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I found an old iPad 2 and was curious what the newest iPad OS beta was that I could get working. In a shock to nobody 15 won't work so I figured I'd seek out 10, the last release version is a build of 9, but I have no idea where I can find a safe download of the profile.

Hi, this is my first post here and hopefully I can explain things clearly enough. I work for a charity book shop and regularly need to research prices. We have a computer with a barcode scanner which allows us to scan a barcode into a a web sites field. We had an ipad 2 donated which we have set up to allow volunteers to use it when the computer is being used. My question is whether there is an app that would allow us to do the same thing, to scan a barcode with the front camera into the website field? TIA Paul

I have two iPad 2s as I've mentioned before. One of them is a 16 GB model and the other one has 32 Gigs. The 32 Gig model seems to perform much better, with games being able to be run so much better, and actually being able to watch Twitch or open apps without it crashing. I can use it with fast fluid gestures, and it seems that the animations have even been disabled on the 16 Gig model and it still runs really badly. Sometimes it can't even render me typing in the password in real time. Anyways, has anyone else ever experienced this? I was curious as to why this would be happening. They are both the exact same model.

So, I'm about to get around 100$, and I would like to buy an iPad, but I'm not sure which one. I want iPad 2 because the battery and screen are larger, but I like the modern design and black color of iPad mini + the smaller bezels. Both are similar in specs and use iOS 9.3.5. I'm looking for a device that I will use for like a year or so till I get a newer one. My reasons are mainly to watch YouTube/Netflix, to read emails, check social media and to play some games like Clash of Clans. Btw, will some older games like Clash of Clans work fine? Please tell me your thoughts. Thank you!

With older devices A5 devices like the iPhone 4s and iPad 2 getting offered a iOS 9 upgrade many suspected a performance hit, however according to performance tests carried by Ars technica the older devices generally sustained similar performance to iOS 8. iPad 2 iPhone 4s This won't come as a surprise as many features in iOS 9 are not available for the older devices, but they still get the security improvements and can benefit from Applications that support the new OS. Older devices will miss out: It's quite nice that Apple supports its device for so long, the iPhone 4s was released at late 2011 and is still supported in late 2015. In comparison the original note was released at the same time and only got support up to 4.1 jelly bean (jelly bean was released in mid 2012). Even though not all features are supported and some of the devices do take a performance hit, at least they stay secure with newer security features, also after all as applications get more featured over time even devices with older OSs will get a performance hit. Source: Ars technica ( iPhone 4s http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/ios-9-on-the-iphone-4s-a-stay-of-execution-nothing-more/ ) ( iPad 2 http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/ios-9-on-the-ipad-2-not-worse-than-ios-8-but-missing-many-features/ )

Ah, 2011. Seal Team Six kill Osama bin Laden, Japan gets devastated by a tsunami, Kim Jong il dies, Muammar Gaddafi is killed and Syria begins it's downward spiral into civil war. Shit, a lot of death. Let's try to turn that frown upside down. The Royal Wedding occurs, Gabrielle Giffords nearly dies after an assassination attempt (thankfully she survived) and Steve Jobs passes away of pancreatic cancer. Okay, I'm sorry, it's still morbid. Before Steve died though, the iPad 2 was bestowed upon us. It's the first iPad to feature cameras, it has twice the technical specifications and in theory the performance of the original model and it's SOC like the previous model is manufactured by what is now probably Apple's largest mobile competitor (Samsung.) I was given an iPad 2 by my dad, who purchased an iPad mini as the large form factor wasn't for him and he preferred the size of my ASUS Nexus 7 2013. After using it for the past month, I feel I've gotten a grasp of it's shortcomings and it's positives, so let's jump in! Hardware The device has a rather svelte aluminum chassis. You know immediately what it is due to the prominent brand logo on the back of the device, much like the logo on the grille of a Mercedes-Benz. The device features Apple's A5 system-on-chip, which bundles a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU running at a clockspeed of 1GHz along with a PowerVR SGX543MP2 for the GPU along with 512MB RAM. The device weighs 1.32lb for the non-cellular model as I have here, and it measures 9.5" tall, 7.31" wide and 0.35" thick. The screen measures at 9.7" diagonally, achieving an around 65.1% screen-to-body ratio. However, the screen's resolution is 1024x768, which results in a somewhat meager 132 pixels per inch. As is normal with Apple's devices, no MicroSD slot is to be found but the 32GB in my model is more than enough for my usage habits. The cameras are as follows, a 0.3MP front shooter which holds the ability to record video at 640x480 (VGA) and a 0.7MP rear shooter which holds the ability to record video at 720p/30FPS. There is also support for Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4GHz and 5GHz, which is pretty much fine even by today's standards. Software From the factory, the device ran iOS 4. Unlike most companies though, whom would have cut support somewhere around the end of iOS 5 (relative to time), Apple has kept support coming well into iOS 8 (though apparently, the buck stops here.) Now, considering this is 4 year old hardware, you would think it ran iOS 8 rather abysmally, right? Well, let's see. The OS is a little sluggish at times. The animations are usually fluid, though sometimes they lag or get a little choppy. The stock keyboard works with little to no hiccups, while SwiftKey is a little laggy at times when used as a normal keyboard and a little more so when used as a swiping keyboard. Swiping between screens is generally smooth, again with a little bit of chugging here and there. For a four year old device, it does rather well though. I use mobile devices for a somewhat different purpose than desktops and full desktop-class OS devices (laptops, Windows tablets, etc.) While I keep all of my gaming on PC and Xbox, my mobile devices live a life of keeping me occupied when I'm bored. Internet browsing, music listening, YouTube viewing and Skype are at the top of that list. First then, we handle tabbed browsing. In the past around here, I've seen snide and useless comments about how Apple devices are so limited in that they don't have a lot of RAM, they can't handle tab hogs, etc. Considering the device's 512MB of RAM, you wouldn't expect it to do too well here, right? But it does fine. There isn't noticeable lag at all until around 15 tabs are open, and the only lag is keyboard lag. Scrolling, zooming and going from tab to tab works fine. It handles videos fairly well in browser (little lag, but it is expected) and so on. Next, music listening. Does this really deserve any attention? I've got all of my Monstercat on there, I listen to it fine and there's nothing else of note here. Skype is fine as well, with no real lag to speak of. Screen/Camera First, the screen. As previously mentioned, it is a 9.7" 1024x768 4:3 IPS panel. Due to the screen's size in relation to the resolution, the device has a somewhat poor 132 pixels-per-inch. This results in pixelated text, imagery and pretty much anything else. This would be permissable if it were a desktop monitor, as a 24" 1080p monitor hovers around 91PPI, but this device was made to be used within a foot or two of your eyes. Going from my HTC One M8 to this is somewhat jarring, but I can forgive it based upon it's age. Keep in mind though that the iPhone 4S launched as the second generation of device with Apple's Retina Display, which is a little weird considering their flagship devices differed so much in terms of screen quality. The colors however are bang on for an IPS panel. Next, the camera. I care little of the camera on a tablet. I suspect most people feel the same way, though the manufacturers have picked up on this (Apple offers the same 8MP rear camera on the iPad Air 2 as the iPhone 6, while Samsung offers a decent 8MP rear shooter on the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2.) However, back then, the cameras were as paltry as they could ever be. Neither camera is over 1MP, with a .7MP rear shooter and a .3MP front shooter. As I stated, I don't care much for tablet cameras so I will not provide any test shots, though they shouldn't be too hard to find. Glamour Shots (Coming Soon) Conclusion After about a month of using it, do I believe the iPad 2 is still good enough today? It depends on who you are. If you just need something that you can play Candy Crush on while waiting at the Dentist's office, it will do, though the Kindle Fire HD 6 costs $99 and should do this just as well. If you want to watch movies and TV, play light mobile games and browse the internet, will it do? Sure, so long as you don't mind the low PPI and the awkward aspect ratio for content consumption (most TV/movies are filmed and released in 16:9 and/or 21:9.) But should you buy one still? Apple want $349 for the iPad 2 refurbished (64GB, WiFi only). At that price, you could buy the iPad 3 used (in terms of screen quality, a far better choice.) You could also get the NVIDIA Shield Tablet new (able to play the most modern mobile games as well as stream smoothly from PC), spend $50 more for the Nexus 9 (just as capable as the Shield while packing a beautiful 1536p display, albeit at the still-awkward 4:3 aspect ratio), a Microsoft Surface 2 RT (please don't, the OS and app ecosystem is not strong enough) or an original Microsoft Surface Pro (though battery life won't be nearly as good as the rest of the devices mentioned.) Would I buy one today? No, yet it's good enough for me that I sold my Shield Portable and Nexus 7 to fund my PC hobby. That says something rather significant about fond I am of it. (Info taken from GSMArena)

Hello whoever comes to read this! As said in the title, I have an Ipad 2 and I was wondering if I could upgrade to IOS 8 without causing the ipad to slow down. I have done some quick internet searches with some sources saying the update is fine for ipad 2's and others saying that it makes the Ipad 2 completely unusable because of slow performance. If anyone has any experience or knowledge about this kind of thing a bit of advice would be much appreciated. Thanks, Oddball.