iOS 12 saved my old iPad mini from the trash heap

Until yesterday, I was thinking of turning my old iPad mini 2 into a digital photo frame. The tablet worked, but it was painfully slow. Launching an app always had an unacceptable lag, and any serious multitasking was near-impossible. 

Then I updated it from iOS 11 to iOS 12, and suddenly the little guy was nearly as good as new. 

I did not expect this, despite Apple's claims that iOS 12 increases performance on its devices. The company says the same thing for every major release, but the differences have historically been negligible. In some cases, the iPad got slower after updating — but not this time. Read more...