Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
That's my argument. They say they are helping with my "old" battery, but they didn't tell me. So now my 6 Plus is gone and I can't do anything anyway. Score for Apple.

This will be the basis of the suit. They were caught with their pants down. The battery argument will not insulate them sufficiently. This entire folly clearly shows the loss of Internal Controls at Apple.

Tim needs to resign. :apple:
 
No, they they just decided to slow down all old phones to avoid shutdown issues, regardless of your battery health (through the general software update.) A new battery wouldn't do anything, as the "feature" is applied based on phone generation.

Actually, no, the throttling occurs when the battery is detected as degraded. The investigation has shown that if you get the battery replaced, the throttling no longer occurs. It just so happens that degraded batteries typically are on older hardware systems. The problem is that many people have relied on clickbatey news articles that feed the "Apple is breaking older hardware to force you to upgrade" narrative. iMore has a much more balanced article on the subject. https://www.imore.com/apple-deliberately-slows-old-iphones-good-reasons-dumb-messaging

Apple should have been more transparent about the issue, but this lawsuit is ridiculous.
 
About time. What they are doing is highly unethical. Their involvement with my property stops after payment.

If you really felt this way you wouldn't have applied any updates or patches and would still be running the same phone + software 'you paid for'. In which case, this thread doesn't apply to you.

My guess is you expect updates and would complain loudly when/if Apple stops supporting your hardware. Can't have it both ways, demand the latest and greatest software/features then say whoa- hands off.

Lastly this is the correct thing to do with power management software, it is protecting you from a major fault. You're implying you don't want this, but I'm quite sure you would find the phone suddenly shutting down more noticeable and much more annoying than evening our processor peaks. The important point here is 'peaks' this isn't making your whole phone slower constantly, it's prevent harmful processor spikes. These don't happen under typical use.
 
What makes you think that that 911 MHz number is anywhere near accurate? It's not from any official Apple system report app.



Where do you find a numeric level of processor speed mentioned in their specification documents?

Geekbench numbers on MacRumors are not an official Apple specification.

This is what I found from Apple's official press release dated September 12, 2017:

A11 Bionic, the most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone, features a six-core CPU design with two performance cores that are 25 percent faster and four efficiency cores that are 70 percent faster than the A10 Fusion, offering industry-leading performance and energy efficiency. A new, second-generation performance controller can harness all six cores simultaneously, delivering up to 70 percent greater performance for multi-threaded workloads, giving customers more power while providing the same great battery life. A11 Bionic also integrates an Apple-designed GPU with a three-core design that delivers up to 30 percent faster graphics performance than the previous generation. All this power enables incredible new machine learning, AR apps and immersive 3D games.

Now, as you point out, this is not a specific processor speed. But Apple is claiming a certain improvement in processing capability and I think it reasonable to assume that they have made similar official claims in other press releases.

I also think it reasonable that someone could you benchmark scores to validate these claims and that those benchmark scores should remain consistent through the life of the device.
 
This will be the basis of the suit. They were caught with their pants down. The battery argument will not insulate them sufficiently. This entire folly clearly shows the loss of Internal Controls at Apple.

Tim needs to resign. :apple:

Apple releases a pop up informing you that your phone is being throttled.

Problem solved.
 
There’s zero grounds for a lawsuit. “You made my old phone stop shutting down randomly and it lasts longer, I’m so mad!” Yeah, that’ll go over well.

I really wish people would stop misrepresenting where the frustration with Apple stems from.

It is because instead of notifying me that my battery needed servicing on my 6S+ AND throttling the CPU to keep it from shutting off randomly (though I would contest that this is not normal battery degradation and is a manufacturing defect with the 6S/+ as mine started randomly turning off less than 12 months in) Apple saw fit to throttle without any kind of information as to what they were doing.

That is the problem. Communication.

But if I had been given the option to replace the battery for the AU120 on Apple's support page, I probably would have gone with that over upgrading to the 8+. Which gives Apple a huge financial incentive not to tell me that my device is being artificially slowed and why.
 
I really wish people would stop misrepresenting where the frustration with Apple stems from.

It is because instead of notifying me that my battery needed servicing on my 6S+ AND throttling the CPU to keep it from shutting off randomly (though I would contest that this is not normal battery degradation and is a manufacturing defect with the 6S/+ as mine started randomly turning off less than 12 months in) Apple saw fit to throttle without any kind of information as to what they were doing.

That is the problem. Communication.

But if I had been given the option to replace the battery for the AU120 on Apple's support page, I probably would have gone with that over upgrading to the 8+. Which gives Apple a huge financial incentive not to tell me that my device is being artificially slowed and why.

Those guys are shills/trolls. They intentionally skip over details like what you have posted. Apple can do no wrong in their eyes. They are currently unaffected so don’t care about other end users.
 
Meh. Me thinks they complain too loudly. The EULA will come down on Apple's side. Phones over 2 yrs. old are unreliable without battery replacement. If these people just replaced the battery, their experience would improve. Get me a new phone annually and I'm set. Apple did nothing wrong here.
 
Actually, no, the throttling occurs when the battery is detected as degraded. The investigation has shown that if you get the battery replaced, the throttling no longer occurs. It just so happens that degraded batteries typically are on older hardware systems. The problem is that many people have relied on clickbatey news articles that feed the "Apple is breaking older hardware to force you to upgrade" narrative. iMore has a much more balanced article on the subject. https://www.imore.com/apple-deliberately-slows-old-iphones-good-reasons-dumb-messaging

Apple should have been more transparent about the issue, but this lawsuit is ridiculous.

"Apple made the conscious choice to slow iPhones with degraded batteries in order to prolong battery life."

Is that what you're referring to from the article? I read the article fairly quickly, but there's no way they would make the software cater to specific battery health status.

The slow down described by numerous users have been perfectly fine to completely unusable. In my case, my battery is at 93% health. Upgraded to iOS 11 from 10, and it's freezes everytime I bring keyboard up, or prompting Siri.

Unless they're making batteries that are below 95% to slow down, I question the feature being active based on battery health.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SDRLS
7.2 YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, USE OF THE iOS SOFTWARE AND ANY SERVICES PERFORMED BY OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE iOS SOFTWARE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO SATISFACTORY QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, ACCURACY AND EFFORT IS WITH YOU.

Terms and conditions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: macfacts
Um no, that’s not what is happening here.

The throttling was introduced to prevent random shutdowns in phones whose batteries have degraded through normal wear and tear. There was nothing to recall because there was nothing faulty with the phones in the first place. Apple has even gone so far as to assert that they will continue to do this for subsequent iPhones via future software updates.

I don’t see this lawsuit gaining traction, much less Apple actually losing it because it can be argued that Apple is technically doing the right thing here from an engineering perspective. That you believe a better solution exists has no bearing on the merits of what Apple has done here.

Nor do I think it will send people running to Android.

That said, this may well have long term repercussions for Apple’s reputation and the willingness of its users to update their software in the future. In the short run, Apple will likely have to do a lot of firefighting. They could start by providing a clear and extensive explanation on what is going on. My belief is this will stop a good portion of the bleeding once people see that Apple is being rationale and is genuinely looking out for the user. Apple can then assess whether additional information about the battery and throttling can be included in iPhone settings, and where.

I need to clarify, if the shutdown occurs within the first two years then it’s a defect. Apple claims 500 cycles for 80% life that equates to two years of normal use. If the phone shuts down during this period, then the battery is inadequate or there is a flaw in apple’s engineering.

After two years, users should fully expect batteries to be worn and subject to shutdowns. That’s the users problem, not apple’s. After two years, why should they care? They want you to upgrade to the new model, Apple doesn’t give a **** about saving your phone. But it is the perfect excuse to implement a throttle and enhancing the upgrade cycle. Also gives legal cover in case they get caught. Very clever.

Apple could had made a ton of money replacing batteries. Yet, they choose not to and in fact refuses to replace any that doesn’t meet their secret wear requirements. Why?

The throttle, holy hell. Why more than 50%. A small voltage drop does not require halving your processor to prevent shutdown. Apple needed the slowness to be visceral. You need to feel the need to upgrade.
 
This was clearly inevitable and I'm surprised the story hasn't blown up even more.

They can't go around saying their processors trounce SnapDragon's and give specified speed improvements over their previous models when they only perform at the advertised speeds for a year or so. The whole narrative has been false. John Gruber's response was totally uncritical in its thinking. It's not about whether they are intentionally trying to force people to upgrade. It's about whether the product was sold with the specifications it was advertised to have.

And there is so much missing in Apple's explanation about this being about balancing battery vs. performance. If that were the case, why does my fourth generation iPod touch work quickly and without random shutdowns? It's so old I can't even put a number of years on it.

There is either bad battery tech that is particular to Apple's phones or they have designed processors that require a power source that is unsustainable in a phone.
Gruber is an a$$. And becoming less relevant. He went batty when Apple seeded iPhone X's to YouTube personalities. Threw a tantrum like an 8 year old.

How are those comments relevant to this? They're not; I just never pass up a chance to throw shade at that pompous a$$ John Gruber :)
 
I wish people would stop conflating issues. No, not all older iPhones are throttled. Only when the battery degrades past the point where peak draw could damage components (which the system initiates an automatic shutdown to prevent). Don’t conflate the 6s battery program with this software feature. Totally separate things

My battery is at 93%, on a 6 Plus. It was replaced about a year ago. I was on iOS 8 up until late iOS 10 cycle. It was perfectly fine and fast. Latest version of iOS 10 was reasonably fast, when I upgraded about 3 months before iOS 11. I was expecting a bit of slow down from 8 to 10, knowing Apple's track record. But iOS 11 froze the phone basically.
 
Last edited:
I've been on MacRumors since nearly the beginning, coming out of retirement to say the editorializing and blatantly accepting of the Apple corporate line is so unbecoming.

Apple has spent a long time taking user choice out of its products. 'Apple knows best'
Maybe I should get to choose if i want to burn my battery out in an hour at full CPU or half power for two hours.

I know a lot of what MR does it push press releases to connect the entire Apple universe, but Judi and MR have some sense when doing original reporting its embarrassing to parrot like this.
 
I did not consent to have my battery degrade over time, nor did I consent to allow Apple software to intelligently adjust to its degradation.

Also: 9/11 was an inside job

You kinda concented when you initially signed up for your Apple ID or when you accepted to download any version of iOS..
 
Actually, no, the throttling occurs when the battery is detected as degraded. The investigation has shown that if you get the battery replaced, the throttling no longer occurs. It just so happens that degraded batteries typically are on older hardware systems. The problem is that many people have relied on clickbatey news articles that feed the "Apple is breaking older hardware to force you to upgrade" narrative. iMore has a much more balanced article on the subject. https://www.imore.com/apple-deliberately-slows-old-iphones-good-reasons-dumb-messaging

Apple should have been more transparent about the issue, but this lawsuit is ridiculous.

That's incorrect.
They started slowing down iPhone 7 too with ios 11.2.1 and those batteries are not degraded.
They are over 90% health but for some odd reason they already throttling those.
The iphone 8 and iphone X will take a dip in performance within a year too with upcoming iOS updates.
 
  • Like
Reactions: WatchFromAfar
Users are just ignorant. Apple are doing the right thing. Otherwise we would have continue shutdown on older iPhones.
A recent real life benchmark showed most model running better with lastest iOS. Apple is doing the right thing

“Real life” benchmark < real users noticing something wrong after iOS10. Also, I find interesting the timing of that benchmark.
 
I need to clarify, if the shutdown occurs within the first two years then it’s a defect. Apple claims 500 cycles for 80% life that equates to two years of normal use. If the phone shuts down during this period, then the battery is inadequate or there is a flaw in apple’s engineering.

Not to nitpick, but could they be referring to two separate matters here?

Yes, the battery should drop to 80% after 2 years, which seems to be their threshold for replacement. It doesn’t guarantee that the iPhone will be free of battery-related issues during these 2 years. It increasingly seems like the fast processor speeds and race to sleep / wake capabilities which the A-series chips are much touted for come at the expense of battery health, and that this is apparently not sustainable after the first year.

Combine that with Apple’s penchant for using smaller batteries to save on space and you have the brewing of a perfect storm.

Couple that with the news of Apple wanting to make their own power management chips and it does really make you wonder why...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cosmosent
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.