Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries

[opfreak]

Now you are grasping at straws.

Being unhappy about not being informed about this is a separate issue from the current discussion at hand - which is about Apple’s intent behind throttling their phones, and if this was foul play or simply an expedient solution to a very real issue that plagues anything running on lithium batteries.

So far, most are unhappy about this (naturally), but what’s interesting is that the tone over at Ars Technica is actually more accepting, with quite a few programmers coming out in defence of what Apple has done.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...life-benchmarks-suggest/?comments=1&start=240

My takeaway is that this whole throttling solution made sense to the people working at Apple from an engineering perspective (you extend the life of old devices and batteries by limiting max current draw causing voltage sagging and shutdowns, rather than let phones shutdown randomly and make users even more likely to just toss them and buy new devices).

But somewhere along the line, they neglected to see this from a PR perspective and how one might interpret this as forced obsolescence. Or maybe they did, which is why they decided to keep mum until now.

You can blame Apple's secrecy, but again, I am not seeing any evidence of foul play from Apple.

So what? Some commenters are OK with lower performance that makes it OK?

I'm not gasping at any straws.

Apple limits your phones performance after a year, doesn't tell you about it, and your cool with it.

 

[Rogifan]

Planned obsolescence. Nothing more & nothing less.

I still have my older 6s and it runs like a pig with iOS 11. It has nothing to do with the age of the device or battery, it's running like crap by design.

This is shameful and cannot be defended.

So basically what you’re saying is Apple customers are a bunch of iSheep. There’s no other way for planned obsolescence to work and not result in a massive loss of customers other than the customers are suckers. I doubt most iOS users have that much $$ invested in iOS apps that it’s too difficult for them to leave.

 

[Fugitivo8]

Theres a very big mistake in your post. Apple doesn't underclock the device to save the battery. The battery is unable to fully run the iPhone, so apple has to limit the cpu so the phone still remains on.

This is not true.

 

[jgdeschamps]

And your OK with apple not telling you this when you bought your phone?

If the box had a warning on it that said "Warning after 1 year phone will run 20-50% slower because the battery is old" would you buy it?

That's not the issue. No warning like the one you mention is needed because it really varies from user to user and charging habits. That's why some phones slowdown and others don't. It's like talking about car tires and you wanting a car manufacturer to place a sticker on the steering wheel that says "your tires will wear out to about 50% after a year." Car manufacturers don't know how you drive, so they cannot tell you what will happen to your tires on any given time frame. Same with ion-lithium batteries. The real bad thing about all of this: it's not part of Apple's policies to suggest you perform a battery change as last resort to fix your device slowdowns. But, it's good to know now that if your phone does present this problem, a basic battery change will fix it no matter what the guy at the Apple store says.

Now, I'm not apologizing Apple and probably someone said it before, but in reality, if you have "bad charging habits" your battery will suffer on any type of device (including laptops.) Example: if you let your device's battery go below 10%, then charge it up to a 100% and let your device plugged to the wall socket all night, you'll kill its ion-lithium battery within 8 months. Just charge it when it goes to 25% and unplug it when it reaches a 95-98% charge. Hell, you should even enable low power mode when all you are doing is sleeping or commuting and don't use your device for a while. Almost one year and a half after I bought it, my iPhone SE has basically the same battery life as if it were new, no slowdowns whatsoever.

 

[clauzzz203]

Theres a very big mistake in your post. Apple doesn't underclock the device to save the battery. The battery is unable to fully run the iPhone, so apple has to limit the cpu so the phone still remains on.

This is not true.

Yes it is. I have posted evidence. Do you? I thought so.

 

[Fugitivo8]

I did, read my very long post a few pages before.

 

[TroyBoy30]

makes perfect sense to me. i get a free phone every year though

 

[ipponrg]

The bottom line is this.

Apple passively wants you to upgrade to the latest phone for the best user experience and for profit. Notice I used the conjunction "and". You'd be naive to think otherwise. Imagine if they built iOS11 such that they removed superfluous UX features and but still gave you the same experience. People would hold onto their phones for much longer, and Apple wouldn't sell as much hardware anymore.

Having better (or newer) hardware allows Apple to (recklessly?) add in new UX features such that they don't have to care about supporting older devices.

My 6S experience was dramatically different than the X experience, and that was even after the 6S battery replacement. I suspected the reason it was choppy was because they wanted me to upgrade.

If you noticed, this issue was only addressed after they sensed that this was going to blow up. This is damage control on Apple's part, and that is one of Apple's strengths.

 

[clauzzz203]

This is not true.

I did, read my very long post a few pages before.

Your very long post agrees with me...

 

[jgdeschamps]

Didn't pay attention to what I did, so I double-posted. Moderators, please delete this. Sorry...

 

[phobos512]

Another analogy, when we use the wrong octane rating gasoline in a car, the engine will retard the ignition timing and protect the engine by preventing detonation. The downside of this is the engine cannot produce full power, but can still function. Until proper fuel is used for the car, the engine won't operate at full capability. In case of the phone, the analog to gasoline is the battery health and capability.

Apple decided for the users that if the battery deteriorates, by implementing the power management solution, Apple was able to keep the phone functional and not shut down during usage. A few users would prefer an opposite implementation with information about the battery health, but that is not how Apple operates. That to me is a completely fair implementation.

People have claimed for years that their iPhone performance was degraded upon upgrades to new versions of iOS, something that typically takes place approximately a year after one has bought the last iteration of iPhone. For years. Now the community knows with 100% certainty those folks weren't crazy, and yet this thread is overflowing with people saying they meant well. They've had every opportunity to come clean about this practice, and they didn't until someone forced their hand (and why that took as long as it did still makes my head hurt).

Also, your gasoline analogy is a poor one. Any of us can choose to put whatever octane is available into our vehicles. Or we can choose not to, and take the performance hit. Apple has denied consumers that choice.

If Apple allowed people to change their batteries at Apple Stores for a fixed fee independent of whatever diagnostics they might run (as many people in this thread have said, Apple has denied them the option to PAY for a battery replacement) then ok, great. But the evidence is here that they in large part do not.
[doublepost=1513872930][/doublepost]

Strange, same 'logic' could be applied to any form of Flash Storage, or even heat relation to hardware longevity.

No, it's bollocks. Welcome to Tim Cooks world.

Flash storage has additional unformatted capacity built in to allow for graceful degradation over time. The flash controller reallocates blocks that have failed to this spare capacity over time. This battery situation is wholly unlike that.

 

[clauzzz203]

Just to be clear, as I posted pics earlier:
My 6 year old 4S with battery health at 45% (!!) is holding top CPU performance today with no shutdowns and zero throttling.

These newer phones are being throttled. Reason? Faulty battery, faulty design. Simple as ****

 

[Fugitivo8]

Your very long post agrees with me...

Not in the part that the battery cannot fully run the phone. The phone before the update to ios11 never randomly restarted, and after the ios11 it was terribly slow, so it's not a question whether the phone can fully operate with that battery. It's that Apple simply blindly created a system where it throttled, way beyond what was necessary in these situations to avoid a random restart. So it put my phone in a situation where hours before it was operating in ios10 at full speed to an ios11 where somehow the flag to throttle came up and it simply didn't allow it to perform how it was suposed to.

 

[Glideslope]

I don't see what the big deal is? I've been Throttling Back since my late 50's with no expectations of a new body.

 

[Leomon84]

Guys absolutely not..

1. A analogy

A car engine degrades naturally over time. No manufacturer in the world will de-tune your engine for reduced hp. And if they do the are ethically obligated to inform you as an owner of their products.

Apple is NOT acting ethically here, they are modifying a product that you purchased withpit the consumers knowledge. This is NOT okay. I bet you their are consumer laws that protect you against this.

2. 2 ways to look at this technically.

Peak power increases with OS updates.
This looks bad for apple as it means their code is inefficient. As technology progresses the OS should demand and be more efficient.

Peak power capabilities decrease with battery degradation. This is ALSO a engineering failure. Why would apple design a phone that would required to be throttled in a year or two?? They must build safety factors into the phone so it can handle a year or two of battery degradation and still jandle at peak performance.

So at best case this is an engineering design flaw on apples part and now they have to go back and "fix" it.

I tell you this is also not true. We all now Apple engineers and makes great phones.

Android phones Do Not get slower from OS updates. Neither do Windows phones. The industry standard is that OS gets more efficient as time goes on and requires less CPU time. I have an old NOTE 4 3 years old that is just as fast if mot faster.

And finally.

There are many ways around this.
Dont update the OS for older phones, disable some new OS features for older phones. Etc etc.

The end of the day, in conclusion, Apple is throttling your phones because they want you to buy new phones.

Is it thay unplausible that Apple is greedy? Every company is, but crossing the ethical boundary to be greedy is NOT okay.

In the age of price fixing, fake baby formula its not that suprising. Apple jist got caught with their pants down and this is their PR release nothing more.

Guys thoughts on this?

 

[Aydy]

People have claimed for years that their iPhone performance was degraded upon upgrades to new versions of iOS, something that typically takes place approximately a year after one has bought the last iteration of iPhone. For years. Now the community knows with 100% certainty those folks weren't crazy, and yet this thread is overflowing with people saying they meant well. They've had every opportunity to come clean about this practice, and they didn't until someone forced their hand (and why that took as long as it did still makes my head hurt).

Also, your gasoline analogy is a poor one. Any of us can choose to put whatever octane is available into our vehicles. Or we can choose not to, and take the performance hit. Apple has denied consumers that choice.

If Apple allowed people to change their batteries at Apple Stores for a fixed fee independent of whatever diagnostics they might run (as many people in this thread have said, Apple has denied them the option to PAY for a battery replacement) then ok, great. But the evidence is here that they in large part do not.
[doublepost=1513872930][/doublepost]

Flash storage has additional unformatted capacity built in to allow for graceful degradation over time. The flash controller reallocates blocks that have failed to this spare capacity over time. This battery situation is wholly unlike that.

I would have half expected the apologists to be apologising to the foil hat brigade for making them feel like paranoid conspiracy theorists. But alas, Cowardly in defeat, they have noped out and continue to defend the Apple and ridicule the folks who “knew” shenanigans were at play.

What I don’t get is what the apologists get out of it? If we can see something is wrong, then call it. Unified, we could instigate change to benefit the consumer but by continuing a divide only capitalism wins and the common man is always available to be dumped on.

 

[convergent]

Just to be clear, as I posted pics earlier:
My 6 year old 4S with battery health at 45% (!!) is holding top CPU performance today with no shutdowns and zero throttling.

These newer phones are being throttled. Reason? Faulty battery, faulty design. Simple as ****

Reason... They haven't gotten to you yet.

 

[Leomon84]

That's not the issue. No warning like the one you mention is needed because it really varies from user to user and charging habits. That's why some phones slowdown and others don't. It's like talking about car tires and you wanting a car manufacturer to place a sticker on the steering wheel that says "your tires will wear out to about 50% after a year." Car manufacturers don't know how you drive, so they cannot tell you what will happen to your tires on any given time frame. Same with ion-lithium batteries. The real bad thing about all of this: it's not part of Apple's policies to suggest you perform a battery change as last resort to fix your device slowdowns. But, it's good to know now that if your phone does present this problem, a basic battery change will fix it no matter what the guy at the Apple store says.

Now, I'm not apologizing Apple and probably someone said it before, but in reality, if you have "bad charging habits" your battery will suffer on any type of device (including laptops.) Example: if you let your device's battery go below 10%, then charge it up to a 100% and let your device plugged to the wall socket all night, you'll kill its ion-lithium battery within 8 months. Just charge it when it goes to 25% and unplug it when it reaches a 95-98% charge. Hell, you should even enable low power mode when all you are doing is sleeping or commuting and don't use your device for a while. Almost one year and a half after I bought it, my iPhone SE has basically the same battery life as if it were new, no slowdowns whatsoever.

No

Apple is not acting ethically or in the best interest of its consumers.

A CPU is NOT a wear and tear item. Either Apple are poor engineers and cant factor in battery degradation into their design so now they have to throttle the CPUs

Or They want you to buy new phones.

There is no good way out of this.

In any case, them not informing you is not ethical.
What if manufacturers changed the resolution of your TV after you bought it?
What if they banks changed your fees without you knowing?

No no and NO. look up consumer law, this is NOT okay.

 

[dietg]

The part about "Apple offers battery replacement in stores" is not really true. I've gone twice to an Apple store to have them assess my battery. They refused to let me pay them to replace the battery because their diagnostics passed.

I'm in the situation where Apple won't even let me pay to replace my battery even though I have random shut downs and blatant CPU throttling when below 50%.

Having worked in the store myself, I can say that its not that don't want to do it, its that the software we use in the store to create repair, do diagnostics, and almost everything else, phisically wont let us replace it unless its in a failing status. I don't get it either, but just to give some background

 

[I7guy]

the os is limiting power because the battery is unable to run the process at full speed.

I guess by this post, you are OK with apple limiting phone performance by 20-50% a year after purchase.

That’s correct if the choice is a slightly slower phone or dead phone.. slow wins.

 

[Delgibbons]

I honestly have to wonder if all the aplologists, defenders, whatever They’r called get their iPhones for free with conditions that they are infinitely available to douse any potential negativity online.

For the life of me I can not understand this need to defend being dumped on by big Corp.
Fool me once, shame on me..Twice, Three, four times..well, we know where this goes.

President Bush put this very well, I thought

 

[617660]

That’s correct if the choice is a slightly slower phone or dead phone.. slow wins.

Slow wins.

I need to quote this before you edit it out.

 

[Leomon84]

That’s correct if the choice is a slightly slower phone or dead phone.. slow wins.

Slow wins fine.

So what are your thoughts on the reasoning behind this?

Apple Engineers are incompetent in sizing your battery for your phone? So they have to throttle the cpu in a year or two?
Apple coders are incompetent and cant make code more efficient with new OS updates?

All the while not informing you and hiding this from the consumer (not ethical)

 

[jlseattle]

I've always suspected they did this. It has been going on for years. They need to cease and desist this business behavior. I will join a lawsuit if someone files.

 

[Aydy]

President Bush put this very well, I thought