Are there any apps for iPhone 3?

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Are there any apps for iPhone 3?

I just "upgraded" to an iPhone 3. This is my first smartphone and as a phone and as an iPod, it's great. But I've just tried to install several dozen apps from the app store and when I click "Install" EVERY ONE has said that it's incompatible with this phone or requires a newer IOS.

Are there ANY apps that run on the iPhone 3? (So far, I haven't found any, even ones that work on my similar vintage iPod touch.)

Apple: wouldn't it make sense for the App Store to display only apps that can be used on the device that's asking? And where are the older versions of the apps (the ones that I assume were being offered when the iPhone 3 was the latest and greatest)?

Something doesn't seem right to me about all this. I hope I'm just doing something wrong.

Posted on Aug 29, 2013 3:54 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 29, 2013 4:02 PM in response to Dave Sica

Your phone is obsolete and not made or sold by Apple anymore.

You can't run the latest iOS version on it.

It's up to developers whether they support old devices.

iPhone 3G only supports up to 4.2-current version is 6.1.

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Answer 2

Dave Sica Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 29, 2013 4:25 PM in response to Johnathan Burger

Understood, Jonathan. That's why I used quotes around the word "upgraded." My point is that while I realize that an older unit won't run the latest IOS, or something like a GPS app that requires features found only in a newer piece of hardware, where are the apps that ran on this IOS on this iPhone when it was current? I seem to recall that there were a lot of apps that ran on the iPhone 3 when it was the latest model; what I'm trying to figure out is how do I find those apps and install them now. Seems logical to me that a simple thing like an epub reader app that ran fine on the iPhone 3 a few years ago should be pretty much just as useful today as an epub reader app running under IOS7 on the iPhone 5. Thanks!

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Answer 3

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,707 points

Aug 29, 2013 4:28 PM in response to Dave Sica

Apps that ran with the older iOS have been replaced in the App Store by the developers. Once a developer replaces the app in the App store, there is no real alternative. There have been some reports of websites that you can find older versions of apps. Try Google for help.

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Answer 4

mackerm

Level 1

101 points

Sep 20, 2013 10:55 AM in response to Dave Sica

Dave Sica wrote:

Are there ANY apps that run on the iPhone 3? (So far, I haven't found any, even ones that work on my similar vintage iPod touch.)

There are thousands of games and apps which work on the iPhone 3G. Here are some tools to help find compatible apps (The first one is my recommendation).

iOSSearch - search the iTunes store for compatible apps.

Vintapps 3.1.3 - paid app.

Apple Club - filter apps by iOS version.

If you do a search for GPS, you will get a lot of results for compatible apps. As far as EPUB readers go, this is one thing that really peeves me. At one time you could get versions of iBooks and Kindle that worked on the 3G iPhone and 2nd gen. iPod, but you can no longer download them from the iTunes store. A couple months back, I posted links to a couple EPUB readers which were still compatible with these devices, and within a month, both apps had been upgraded so as to make them incompatible. There are still compatible EPUB readers in the iTunes store (many localized with Korean-language menus) if you want to look. Downloading books to these readers may not be a straightforward process.

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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Answer 5

Sep 11, 2013 12:38 PM in response to Dave Sica

A free online tool to find compatible apps:

http://findoldapps.com/

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