This has a parallel to the late 90s when Apple dropped floppy disk support when it was still very much mainstream. Even the Apple II to Macintosh transition was abrupt and alienating to some in the ecosystem.
The justification is:
It makes supporting the new features and devices easier, as it focuses resources, at the expense of legacy support.
You, as an Apple ecosystem participant, pay up for the "Apple Tax" (again, a term that has been around for decades).
Just because. Any myriad of reasons could have spurred the change, from internal team tech talent reshufflings to whims in the marketing department.
This is how Apple is, and how Apple has been for much of their existence. The anger can probably be justified, but you definitely shouldn't be shocked.
May I suggest you pay for the higher tier cloud backup service on a monthly basis. Apple didn't get to a multi trillion dollar valuation out of good will exclusively. I hear service revenue is a major priority internally...
> a $Trillion dollar company can certainly have resources
You would think, but look at this whole Liquid Glass thing - they can't get something simple like contrast right. On the other hand, they arguably put out the best consumer chips in the industry.
Apple has three basic support categories: Supported, Vintage, & Obsolete. These are based on the last production dates of their respective products. It has been this way for a very long time.
Supported = 0-5 years
Vintage = 5-7 years
Obsolete = 7 or more years
If you buy any more Apple products, keep this in mind for product lifecycles. I will point out that Apple generally tends to be more generous than its competitors on support.
If you are not OK with this, reconsider your purchases. In cases like this, consider choosing products and workflows that use more open standards that are less likely to vanish.
This has been Apple's way since times of yore.
This has a parallel to the late 90s when Apple dropped floppy disk support when it was still very much mainstream. Even the Apple II to Macintosh transition was abrupt and alienating to some in the ecosystem.
The justification is:
It makes supporting the new features and devices easier, as it focuses resources, at the expense of legacy support.
You, as an Apple ecosystem participant, pay up for the "Apple Tax" (again, a term that has been around for decades).
Just because. Any myriad of reasons could have spurred the change, from internal team tech talent reshufflings to whims in the marketing department.
This is how Apple is, and how Apple has been for much of their existence. The anger can probably be justified, but you definitely shouldn't be shocked.
May I suggest you pay for the higher tier cloud backup service on a monthly basis. Apple didn't get to a multi trillion dollar valuation out of good will exclusively. I hear service revenue is a major priority internally...
Lucky the timing is good, I just ordered a bunch of parts to build a new TrueNAS 5 bay 3.5" server. I'll guess I'll just point Time Machine at it.
Honestly, this is probably just to push icloud backup. Why sell one time capsule, when you can sell a service that never stops being charged for?
Floppies were terrible, but time capsules aren't that.
IRL a $Trillion dollar company can certainly have resources make the minuscule updates to keep support.
> a $Trillion dollar company can certainly have resources
You would think, but look at this whole Liquid Glass thing - they can't get something simple like contrast right. On the other hand, they arguably put out the best consumer chips in the industry.
Seems dysfunctional, like every other large corp.
Time Machine does not support backing up to iCloud though. Maybe it's coming.
Makes sense to warn people now and then sell a solution to the problem they made
Apple has three basic support categories: Supported, Vintage, & Obsolete. These are based on the last production dates of their respective products. It has been this way for a very long time.
Supported = 0-5 years
Vintage = 5-7 years
Obsolete = 7 or more years
If you buy any more Apple products, keep this in mind for product lifecycles. I will point out that Apple generally tends to be more generous than its competitors on support.
If you are not OK with this, reconsider your purchases. In cases like this, consider choosing products and workflows that use more open standards that are less likely to vanish.
More here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102772
RIP.
Also RIP my dreams about apple doing networking hardware like AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, Time Capsule, XServe etc. It was a great time in 2000s
Ubiquiti is now the Apple of circa 2000s networking and storage.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/104170
Probably ongoing support. It was no iPhone in terms of units sold.