Apple Says Thunderbolt Display and Original iPad Air Now Obsolete
Apple today added the Thunderbolt Display and the first-generation iPad Air to its obsolete products list, meaning the devices are no longer eligible for repairs or other hardware service at Apple Stores or Apple Authorized Service Providers.
Apple classifies a product as obsolete once more than seven years have passed since the company stopped distributing it for sale. Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, and service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products. Both the Thunderbolt Display and the original iPad Air were discontinued in 2016.
Introduced in 2011, the Thunderbolt Display featured a 27-inch screen with 1440p resolution, a 720p camera, three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a Thunderbolt port. Priced at $999, the Thunderbolt Display was the last Apple-branded monitor until the Pro Display XDR launched in 2019.
The original iPad Air launched in 2013 and featured a 9.7-inch display and the A7 chip. It was advertised as being 20% thinner and 28% lighter, and having 43% narrower display bezels, compared to the previous-generation iPad.
Apple also classified the fifth-generation entry-level iPad as vintage. Apple considers a product to be vintage once more than five years have passed since the company stopped distributing it for sale, but repairs and service may still be available until the product becomes obsolete in two more years, subject to parts availability.
Popular Stories
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
iOS 18 is expected to be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more...
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Apple today said it removed Game Boy emulator iGBA from the App Store for violating the company's App Review Guidelines related to spam (section 4.3) and copyright (section 5.2), but it did not provide any specific details. iGBA was a copycat version of developer Riley Testut's open-source GBA4iOS app. The emulator rose to the top of the App Store charts following its release this weekend,...
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
A week after Apple updated its App Review Guidelines to permit retro game console emulators, a Game Boy emulator for the iPhone called iGBA has appeared in the App Store worldwide. The emulator is already one of the top free apps on the App Store charts. It was not entirely clear if Apple would allow emulators to work with all and any games, but iGBA is able to load any Game Boy ROMs that...
Top Rated Comments
One place one would have more likely have seen Thunderbolt ports and plugs is in the video editing industry.