WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.080 Do you remember what you were doing in 2014? 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:10.840 I was 25 and bored. 00:00:10.840 --> 00:00:15.120 God, that was seven years ago, man, how time flies. 00:00:15.120 --> 00:00:20.560 But there is a milestone from 2014 worth noting, because it's when this came out. 00:00:20.560 --> 00:00:26.000 It's the iPad Air 2, and despite its age, it will be getting the latest iOS 15 update 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.560 in the fall. That makes it the longest supported iOS device in Apple's history. 00:00:31.560 --> 00:00:35.240 So that's through eight generations. 00:00:35.240 --> 00:00:40.480 And on the iPhone, the 6 year old 6S and SE will get the update as well. 00:00:40.480 --> 00:00:47.560 That's frankly unprecedented in this segment. It shows how Apple's tight integration of software and hardware really stretches the 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:53.720 longevity of their products. And I thought it might be a neat way to get a taste of what's to come in iOS 15 before 00:00:53.720 --> 00:01:06.480 it gets released in the fall. So let's see how these devices run with the latest beta. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:11.400 There it is. For comparison's sake, let's look at Android. 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:16.780 Google announced their latest version, version 12, of their mobile software this summer too. 00:01:16.780 --> 00:01:20.480 And when it gets released in the fall, the oldest supported device that I know of will 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:24.240 probably be this, the Pixel 3. 00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:32.920 It came out three years ago in 2018. Now that year I can remember a little bit better because I moved to Winnipeg. 00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:39.200 Nevertheless, Pixel phones have been reliably getting updates for three years now, because 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:47.280 Google committed to it. Get any other Android phone, and chances are you'll get one update if you're lucky. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:50.840 With the iPhone, only the original got three years of updates. 00:01:50.840 --> 00:01:57.400 Everything released after got more. But that didn't mean they got all the fancy new features included in their updates. 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:03.000 And so there are a few things emitted from the iOS 15 update for these devices too. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:07.920 Fancy 3D maps and turn by turn navigation, no live text recognition, and no spatial audio 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:11.000 and FaceTime calls among other things. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:14.440 That's fine, and we'll dig into those when the software gets released. 00:02:14.440 --> 00:02:22.360 Make sure to stay subscribed for that. The question is, how does the iOS 15 update run on these aging devices? 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:28.640 These are both old devices though, so there are slightly slower loading times here and 00:02:28.640 --> 00:02:33.640 occasional stutters there. But it's not unusable like in iPad 2 with iOS 9. 00:02:33.640 --> 00:02:38.760 I'm still waiting for that picture of the dress to load. Apparently it's white and gold? 00:02:38.760 --> 00:02:43.240 If you're worried about any of the update slowdowns we remember from the past, battery 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:47.800 gate, I wouldn't worry too much about it with this one. 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:51.880 After over a week running both of these devices, they don't seem to run all that much slower 00:02:51.880 --> 00:02:58.480 than equivalents running iOS 14. Appearance wise, the operating system is still as flat and plain as ever. 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:03.040 On the iPad, one can now add large widgets to the home screen, which is nice, and multitasking 00:03:03.040 --> 00:03:09.120 is a little bit more discoverable. There are three dots on the top of open apps that allow you to move Windows to split view 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:15.000 or slide over. Generally speaking, it works well on this iPad Air 2, but if you do try to web browse 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.640 while watching a YouTube video, you'll hear some stutters. 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:22.600 The most annoying thing happens regardless of what iPad you're using, because look what 00:03:22.600 --> 00:03:28.960 happens when you miss the button. 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:33.480 Mercifully it's much easier now to add apps into slide over, because before you could 00:03:33.480 --> 00:03:38.040 only add apps available in the dock, which was a royal pain to deal with. 00:03:38.040 --> 00:03:42.680 Here's what you had to do. Close the open app, then open the app you want to have in slide over to put it in the 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:47.400 recent 3 on the dock, then close that app, then reopen the original app and then drag 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:58.040 the new app into slide over. Now though, all apps are available on an app library located on the dock. 00:03:58.040 --> 00:04:04.440 Now how about old iPhones? In iOS 15, many inputs no longer span across the screen. 00:04:04.440 --> 00:04:08.560 They're grouped together in rounded squares like in the E-classic iOS days, only with 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:16.240 less definition. It's not so bad, except that borders take up so much space on this SE, so that in apps 00:04:16.400 --> 00:04:19.920 like Calendar, critical information like the date gets truncated. 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:27.280 Why would you prioritize the year? Now there is a solution in iOS 15 to help with that. 00:04:27.280 --> 00:04:31.800 It's a feature that lets you adjust the text size on an app by app basis, so by adding 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:36.600 this AA button in the control center, I can shrink the text in only the calendar app to 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:46.000 85% to fit the date. Great, but I'm not the only one who nitpicks Apple's design decisions to this degree. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.440 One of the biggest changes with iOS 15 is with Safari. 00:04:49.440 --> 00:04:53.360 They've moved the address bar to the bottom, and now you can swipe between tabs. 00:04:53.360 --> 00:05:01.520 Yay, another swipe gesture! But this final design came after many weeks of outrage from the community. 00:05:01.520 --> 00:05:06.560 When it was unveiled at WWDC back in June, everything was to be compacted into one interface 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:11.960 role on all platforms. What was problematic about this design was that it required too many buttons and options 00:05:11.960 --> 00:05:17.000 to be hidden in an all-encompassing sub-menu, like the drunk drawer in your foyer, so things 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:22.840 were hard to find. And when Apple tried reintroducing the buttons back into the floating orb, it got real crowded 00:05:22.840 --> 00:05:28.440 real quick. That, and the fact that a floating pill shape floated over many websites' bottom interface 00:05:28.440 --> 00:05:34.440 buttons. Ultimately, the current interface is much like it was before all of this, but I'm still 00:05:34.440 --> 00:05:38.120 a little bothered by the way tabs look on iPad OS and macOS. 00:05:38.280 --> 00:05:41.960 They're contained in these weird and wide pill shapes that just waste space and make 00:05:41.960 --> 00:05:48.320 it hard to tell what's open. Tab groups are the big new feature in Safari, and it lets tab fiends organize their tabs 00:05:48.320 --> 00:05:54.440 better into groups with titles, etc. You can even turn your clusters of already opened tabs into a group to get them out of 00:05:54.440 --> 00:06:00.280 the way. Now, they're supposed to be syncing across devices, but the tab groups that I've made 00:06:00.280 --> 00:06:04.400 on my iPad aren't showing up on my iPhone and vice versa. 00:06:04.400 --> 00:06:10.560 So, beta bugs? Oh yeah, notifications. 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:16.640 There are new focus and notification settings in iOS 15 that provide you an interesting 00:06:16.640 --> 00:06:20.880 way to better manage your notifications for the different states you might be in. 00:06:20.880 --> 00:06:25.360 So when you set up the work state, you could choose what apps and people can make your 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:30.160 phone chime. You can also set up custom pages on a home screen full of apps that you'd only use at 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:33.480 work and make it visible only during work time. 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:38.520 It appears to be a more customizable and robust version of Apple's Do Not Disturb feature. 00:06:38.520 --> 00:06:42.880 The default focus states are driving, sleep, personal, and work. 00:06:42.880 --> 00:06:47.400 You can choose who disturbs you and when or even where, and then label it for the times 00:06:47.400 --> 00:06:55.400 and states of your life when this would be handy. So a work focus is good to make sure only colleagues and apps that you use at work notify you, 00:06:55.400 --> 00:06:59.360 though it's a little tedious to have to go through one's contact list to choose the 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:09.000 right people for that focus. Like all your work colleagues in work, friends for personal and study buddies for study, 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:13.520 a select all toggle would also be really nice here. 00:07:13.520 --> 00:07:19.040 My personal problem with this is FOMO. I always get the feeling that I'm missing out on something important when I'm in my 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:23.800 work focus mode, which turns on automatically whenever I arrive at the office. 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:28.360 But I guess that's what this feature is all about anyway, isn't it? 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:34.040 You do get a while in focus notification in your notification center during those times. 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:40.000 I think it'll be useful even though it might be yet another thing to maintain as life flows. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.520 Now there are a lot of apps on iPhone that send you notifications right away when you 00:07:44.520 --> 00:07:50.040 really don't care. But Apple's notification summary feature might be a good solution for that. 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:53.720 There are a lot of apps that you probably don't want bugging you every day. 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:57.520 So you can put them in the notification summary, which can be scheduled to pop up once or more 00:07:57.520 --> 00:08:05.160 times a day to show you what you missed. But this doesn't solve the most infamous notification problem, the sharing economy. 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:08.520 You know those apps where you require instant notifications like when you're getting your 00:08:08.520 --> 00:08:14.680 meal delivered, but you don't need to know about the 5% off deal right now, really? 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:19.360 I tried notification summary by turning on all of the apps I previously had off to see 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:25.880 what I get. And after a few days, I have to say it's just as annoying as using notifications that 00:08:25.880 --> 00:08:31.680 would normally appear on the lock screen. Easier to clear perhaps, but I'm just turning this off. 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:38.560 And look here. I have two sub levels of notifications where my while in work focus contains my notification 00:08:38.560 --> 00:08:43.920 summary. I feel like notifications are somehow more complicated than ever. 00:08:43.920 --> 00:08:47.700 Perhaps the defaults will lead you into a more manageable life, and there are plenty 00:08:47.700 --> 00:08:51.800 of options for power users, but I don't know, I just feel like my mom's going to avoid 00:08:51.800 --> 00:09:00.160 all this anyway. 00:09:00.160 --> 00:09:04.800 The quick obsolescence of technology has been an ongoing discussion for a while now. 00:09:04.800 --> 00:09:09.440 But using these two seemingly ancient devices over the past week with a beta version of 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:13.880 the latest software, it shows that Apple's mobile devices are being given longer lifespans 00:09:13.880 --> 00:09:22.020 than I ever expected them to get. This iPad Air 2 is impressively competent even after all these years, but there is however 00:09:22.020 --> 00:09:30.760 one fly in the ointment worth mentioning. While Apple's software support is unparalleled in its longevity, the hardware still has batteries, 00:09:30.760 --> 00:09:34.100 which aren't accessible, and wear out quickly. 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:39.980 It would be nice to see the devices last equally as long in hardware as it does in software. 00:09:39.980 --> 00:09:46.700 Otherwise, if you own an iPad Air 2 that you bought new and still working, you made an 00:09:46.700 --> 00:09:49.700 extremely good long-term purchase. 00:09:49.700 --> 00:09:53.300 All thanks to iOS 15. 00:09:53.300 --> 00:09:59.260 Thanks for updating to this Mac Address. Since you've made it this far, I think it means the video is worthy of a like or even 00:09:59.260 --> 00:10:06.100 a subscribe. Now, one thing to note is that Apple plans to provide bug fixes and security updates 00:10:06.100 --> 00:10:09.620 to users who choose not to update to iOS 15. 00:10:09.620 --> 00:10:15.460 So that means that you can update this old phone, but you don't necessarily have to.