Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries

[Merode]

I shouldn't really open mouth but that critical mass of Apple apologists is just too much to take. I guess you guys weren't affected by defective batteries and how badly Apple handled this issue.

This issue affects only iPhone 6 and newer ones. Some part of 6S's had batteries recalled (mine including) because they were defective. It has later become apparent a lot more devices are hurt by this issue.

What should have happened: Apple should recall all defective batteries.
What actually happened: Apple has put software trick that greatly reduces load on battery by underclocking CPU (sometimes even by 1000MHz).

It's completly normal that batteries will get worn out. However not at that pace - most of affected devices are only 1 year old when issues appear. Worn out batteries get depleted much faster but do not cause ANY device to suddenly shut down. This behaviour is a symptom of defect - just ask yourself if you've seen any battery behave like that in any device.

Another issue is that CPU gets underclocked but you get no notification. No information that battery is defective. Even then, Apple will refuse to replace battery if it passes their tests and for my device it did.

I guess some people just like to get sc.... for the sake of loving Apple. It's a corporation like any other and will take care of itself. You, regular Joe, should think about yourself first.

PS.: Here's what I foresee for 2018 - benchmarks and diagnostic apps removed from App Store under new guidelines. It will probably resolve this issue (for Apple).

 

[grobik]

A phone having to shut down due to its battery not being able to supply enough power at peak use is not normal. Either it’s a defective battery that needs to be replaced or there’s an issue with its design. My guess is it has it has to do something with Apple trying to fit the smallest battery possible in every new generation of phones. Needing to throttle the system to avoid a shutdown is a workaround not a feature.

I suggest you try to build a machine, any machine, that will have complete consistent performance over a span of years without any maintenance.

"Stupid car only goes 500 miles before I have to put more gas in it. PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!"

 

[peppespizzapie]

Once again, nothing untoward here, even though many chose to jump on the Apple conspiracy bandwagon.

conspiracy???? they FINALY admitted what the rest of the world knew for some years already. i know there are "fan boys" but blind fan boys?

 

[Delgibbons]

This has got to get to national news if we have any hope of not being scammed and stolen. Does anybody know a good reporter?

Only then will Apple be forced to recall the faulty batteries and stop this scam in the future.

They will only be truthful when in the bright light.

It's the "most read" story here on BBC News in the UK. A lot of people want to know about this courageous, innovative measure to get people to upgrade

I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it:

Apple's iPhones slowed to tackle ageing batteries - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42438745

 

[samcraig]

Reminds me of all the software "fixes" made to look as though the iPhone got a stronger tower signal - and then the software "fixes" during antennagate to reverse it.

 

[peppespizzapie]

So people are talking about Apple working to ensure their phone still works properly even when the battery wears down, as it inevitably will?

That sounds like complaining for the sake of it.

I guess you should read again. People complaining because apple, without asking its customers, installing software that make their iphone's 50% slower.

 

[639051]

Nope. It's pretty clear. Battery degrades. Processor pulls power. Battery can't fully provide power at peaks. Phone shuts itself off. As a consumer, I'd be pissed if my 1-1.5 year old device is powering off. Apple provides a solution to phones powering off. Thus gaining a longer lifespan. Internet explodes.

No, they did not gain a longer lifespan. The issue is STILL a defective battery, that is an issue that needs to be fixed not masked. The "fix" Apple has provided here makes the phone run so slowly that the phone lags to the point of the keyboard being extremely slow. That is NOT a fix unless your problem is "we can't sell enough new phones". If this is a feature (as Apple seems to be claiming it is) why not address it in a keynote? Surely marketing would LOVE to spin this one.

 

[grobik]

You're so off, it even hurts reading your textual diarrhea.
When a flash light dimms you replace the battery, or if its a rechargeable one you notice the lower run time.
In this case they've hidden the worn out battery by lowering the cpu frequency on purpose without notifying the customer, and on top of this, they reject battery replacements by saying "All good!", to avoid mass battery replacements or even a mass recall. This is a pure moral fraud and deserve a class action suit.

I do agree, there should be some indicator of performance degredation taking place. It's probably in the terms we all agree to when we setup the phone.

 

[opfreak]

Holy s*** people... Virtually everything that runs on a battery suffers from degraded performance as the battery dies. Flashlight? This is one of the more idiotic moan-fests I've seen on MR (and that's really saying something). I think throttling is much better that shutting off (since it more accurately reflects the gradual degradation of the battery). I'm still on an iPhone 6, and yes, it's slow at times, but I'd much rather that than have it shut down arbitrarily.

How about having a product that works as advertised. Why are you demanding so little from the worlds wealthiest company?

Why should your 1 year old phone only run at 50-75% of its as new state?

 

[peppespizzapie]

For out of warranty customers, Apple offers a battery replacement service, with the company charging $79 for a battery replacement plus $6.95 in shipping or you can upgrade your phone and sign another 2yr contract like Apple wants you to do or they would not be messing with it in the first place this stinks Apple and you should not be allowed to do this I think this could end up in a class action suit .

hmmm.....so when i understeand it right.....people with a phone that works perfectly, install a IOS official update. After that the perfectly working phone only works for 50% speed. To solve this problem Apple let's you pay 86 dollar and calls it "service" ??
[doublepost=1513857497][/doublepost]

Aah, the good ol' "it's not a bug, it's a feature".

)))
Right! And Apple DOES pay taxes! )))

 

[honglong1976]

does this also affect macbooks?

 

[GuruZac]

You're so off, it even hurts reading your textual diarrhea.
When a flash light dimms you replace the battery, or if its a rechargeable one you notice the lower run time.
In this case they've hidden the worn out battery by lowering the cpu frequency on purpose without notifying the customer, and on top of this, they reject battery replacements by saying "All good!", to avoid mass battery replacements or even a mass recall. This is a pure moral fraud and deserve a class action suit.

Agree. I’ve lost a lot of confidence in Apple over this one. I’ll continue to use my 7 Plus for another year...assuming it doesn’t start shutting down or performance doesn’t drop, then not sure what to do. My Apple Watch Series 2 already is significantly slower than when I purchased it last year. Wonder if this battery scam has anything to do with it. You see, this is the problem with what Apple has done. There is an across the board loss of confidence in their company and products. I hope this costs Apple dearly. As in people lose their jobs and the situation is made right. This fundamentally wrong on so many levels. Apple has just gotten too big at this point.

 

[opfreak]

Nope. It's pretty clear. Battery degrades. Processor pulls power. Battery can't fully provide power at peaks. Phone shuts itself off. As a consumer, I'd be pissed if my 1-1.5 year old device is powering off. Apple provides a solution to phones powering off. Thus gaining a longer lifespan. Internet explodes.

And you should be. Shouldn't your phone run as fast after a year as it did day 1?

Apple did not account for battery degradation, and knows most of its buyers are as forgiving as you are so instead of replacing phone batteries, they slowed your phone down.

Just think about what you are thanking apple for:

"Thanks apple for slowing my phone down so it does not turn off when I try to start your camera app."

 

[639051]

How will Apple resolve future battery defects since this now masks the behavior that could identify a defect?

 

[peppespizzapie]

I suggest you try to build a machine, any machine, that will have complete consistent performance over a span of years without any maintenance.

"Stupid car only goes 500 miles before I have to put more gas in it. PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!"

Did YOU know, when installing an official update, your phone went 50% slower? Did Apple TELL you?
Did you have a possibillity to refuse??
So dont mix apples and pears. This is called, with ANY other company, swindle!

 

[recoil80]

Do we really have to doublecheck our phones every month using some third party app, to be sure Apple is not stealing our paid cpu cores?

This is outrageous. The phones are bought not leased for free.

If my phone is covered by warranty I demand the battery to be replaced. If is not covered I want to make the choice, either keep the phone slower or run it at full speed and accept the fact battery will last for a short period of time.
I understand why they throttle the CPU, but I want to be informed about that as a customer.

My reply was just a curiosity, since they have low and high power cores in A10 and A11 maybe they can just avoid using the fast cores and you'd barely notice any performance slowdown if you don't play games or use certain kind of apps.
But I agree on the fact that we pay big money for our fast CPUs and expect to be able to have great performances. Battery degrades over time so nobody can expect to have the same battery life, but is always good to have a choice when it comes to power vs battery.
I like the power saving mode they introduced with iOS 9, since I have the choice to activate it when I really need more battery and I'm willing to compromise on speed.

 

[grobik]

Physics is real.

 

[Jmausmuc]

I suggest you try to build a machine, any machine, that will have complete consistent performance over a span of years without any maintenance.

"Stupid car only goes 500 miles before I have to put more gas in it. PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!"

Are you trolling or is this actually serious?

 

[sentential]

I think people are missing the point entirely, the issue is self-inflicted. Apple could have completely mitigated this issue by 1) Using a larger mAH *and* current/voltage battery that would handle full loaded even when degraded (but it adds to BoM) or 2) Use a lower performing chip (but then they'd be no different than Android)

They should have used a better battery but their obsession with "thinness" has finally bit them in the ass, glad I jumped ship to android until Cook is gone.

 

[Akagi]

I suggest you try to build a machine, any machine, that will have complete consistent performance over a span of years without any maintenance.

"Stupid car only goes 500 miles before I have to put more gas in it. PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!"

That’s why phone companies do accelerated life testing to make sure the devices can stand the wear and tear during normal use. Something must have been missed during testing. Otherwise Apple wouldn’t have been forced to issue this software change as a 10.2.1 patch to address the iPhone 6s shutdown issue.

 

[Abazigal]

This has got to get to national news if we have any hope of not being scammed and stolen. Does anybody know a good reporter?

Only then will Apple be forced to recall the faulty batteries and stop this scam in the future.

They will only be truthful when in the bright light.

Except that the batteries aren’t faulty here. They simply aren’t as good as they once were due to normal wear and tear.

To prove a scam, you have to prove that Apple maliciously slowed down your phones to trick users into upgrading. Apple admits they slowed down your phones to prolong the battery life, which could be interpreted as still being in the best interests of the consumer.

I do feel Apple is making the right decision here, as a slower phone is still preferable to a dead phone. A case could be made for them to be more transparent about this matter in the future, but as it stands, I am not sure if any potential lawsuit even has a leg to stand on.

 

[Jmausmuc]

It's the "most read" story here on BBC News in the UK. A lot of people want to know about this courageous, innovative measure to get people to upgrade

I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it:

Apple's iPhones slowed to tackle ageing batteries - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42438745

Yes, this news is now everywhere. And according to most of the comments I have read (even here!!) the explaination is doing very little to offset people’s anger.

 

[Delgibbons]

Except that the batteries aren’t faulty here. They simply aren’t as good as they once were due to normal wear and tear.

To prove a scam, you have to prove that Apple maliciously slowed down your phones to trick users into upgrading. Apple admits they slowed down your phones to prolong the battery life, which could be interpreted as still being in the best interests of the consumer.

I do feel Apple is making the right decision here, as a slower phone is still preferable to a dead phone. A case could be made for them to be more transparent about this matter in the future, but as it stands, I am not sure if any potential lawsuit even has a leg to stand on.

Apple constantly bangs on about how far ahead of Android processors they are. Fat lot of good if after a YEAR they are FAR SLOWER by up to a margin of 1GHz.

 

[snc]

Except that the batteries aren’t faulty here. They simply aren’t as good as they once were due to normal wear and tear.

To prove a scam, you have to prove that Apple maliciously slowed down your phones to trick users into upgrading. Apple admits they slowed down your phones to prolong the battery life, which could be interpreted as still being in the best interests of the consumer.

I do feel Apple is making the right decision here, as a slower phone is still preferable to a dead phone. A case could be made for them to be more transparent about this matter in the future, but as it stands, I am not sure if any potential lawsuit even has a leg to stand on.

Do not spread ********. There are two possibilites: apple put very low quality battery in premium phone or they slowdown older phone on purpose in newer ios ( I didn't have any problems on my two years old iphone6s before ios11, after update freezes, shutdowns)

 

[Abazigal]

Let that be the user’s choice to operate their phone how they want. That’s the problem here. Apple is like a nanny state. They know what’s best for you better than you do.

That has always been the whole selling point of Apple. For the sake of simplicity, Apple will take the liberty of making certain decisions for you on how your devices ought to be used. Sometimes, it’s in line with what you want in a product and the experience is great. Sometimes, it’s the opposite of what you desire and the experience is like jogging through quicksand.

Why are you only complaining about this now when this has always been how Apple has operated from the very start?