What am I supposed to do with my iPad 1st gen?

While I perfectly understand and sympathise with your point of view and arguments, we all just users here to.

So, you are just debating/arguing this point with your fellow users.

None of us controls what companies like Apple do and how they choose to do business and how they control their products.

Like I stated, it is what is

There are still some basic apps left on that iPad as part of iOS, specifically the iOS Notes app and the iPhotos app that maybe still useful.

If you own a full featured computer with an older version of the iTunes application, you can still sync and transfer some data back and forth from iTunes on a computer to your iPad and vice versa.

if you wish to access YouTube videos, for any reason, from within the Safari Web browser, I recently found this Website that acts as a thin client front end to the Google YouTube Website that will allow that old iPad to play and stream YouTube videos, once again. on that old iPad.

You cannot leave any type of feedback about the videos, but, at least, this Website allows your iPad to stream and play YouTube video again!

https://www.invidio.us/

So, this is REALLY NOW the time to seriously consider a new or discounted, refurbished iPad from Apple or other Apple authorised resellers.

You need to purchase a new iPad from Apple or a discounted, refurbished iPad from Apple’s Refurbished & Clearance section of Apple’s Website or a new or refurbished iPad from an Apple authorised, third party retail or online reseller OR other trusted sources for new or used Apple products.

A lot has happened with iPad and iOS in 7-9 years and in the past 2 to 3-1/2 years since iOS 9 and 10.

FYI,

iPads are much cheaper and so much more powerful, now.

As an example and compared to that over 10-years old iPad 1st generation model,

The cheapest, baseline 2019, 10.2 inch screen 7th gen Apple iPads have a 1/2 inch larger retina screen, it is overall lighter, in weight, newer, more powerful and approx. 2-1/2 times faster 2.3 Ghz, A10 Fusion processor ( CPU ), AT LEAST 3-4 times the internal RAM, with the 2019, 7th gen iPad having 3 GBs of internal RAM, iPadOS 13 support, with much better and improved multitasking features and much fuller support for externally connected data drives, Apple Pencil and Apple Smart keyboard cover support and have better audio speakers and better/improved built-in cameras.

In addition, if you search online and look at various, reputable online Apple device resellers, you can usually find this 2019, 7th gen iPad at even more and various discounts, depending on storage size and whether it is a WiFi ONLY model or a WiFi/cellular data model.

I purchase my wife's iPad 7th gen iPad, a WiFi ONLY, 128 GBs data storage model ( practical, usable storage space of 114/115 GBs ) for less than $400 with tax and paid AppleCare+ warranty.

Compare this to the highest capacity, 64 GBs 2010 iPad which originally sold, in 2010, for $700 before tax and paid AppleCare+.

This is the harsh reality for these 8 and 9-year old, OR OLDER, iOS devices, now!

Time to recycle this iPad and purchase something that is much more up to dste.

If you cannot afford a new iPad, look at used iPads from a reputable seller of used Apple devices and only look at iPads from 2013 or newer as these older iPads can, at least, run iOS 12.4.7 OR the latest iPadOS 13.5.

Sorry & Best of Luck to You

Yes.

Michael Black has stated the same things I have stated.

It is the third party iOS App developers who have decided to permanently remove all of their older iOS 10 and earlier iOS app versions from Apple's iOS App Store servers for good.

These apps will be gone forever, now.

Many popular, long time third party app developers simply do not want to maintain their older version, 32-bit coded apps, any longer.

Apple has done the same thing with their older apps, but third party app developers, since 2019 and now in 2020 are abandoning these older iOS devices and their older apps in droves, now!

So, all of the older Apple iOS devices in existence will all become dead, useless and obsolete devices to others ( and some original device owners ) at some near future point in time.

It is what it is and no one here has any control over what the final outcome will become.

The average user/consumer is not very technology savvy, so many, like you, will end up finding their older iOS devices totally useless when they perform a complete full erase and reset of their older iOS devices.

It dosen't help that Apple ended the feature of saving the actual apps and app file in iTunes on Mac and PCs after iTunes 12.7.

This feature removal all but assured at some point users of older Apple iOS devices would finally reach their end of useful life.

In this way, I feel Apple DID implement a forced obsolescence policy.

I suppose this IS Apple's way of finally forcing its user base to move on to more modern hardware.

Older iOS device users simply were NOT getting the message that once 64-bit coded devices and apps took over, this was the beginning “death knell” for all previous and older, 32-bit technology devices.

I have been telling users that come here with older iOS devices for the last nearly 4 years this message that these older iPads will reach their end of life in 2 to 3 years. My message to all of these older device users was ignored and I got constantly berrated and ridiculed here in these Apple iPad technical support communities for it!

Well, this year in 2020, all of these 8, 9 and 10 year old iOS devices will become obsolete very soon, now!

It is what it is and none of us has any way of stopping this fact!

Yet another way that Apple has implemented a forced obsolescence agenda.

Sorry, but there's nothing to be done at this point, but abandon this device and purchase a new, refurbished or much “newer” ( used ) iOS device.

Best of Luck to You!

Apple doesn’t block anything. Any App developer is free to leave their older versions of their apps available in the App Store. It is the developers themselves who pull the role versions and drop support for them. Microsoft only supports versions of their app for the current versions of iOS and the next most recent. They remove their older versions for older releases of iOS - but that is a MS decision, not Apples decision.

Same things goes for any and every third party developer. They run their own business and they decide which versions of their apps they are going to continue to distribute and support. And almost all of them currently only offer their 64-bit versions of their apps, and have pulled their older 32-bit versions that your first gen. iPad needs.

Hello,

I have the iPad 1st gen too, there are some applications that are discontinued in the versions on iPad 1. Apps like YouTube, Netflix and Kindle are shutting down their services for those versions because most of the people don’t use those versions anymore. Recently I downloaded YouTube on my iPad 1 but I couldn’t make it work because YouTube has shut down the services for the version that iPad 1 runs. But you can still watch videos on YouTube and Netflix on the browser just fine, it will be just slower than the app.

Have a good day!

You do understand you are asking about an iPad that is now 10 years old, which in technology terms is more like a dinosaur. There is just so much a 1st gen iPad can't do, that it really is not worth trying anymore. It's not even worth selling. The fact you got 10 years out of it is a testament to how well made these are, but technology has long passed it by and it's time for a newer iPad. Recycle the iPad responsibly is about the best anyone can advise you. Apple will take for recycle if you want to give it to them. Best Buy takes old electronics for recycle as well.

LOL.......simply WAAAAAYYYY too much time and effort to keep an old device running.

Electronics don't last forever. Sell / recycle your 10 year old iPad and get a new, current-gen one.

I mean, what should i do with a VHS tape player that was made 20 years ago?

You have an outdated device.

I have a bunch of VHS/DVD/VCR/DVD player that I can't use anymore because it is outdated. Not sure if I can hook it up to my tv.

I bought one of the first flat screen tv that had the bottom piece and was heavy, those are obsolete now.

You should get my point now. if you want to use those apps buy a new ipad.

I owned the iPad 1st generation as well. I can’t even imagine that it would still be working after 10 years. If you got 10 years of good use out of yours, I think you got more than even Steve Jobs could have hoped for with a device that old.

Nothing is built to last forever. Our dishwasher, which by the way we paid big money for 6 years ago, had the motor fail when it was 15 months old. It was three months out of warranty and we had to replace the motor for a cost of approximately $175.00.

After the original purchase cost, how much money did you put into your 1st generation iPad to keep it running for 10 years?

Nope.

Never going to happen.

I have all of my data and all those older apps, backed up to two or three older versions of iTunes on my iMac that still save the actual apps from the iPad.

I have 5 external drives with OS X 10.6.8, 10.8.5, 10.9.5 and 10.11.6 which all use versions of iTunes that still save the full app files to these drives through these older versions of iTunes.