screen swipes a jerky and slow too.

I've restored and reset this thing.

I'm almost tempted to make a CGA claim on the basis apple are intentionally crippling devices to force upgrades. I'm sure I read somewhere that apple has been taken to court over this before.

wellygary

8315 posts

Uber Geek

#1593157 15-Jul-2016 13:49

<i> Now it is on the latest version of iOS, </i>

welcome to the world of "encouraged upgrading through degraded performance"

Running a new OS on older hardware is the likely source of the problem,

Apparently IOS8 was a real dog on older gear, I am not sure if 9 is much better.

mattwnz

20147 posts

Uber Geek

#1593194 15-Jul-2016 14:44

The iPad 3 was underpowered and had heard it was slower than the iPad 2 as it had to push the retina display. So was very quickly replace with the 4. The big problem is that Apple don't allow you to downgrade iOS. Would be interested in how a CGA claim would get on although it is now quite an old device

mattwnz

20147 posts

Uber Geek

#1593196 15-Jul-2016 14:47

wellygary:
<i> Now it is on the latest version of iOS, </i>

welcome to the world of "encouraged upgrading through degraded performance"

Running a new OS on older hardware is the likely source of the problem,

Apparently IOS8 was a real dog on older gear, I am not sure if 9 is much better.

I believe it was ios7 and it's new interface that really slowed it down. Turning off allot of the animation features does speed it up. I have the same problem with my iPod touch 5th green which they were still selling last year. It is pretty much unusable due to how laggy it is on ios9 and it can't be downgraded

scuwp

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1593219 15-Jul-2016 15:29

iPad 2 still going strong on latest iOS. Yes it's probably s bit laggy compared to how it use to be, however I wonder how much of that is just the impression when compared to newer devices.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

jonb

1771 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1593220 15-Jul-2016 15:33

scuwp: iPad 2 still going strong on latest iOS. Yes it's probably s bit laggy compared to how it use to be, however I wonder how much of that is just the impression when compared to newer devices.

I find the keyboard on the iPad 2 to be very laggy to jump on to the screen - up to two seconds. The typing is ok after that, but it is not hard to start to believe this all deliberate when Apple are so good at optimising other aspects.

mattwnz

20147 posts

Uber Geek

#1593242 15-Jul-2016 17:07

scuwp: iPad 2 still going strong on latest iOS. Yes it's probably s bit laggy compared to how it use to be, however I wonder how much of that is just the impression when compared to newer devices.

I have one too used for when on the road. When it was purhcased it was speedy, so it has slowed down. You can see comparison videos of iOS devices running the stock ios version they came with, compared to what they are capable of, and there is a huge difference in performance. It does make you wonder why you actually bother updating ios at all. The only real reason is for app compatibility, as on many apps it requires newer ios versions. Luckily the best developers do make their apps backward compatible with very old versions.

I am going to delay updating my iphone to iOS 10, as I value that extra bit of speed and less lag as being more of an advantage than the new features iOS 10 has, which aren't particularly compelling. Not unless it can be proven that it doesn't slow it down at all, although betas of ios10 show it is slower, but they are only betas.

mattwnz

20147 posts

Uber Geek

#1593245 15-Jul-2016 17:12

jonb:

scuwp: iPad 2 still going strong on latest iOS. Yes it's probably s bit laggy compared to how it use to be, however I wonder how much of that is just the impression when compared to newer devices.

I find the keyboard on the iPad 2 to be very laggy to jump on to the screen - up to two seconds. The typing is ok after that, but it is not hard to start to believe this all deliberate when Apple are so good at optimising other aspects.

I am not sure if it is totally deliberate, as new iOS use more resources, so it is logical it will be slower. It is also designed more for the newer hardware. But wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of wanting you to upgrade, especially as they now make it impossible to downgrade. Even with windows, you can downgrade to older versions if you are not happy with the latest version, although I guess that now changes with windows 10 versions.

Interesting with iOS 10 is that it appears to be smaller than iOS 9, os uses up less storage space on the hardware. You would think that it could potentially be faster than iOS 9. I believe Microsoft managed to make windows 10 faster than windows 8, so apple should be able to do it too.