[microtonal]

It's sad. For a lot of iPad buyers, 500 dollar or Euro is a lot of money. One can only hope that the majority of them will be recycled, or it is an ecological disaster as well. (If mining of the necessary resources isn't already.) Of course, it's not just Apple. Many Android phones are neglected by their vendors as well.

At some point we have to consider, whether we are willing to waste that many resources and money on smartphones and tablets, where we previously used computers and dumbphones that lasted for years and years.

As a European citizen, I hope that the EU will at some point start requiring vendors to provide (at least) security updates for some fixed period after purchase.

Edit: seeing that the downvotes are coming in, doesn't make it less true. Care a little more about your children, and less about your gadget ;).

[dpark]

> where we previously used computers and dumbphones that lasted for years and years.

Those are some seriously rose-colored glasses you're wearing. Computers have always been replaced rapidly. For tax purposes, they depreciate to zero in 3 years, reflecting their short lifespan. From what I've seen, most people have replaced their PCs every 3 or so years and phones (including dumb phones) every 2-3 years. It's only the last few years that this cycle has slowed for PCs, as speeds have begun stagnating.

With that said, I do think it's crappy that Apple is abandoning the 1st gen iPad so rapidly, especially since they apparently don't have a meaningful story for out-of-date devices with respect to apps. There seems to be no way to provide a separate version of an app for an older OS. Instead, the user is prompted to update the app, at which point they are told that the app needs the new OS, and then it's removed. (I had this happen to my phone when iOS 5 arrived and I delayed upgrading.)

[sxcurry]

Really, an ecological disaster? I tend to think of a disaster in terms of oil spills, nuclear meltdowns, etc. Somehow this doesn't seem to be quite the same class. Are you sure you aren't exaggerating just a bit?

[potatolicious]

I don't think it's a huge exaggeration - is it that hard to believe that the cumulative, massive force of modern manufacturing has a much, much larger ecological effect than any single oil spill or nuclear meltdown?

Hell, just go to China, or any of the many mining towns that still exist in the US - it's like a small oil spill, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, lasting decades at a time.

[microtonal]

The mining and extraction of lithium and coltan requires massive amounts of water and energy [1][2]. In African countries with very little regulation, land, lakes, and rivers are polluted as a result of mining.

And what do we use it for? To produce some 15+ million million devices that are deprecated after two years.

Yes, that is tragic and a disaster for those countries. It's just that more attention is paid to events that unfold within days rather than years.

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/carbon-footpr... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan

[nicholassmith]

According to the internet, iPad 1 16Gb WiFi was £429. Currently you can sell it on eBay for between £175-200, so there's a loss of £200-225 over the life time from brand new, so if you're unhappy you can sell it and cover at least half the cost of a new iPad if it's on the upgrade path.

It's an expensive toy, and it is a lot of money, but no one made anyone buy one.

[microtonal]

I do agree. But it would be nice to know up-front what to expect with respect to security updates.