iPhone 5s Gets New Software Update 13 Years After Launch

[mrandish]

I'm not a fan of Apple's walled garden mindset and resistance to inter-operating with other platforms, but this degree of legacy support is a case of Apple doing a good thing and deserves praise. Note: I'm not saying that Google/MSFT et al are much better than Apple, but they're not quite as bad.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I know folks that have 18-month-old flagship Android phones, that can’t get the latest Android releases.

When they ask me what Android phones to get, I always say a Pixel, because they will at least get the latest OS support in a timely fashion.

They are also excellent phones.

[duxup]

Performance and hardware longevity has really been solid from Apple.

I busted my wife's old iPhone 8 out when I found it digging for other things ... still runs nice.

My android devices over the year I use for development, most just up and die or performance just degrades over time until it is unusable.

[eviks]

It doesn't deserve praise because the "degree" is very low, and it's undercut by all the other measures like "forcing" min OS version updates, meaning that your phone won't be able to use apps even when OS is updated.

[bastawhiz]

I'll never argue that updates like this are a bad thing, but arguably the best thing Apple could have done is offered a jailbreak for phones after so many years. If you're still using the same ten year old phone, the risks to you opting into the ability to flash a new OS maintained by someone who cares are pretty small. It's not as though those folks are more than a rounding error in sales numbers anyway. Someone buying a new phone every 20 years instead of 15 isn't going to cause anyone to lose their Christmas bonus.

[crena]

But isn’t this in a way an endorsement to still use devices with outdated operating systems full of well documented security holes?

[bartread]

I ran a 5S that I bought in December 2013 as my primary phone all the way up to around March 2020, just as the pandemic was really winding up.

The battery, after ailing for a little while, had eventually just given up. I'd gone skiing a couple of times, with the last trip being just before lockdown, and I think it was the cold exposure of the second trip that dealt the mortal blow, and it died shortly after I returned.

I liked that phone a lot. It did, at the time, everything I needed, and it was a really nice size, but that period in 2020 was a bad time to try to get a phone repaired. I did attempt to replace the battery myself using the guide on iFixit but, sadly, that did not go well due to some contradictory/out of order instructions, and all I succeeded in doing was damaging the phone, I think, beyond repair.

Really good to see that Apple are still supporting them though.

[fouc]

Just so you know, apparently it's reasonably straightforward to replace the battery of the iPhone 5s, even easier than the iPhone SE (same form factor) for whatever reason.

A few years ago I bought a replacement battery kit that came with everything needed for probably something like $10 from aliexpress. I never actually got around to doing the replacement yet but maybe this update will give me the excuse to dig it up and replace the battery too ha!

[7speter]

Next time, if you try changing your phone’s battery, you should watch a few youtube videos showing how to take it apart, too.

[augusteo]

tokyobreakfast is right that this is just a certificate fix, not a real software update. But it's still notable.

Lots of old devices become paperweights because of expired certs or backend shutdowns. The fact that Apple even bothered to push this to a 13-year-old device is unusual. Most companies wouldn't.

[rdsubhas]

It's likely that, the Support Contact Rate (and potentially legal contact rate if the phone gets fully bricked and unable to make basic phone calls) is higher than the cost of just pushing the certificate.

I'd assume the legal hourly costs for handling 10 cases probably equals the cost of pushing this cert, even if the cases can be successfully defended.

[snovymgodym]

Kind of how Sony pushes a bluetooth DRM update to PS3s every year still.

[Klonoar]

Maybe overlap with the device tree for the last iPod Touches that finally got sold?

[yunaflox]

Now, let's see if Apple can fix the A5/A6 activation bug.

[FridayoLeary]

People complain a lot about planned obsolescence but i'm mildly impressed, even if this update is only to keep the lights on and nothing else.

I remember people complaining that the design of the 5 was already outdated when it was new and they needed to have bigger screens and be thinner to compete with Samsung...

[al_borland]

I would love a modern iPhone the size of the 5… or even the 3G.

[fouc]

I wonder if this is because some people keep their iPhone 5s around as a backup phone or for some other reason?

My iPhone 5s is still attached to my apple account so a certificate update is probably useful security-wise? But that doesn't seem entirely likely because Apple's account automatically degrades the level of access depending on the age/model/OS version of the device.

[rdsubhas]

More likely that, the Support Contact Rate (and potentially legal contact rate if the phone gets fully bricked and unable to make basic phone calls) is higher than the cost of just pushing the certificate.

[accrual]

Anyone using the original iPhone SE or the second SE? I wonder how those are fairing on their final update(s).

[barbs]

I'm on my 8th year of using my original iPhone SE, have replaced the battery a few times and the screen a couple of times. It's still doing what I need it to do on iOS 15, but I noticed a few big names apps have stopped supporting iOS 15 in the past year so the installed versions are the last compatible versions (e.g. the installed versions of Uber and Netflix are > 6 months old).

Performance-wise, it can stutter a bit on modern websites and sometimes in some apps, but otherwise works reasonably well. A few weeks ago I noticed it was struggling more than usual and chewing up more battery, but then I cleared up some disk space and it's been running fine.

The minimum supported iOS version for some of my must-have apps (e.g. WhatsApp, my banking app) is currently iOS 15, so I imagine when that changes I'll need to finally upgrade my phone. Feels like its days are numbered.

[jeffreygoesto]

Had an original SE as banking backup. Recently the banking app demanded a newer iOS after being updated. Now that good old little device that was supposed to save me eventually is basically bricked for me.

[brewmarche]

Still using it, it’s fine performance wise, maybe needs another new battery in a year or so. Apple Pay, authenticators and messaging apps are working.

Was hoping for the new iPhone Fold (with Touch ID even) to be small but looks like it’s going to be a really weird ratio when folded.

Of course there are caveats: - Spotify not getting app updates anymore (but still playing fine)

- some websites do not support the Safari version, e.g. GitHub

- most banking apps are not supported

[nake89]

Me, my wife and my mom are all using the second SE. My mom is the only one who has updated to the newest iOS. I didn't want to because I heard rumors it was slow. But I tried my mom's phone and it seems as snappy as my phone (more or less, not the fastest phone to begin with, but not slow either). So I'm going to update too.

[usui]

Replaced the original iPhone SE battery recently with a higher capacity one. Works perfectly. Many apps require an update or else they refuse tor run, but outside of that, still doing well.

[7speter]

I think the battery on my SE2 gave up the ghost… or the charging port, because the battery wouldnt charge all the time by the end.

[linhns]

I'm still on the 2nd generation. Apparently working as a normal iPhone, and Apple even sends notification for me to update to iOS26.

[tonyedgecombe]

I've got an iPhone 7 I use as a secondary phone. It had a new battery about four years ago. It's still going strong.

[66yatman]

Maybe the update was a final death call, those users finally need to upgrade.

[wewewedxfgdf]

I love it when companies keep their old hardware updated.

Instills great confidence.

AMD drops support as soon as it possibly can for "old" GPUs.

[jauntywundrkind]

Not AMD doing the work, but 14 year old GCN 1 / 1.1 has been getting a bunch of modernization & other improvements. R9 290, HD 7970, many more old chips. https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMDGPU-SI-Power-Management https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-GCN-1.1-Driver-Default-Pro...

AMD might not be doing the work, but they set the world up to be able to support their chips. I'd take that over crossing my fingers for ok Windows driver support to hold out any day.

Top range of these cards had (only 8GB) of 0.3TB/s memory, which is what a modern 9060xt can do. Double that for the 9070xt, but still not bad. 4->~48 (fp32) TFLOPS though, wow! Especially with a modern driver stack. With the accelerators all using much older architectures I wonder if they stand to get any benefit, not that they're getting used for graphics much.

[fsflover]

Thus can never be viable. Instead, the companies should open-source obsolete products allowing community support.

[zombot]

I am locked out of my older iOS devices. I cannot login to my Apple account on these devices because "the OS is too old", and I cannot update iOS without logging into my Apple account. They bricked those devices just by flipping a switch remotely. One of those is an iPhone 6S Plus, for instance.

[falkenstein]

happy about this since I still daily an iphone se 2016 (same form factor as the 5s but 6s internals) and about to change it's tiny battery and maybe get yet another iphone og se just in case this one stops working. abysmal battery life and tiny screen makes for the perfect dumb smartphone. aside from google search, the phone is virtually ai free (most of the ai and majroity of the social apps do require at least ios16 o 17), i do have to have an older android to use 'institutional' apps (meaning that there's a phone always at home with my banking and govt id apps). sent from the tiny screen of the SE

[throwway262515]

> Apple also released new versions of iOS 18 and iOS 16.

Has anyone gotten hold of a newer ios 18 for phones more recent than 5s?

[t1234s]

Any hope for ipad 1,2 or ipod touch?

[tropicalfruit]

i would NOT install this update

[tokyobreakfast]

TLDR it replaces an expired certificate, no software is being "updated" here.

Wake me when old versions of OS X can access the App Store again.

[Telaneo]

What versions can't access the App Store anymore? I've tried Catalina recently, and that still worked fine, but it only stopped getting security updates in 2022, so it's only been a few years.

Also, I've barely ever used the OSX/MacOS app store anyway, and from what little I've heard from other people, it's not really all that great nor popular a place to get your software from.

[giancarlostoro]

Cant you technically access the old jailbreak app stores on a 5? I would assume these phones were jailbroken far more commonly than modern iPhones. I feel like I dont hear about anyone jailbreaking them anymore.

[apparent]

I cannot remember ever installing something from the App Store onto a Mac. What software do people install that way?

[vlovich123]

I’m honestly surprised how they kept track that the certificate for an old version of the OS and deprecated hardware was expiring in the first place AND the executives approved cutting a release to roll it.