MisterKit

I really felt like I had little to lose so I put the beta on a mini 2. It is a welcome update. The mini 2 is actually fun to use again. Very responsive indeed.

I have several iOS devices dedicated to MIDI/audio input/output by way of the lightning port. In a pinch I can use an iPhone on a professional music gig. It would render my phone to being a phone and an alarm clock if there were no data port.

Great article. I have a pair of mini 2’s running 11.4 now. The frustrating slowdowns are the system wide functions. Scrolling, screen updates, loading, and such. There is surprisingly still a lot of horsepower beneath the surface. I can run several pro audio/synth apps simultaneously. For example Korg Module playing some high polyphony, a drum machine app. These are some demanding apps and they require real time performance, not offline. They do not choke on the mini 2. I can use them for hours without a single hiccup or dropped note. That is saying something about the capabilities of the several generation old A7 chip. But pull up the simple built in Notes app running all by itself and the keyboard chokes as you type. Go figure. I am certainly looking forward to iOS 12 giving these devices more life.

Another point worth mentioning is that stolen iPhones are a source of ‘counterfeit’ parts. To require genuine Apple sourced parts is another tool for deterring thefts.

I am a hardware tech layperson but these T chips and whatever might unfold in the future would seem to eliminate the possibility of a Hackentosh running MacOS at some point. It’s not hard to imagine that is part of Apple’s plan.