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I have an iPod Touch (5th generation) with iOS 9 installed (currently 9.0.2, but I don't think the minor revision matters). From the home screen, I can reach the quick Spotlight search by swiping down. However, the new Spotlight screen reached by swiping right does not appear to be available.

I have checked an iPhone 6 with iOS 9 and of course the screen appears. For clarity, the screen I'm talking about is this one:

enter image description here

Is this screen not available on the iPod Touch for some reason? Or is this a consequence of my device only having a 32-bit CPU? (I know that some features such as the new ad blockers are not available for 32-bit devices.) Does this screen appear on an iPod Touch 6th generation (which has a 64-bit CPU)?

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  • Sorry, but Apple decided that we had to buy new iPod touches to use this feature.
    – At0mic
    Oct 4, 2015 at 22:10
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    I would have to say this is another way of apple getting you to buy the newest device. It also would make sense to require the iPod touch 6 because the extra graphics needed would need that extra power and memory that a 64 bit cpu would give.
    – user2277872
    Oct 4, 2015 at 22:24
  • @user2277872: I don't buy any argument about "the extra graphics needed". My existing iPod Touch is perfectly capable of playing games with far more advanced graphics than this simple Spotlight screen.
    – Greg Hewgill
    Oct 4, 2015 at 22:42

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That screen is not supported on any iDevice powered by the A5 SoC (so it's not on the iPad 2, iPhone 4S, or iPod Touch (5th-Generation)). Apple's older product support is great, I'd like to see someone even using an Android phone from 2011, let alone see that phone running the latest version of Android. Given that, this is likely not an example of planned obsolescence, but a result of the fact that the newer hardware found in the 6th-Gen iPod Touch is much more powerful than that found in the 5th-Gen, not just graphics processing, but more RAM (1 GB vs 512 MB), a faster CPU, and better power efficiency.

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  • I'm not interested in comparisons with the Android product lifecycle. Yes, Apple's support of older hardware is very good. My question is asking specifically why this screen does not exist for older hardware.
    – Greg Hewgill
    Oct 5, 2015 at 2:20
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    @GregHewgill Like I said, it's probably due to older hardware limitations. 512 MB of RAM being the biggest factor. Nobody here works for Apple, so nobody here can give you a definitive answer, but this is my educated guess.
    – RedEagle2000
    Oct 5, 2015 at 2:30

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