Among the many claims made at WWDC was the claim that IOS 5 would not leave any devices behind, and would even work on the iPhone 3GS. A closer look, however, reveals that not all devices may be able to take advantage of all of iOS 5’s features.
While it’s reasonable to expect that Apple will not support devices indefinitely, and wil do what they can to encourage people to buy new devices, it’s nevertheless frustrating to hear that your favorite device isn’t fully supported by a new software update.
According to our source, iOS 5 will feature some new multitouch gestures for the iPad 2, but oddly, the gestures will not work on the original iPad. The gestures in question are the 4-5 finger pinching and swiping that has previously surfaced in developer betas.
Another case of lack of device support is that, again according to our source, the iPhone 3GS does not have access to many of the photo features available on the iPhone 4, such as the advanced photo editing that was demonstrated during the WWDC 2011 keynote.
While these may be temporary bugs (it’s the first beta, after all) in iOS 5, I’m more inclined to believe that they are marketing moves by Apple to encourage people to upgrade their devices to newer, shinier ones in the Fall when iOS 5 (and presumable new devices) is released.
Just keep in mind: Just because the feature isn’t enabled for the first iPad in the first developer beta does not mean that it won’t find its way there in the end. Only time will tell.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Sound off in the comments!
