Apple Slowing iPhone-$29 Battery / Google Tracking

[CRTGAMER]

I call bull crap on this, a sneaky marketing ploy to force buying a new phone. Makes one wonder where else in the industry this is taking place. Updates to purposely slow down older hardware, gee where have we seen that before? There should be least a popup box should appear stating the "battery saving" feature with an option to opt out!

https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-is-slowing-down-older-iphones-batteries-faq/

Earlier this week, Primate Labs, the company behind the Geekbench processor benchmarking software, released a report that examined a common complaint from users: iPhones seem to run more slowly when a new model hits the market.

Apple admits it slows older iPhones
Apple this week admitted its iOS software slows down the performance of older iPhones. The company says iOS does this to counteract problems found in aging lithium ion-batteries. When a battery gets older, it doesn't hold a charge as well and can unexpectedly shut down if it's put under too much stress. Apple's software prevents that from happening by slowing performance.

To address that, Apple's iOS software, starting with last year's iOS 10.2.1, incorporated better power management capabilities, the company says. Apple's software from last year applied to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, 6D and 6S Plus and SE. This year's iOS 11.2 extended the feature to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus It will be applied to other Apple devices in the future. The operating system slows down your device to prevent it from shutting down, Apple says, but only in cases of cold temperature, a low battery charge or very old batteries.

What you get is a trade-off. Your phone isn't as snappy as it used to be, but it also doesn't turn itself off when the battery says it's far from drained. Apple's admission caused some outrage online and raised a lot of questions. People have long believed the company hinders older devices to get customers to buy new models (something Apple has denied), and many this week criticized Apple's lack of transparency around its battery policies.

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/12/21/apple-lawsuit-slowing-down-old-iphone-models/

Apple Being Sued for Purposefully Slowing Down Older iPhone Models
Los Angeles residents Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas, represented by Wilshire Law Firm, this morning filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California accusing Apple of slowing down their older iPhone models when new models come out. According to the lawsuit, Bogdanovich and Speas have owned the iPhone 7 and several older iPhone models and have noticed that their "older iPhone models slows (sic) down when new models come out." The two say they did not consent to have Apple slow down their devices, nor were they able to "choose whether they preferred to have their iPhones slower than normal."

Apple yesterday addressed speculation that it throttles the performance of older iPhones with degraded batteries, confirming that there are power management features in place to attempt to prolong the life of the iPhone and its battery. Apple implemented these features last year in iOS 10.2.1. "When an iPhone's battery health starts to decline, the battery is not capable of supplying enough power to the iPhone in times of peak processor usage, which can lead to shutdowns", Apple says.

[marurun]

Apple's reasoning is sound. Their total non-communication of this information is not sound at all. Tell us before we upgrade what's going to happen to out devices.

[dsheinem]

What a joke of a lawsuit. You accept terms that permit positive and/or negative changes to performance every time you click “agree” to install an update to the OS (on any platform).

[Sarge]

This is a perfectly sound engineering decision. This lawsuit is going to get tossed. Apple needs to communicate this kind of stuff better. Unfortunately, under-the-hood tech stuff doesn't register very well with most end users, so I do wonder how well a "warning, this may slow your phone down" message would fly.

[Exhuminator]

People say that if you replace the battery with a new one, the upgraded OS stops slowing the phone speed. That would indicate that Apple was sincere in their implementation of the throttling.

The problem is the communication. When the OS starts throttling the phone speed, it should say it is doing it, why it's doing it, and recommend the user get their battery replaced.

I'd be surprised if the lawsuit sticks. But even if it doesn't, there's a lot of PR damage here.

[CRTGAMER]

Updated the OP with more info and corrected the links.

People say that if you replace the battery with a new one, the upgraded OS stops slowing the phone speed. That would indicate that Apple was sincere in their implementation of the throttling.

The problem is the communication. When the OS starts throttling the phone speed, it should say it is doing it, why it's doing it, and recommend the user get their battery replaced.

I'd be surprised if the lawsuit sticks. But even if it doesn't, there's a lot of PR damage here.

The lawsuit against Apple giant will have just a very slim chance. As DS pointed out, the clause buried in the license agreement somewhere in the reams of pages.

Considering the difficulty or cost of service to replace the iPhone battery, many will just buy a newer phone not even knowing the issue until this story broke out. The software download update is enabled automatic default, most owners do not (let alone know how) disable auto updates.

Battery saving should be a notification with option select
I turn off Bluetooth, Data and Wifi to save my battery until they are needed. However, I keep the sound full loud and brightness kicked up all the way. The difference is that I control the settings and not a hidden slow down function that makes most think their phones are getting old. The battery save slowdown deception with no warning is drastic different vs just older hardware not keeping up with newer more bloated software; my earlier tease. No doubt the battery save update a marketing ploy of that "engineering" fix.

There is a battery charge indicator, so why not a slow mode indicator with opt out feature? I prefer my phone battery dying at full speed vs the phone slugging at half speed taking longer which also drains the battery.

[Jagosaurus]

Certain micro chips are also purposely designed to handle a finite number of cycles. They teach you this is engineering labs. It's not a new concept.... planned obsolescence.

Also, my Galaxy Note 4 will shut down if that battery is running at 30% or so and I tax it too much. Likely not just Apple....

[Tanooki]

Perhaps it may have a chance to stick in some manner.

How about the fact they force you to update despite the fact you can click like not now or later? It still will stealth download or partition off your space for the update so you lose that download space, and then it will perpetually nag the hell out of you to update when you do not want to. I got steamrolled into 11 and now my phone has all sorts of bugs and slowness problems I want nothing to do with.

[samsonlonghair]

Perhaps it may have a chance to stick in some manner.

How about the fact they force you to update despite the fact you can click like not now or later? It still will stealth download or partition off your space for the update so you lose that download space, and then it will perpetually nag the hell out of you to update when you do not want to. I got steamrolled into 11 and now my phone has all sorts of bugs and slowness problems I want nothing to do with.

I experienced a similar problem yesterday. I told my Mac not to download any updates because I was just using my meager cell phone data plan to share data with my Mac. This morning I got a message from AT&T that I had used up my entire monthly high speed data allotment. Apparently, my Mac downloaded a 12GB update in the background last night. Thanks again, Apple.

[marurun]

Apple does give you a notice in the settings app when your battery needs to be replaced, but I believe they are doing the throttling to extend battery life prior to that warning being provided. The other issue is to head off warranty claims over unplanned shutdowns. Apple is correct that older, more worn batteries can't always sustain high power levels as well. So if the phone cranks up for some reason and needs to draw more than the battery can provide, that can cause issues, including unplanned shutdowns.

I really dislike the $79 battery replacement fee Apple charges, but given how much their phones cost, that's actually not so bad. Same cost as a new, 1st party battery for a cheaper laptop.