Is iOS 6 Finally Obsolete? #84Culture #Tech #iPhone

July 16, 2019\\
East Helena, Montana, USA\\

Is App Support for iPhone 3gs being Phased Out?

Pandora Not Compatible with iPhone 3gs iOS 6.1.6// July 2019// #84Culture

A few years back, I found a great deal an a couple of old iPhone 3gs devices. They were refurbished and not in great cosmetic condition but, they worked just fine.

Even 9 years after it debuted, this device is still one of the better performing pieces of technology on the market. A whopping 16gb of storage challenges even some of the top phones out in 2019. That alone was a value to me.

On top of that, without all of the background data and extra curricular activity that generally comes with an activated phone, the battery life is remarkable. I run in airplane mode and keep some Spotify playlists and iTunes music in offline mode and can go almost a week straight with non-stop playback before needing a charge. That is, of course, if I don't forget to turn off the WiFi.

This month, I ran into a problem, though. I began to notice some crashing with some apps that have recently undergone "improvements". You may be aware that Pandora Internet Radio has implemented a Podcast feature. Unfortunately, with this update, there seems to be no more support for the basic functions on the older iPhone devices.

First, when I tried to access the app, it would show a loading screen before crashing. It also happened on a few other apps. It turned out that I had to log in to iCloud again. That seemed to fix some apps but, there are still some others that just won't work anymore.

As it has essentially become my iPod, I accepted that fact that it wasn't going to be as productive as newer phones but, I had the capability to use it as a streaming device at home and an mp3 player when I'm on the road.

This worked great for months. I would occasionally have to connect to Spotify's network in order to "confirm" that it was my device, I assume. It would occasionally delete my offline tracks until I logged in again. Not a big deal, really.

As of today, it still works just fine. I am a happy premium user (not an ad) and I am aware that there are streaming capabilities in Spotify as well.

However, Pandora Internet Radio was one of my first streaming services and was a premium member for some time. I'm happy for them to add new services like Podcasts, but I can't help but feel a bit left behind. I can't imagine it's difficult to keep a server running for basic functions like streaming radio and chromecast support.

For whatever reason, the iPhone 3gs just doesn't have the capability to handle podcasts. Even the native podcast app on iTunes doesn't have a compatible version for this iOS. So, my guess is that for the same reason, Pandora is no longer compatible.

Do you have any ideas?

If this post gets interesting comments and suggestions, it might make the @84Culture Podcast!

Do you have an older device that you still use on WiFi?
How is it working? What do you use it for?
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Cheers,
Josh\ #84Culture
www.artscience84.com