I recently bought my XYL a new Ipad mini (series 5), so I have now taken possession of her old Ipad Mini (series1). I was ‘messing about’ with it today and discovered that if I went to the SOTA reflector, it simply would not display anything other than what is shown on the photograph below. All the other links display perfectly, and the reflector also displays perfectly on the new Ipad mini.
Can any technical experts shed any light on this problem please.
Any help appreciated.
Mike G4BLH
8 year old hardware and 5 year old software. In the normal world, you would be able to install a 3rd party upgraded OS/software. But you chose Apple and such freedom is not allowed.
As the Grail Knight said about Apple Devices, freedom and ability to do what you want with your paid-for hardware…
Sorry.
Hi Eric,
Yes - I was logged in, but thanks for the thought.
73 Mike
8 year old hardware and 5 year old software.
Agreed Andy, but everything else works just fine - so did the reflector when I used this Ipad sometime in the past.
As the Grail Knight said about Apple Devices, freedom and ability to do what you want with your paid-for hardware…
Well actually I did’nt - my XYL chose it because it served her purposes well (as does the new Ipad). It also allowed us to keep in touch easily with family in foreign lands at the time when it was bought.
I was just hoping to make use of it, but obviously looking at the reflector with it is no longer an option.
73
Mike G4BLH
I have exactly the same issue with my older IPad mini. I’m afraid we’re showing our age!
However I can visit and use most of the other SOTA links OK on it.
It’s a real bummer guys. It is a perfect example of planned obsolescence in action.Due to Apple’s philosophy, they get to decide how you use what you have paid for. There’s no way of installing alternate software despite the hardware being perfectly viable. Blame Jobs and his acolytes.
He asked for help, not Apple-bashing.
Check the OS version. 9.3.6 is the most recent OS that runs on that model. iOS 9.3 was released in 2016, and the website really should work on a browser that is only four years old, but if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
Doing a quick check online, the App Store might not have a version of Google Chrome that will install on iOS 9. This post has a pretty roundabout hack that might convince the App Store to refresh a copy that it thinks you have. Certainly worth a try.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8592465
You may run into other issues because of the slow processor and limited RAM on an eight year old machine. Current iPads are about 6X faster and have 6X more memory (3 GB instead of 512 MB). Some apps might not run in 512 MB. The only iPad with less RAM is the original edition iPad from 2010.
It was a great tablet for 2012, but eight years is a long time in computer years.
wunder
Good advice from K6WRU. Getting a newer tablet is probably your best bet.
It is possible to jailbreak iOS 9 and install a different browser. If you are looking for a new hobby, just google ‘jailbreak iOS 9’ and let the fun begin. 
GL es 73,
-Josh
Funny because all the SOTA software works fine on the browser on my Nexus 7 (2012) tablet. There again, whilst Google no longer support it, it’s not crippled such that I can’t install legacy software.
If I buy something I expect to be able to use it until it breaks or I decide to stop using it not when the manufacturer decides it’s time for me to buy a new one.
The most recent major software release for the iPad Mini is 2016, with security fixes after that.
If a website doesn’t work with a browser from 2016, that is not the browser’s fault. The browser hasn’t changed. The manufacturer didn’t decide to break the website. The website just wasn’t tested with that browser.
For debugging it, I’m not an iOS developer, but it might work to bring up an iOS 9 environment in Xcode and access the site from that. I know Xcode can do emulation for iPhones and iPads.
If programs run slowly, well, it has been a long time in computer hardware years. I have an iPad Air 2 from 2014 that is noticeably slow compared to current hardware.
wunder
Actually, there’s been a shift in web design in the past few years from supporting every browser known to man to supporting the latest browsers only. There are many reasons for this:
Supporting old browsers is a bad idea. Andy’s point is the hardware should allow you to pick whatever (new) browser you want, although the browsers are even deciding that to some extent (cf. XP support, but that’s not exactly a bad decision from them)
Only a few weeks ago I tried to ride my horse on the motorway and discovered that it was not backwards compatible.
I have the same problem with my iPad. Also the reflector doesn’t work with my Google Chrome
browser. It works with Firefox. And it did used to work before the change to SOTAWATCH3.
73,
John, K6YK
OLD guy.
My iPad 4 and iPad 6 both work fine on the current SOTA sites using either Safari (Apple’s browser) or Chrome (google’s browser). The iPad 4 is stalled at the IOS release of several years ago but that is not causing serious problems so far.
That may give owners of older iPads some comfort. Version upgrades will eventually put both devices into the retirement paddock, where people can ride them backwards every day.
The 4 year old android tablet I use for logging also manages to access the SOTA sites, despite being stuck on an old version of android, I don’t recall it’s weird name, maybe ice cream sandwich or sandy storm. And my windows 7 and 10 PC and laptop are both ok.
Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
