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.

 

[FAST6191]

It's a double-edged sword but I don't think it's inherently "bad". Apple has the choice of the default being less battery life with the same performance vs. approximately the same battery life with less performance.
They've decided to optimise their devices for better battery life. You can always get your battery replaced, if it's that big of an issue.
Even Android devices become rather outdated in just a few years. Most technology does these days.
I can see why people would think of it as planned obsolescence but I think it's stupid to jump to the conclusion that it is only malicious on their part.

Had they been transparent about it then yeah we might be having a debate on engineering choices and tolerances, this however had to be dragged out of them and had no mention of it on the OS or any health/debug screens, nothing in the manuals... I would prefer a nice message on startup and an option to enable or disable it but a simple note in the user accessible options menu somewhere and a paragraph in the manual would have sufficed here.

I can't quite get to malice by way of forced obsolescence but as I said earlier the power performance of these devices is so incredibly scrutinised (the fact they even can do this is surely testament to that) that it amounts to serious incompetence if not. Some weird bug happens where due to a variety of odd settings the CPU 100%s and drains the battery faster and we point and have a little giggle, this is not that though.

 

[TankedThomas]

Had they been transparent about it then yeah we might be having a debate on engineering choices and tolerances, this however had to be dragged out of them and had no mention of it on the OS or any health/debug screens, nothing in the manuals... I would prefer a nice message on startup and an option to enable or disable it but a simple note in the user accessible options menu somewhere and a paragraph in the manual would have sufficed here.

I can't quite get to malice by way of forced obsolescence but as I said earlier the power performance of these devices is so incredibly scrutinised (the fact they even can do this is surely testament to that) that it amounts to serious incompetence if not. Some weird bug happens where due to a variety of odd settings the CPU 100%s and drains the battery faster and we point and have a little giggle, this is not that though.

I don't disagree that the option would be nice and that the lack of transparency is not good but I guess that's ultimately their choice to disclose that. But maybe now that it has been dragged out of them, they'll finally give us the option. I just hope this doesn't cause them to do the extreme and just make things worse for everyone in some way.

But yeah, the fact that it comes up a lot makes you question why there was never the option or at least the transparency to begin with. Maybe they just feared it would hurt their brand, with people calling it planned obsolescence when it's arguably not?

 

[FAST6191]

On their choice or not... I don't know. Offhand I am not sure what kind of regs might be have been broken here, the samsung thing from a few years back was mentioned earlier ( https://www.geek.com/apps/samsung-caught-rigging-phones-to-boost-benchmark-results-1563857/ ) and this might fall under a similar remit. This is also in a post VW world, and also all the fun going on with diesel right now ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/10573720/DPF-removal-the-facts.html just came back around). The environmental stuff seemed a bit strong at first but thinking about their "ewaste" directives (it is part of the reason for phone unlocks, and certain things with broadband routers and what have you, and most modern devices have to be able to be sent to the manufacturer for recycling) that might play here.
At the same time I am not sure of any rules that would give them a free pass here and could well find there are ones that disallow such things.

I am not sure how they could make it worse short of seeing that it entered such a mode and then permanently underclocking even if a battery is replaced that falls within tolerances.

Reasoning for it if incompetence or malice are taken off the table... people are used to batteries dying (I have had windows xp laptops saying time to replace)... I guess around that time there were some articles on batteries lasting if not forever then the useful life of the device and this plays into that.
Actually on incompetence I might be able to be believe that the furryteeth in the low level battery/performance cave did not communicate properly to the UX people and the warranty and marketing department deemed it neither flashy enough nor cool enough to mention or otherwise had it fall under "don't go looking for trouble".

 

[MewAndKirby]

thats bs, if it can run fast and has an old battery, let it! dont make it so they are forced to buy a new god damn battery/ phone. good thing im and samsung user because thats ridiculous

 

[KoalaBoy]

I might see it as both. It seems like something that could be handy for phones with older batteries, but I also don't see any reason that this "feature" couldn't be something within the user's control to toggle on or off at their discretion. What I'd say is that, if this were done to my phone (or any device, really) without my consent, I'd be reasonably upset.

i second this

it makes sense from a technical standpoint but it also helps with the commercial side of things, since it forces the user to buy a new phone every year or so

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

if it can run fast and has an old battery, let it!

as far as i know, it cant

 

[MewAndKirby]

i second this

it makes sense from a technical standpoint but it also helps with the commercial side of things, since it forces the user to buy a new phone every year or so

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



as far as i know, it cant

well again im a samsung user so i dont know shit

 

[KoalaBoy]

well again im a samsung user so i dont know shit

they said something about the phone malfuctioning due to the battery being insufficient, but i can't confirm it either

 

[Yepi69]

I just replaced my iPhone 6 Plus battery and performance returned back to normal.
Seriously, its not like they're not updating the devices.

People who really have a problem about it are pratically spoiled, YOU TRY living with a smartphone whose manufacturer won't update its software anymore then come talk to me.

 

[FAST6191]

I just replaced my iPhone 6 Plus battery and performance returned back to normal.
Seriously, its not like they're not updating the devices.

People who really have a problem about it are pratically spoiled, YOU TRY living with a smartphone whose manufacturer won't update its software anymore then come talk to me.

Someone else being lazy, malicious or incompetent does not excuse you doing the same.

 

[Yepi69]

Someone else being lazy, malicious or incompetent does not excuse you doing the same.

I fail to see the lazyness in the commited act.

 

[FAST6191]

I fail to see the lazyness in the commited act.

The or part of that means you can select one; had it been lazy, malicious and incompetent then that would play. Also if we are operating under the assumption they either did it deliberately to... lightly press people into upgrades, failed to follow fairly fundamental design criteria or dropped the ball somewhere then the latter of those might fall under laziness.

 

[KoalaBoy]

lightly press people into upgrades

i like sarcasm

 

[Jokey_Carrot]

thats bs, if it can run fast and has an old battery, let it! dont make it so they are forced to buy a new god damn battery/ phone. good thing im and samsung user because thats ridiculous

i am a sony user

 

[FAST6191]

Update of sorts.

It seems apple is facing a variety of lawsuits from this, and their responses to most of them (several of which they have failed to get thrown out) have been creative even by American lawyer standards.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/28/apple_iphone_batteries/ for more detailed stuff.

Quoting their lawyers
"Plaintiffs are like homeowners who have let a building contractor into their homes to upgrade their kitchens, thus giving permission for the contractor to demolish and change parts of the houses."
Yes we are still talking about updates to phones that failed to disclose their nature vis a vis throttling.

 

[Foxi4]

Update of sorts.

It seems apple is facing a variety of lawsuits from this, and their responses to most of them (several of which they have failed to get thrown out) have been creative even by American lawyer standards.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/28/apple_iphone_batteries/ for more detailed stuff.

Quoting their lawyers
"Plaintiffs are like homeowners who have let a building contractor into their homes to upgrade their kitchens, thus giving permission for the contractor to demolish and change parts of the houses."
Yes we are still talking about updates to phones that failed to disclose their nature vis a vis throttling.

To be fair, a deteriorating battery is a good reason to throttle *if* its capacity to deliver current is now insufficient to run the device at peak performance, it's better than an emergency shutdown, but they should've been transparent about it. Better yet, they should've had a margin of redundancy to account for this decrease in current capacity. A battery I designed for my current project is required to deliver 8 amps of current continuously, but the pack I built delivers a maximum of 30 because, surprise, surprise, it will deteriorate over time. This is pretty basic, they cut some corners and now have to pay for it.

 

[codezer0]

Or, y'know, make the battery able to be removed by the user without doing the electronic equivalent of open heart surgery. How 'bout that?

If Samsung made the battery in the Note 7 removable from the start, they wouldn't have had the fiasco, and the subsequent reputation, of making exploding phones. But they continue to choose not to, to appease dumbasses with far too much money for their own good. and rather than do the ethical thing and cancel the line, they instead just repack them and sell them to India.

As long as Apple is the fashionable choice, it's going to take little less than a full on ban of their products as they are, before they'll actually change the design to be more beneficial to its end users.

 

[duwen]

Never. Buy. Apple. ...unless you've got more money than sense, and prefer style (objective opinion, but not my opinion of style) over substance.

They haven't been a serious contender in the tech field for almost 20 years now.

 

[DRAGONBALLVINTAGE]

Never. Buy. Apple. ...unless you've got more money than sense, and prefer style (objective opinion, but not my opinion of style) over substance.

They haven't been a serious contender in the tech field for almost 20 years now.

This is true justice

r/androidmasterrace

 

[Bladexdsl]

yet another reason to not use CRAPple

"were going to make you buy our overpriced shitty new iphones by fucking your older phones!"

absolutely pathetic and yet the sheepple still obey

 

[pedro702]

Update of sorts.

It seems apple is facing a variety of lawsuits from this, and their responses to most of them (several of which they have failed to get thrown out) have been creative even by American lawyer standards.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/28/apple_iphone_batteries/ for more detailed stuff.

Quoting their lawyers
"Plaintiffs are like homeowners who have let a building contractor into their homes to upgrade their kitchens, thus giving permission for the contractor to demolish and change parts of the houses."
Yes we are still talking about updates to phones that failed to disclose their nature vis a vis throttling.

well the contract owners always ask what is okay to do and what they are allowed to o, they just dont go in the houses and bash a wall before having the land owner know about it lol.