Apple finally calls time on 15-year-old device support
For those who wonder what the support window is for Apple products, the company now has an answer: it’s quietly ended support for some of its oldest iPhones and iPads, cutting off restore access for devices that first went on sale more than a decade ago. While the move has prompted some complaints, the truth is that it underlines just how unusually long the company has kept aging hardware alive. Even today, it provides support in the form of access to signed software upgrades for non-cellular devices as old as some teenagers. What devices have been cut? Among other things Apple has cut support for a range of older cellular-equipped devices, as it no longer supports the modems. Take the iPhone 4S, introduced about the same time iconic Apple CEO Steve Jobs died. Apple has stopped signing iOS versions for that device, which means if you’re still running one, you won’t be able to restore or downgrade to several older iOS versions on it. This isn’t the only older system for which Apple h