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We heard that the iPhone 4 and 3GS were going to get stiffed over Apple’s new Maps app and its fancy Flyover and turn-by-turn directions, but it seems there are more things the older iPhones won’t get out of iOS 6, including 3G FaceTime.
You’ll have to stick to Wi-Fi to FaceTime if you’re using an iPhone 4, while the 3G iPad 2 is left out in the cold too. It seems strange that Apple’s cutting something that’s totally possible on older hardware — the only thing I can think of is that FaceTime’s using some sort of more intensive compression to maintain video quality over 3G.
The iPhone 3GS will also miss out on the Offline Reading List; Shared Phone Streams; VIP list support, and VIP/Flagged smart mailboxes too, which is a bit of a downer for those still rocking and loving the legacy smartphone.
More bad news for those with iPad 2s hoping to get a bit of Siri — it’s only coming to the new iPad. Perhaps it’s a bit much to expect every feature to come to every phone or device with each free software update, but limiting turn-by-turn mapping and FaceTime over 3G on the iPhone 4 seems just a tad out of order to me. It’s not like the iPhone 4 is that underpowered. [Apple via SlashGear]
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Not surprising in one bit, it’s always been Apples MO to only offer full functionality to its newest model with tiered functionality in the preceding models. I’m just wondering what iPhone 5 only feature Apple are hiding in iOS6.
Great to see lack of “fragmentation” in practice. B-)
100% Correct.
Apple fragmentation is different than Android, because on paper they are all running the same level OS. But this is fragmentation just the same.
Perhaps we should have a graph to show the numbers of iOS devices running the latest OS, running all features. I wonder if it’ll be higher than ICS? LOL.
I don’t think you understand what fragmentation actually is and how it can be a problem. Apple is not giving some of the older devices all the features but that won’t change anything for developers. They still have all the same API’s available to them and the operating system is the same. In other words, they do not need to make an app specifically for the 3GS. There’s also just no chance that old hardware is always going to get all the new features but apple always keeps supporting it and updating it.
It is a form of fragmentation, one can develop a software that will run on any Android device, Google Maps, springpad, Facebook, Kindle just to mention a few, of course if your phone has no NFC capability the NFC app that you developed won’t work on any phone.
Not implementing something on an older hardware, just because it is older is a greedy bs move. 3G is 3G on the iPhone 4 or 4S, if Facetime works on 4 via wi-fi there is no reason why not to let it work on 3G if the software can handle it.
Diversity is good, just take a look at what happens in North Korea and you will agree.
Don’t get me wrong. I like some things from Apple, but the bs and almost dictatorship style of management pisses me off. That being said, there are some people that I would recommend Apple only.
What difference is there between the 4 and 4S that would stop Facetime working over 3G… None I’m guessing? This just seems like Apple trying to force their customers to buy new products, dirty tactics
There are also presumably a lot of 24 month iPhone 4 contracts expiring soon.
Yep, mine expires in 3 weeks…which, just over 23 months ago, was what I thought was perfect timing for the next iPhone.
Pants.
It could be down to a number of reasons. As mentioned in the article, more hardware intensive compression could be the reason and that could also give the iPhone 4 lesser battery life than they have rated it at.
Bollocks
Apple is just robbing it’s customers blind, as usual. You are all cash cows.
No reason FaceTime shouldn’t have always worked on iPhone 4. A jailbreak made it work fine anyway.
They aren’t taking away any features, I think people should be happy to get some flavour of the new iOS then nothing at all as would be the case with Andriod
It could also be a way to limit flooding of the existing 3g networks by limiting the number of people who will be using this data-intensive application.
It is absolute rubbish, I have been using Facetime on my Jailbroken iPhone 4 for ages now with no major problems (apart from lack of signal at times).
Hardware wise the iPhone 4 is capable, it is simply Apple forcing people to purchase the latest device. Fragmentation indeed.
Facetime over 3G*
Indeed. Don’t see why people bother coming up with ridiculous reasons to explain this away.
It is VERY simple.
Apple is not letting people have it so that more people upgrade their phones. Not even a semblance of any other reason.
Personally, although it’s annoying for users of older models, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Apple holding back certain features for it’s newer products. When you buy an iPhone, you’re buying the current feature set, Apple don’t owe you any future features. Just because it’s technologically possible doesn’t mean you should expect them to give you something for free.
Yeah yeah apologist!
Suprise!… Another slice of happiness from Apple,
Pretty sure the Skype app on my iPhone 4 can do similar. When upgrade time comes the Galaxy S3 is looking even more tempting, like what can Apple introduce now that iOS6 is revealed?… A better camera?… Faster processor?… Meh.. fail to impress once again… On the ‘Fragmentation’ note, yeah we’re all on iOS 5 but where are the figures for all the differing ”Sub-versions” I’m pretty sure they’re not as convincing as Apple’s broad hand-sweep pie chart.
So when is last year’s new Android, version 4, coming to the 2010 model, iPhone 4-equivalent Samsung Galaxy S?
It’s not… because the hardware isn’t capable of running it and it would be detrimental to the user experience, probably suffering from lag etc etc. If people are that desperate though they can put a custom 4.0 ROM on the phone if they want to accept the risks.
However, an iPhone 4 is perfectly capable of running Facetime over 3G as it’s virtually identical hardware to a 4S, so there is no performance excuse for it, merely a money-spinning tactic by Apple to get people to upgrade
“the hardware isn’t capable of running it and it would be detrimental to the user experience”, eh?
Would you care to look up the differences between the Galaxy S and Nexus S, that does have an official ICS port?
Yeah well done missing the point
It’s partially a response to
“This just seems like Apple trying to force their customers to buy new products, dirty tactics”
Samsung *could* provide an update with a load of new OS features to their millions of legacy device users. But they’re making so much fuss about the release of the Galaxy S III…
3GS is six months older than my original iPad, yet still being given an albeit pared down version of iOS 6. The cost to replace my iPad would be triple the cost for a new iPhone on contract, and yet they’re trimming these off their OS even faster than their phones. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect my old iPad to be able to do anything, but I sort of expected one more OS update before obseletion, considering iOS 4.0 was my first.
Glad my phone contract runs out in a month, just gotta wait patiently for the iPhone 5. I’m so far under thumb apple could probably charge me an extra £100 for that glowing symbol mod and I’d pay it with a smile.