Tip - Finding apps that work on an older iPhone or older iPod Touch

Users of older iOS devices are often distressed by the difficulty in finding compatible apps. It is possible to construct a Google search which returns all compatible apps and rejects most incompatible ones.

Assuming I didn't make any mistakes, here's a Google search which will find every app in the US iTunes store which is compatible with the iPod Touch 2G or iPhone 3G, and which includes the word "turtle". (You can replace "turtle" with any search term you want).

turtle site:itunes.apple.com/us "requires ios 4.2" OR "requires ios 4.1" OR "requires ios 4.0" OR "requires ios 3.2" OR "requires ios 3.1" OR "requires ios 3.0" OR " requires ios 2.2" OR "requires ios 2.1" OR "requires ios 2.0"

Likewise, this search will find apps in the US iTunes store which are compatible with the original iPhone or original iPod Touch, and which also include the word "turtle" (Again, change "turtle" to anything you want).

turtle site:itunes.apple.com/us "requires ios 3.1" OR "requires ios 3.0" OR " requires ios 2.2" OR "requires ios 2.1" OR "requires ios 2.0"

Note that the results will include apps with specific hardware requirements, like the iPad or iPhone 3GS. Still, this will filter out 95% of apps which are incompatible with the desired iOS devices. I'm wary of adding search elements to filter out undesired hardware, because they might also remove desirable apps.