Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries

[Act3]

$$$

Vindication feels so damn good. I've said for months and months and months that their batteries were failing, that they tried to sweep it under the rug to save millions (and most importantly to save face with the public as a "premium" brand).

You can't advertise a product as having 2, 3, 4x more speed and power and then control that through software. That's illegal. They will be sued, and lose tons of cash, deservedly so.

"A9, Apple’s third-generation 64-bit chip powers these innovations with 70 percent faster CPU and 90 percent faster GPU performance than the A8, all with gains in energy efficiency for great battery life."

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2015/09/09Apple-Introduces-iPhone-6s-iPhone-6s-Plus/

 

[I7guy]

$$$

Vindication feels so damn good. I've said for months and months and months that their batteries were failing, that they tried to sweep it under the rug to save millions (and most importantly to save face with the public as a "premium" brand).

You can't advertise a product as having 2, 3, 4x more speed and power and then control that through software. That's illegal. They will be sued, and lose tons of cash, deservedly so.

In 10 years 10 million people will get a voucher for $3.95 while the attorneys will get $395 million.

 

[jaredh]

They will be sued for exactly this. Mark my words, quote for posterity. It is most assuredly an illegal practice.

There is almost no question a massive class action is coming.

 

[Act3]

In 10 years 10 million people will get a voucher for $3.95 while the attorneys will get $395 million.

im getting 10 dollars for each dvd drive i bought years ago, never even knew they had an issue, yes apples and oranges but never really affected me, time will tell what will come out of this if anything. iphones do cost a bit more than dvd rom drives did back then

https://www.cnet.com/news/optical-disc-drive-settlement-claim-sony-optiarc-nec-hitachi-lg-panasonic/

 

[AFDoc]

replace the battery or go get a new phone simple as that

But a poster above said he was having issues and Apple wouldn't let him pay to have his battery changed..... so what say you to that person?

 

[firewood]

You can't advertise a product as having 2, 3, 4x more speed and power and then control that through software.

All Intel and AMD chips, in every PC and laptop for the past 10 or so years, control the processor clock speed though software (hidden in the x86 chip's power management controller). So does every other major mobile phone processor chip for the past many years. No matter how much "speed" they advertise.

They even brag with presentations at the various major semiconductor and chip conferences about how clever their speed and power management stuff works.

 

[jaredh]

In 10 years 10 million people will get a voucher for $3.95 while the attorneys will get $395 million.

I suspect its going to be a free phone, not $3.95.

We are talking about several billion dollar settlement here. Apple hid a RECALL item nefariously because they wanted to save face and not be forced into a recall.

Europe by itself is going to be a B as in BILLION dollar issue. They have required 2 year warranty requirement that Apple almost certainly was trying to circumvent. That means every person in the EU who bought an iphone 6/6s/7 etc will rightfully get a warranty replacement claim. If they already replaced that device, they are entitled to a free new device.

Just wait and see.

 

[koruki]

I agree, even as a dedicated iPhone user, it was a big pile of BS when they GLUED down the battery. It use to be as simple as 1 2 3 to change a battery, suddenly they made it stick on tighter a crazy ex-gf

 

[Act3]

All Intel and AMD chips, in every PC and laptop for the past 10 or so years, control the processor clock speed though software (hidden in the x86 chip's power management controller). So does every other major mobile phone processor chip for the past many years. No matter how much "speed" they advertise.

They even brag with presentations at the various major semiconductor and chip conferences about how clever their speed and power management stuff works.

but do they do that to compensate for the power supply? or to conserve energy?

 

[jaredh]

But a poster above said he was having issues and Apple wouldn't let him pay to have his battery changed..... so what say you to that person?

There is no debate as of a few days ago, Apple would not replace a battery in my wife's 6 even with me offering to pay them.

"This phone's battery is fine, you are imagining the slowness. Hey, you should consider upgrading her to this new iphone 8!"

Seriously, that's what they told me.

 

[rootee]

“Apple then added power management to all iPhones at the time that would 'smooth out' those peaks by either capping the power available from the battery or by spreading power requests over several cycles.”

Spreading power requests over cycles? WTF are they talking about?... the phones are being underclocked, which makes each cycle a little slower.

My iPhone 6 battery is 6 months old, and this iOS fix is throttling the 1400 MHz CPU to 1127 MHz as soon as the battery hits 89% charge, and keeping it there until the battery fully discharges. That royally sucks balls. This is a crap fix.

 

[asdavis10]

We don't have to read them - EULA have no validity in Europe...

Having validity (legally) and being a source of information are two different things.

 

[AFDoc]

Doesn’t seem to be any real conspiracy as implied in other threads/blogs. My 6s did qualify for the battery replacement program and for that kudos to Apple.

What about those posting that say their battery is having issues yet "passed" apple's test yet apple would not let them pay to have their battery exchanged? Their only option is to go third party which voids apple's warranty/apple care.....

 

[mac_4eva]

As a long time Apple user, I am disappointed. I do understand the reasoning behind the throttling, and the fact that it will be most evident in benchmarks. But then why isn’t graphics performance affected? There must be significant power draw when pushing the GPU too right... in my tests, it never throttled regardless of battery level. This was true for my iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2.

I have a MacBook Pro that has about 1500 cycles clocked already. Battery life is now horrendous of course, but there are no performance issues. Of course, it may not be a valid comparison to something as compact as the iPhone.

 

[sracer]

Apple's only mistake in my opinion is opting for slowing down an iPhone when its battery fails to output a safe voltage to keep the processor working within operating parameters vs a script popping up warning the owner its battery needed to be replaced to restore original performance.

This thread is evidence however there would have been hell to pay no matter which route they chose.

I don't see this thread being evidence of that. Where are the posts complaining that a pop-up message warning the user would be an equally distasteful option?

 

[firewood]

(Whose laws changed in September 2015 ;-) )

Nope. Shutdown problems have plagued mobile phones since before the very first iPhone. My old 3Gs used to shutdown if I left it in the car on a hot day. It's possible that the fashionably thinner mobile phones and faster (hotter) ARM processors made the problem slightly worse every generation until more people noticed. But battery chemistry hasn't improved or degraded that much recently.

 

[I7guy]

I suspect its going to be a free phone, not $3.95.

We are talking about several billion dollar settlement here. Apple hid a RECALL item nefariously because they wanted to save face and not be forced into a recall.

Europe by itself is going to be a B as in BILLION dollar issue. They have required 2 year warranty requirement that Apple almost certainly was trying to circumvent. That means every person in the EU who bought an iphone 6/6s/7 etc will rightfully get a warranty replacement claim. If they already replaced that device, they are entitled to a free new device.

Just wait and see.

Well good luck to those who might want to try to sue.

 

[firewood]

vs a script popping up warning the owner its battery needed to be replaced to restore original performance.

Every Li-ion battery degrades by a tiny fraction every charge cycle. How would you like it if every rechargeable device you owned displayed a new pop-up warning almost every day (danger! warning! battery now below yesterday's performance by 0.003%, etc., etc.)

 

[I7guy]

im getting 10 dollars for each dvd drive i bought years ago, never even knew they had an issue, yes apples and oranges but never really affected me, time will tell what will come out of this if anything. iphones do cost a bit more than dvd rom drives did back then

https://www.cnet.com/news/optical-disc-drive-settlement-claim-sony-optiarc-nec-hitachi-lg-panasonic/

Of course; collusion is exactly what Apple was attempting to do. Before everyone runs their hands in glee at the prospect of Apple being sued and losing a lawsuit, There’s an old expression: “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”.

 

[SAIRUS]

Yeah well Steve used to stop selling devices after their experience started to degrade. Tim probably didn’t think about the consequences of how this comes off.

 

[Sevanw]

Amazing that some here on this forum think it's totally ok for Apple to slow down phones. What a dispicable crooked company. But I guess that's what happens when you blindly follow a company at any cost. The sensible thing would be, get more demanding on Apple for providing a bigger battery from the get go. Or demand Apple to be upfront, and tell the consumer that getting a new battery should fix their slow down issues. But no, that would mean standing up to Apple and giving them bad press. And we all know, the blind follower, would put their own needs second to their beloved Apple.

 

[cardfan]

Much ado about nothing. Users being outraged over nothing. Lol.

 

[Act3]

Of course; collusion is exactly what Apple was attempting to do. Before everyone runs their hands in glee at the prospect of Apple being sued and losing a lawsuit, There’s an old expression: “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”.

what part of apples to oranges didn't you understand in my post? Some of us could care less about chickens but rather just not have this happen again. I like my apple products, I don't like them screwing with my purchased apple products.
[doublepost=1513825434][/doublepost]

Amazing that some here on this forum think it's totally ok for Apple to slow down phones. What a dispicable crooked company. But I guess that's what happens when you blindly follow a company at any cost. The sensible thing would be, get more demanding on Apple for providing a bigger battery from the get go. Or demand Apple to be upfront, and tell the consumer that getting a new battery should fix their slow down issues. But no, that would mean standing up to Apple and giving them bad press. And we all know, the blind follower, would put their own needs second to their beloved Apple.

a hard concept for some to understand, or a shareholder to consider as ethical as it doesnt benefit them

 

[ftaok]

Every Li-ion battery degrades by a tiny fraction every charge cycle. How would you like it if every rechargeable device you owned displayed a new pop-up warning almost every day (danger! warning! battery now below yesterday's performance by 0.003%, etc., etc.)

Honestly, I hope you're being sarcastic.

But then again, Apple insists on reminding me to update to the latest iOS version just about every day, so maybe what you suggest isn't ludicrous.

 

[morphineseason]

So they’re essentially forcing an instance of low power mode. There needs to be a toggle for this “feature”, or build it in to the current low power mode. I should be able to choose if I want my phone to die quick or not and be able to enjoy the full power of my device. Requiring users to swap the battery every year or two just to get full use of the hardware they already own is a poor business model.

In addition, this ultimately verifies the conspiracy theory that Apple have purposely made their old hardware obsolete through software updates for years. Don't really care how they went about it, or whether they had a good PR response to this to make it sound like a good Samaritan effort. It's not good for the end user, nor does it provide a better user experience.