This Apple Tech Will Be Obsolete in June

Real Clear Technology ^ | 5-18-2015 | Jordan Kahn

[Citizen Zed]

Apple is about to sunset support for a number of iPhones, Macs, and other products as it plans to switch several models to “Obsolete” or “Vintage” status in June, according to internal documents.

When a device receives Obsolete status from Apple — Vintage status only applies to California and Turkey, where the company is required to continue offering support — it no longer offers service or repair support through its own Apple retail stores or authorized service providers. It typically begins the process for models 5-7 years after manufacturing has been discontinued and maintains a list on its website here.

[Citizen Zed]

California and Turkey. How progressive.

[RIghtwardHo]

I update my phone yearly and my Mac about every 3 years so ...

And never, ever had a problem with any Apple product, unlike Windows, etc.

[Gaffer]

It typically begins the process for models 5-7 years after manufacturing has been discontinued and maintains a list on its website here.

This is why I stopped buying anything from SONY 20 years ago. They have great support/service up to that one point and then they shift everything off to third party thieves. Haven't bought and won't ever again buy ANYTHING from them.

[Citizen Zed]

I’m still on xp and hardware just as old. I’ll hold off on upgrading as long as I possibly can.

[Boogieman]

See Win XP junkies? Microsoft is not the only company that does this, it is standard industry practice.

[JohnnyP]

Yep, my 2007 20” iMac is obsolete. So they say.

Works great, just that they keep upgrading me out of working programs.

Since “upgrading” to 10.6.8:

I can no longer use iTunes to stream music.

Some features in ClarisWorks no longer work.

My pcb layout program runs a little slower when I make the Gerber files.

[Zathras]

This most likely has to do with vendors like Intel who “End Of Life” a processor family.
This happens all the time...nothing sinister or evil.

[relictele]

When your laws are as bizarre and restrictive as Islamic states, you’re doing it wrong.

[RIghtwardHo]

I did the same. My last foray with Windows was XP. But many bluescreens of death later, upgrading parts, and watching my family (all with Macs) with no cpu changes ... I made the jump. SO glad I did.

[RIghtwardHo]

Yeah that is a problem (software upgrades upgrading you out of programs). But the lack of befuddling conflicts and BoDs makes it worth it.

[bigbob]

toss it in the crapper and buy a new one. The China economy doesn’t run on vapor you know...

[The Antiyuppie]

“Works great, just that they keep upgrading me out of working programs.

Since “upgrading” to 10.6.8:”

...which is why the updates are “free”.

[Nowhere Man]

This is why I stopped buying anything from SONY 20 years ago. They have great support/service up to that one point and then they shift everything off to third party thieves. Haven't bought and won't ever again buy ANYTHING from them.

I guess they threw my Sony Tapecorder 600 reel-to-reel under the bus a long time ago. It was made in 1964. B-) Same with my VT-110 B&W TV, was made in 1969 B-)

[FrogMom]

I am currently on my shiny new iMac. It’s a big learning curve for me! I need a database (that doesn’t cost 320 bucks), any suggestions?

[Gaffer]

Some things of theirs last a long time. I had an expensive boom box, a camcorder and a TV that lasted as long as a GoldStar whatever. The shysters they foist you off on after they quit committing to decent service and repair are THIEVES.

Today, all those items are likely made somewhere outside of Japan, like Taiwan, Korea or China (Bangladesh, India, Malaysia - hey, where’s Apple getting their stuff made?) and it really doesn’t matter....you pay for the name. For me, cheaper that fits the bill (needs)is better

[ctdonath2]

As an app developer, I assure you it becomes increasingly difficult to support aging platforms as time passes: the effort required to maintain that backwards compatibility suffers diminishing returns.

Space, speed, & toolset requirements progress; accommodating relatively smaller, slower, & less-developed configurations means spending more development time isolating & backfilling progress, reinventing the wheel for want of older off-the-shelf wheels, tagging numerous newer features as “sorry, not available on your 7-year-old system”, keeping old hardware around & viable for testing to identify whether features will run intolerably slow, irritating users with bloated installation packages providing support for features which can’t run on your system, and fixing aging bugs which aren’t an issue on newer platforms. Such support means more ways the software can break, more hardware to test on, more test cases to benefit fewer users.

Take music streaming for example.
A new protocol is implemented in the updated operating system which supports a more robust/efficient method for transferring music data (say, it tolerates network problems better, uses better security, and is much easier to implement). Developers want to update the streaming music module accordingly ... but you with a 7-year-old computer & operating system don’t have the OS capability to use that new protocol & technique, so I as a developer have to add code for the new preferred way, but also have to mark out, preserve, & support the old code that still works on your system with a flurry of “do this, unless running on a 5-year-old OS in which case do that instead”; over time, I end up with a whole lot of such confusing, fragile, and bloating “but if running on XYZ do this instead” code.

Eventually, the number of users running on old platforms becomes a minuscule percentage of total users (most of which upgrade hardware & software on a regular basis), and it’s just not financially worth my time to continue maintaining backwards compatibility. While I’d _like_ to support my app running on iOS 5, so many of our new features are built on operating system capabilities that don’t exist there that my choice is either write voluminous code to do in an old OS what the new OS provides in just a couple of lines, or tell users “sorry, I can’t viably support any version of iOS before 7, and yes that means you’ll have to buy a newer iPad.”

It’s an integrated system. The hardware and operating system and software all have to work together in tight & precise harmony, and if something lags too much or something demands too much then some stuff just isn’t going to work anymore. We do try to maintain backwards compatibility, but that’s a lot harder than you may think.

[Nowhere Man]

Zenith TV’s last a long time too, I still use my 1982 Zenith to this very day. I looked on the back and it is so old it says, “Zenith Radio Corporation” on the back as well as “Made In USA.”

[zeebee]

I run my business on Mac OS 9.4

The software works fine. It’s the peripherals that are the problem but I just got a new SCSI scanner on eBay.

I would upgrade but the vendor is out of business. But I FReep on the latest MBPro.

[Swordmaker]

To all good things Apple, an end-of-support-life must come and the following Apple Products will hit that event on June 15, 2015.



If your venerable Apple computer, iPhone, or Airport Router, it may be time to consider by a new one. Or on the other hand, if it is still serving you well, just keep trucking along. Note that you can still get service at an Apple Store on all these products. — PING!

Apple End-of Life for phone service on older Apple Products
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[Flick Lives]

I am currently on my shiny new iMac. It’s a big learning curve for me! I need a database (that doesn’t cost 320 bucks), any suggestions?

MySQL has a free version available.