iOS 11.3 Beta to Get Throttling Kill Switch in February as Apple Trials 'Reserve a Battery' System in Canada [Updated]

[Act3]

We will find out whether the phones really shutdown or not after 11.3

11.3 beta 1 disables throttling, haven’t seen people reporting issues with phone turning off early.

 

[Piggie]

My guess is that is where Jony Ive's obsession with thinness caught up with battery and engineering capabilities. The battery that fit couldn't supply the requirements of the new chipset and the larger display.

Indeed, there is zero reason to accept this with any product.
The simple fact is the batter needs to be larger/of higher quality to be able to supply the power needed so that a "Premium" very expensive product can operate trouble free, and full speed for an acceptable number of years.

Apple simply decided they would rather "show off" a slim design than to fit a more suitable battery.

It would be so interesting, and I would LOVE to see customer responses if Apple released 2 models.

Identical phones, one super slim with the typical poo batter Apple fit, and a slightly thicker, lets say 2mm or 3mm thicker with a "super enhanced battery"

Give customers the choice, inform them, and see which one most people would go for.

 

[TallManNY]

I think there was also some programming glitches here. I had a 6s before my X. I had the shut off at 30% happen to me several times. So I took my phone in and had the battery replaced in early 2017. But then with the new OS in the Fall I got slow down in text entry. Interestingly, switching to Google text entry solved my slow down. Of course having Google record all of my key entries (which they tell you explicitly that they are doing) was not comfortable. But I did it to make my phone usable until my X arrived.

 

[emulajavi]

The slow text entry on my iPhone is paiiiiiiiinful. Once the heavy throttling steps it (nearly always on pre iOS 11.3, below 50% battery on iOS 11.3 beta) it’s very difficult to use the phone for texting.

 

[locoboi187]

I'd like they'd tell me what they're doing and then I decide if buy a new phone or change battery or let my phone to turn off unexpectedly.

Exactly this or put better quality battery in the phones. If the battery capacity goes lower, the battery life of the phone shortens but it should never cause unexpected shut downs. Older iPhones did not have this issue.

People need to stop liking TimUSCA's idiotic comment that only tells the consumer that this is the norm with batteries over a period of time.

 

[HopefulHumanist]

I am going to try this AND get free battery. They is no reason I should have 10 second delay on typing text messages and very slow email (all since ios11). They lied when they said it slows things down SOME. its a heck of a lot.

This isn’t from the throttling. It was enabled on iPhones 6 and 6s with 10.2.1 and iPhones 7 with iOS 11.2. Your problems stem from something else. You would do well to backup and restore it.

 

[mr.steevo]

"As we told our customers in December, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades."

That's an absolute bald-faced lie: Apple routinely and regularly end-of-lifes perfectly usable Mac models - many of which continue to run (and run PERFECTLY might I add) operating-systems far more recent with "hacked" installers. I have personally done this to so many Macs I won't even both to try for an accurate count (well in excess of 100), from the old white 2006 Intel iMacs and MacBooks that actually ran Mountain Lion with ease, to MacPro 4s that you just have to firmware-update to 5s, to MacBook Pros (Just this week High Sierra went on a MacBook Pro 5,4 and guess what? Yep, it works perfectly).

This does indeed intentionally shorten the life of the products because in relatively short-order other software will abandon the operating systems said hardware "supports" - that's the way the software world works. (I guess you could argue that it's unintentional if Apple's decision-makers are simply too stupid to understand that this is what happens, but in that case they certainly shouldn't be running a technology company.)

Out of interest, what's the highest OS the late 2007 iMac can run and how would I do it?

 

[justperry]

Out of interest, what's the highest OS the late 2007 iMac can run and how would I do it?

Off topic but here you are.

There is no late 2007 iMac

 

[robertcoogan]

Here in Southern California, it was impossible to get an appointment for my iPhone 6s Plus. But I found if you call the Apple support line, they will order the battery for you and then the closest Apple Store will call you when it gets in.

 

[Piggie]

The slow text entry on my iPhone is paiiiiiiiinful. Once the heavy throttling steps it (nearly always on pre iOS 11.3, below 50% battery on iOS 11.3 beta) it’s very difficult to use the phone for texting.

How can it throttle when a user is typing something in for gods sake?

If it was running a 3D game, then sure.
Or running a demanding benchmark, then sure.
Or even some photo manipulation.

But nothing should even break into a sweat, let alone throttle when just doing normal email, web, typing type jobs.

Those are the jobs were cores should be shutting down as there is almost nothing for them to do. Not in a million years, actually throttling.

 

[Creepitor]

.

 

[Act3]

How can it throttle when a user is typing something in for gods sake?

If it was running a 3D game, then sure.
Or running a demanding benchmark, then sure.
Or even some photo manipulation.

But nothing should even break into a sweat, let alone throttle when just doing normal email, web, typing type jobs.

Those are the jobs were cores should be shutting down as there is almost nothing for them to do. Not in a million years, actually throttling.

some phones are throttled all the time if the battery health is low enough

 

[AZ63]

I’d prefer “0% battery really means 0% battery” and “don’t throttle my phone” switch. I accept a device shutting down at 0%, but not at 30%.

Dude, come on, you have to know batteries don't work like a bucket of gas. As batteries age they no longer provide a consistent flow of electricity. A lot goes into the phone guessing how long the battery has left. The number of full cycles and the age of the battery are just two things that will impact battery performance. Not to mention shifts in battery draw that a user suddenly puts on an old battery. I believe a decent industry standard would be to have a new phone come equipped with a battery that would get a user no battery performance hit before 700 full cycle charges or three years which ever comes first. After either of those points are reached a new battery is on the consumer or the consumer lives with the decrease in battery life and possible sudden shutdown syndrome.

 

[aliensporebomb]

I am going to try this AND get free battery. They is no reason I should have 10 second delay on typing text messages and very slow email (all since ios11). They lied when they said it slows things down SOME. its a heck of a lot.

Don't lie. You type at 300 words per second! That's why it's lagging. Smoke comes out of the screen when you type!

 

[mrzz]

I don't understand why it should cover 6 to 7+ range only

I am going to try this AND get free battery. They is no reason I should have 10 second delay on typing text messages and very slow email (all since ios11). They lied when they said it slows things down SOME. its a heck of a lot.

I think they just don't have enough resources to write a proper OS, the same with Macs, MacOS and so on .. because they are just too small .. and furthermore they have to comment on any "actual world issue", so they don't have time to fully focus on their primary goal, make great/stable/thoroughly tested and optimized/etc. products for their customers. But as clearly visible they definitely don't care too much as their holy grail is $ harvesting which seems to be (so far) going well. The whole management should be fired and then we may get great and reasonably priced products again

 

[Classic160]

Classic160 said: ↑
I purchased the 5 new in 2013 and it still has its original batt. I understand a battery has a certain lifespan. But what I do wonder about are the sudden keyboard lagging and power shutdowns that just happened to show up after I took the 10.2.1 upgrade.

Bad luck? Coincidence? I don't know, but I don't think the lagging is due to throttling if Apple is to be believed. I've still got my 5 and it works just fine. In fact, at this point it works better than my 6 Plus. In your case I would seriously look at downloading the 10.3.3 firmware and doing a full system restore using iTunes. That would have the best chance at eliminating all other possibilities other than the battery.

I'm already running 10.3.3 and the lagging/shutdown issues continue. But I will take your advice and do a full system restore in the hopes that it helps. Thanks!

 

[bcave098]

You clearly know nothing about battery technology. The discharge curve of lipo batteries is very well known, and easily measured. They clearly weren’t “estimates” in previous phone models, nor other manufacturers phones.

View attachment 749352

The percentage of charge in a battery is an estimate in all devices.

The curve doesn’t prove anything, unless you only use your device in constant temperatures with constant loads.

(Unless you’re going to tell me temperature doesn’t affect batteries).

 

[Christoffee]

It seems a lot of people don't know this but lithium-ion battery health is not a straight line from 100% to 0%. It's actually a rather aggressive curve. Below about 80% the performance drops severely as to be difficult to use. I believe 80% is basically considered end of life. You should not expect the same performance and only lasting 80% as long. I've put batteries in several iPhones including my own. I don't expect to get more than about 2 years before needing the battery replaced. In fact, with the 3rd party batteries I have put in, I didn't get much over a year before they get unstable.

For sure, and I am sure that different things about the battery's performance suffers; be it life under light or heavy load, recharge times, life at different temperatures and others I cannot imagine. But, Apple told me my battery was healthy. It was not. And iOS knew it was not because it was throttling phone performance based on battery health.

They cannot have it both ways. They cannot tell me to my face my battery is great, and then behind my back throttle my phone based on my battery being too degraded to work properly.

 

[ocnitsa]

And then you woulda whined because the phone didn't have whatever new feature or change because of it.

No I wouldn’t. I’m using a 6S.

 

[jhwalker]

Blaming the consumer for product issues created by a corporation?

I'm an annual upgrader so I never experienced the speed throttling issue. But over the holidays I saw a lot of family and experienced their perspective of the throttling first hand. Its bad. Like, "This phone is unusable. I guess I should buy a new phone bad." And whether it was Apples intention or not, there are a lot of iPhones being sold to people who wouldn't have spent $800 for an upgrade if they knew that the solution to their awful phone experience was a battery pack or a $79 battery replacement.

Its a shame that this battery situation has come to this but the complaints are legitimate.

I guess I've been lucky - I have an iPhone 6 I bought in 2014 that I use every weekday for 8-10 hours a day (work) - usually run it down to 10% or less. I plug it in to charge to 100% every night. It works great, just as speedy as my personal iPhone X (or so close, I can't tell the difference).

Thanks, Apple!

 

[sdf]

“It still doesn’t make toast”

Just wait until the battery gets old enough.

 

[Reksy]

What will all the Apple haters who post on macrumors have to complain about now?

Doesn't run the latest and greatest Android malware.

 

[rockrigo]

11.3 beta 1 disables throttling, haven’t seen people reporting issues with phone turning off early.

another happy 11.3 beta 1 user here, I no longer feel like throwing the phone at something

 

[Glideslope]

I only see more chaos as this grows.
[doublepost=1517438023][/doublepost]

another happy 11.3 beta 1 user here, I no longer feel like throwing the phone at something

How about at someone?

 

[somethingelsefl]

This incessant need to attack everything Apple does without verifiable proof is a bit disconcerting. You literally say "I have a feeling" to support your point but demand "verifiable Proof" for theirs. Hypocrite much?

Doesn't sound like you've own Android device for more than 2 years. Tablets and phones are TERRIBLE at battery life and horrendous if they even manage to get updated after that. I'm speaking from personal experience after owning. HTC and Samsumg Android devices THAT is enough proof for me. Apple's devices are not immune from the same effects without throttling.