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hpr_transcripts/hpr3278.txt

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+Episode: 3278
+Title: HPR3278: A Minor Victory Against Designed-In Obsolescence
+Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3278/hpr3278.mp3
+Transcribed: 2025-10-24 20:02:21
+
+---
+
+This is Haka Public Radio episode 3278 for Wednesday, 24th of February 2021.
+Today's show is entitled, A Minor Victory Against The Mind in Obsolescence.
+It is hosted by Beena and is about 9 minutes long and carries a clean flag.
+The summary is, extracting a bit more life out of a device that Apple will rather have you done.
+This episode of HPR is brought to you by an honest host.com.
+Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15.
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+Hello Haka Public Radio, this is Beena.
+I know several people are now on their third or even fourth iPad.
+One is to be fair, one of those weird Apple cult disciples who within the limits of his funds
+has to try and have the latest mother of everything they make, regardless of whether the previous
+model is still serving them well. The other's though, for the most part,
+being forced into upgrading to a new model due to the obsolescence designed into iPads
+and iPhones as well for that matter. My problem with Apple has always been with their business practices
+rather than the devices themselves. Just in isolation iPad, for example, is a superbly engineered
+piece of kit and it's highly reliable as long as you don't misuse or damage it.
+The display, even on the early models, has always been excellent and they've got better
+still with each new model. The iOS user interface is to my mind more in choice of the Android.
+So what is there not to like?
+On my daughter went to school where the head teacher was for some reason, very well disposed to
+all's Apple. No matter how restricted the budget for IT, the evaluation for new equipment
+always seemed to result in the purchase of Macs or iPads, even though generic Windows and Android
+devices could have delivered the same functionality at a much lower cost. When she first started the
+school, a scheme was launched whereby pupils could acquire an iPad on a lease purchase arrangement
+for about £20 a month, including insurance against loss or breakage.
+Since these were featured strongly in the school's e-learning activities and it seemed all the other
+kids were going to get one, against my free software instincts we signed up for the scheme.
+I'm not sure the amount of essential UC's iPads didn't got getting justified the scheme,
+but that's something I could only judge in eyesight. As I went by, my daughter left that school
+and used the now ageing iPad 2 less and less. After about six years almost daily use,
+the device remained in remarkably good condition. The battery life was still enough to watch
+three full length movies along journey, the display was still crisp and the audio faultless even
+up maximum volume. So why should I seem interested in it? Whatever two big issues, it didn't bother
+in the slightest that the operating system was now unsupported and receiving no security updates.
+What did bother, though, was that just about every app she tried to install right grade,
+reported need for a later version of iOS, the 9.3.5 running on her iPad,
+and of course iOS itself could not be upgraded either.
+The other issue was that of on-board storage. The model 2 came with 16GB of which about 3.5 was
+used by the OS itself, and the pre-installed default apps. By the time she'd loaded a music
+collection and recorded a few video clips with the built-in camera, it didn't have a lot left,
+and of course there's no way to add any more. In contrast, most Android tablets come with
+a microSD slot, so you can easily and cheaply add an extra 64GB even more.
+I thought she was concerned that the iPad 2 was now useless, so in common with every other
+piece of ancient or obsolete tech in my household, it was given unceremoniously to me with instructions
+to do something with it. Over the years, I've had the job of finding a home for any number of phones,
+TVs, DVD players, VCR players, and domestic appliances in various states of function.
+These days it seems you literally cannot give an old but working TV away. Even charity shops generally
+won't accept mains powered electrical items, as they don't want to accept liability if they catch
+fire or electrocute somebody. At our local recycling centre, they have skipped devoted to electrical
+items, so that is where I've reluctantly ended up taking a lot of my stuff. Period to it are
+sometimes tempted to remove items that other people have done. I've seen laptops and PCs which
+look to be in perfect condition. To cut the long story short, nobody else was interested in this
+old but perfectly working iPad 2, but it seemed criminal to take it down the council tip.
+I decided to hang onto it, at least temporarily, to see if I could get any genuine use out of it.
+It struck me that the minimum residual functionality required for this old iPad to be very real
+used to me would be the abilities to use email, browse the internet, watch YouTube and use the
+camera, anything else it did would be a bonus. First I tried to set up my email account using
+a default mail app and was pleasantly surprised to find it worked fine. The internet browser Safari
+was less successful. It certainly displayed some websites, generally those with a minimum of
+complexity, but for most sites it will just keep on reloading the page but never get beyond displaying
+a blank area. I tried upgrading Safari but it wanted a new version of iOS.
+There are all sorts of browsers in the App Store, most of which I've never heard of,
+nearly all of which had very low user ratings. I tried a few regardless but was sorted by the
+need for a later version of iOS most of the time. However, my last option was a browser called
+MaxThon5 which had received plenty of good reviews. It installed out any problems,
+and although it was a bit on the slow side both in loading and moving between sites,
+everything seems to be displayed correctly, even YouTube works fine as long as you show
+little patience when it's loading. As far as I could tell the camera app hasn't changed since
+the iPad was brand new. It works perfectly, the video is only 720p but unless you want to use it
+in challenging lighting conditions it's not bad at all. All the other standard iOS apps that came
+pre-installed still work on the Safari. It means that the device can still be used for FaceTime.
+The ability to watch your own movies is a bit constrained in all iOS devices so to rectify that
+I tried to install VLC and was delighted when that installed OK and worked perfectly.
+Beyond playing almost any format of sound and video, a particular advantage of VLC on iOS
+is that it comes with its own data space which means it can transfer videos onto the iPad,
+using the USB charging cable direct from a PC as mounted storage. If you don't have the cable
+and the VLC also has a wireless transfer for Cersei built in which you can access from your PC's
+browser. Certified that it's old iPad could still be a practical device for me, I tried to
+add to it and found that the BBC iPlayer app could also be installed. The iPlay can be accessed
+from the Maxthon browser but it's tediously slow to load but using the app is considered
+quicker. I was also able to install a simple radio app which gives access to feeds from thousands
+of radio stations all over the world. The end result of all this is I hope a device which
+despite being around nine years old and officially obsolete can still be used effectively for email,
+internet browsing, play music, watching movies and video calling so that's enough to provide
+the basic functions you might need when you're out and about but don't want to take a laptop with you.
+My bottom line is that while I wouldn't buy an iPad of this vintage for more than the price of
+a coffee or a beer, if you have one lying around then don't throw it away. There could be somebody
+you know who could get some useful life out of it. The only word a warning I would give is to
+always bear in mind that this device has not received any security updates for several years
+and never will again. On that basis I'd hesitate to use it for any kind of banking or for
+completing forms containing sensitive information. Other than that though all the while the battery
+is giving at least five or six hours of life why not get some utility from it. I find it's such a
+shame that a perfectly good computing device is designed to be thrown on a scrappy at the
+whim of the manufacturer rather than because it's finally given up the ghost. As I mentioned earlier
+these old devices are extremely well made and deserve any popular as a result.
+Mike Wright with Apple has always been its business practices and cynical pricing policies
+which I'm sure contribute more than little to Apple being arguably the most valuable company in the world.
+Bye for now.
+We are a community podcast network that releases shows every weekday Monday through Friday.
+Today's show, like all our shows, was contributed by an HPR listener like yourself.
+If you ever thought of recording a podcast then click on our contributing to find out how easy it
+really is. HECCA Public Radio was founded by the Digital Dove Pound and the Infonomicon Computer Club
+and is part of the binary revolution at binrev.com. If you have comments on today's show
+please email the host directly leave a comment on the website or record a follow-up episode yourself.
+Unless otherwise stated today's show is released on the Creative Commons
+Attribution ShareLight 3.0 License