If you have an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 5s, iPad Air, iPad mini 2 or 3, this update is for you. When security issues arise, Apple’s desire (and responsibility, I’d argue) is to protect. Just like the 45 nm 1 GHz 'dual core' Apple A5-powered iPad 2 (Wi-Fi Only), this model is equipped with a 9.7-inch (1024x768, 132 ppi) multitouch 'glossy' LED-backlit IPS display and runs a version of the same iOS operating system that powers the iPhone and iPod touch models. As a result it is compatible with thousands of iPad-specific apps as.
In case you've been so content with your iPad 2 over the last few years that you've drifted away from paying attention to the Apple product cycle, here is some six-month-old news: Apple finally stopped selling the iPad 2 model back in March. After it hung on at the bottom of the tablet product line for a couple of years to be a rock for the education and corporate markets, Apple kicked the iPad 2 out and resurrected the iPad 4 as the new full-size budget model.
But for now, Apple is continuing to update the iPad 2, in part because it has so much in common with the non-retina iPad mini, including the Apple A5 processor and 1024x768 display. But the iPad 2 hung around so long because it's also a legacy device. There are students depending on updates, as well as companies who used the iPad as a default device, like Square.
iOS 7 didn't do a whole lot of damage to the iPad 2, and even improved it in some aspects, like how fast the browser could load webpages. But this time around, the new version of iOS 8 appears to make the start of a much bigger decline, not only in performance, but in appearance.
Where we miss out, and what goes wrong
There were some features added to iOS 7 that were not available on the iPad 2, and iOS 8 adds to this listIpad 2 Latest Os
:- Apple Health
- Handoff features in Continuity
- TouchID
- Support for OpenGL ES 3.0, the Metal graphics API, and 64-bit ARMv8 apps.
The last time we wrote about an iOS transition, we noted that the bolder version of the OS-wide font helped everything look slightly better on the iPad 2's non-retina screen. With the font changes in iOS 8, though, this is no longer good advice—the bold font looks fat and unwieldy, especially on the everpresent clock time at the top of the screen and on the keyboard. Fortunately, Apple seems to have beefed up the standard font a bit in places where it needs it, so switching to bold is no longer necessary.
Advertisement In addition to font problems, the iPad 2 also still doesn't get any of the watercolor translucency effects Apple introduced iOS 7.
Generally, iOS 8 is noticeably slower and choppier than iOS 7, in everything from opening apps to typing. Back when we switched from iOS 6, we complained about how we could get 10 characters into typing something before the keyboard realized what was happening. This problem has returned with a force in iOS 8, especially on first opening an app. Screen rotation is stuttery, and any time some part of the OS needs to slide into place (text centering, apps minimizing), it can't do it smoothly.
To quantify the difference in performance, we tried opening several stock apps on each version of the OS, as well as cold-booting to the lock screen.
Application | iOS 7.1.2 | iOS 8.0 GM |
---|---|---|
Safari | 1.07 seconds | 1.81 seconds |
Camera | 1.01 seconds | 1.04 seconds |
Settings | 1.16 seconds | 1.63 seconds |
1.60 seconds | 2.61 seconds | |
Messages | 0.92 seconds | 1.19 seconds |
Calendar | 0.97 seconds | 1.48 seconds |
Cold boot | 29.12 seconds | 31.53 seconds |
IOS 7 was overall slower at opening apps than iOS 6 last year, but a lot of the difference could be attributed to the sweeping and slow animations that Apple introduced between the two versions. Even after Apple expedited the animations in newer versions of iOS 7, iOS 8 is still one half to a full second slower to complete certain tasks than iOS 7 on the iPad 2. Cold boots take a couple seconds longer, too.
None of these opening times are huge roadblocks, but they add up to a noticeable poky feeling that wasn't there (or wasn't as strong) coming from iOS 7.
Surprisingly, the browser performance on iOS 8 is marginally better than on iOS 7 according to benchmarks. iOS 8 barely edges out 7 in Kraken, but it loses out in running SunSpider. The iPad 2 could not run Google Octane v2 on iOS 8 without crashing, but when we ran v1 on both versions, iOS 8 beat iOS 7 by a solid margin.
Advertisement Experientially, though, iOS 8 feels like it reloads tabs and reacts to input slower than iOS 7 did. Because of all the reloads, browsing is a disjointed experience with either version.Do I upgrade, or not?
Last year our attitude toward the iOS 6-to-7 upgrade was 'how much worse can things get,' and it turns out we'd never find out. iOS 7 stayed roughly on par with 6 in terms of performance. After that experience, we could advocate for an upgrade with few reservations.
But now, iOS 8 has convinced us that things can, in fact, be worse. Not a whole lot worse, and not all the time, but it's enough of a regression with few enough upsides that acquiescing to the 'download software update' prompts may actually be a bad idea.
With that course of action comes some caveats: opting out of software updates can be risky from a security standpoint. There is also the possibility that later versions will become more stable, so closing your device off permanently may not be the best decision in the long run. It is possible, though not strictly sanctioned, to roll back to iOS 7 from 8 if you do want to give it a try but are worried you'll find it lacking.Ultimately, the iPad 2 is still our couch Internet-surfing device, occasionally a night-reading device. We don't demand much at all from it in terms of performance and expect it's the same for others who are still using this model a full three and a half years after it came out. This means that upgrading to iOS 8 won't ruin the experience; then again, neither would just staying on iOS 7.
I collect old computers, and so my friends often find interesting things for my collection. My friend Paul recently gave me an old iPad 2 for my museum.
![Ipad 2 ios compatibility Ipad 2 ios compatibility](/uploads/1/3/7/5/137553330/671556754.jpg)
The thing is, it didn’t feel very old. I still use an iPad 3 every day as my main tablet (it still works fabulously well, apart from the bloat on modern web pages, that sometimes tend to cause Safari to grind to a halt). The donated iPad 2 ran iOS 9.3.5 (very slowly), which is basically what my iPad 3 runs (iOS 9.3.6 due to last year’s GPS bug that Apple patched).
Ipad 2 Ios 9.3.5
So to be a candidate for my museum I really wanted to revert it to its original state, which would have been iOS 4. But Apple don’t allow downgrades, and all installs of iOS have to be cryptographically signed by Apple.
So I set about seeing if jailbreaking the iPad would help. Apparently not – jailbreaking on its own doesn’t bypass the iOS signing.
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But I found a few references to iOS 6.1.3. It seems this was the first version of iOS to allow OTA (Over The Air) updates to iOS. So Apple allowed 6.1.3 to be manually installed via USB (so that devices running earlier versions could update, and then update to the latest version over the air).
So I tried a few versions of this – first using a Windows tool (3utools) – which failed with an obscure error, and then using iTunes on a Mac (having downloaded iPad2,1_6.1.3_10B329_Restore.ipsw from https://ipsw.me/iPad2,1) – which revealed that Apple wouldn’t sign it any longer. That corrupted the device so I was forced to reinstall 9.3.5 using iTunes.
Doing a bit more reading, it seemed Apple had stopped signing 6.1.3 a few months ago, possibly due to a security bug in iCloud on iOS 6 that they wanted to avoid being exploited? Details were a bit vague.
Then I found some references to them still signing OTA updates to 6.1.3, just not manual updates via IPSW files. The tool Vieux promised to be able to downgrade to iOS 6.1.3 or 8.4.1. Again the description is vague, but I think it’s installing the update from the IPSW file, but persuading Apple that it’s an OTA install to fool them into signing it? Sigil for lucifer. I’m not exactly sure – there is never much deep technical documentation on these hacking tools – the authors seem to think everyone just wants tools that are easy to use, so don’t often explain how they work!
Vieux looked promising, but for 32bit systems like my iPad 2, it required ssh access, which requires a jailbreak!
So next, find a jailbreak for iOS 9.3.5. It seems there is only one that works: Phoenix. It’s an app that you ‘side load’ onto your device, and after each boot, you manually run it to activate the jailbreak. Any app loaded has to be signed by Apple, and there were various webpages promising versions of Phoenix already signed, but Apple revokes the certificate as soon as they find them, so they don’t last long.
The alternative is various tools that you can use to sign the app yourself. Anyone can sign their own app for development purposes, but the certificate only lasts 7 days. Or if you have a developer account (as I do), you get a year until you have to re-sign and re-install it.
Reading forums, it seemed many tools that previously did this (3utools, Cydia Impactor) no longer worked.
I did try a tool called iOS App Signer, which should have signed an app using my developer certificate for a full year of use, but I couldn’t get the signed app to install on the iPad, whatever certificate or settings I used. I gave up on that (but see below for a possible reason).
Then I found a couple of tools AltServer and AltDeploy. They seem similar. AltDeploy just signs an app with a 7 day certificate based on an iTunes account and installs it to your device. AltServer does the same, but then runs a server on your computer so your jailbroken device connects to your computer via wifi, and requests a new version before the 7 days run out.
Both of them install a rather dodgy plugin. It might make sense, but the developers don’t explain why. It’s a plugin to the Mail app on your Mac, which they say has to be installed, and Mail running, for the app signing to work (they say it’s something to do with requesting your iTunes credentials). A bit more explanation wouldn’t go amiss. I eventually allowed it access (since I don’t use Apple’s Mail app for my email anyway, so there’s nothing useful to hack there).
I then used AltDeploy to sign the Phoenix app. This also failed, but this time I got an error that I could search for (a bad app display name). It seems the Phoenix app uses extended characters in the app name (to join the o and e characters together). The app signing didn’t like that. Perhaps that’s also why iOS App Signer didn’t work? I didn’t go back to check.
Anyway, this issue suggested changing the Phoenix5.ipa filename to .zip, expanding it, opening the Payload folder, showing the package contents, editing Info.plist, changing the Bundle Display Name to remove the dodgy character, saving, re-zipping the Payload folder, and renaming back to .ipa. Then the signing worked, and I had the Phoenix jailbreak app on my iPad!
I followed the instructions to activate it, then kickstart it, then opening Cydia and installing ssh.
Next get the dependencies for Vieux:
I could then plug in the iPad via USB and downgrade:
(When prompted you have only 10 seconds to unplug the USB lead and reconnect it!)
After I did that, I had a factory-reset device running iOS 6.1.3. It seems to be stock iOS, signed by Apple with no jailbreak (although I believe there are iOS 6 jailbreaks that could be installed). But I want it nice and clean, for my museum :-)
Here’s some useful links for what I used that worked:
- AltDeploy: https://github.com/pixelomer/AltDeploy
- Tutorial for AltDeploy: https://kubadownload.com/news/altdeploy-sign-ipa-files
- Tutorial for using AltDeploy to install Phoenix: https://kubadownload.com/news/phoenix-jailbreak
- Phoenix jailbreak: https://phoenixpwn.com/
- How to fix the app name issue in Phoenix: https://github.com/pixelomer/AltDeploy/issues/56
- Vieux tool to downgrade iOS: https://github.com/MatthewPierson/Vieux
- Downloads for old versions of iOS (ignore the warnings about not being able to sign them if using Vieux for iOS 6.1.3/8.4.1/10.3.3 on compatible devices as it will take care of the signing): https://ipsw.me/
Check out that retro skeuomorphic design! It’s not quite the original iOS 4, but visually it’s almost the same, as the flat design didn’t come in till iOS 7.
And now it truly is a museum piece :-D