Unless you have been living under a rock during the past few weeks, you probably know by now that Apple have admitted throttling overall performance for phones that have an "old" battery.

After years of rumours, Apple has confirmed that it does indeed slow down older iPhones, a feature introduced last year to protect against problems caused by ageing batteries.

The feature was implemented on the iPhone 6, 6S and SE last year during a software update, and on the iPhone 7 as of December with the release of iOS 11.2. The feature is planned to be rolled out to newer devices in the future. [...]

The reason invoked by Apple is to prevent phones from shutting down completely when batteries don't have enough power.

The company explained that when a battery is in a poor condition it may not be able to supply the required maximum current demanded by the phone’s processor at full speed. If that happens, the iPhone can shut down unexpectedly to protect the internal components.

Where do you stand on the matter? Do you believe this makes sense from a technical standpoint? Or do you think it is an elaborate scheme to get people to buy new phones every couple of years? Vote and tell us what you think.

 

[Foxi4]

The battery claim is just ridiculous, anyone who's ever touched an iPhone knows that it has extensive battery management settings and usage logs. In fact, the iPhone will happily tell the user when the battery needs to be replaced due to wear and tear. There is no reason to throttle the user's device on the basis of battery health, especially if the device explicitly tells the user when said battery is spent. Imagine if anything else worked like that - your 3DS used to run games at 30FPS just fine, but now it runs them at 10FPS because the battery needs to be replaced? That'd be ridiculous, and the 3DS doesn't even warn users about battery failure, it just runs for a shorter period of time. It's one thing to conserve battery when capacity is critical, completely another when it's full, just old.

 

[Tomobobo]

Why do people buy apple stuff?

I've never understood it. Why would you want a limited experience?

Why would you want your device manufacturer to tell you how to use your device?

What if I told them they could do anything they wanted, from simple stuff like just adding some music to your internal storage or sd card, to playing gamecube games with almost any bluetooth controller available? And the device manufacturer is OK with this, you're not voiding any warranties and the world still spins.

Get this, there's even a button on the phone that goes back 1 step. No you didn't close your app. You didn't spend forever wondering where any particular developer put that button. It's amazing. Buttons! Hey and when your battery is old, your phone still works. I know it's weird. Just the thing doing what it said it would when you bought it. Imagine such a world.

These people don't care. They aren't buying these devices to actually use them. It is an icon to help them feel that they are socially superior. They are mindless. Let them be consumed.

 

[pedro702]

The battery claim is just ridiculous, anyone who's ever touched an iPhone knows that it has extensive battery management settings and usage logs. In fact, the iPhone will happily tell the user when the battery needs to be replaced due to wear and tear. There is no reason to throttle the user's device on the basis of battery health, especially if the device explicitly tells the user when said battery is spent. Imagine if anything else worked like that - your 3DS used to run games at 30FPS just fine, but now it runs them at 10FPS because the battery needs to be replaced? That'd be ridiculous, and the 3DS doesn't even warn users about battery failure, it just runs for a shorter period of time. It's one thing to conserve battery when capacity is critical, completely another when it's full, just old.

View attachment 109352

they need to make some sort of excuse for what they do, that way they can even make uninformed people think they are doing it for you, and you can only benefict from it.

 

[Foxi4]

Why do people buy apple stuff?

I've never understood it. Why would you want a limited experience?

Why would you want your device manufacturer to tell you how to use your device?

What if I told them they could do anything they wanted, from simple stuff like just adding some music to your internal storage or sd card, to playing gamecube games with almost any bluetooth controller available? And the device manufacturer is OK with this, you're not voiding any warranties and the world still spins.

Get this, there's even a button on the phone that goes back 1 step. No you didn't close your app. You didn't spend forever wondering where any particular developer put that button. It's amazing. Buttons! Hey and when your battery is old, your phone still works. I know it's weird. Just the thing doing what it said it would when you bought it. Imagine such a world.

These people don't care. They aren't buying these devices to actually use them. It is an icon to help them feel that they are socially superior. They are mindless. Let them be consumed.

Apple is genuinely great at designing phones and their SoC's are unmatched in the high-end spectrum. Moreover, iOS is just a better operating system than Android, it's much closer to hardware. Unfortunately, Apple is a terrible company that squanders the ingenuity of their engineers by completely locking the platform up.

 

[RattletraPM]

Apple doing this is beyond unacceptable, throttling because of battery concerns is just a load of bollocks (and before any Apple fanboys start calling me names, this comes from someone who both used and owned Apple products in the past). I'd tolerate it if the user could choose to turn it on/off but as it is now, it's an incredibly repulsive anti-consumer move.

Apple is genuinely great at designing phones and their SoC's are unmatched in the high-end spectrum. Moreover, iOS is just a better operating system than Android, it's much closer to hardware. Unfortunately, Apple is a terrible company that squanders the ingenuity if their engineers by completely locking the platform up.

Couldn't agree more. I've never blamed Apple for designing bad or flawed hardware but their closeness and overly anti-consumer policies made me switch as soon as good Android phones started to appear on the market.

 

[Nyteshade714]

The main reason why this is not acceptable on any level is that, if you look closely at Apple's lame excuse, they essentially admit they're throttling phones because they're installing shitty batteries that don't last as long as they should. The fact that the throttling exists is, in itself, an admission of guilt on Apple's part for equipping phones with batteries that don't last as long as they should. And the kicker is that, instead of doing the halfway decent thing and making official replacement batteries available to all of their loyal customers at a reasonable price, they tried to hide their guilt by stealing performance back from customers who've paid for it.

That's not just shady, that's super illegal.

 

[pedro702]

https://twitter.com/sam_siruomu/sta...8/apple-iphone-slow-fix-battery-life-capacity

seriously the throtling is ridiculous so instead of warning you of a bad batery they take aways more than half of the cpu speed of the phone? god damn its rididulous thortling, and they dont tell you to replace the batery becuase apple itself doesnt want people replacing baterys...

 

[Kioku]

seems the billions samsung spent to make you think that way are working.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

apple probably should not have admitted anything, android makers never do despite android phones turning to shit after a years use.

There's some people that think the iPhone X is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Blatantly disregarding the fact their innovation is on the level of Nintendo's. Taking other concepts and implementing them in their devices. Albeit in better ways, don't get me wrong.

I've seen, read and heard people say they'll buy whatever Apple puts out. They can't justify throttling users phones. To no degree. Tom pretty much covered it, so I'll leave it there.

That last part... Want to talk about being spoofed ignorance? I know people rocking the Galaxy S4 and it's running smooth courtesy of the community. Can't say the same for Apple, obviously. One of my coworkers refuses to upgrade from his S5 because it still works pretty well.

 

[Foxi4]

https://twitter.com/sam_siruomu/status/943400254451335168/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw&ref_url=https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/20/16800058/apple-iphone-slow-fix-battery-life-capacity

seriously the throtling is ridiculous so instead of warning you of a bad batery they take aways more than half of the cpu speed of the phone? god damn its rididulous thortling, and they dont tell you to replace the batery becuase apple itself doesnt want people replacing baterys...

iOS informs the user about battery failure in the battery section and gives extensive information on steps that need to be followed to replace it at a certified Apple store, what the menu doesn't tell you is that your phone is being throttled to give you the illusion of a functional device, it just slows down to make you think that it's time for a new iPhone because yours "can't keep up" with the modern apps, which as it turns out is in fact planned obsolescence.

 

[Ryccardo]

I'm yet to see such a claim, unless I missed it. It's unjustifiable either way, battery health shouldn't cause a mandatory drop in performance, there's no legitimate reason for it.

Here https://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11516113&cid=55791023

Why would you want your device manufacturer to tell you how to use your device?

Freedom of choice, by definition, must include the option to have less freedom

 

[pedro702]

iOS informs the user about battery failure in the battery section and gives extensive information on steps that need to be followed to replace it at a certified Apple store, what the menu doesn't tell you is that your phone is being throttled to give you the illusion of a functional device, it just slows down to make you think that it's time for a new iPhone because yours "can't keep up" with the modern apps, which as it turns out is in fact planned obsolescence.

i mean one thing is to take like 20 max 30% of cpu speed but taking more than 50% is ridiculous lol.

 

[Foxi4]

The main reason why this is not acceptable on any level is that, if you look closely at Apple's lame excuse, they essentially admit they're throttling phones because they're installing shitty batteries that don't last as long as they should. The fact that the throttling exists is, in itself, an admission of guilt on Apple's part for equipping phones with batteries that don't last as long as they should. And the kicker is that, instead of doing the halfway decent thing and making official replacement batteries available to all of their loyal customers at a reasonable price, they tried to hide their guilt by stealing performance back from customers who've paid for it.

That's not just shady, that's super illegal.

I very much doubt that the batteries are even damaged at all, the smart battery circuit simply counts a certain amount of discharge cycles and decides that the cell has began degrading. Li-ion battery degradation has to be measured via a full charge-discharge test, the circuit operates on an assumption based on whatever measurements it took throughout everyday use. With the right parameters a Li-ion battery can withstand over a decade of use, everything depends on the charge/discharge parameters.

 

[Xzi]

Apple is genuinely great at designing phones and their SoC's are unmatched in the high-end spectrum. Moreover, iOS is just a better operating system than Android, it's much closer to hardware. Unfortunately, Apple is a terrible company that squanders the ingenuity of their engineers by completely locking the platform up.

Maybe if iPhones were used for anything other than Facebook it would matter. Apple was straight up anti-gaming for the longest time, so all that power is mostly going unused. Pretty much any game an $800 iPhone can play, a $150 Android phone can also play.

 

[Kioku]

Here https://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11516113&cid=55791023


Freedom of choice, by definition, must include the option to have less freedom

Keyword, option.

 

[Foxi4]

Here https://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11516113&cid=55791023

That's fair if true, however it is encumbent on Apple to inform the users about the throttling so that they have a reason to change batteries. This has been a secret until now, presumably as a planned obsolescence measure. Nowhere in iOS does it say that an old battery will throttle the SoC, it just says that the battery should be serviced, and only if you yourself look it up in the settings. Excusing this as anything other than trying to trick people into thinking that they need a new phone when they don't is a joke. If you think the the average Joe is going to look up Apple keynotes, you're grossly everestimating the end users. All of this would've been a secret if not for a series of independent tests, Apple was grossly deceptive regarding this issue and they should be punished. When low battery mode is turned off, that means the user wants it off. There's absolutely no reason for a second low battery mode that Apple conveniently forgot to mention besides purposeful deception.

 

[Veho]

"You are mistaken. Your phone did not "become" slow after the update. Your phone has always been this slow. You just don't remember it being that slow because it was so much faster than the previous models when it came out. But in comparison to our newest model it is understandably slow. It is time to consider upgrading. We have always been at war with Eastasia."

*gets found out*

"We only did this to protect you."

 

[grossaffe]

It's clearly a ploy by Apple to force people to buy a new phone. If they were really worried about battery life, they'd let people change their own batteries.

 

[Foxi4]

"You are mistaken. Your phone did not "become" slow after the update. Your phone has always been this slow. You just don't remember it being that slow because it was so much faster than the previous models when it came out. But in comparison to our newest model it is understandably slow. It is time to consider upgrading. We have always been at war with Eastasia."

*gets found out*

"We only did this to protect you."

Hits the nail on the head. Absolutely despicable.

 

[Xzi]

"You are mistaken. Your phone did not "become" slow after the update. Your phone has always been this slow. You just don't remember it being that slow because it was so much faster than the previous models when it came out. But in comparison to our newest model it is understandably slow. It is time to consider upgrading. We have always been at war with Eastasia."

*gets found out*

"We only did this to protect you."

As soon as Apple decided to become more about the brand and the logo rather than focusing on the tech, that's when anyone with half a brain should've noped the fuck out. That's also about the time they stopped innovating and started taking away basic features such as the headphone jack.

 

[grossaffe]

As soon as Apple decided to become more about the brand and the logo rather than focusing on the tech, that's when anyone with half a brain should've noped the fuck out. That's also about the time they stopped innovating and started taking away basic features such as the headphone jack.

I've been told that lack of headphone jack is a feature because everybody should enter the future and use bluetooth headphones.