iOS 17.1 Will Fix iPhone 12 Radiation Levels in France

[macduke]

Sounds like a French regulator was trying to find a way to short Apple stock because this is a non-story. They should be ashamed. Apple does actual bad things that they should actually be concerned with instead of trying to test a three year old device looking for problems where there are none. When it comes to device safety, device security, and device privacy, I trust Apple fully. When it comes to being anti-competitive, or Apple responding to device faults which necessitate recalls, I do not trust Apple.

 

[thegerman]

What’s the cheap battery and micro issue? Never heard of it

Okey you heard of the yellow tint . Good. Look at apples repair-programm. Proof. First 5G iPhone with smaller battery than 11. 5G takes more battery = bad battery life. Which means more charging cycles = battery health going down.

 

[JosephAW]

Welcome to iOS 16.7.x forever iPhone 12 users.

 

[Makosuke]

That's what they told us about Roundup too. Let people form their own opinions rather than forcing something on them. Perhaps Apple could create a "low radiation" setting and let customers decide what is safe for them. People have different levels of sensitivity and resilience.

Apple could in theory offer a "bad reception" switch for people who are exceptionally risk-averse and/or distrusting of scientific evidence (even if that evidence is accepted by literally every country on earth, which Roundup is not).

But that would have absolutely nothing to do with people's level of sensitivity and resilience. People have varying levels of sensitivity to peanut compounds, volatile organics in perfumes, and H2 blockers. People have varying levels of resilience from a flu infection, muscle strain, and the side effects of alcohol. All of those things are easily measurable, both subjectively and objectively.

Tissue response to low levels of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation is not going to vary substantially across the human population, and even if it did the "resilience" to it would be utterly impossible to measure in any meaningful way outside of exposure to blatantly hazardous levels.

The point, however, is that regardless of what nation you live in--from the most strictly regulated to the most lax--none of them have a problem with the level of radiation cell phones put out, and those devices are carried daily by roughly three quarters of the planet's population. So there's essentially no point in offering a "make phone worse" switch to appease a tiny, unusually paranoid fraction of the population, when those people wouldn't actually be satisfied by that solution anyway.

 

[Belisama]

In 1986, French officials told us (I was in France) that the radioactive cloud released by the Chernobyl reactor stopped at the German border. France was safe.
Later, they transfused people with HIV-infected blood because testing all blood bags was way too expensive.
Later, I was studying in buildings insulated with asbestos. In downtown Paris... It was literally raining asbestos flakes in labs. But France knows...
My schoolbus driver was a drunkard. Everybody knew. An elementary school teacher was a retired member of the legion who was hanging turbulent kids over the school balcony to "calm" them.
Officials were also heavily promoting diesel cars until a few years ago, and were unable to provide decent masks to french civilians in 2020. Currently, France has about 50 incontinent nuclear reactors. You want more ?

So... when I read all their malarkey about the presumably dangerous iPhone 12, I just want to cry. Seriously, I want to cry. I know too much to laugh.
They need much more than a iOS update.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

I doubt it will work on the iPhone 12 unless it's iPhoneOS 17.1.

 

[teh_hunterer]

And the rest of the world? Will theirs get fixed as well, or will their phones still emit the radiation?

And will you read the article before commenting?

 

[klasma]

Will it do this if I take a US-bought phone to France? Or is this only for devices made for sale in France?

And how about France's overseas territories?

 

[teh_hunterer]

What is with these terrible headlines on MacRumors lately? Apple isn't fixing radiation levels - radiation levels weren't broken. There were many headlines about the "overheating issue" despite there not actually being an issue with iPhones overheating.

 

[MNGR]

Apple is not claiming that France's regulators made an error with their radiation testing: the test performed correctly detected that the SAR limits are exceeded in the scenario of having the device on a solid surface.

While Apple argues that international standards allow for increased SAR limits in that particular scenario, France is not required to adopt those increased limits.

But the French insisted that the phone didn’t meet international standards. And they are wrong

 

[Rented Parsley]

Why would transmit power need to be high when off body or in a pocket? I don’t put my phone in my pocket or hold it to my face when calling. If transmit power is dynamic, wouldn’t it just adjust depending on signal strength?

The short answer is they do this. Mobile phones by design will regulate how much power is pushed out to the antenna to be as energy efficient as possible while maintaining a good connection to the cell tower. This is opposed to a walkie talkie that generally transmits at max power regardless of where the receiver unit is located.

But signal for data can also be enhanced to increase throughput. So if someone is making a speakerphone call or using a phone as a hot spot, it would be useful to increase power to the antenna.

 

[Rented Parsley]

Apple could in theory offer a "bad reception" switch for people who are exceptionally risk-averse and/or distrusting of scientific evidence (even if that evidence is accepted by literally every country on earth, which Roundup is not).

But that would have absolutely nothing to do with people's level of sensitivity and resilience. People have varying levels of sensitivity to peanut compounds, volatile organics in perfumes, and H2 blockers. People have varying levels of resilience from a flu infection, muscle strain, and the side effects of alcohol. All of those things are easily measurable, both subjectively and objectively.

Tissue response to low levels of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation is not going to vary substantially across the human population, and even if it did the "resilience" to it would be utterly impossible to measure in any meaningful way outside of exposure to blatantly hazardous levels.

The point, however, is that regardless of what nation you live in--from the most strictly regulated to the most lax--none of them have a problem with the level of radiation cell phones put out, and those devices are carried daily by roughly three quarters of the planet's population. So there's essentially no point in offering a "make phone worse" switch to appease a tiny, unusually paranoid fraction of the population, when those people wouldn't actually be satisfied by that solution anyway.

I don’t disagree with everything you said but there are enforced limits for cellphone emitted power density. So every country that has a regulatory body does care about health and safety limits. This is appropriate and implemented essentially everywhere.

 

[lkrupp]

This forum, like many, is chocked full of disinformation. misinformation, conspiracy theories, and plain old FUD. It’s hard to believe some individuals don't know the difference between nuclear radiation and plain old radio waves (electromagnetic radiation). The two couldn’t be further apart in their makeup and effects on the human body. For years the pseudoscience and conspiracy theory crowd has been trying to tie cellphone use to brain cancer. Actual science has shown no such relationship at all.

 

[Tubamajuba]

It makes sense to me. Feels like many of you didn’t actually read the article…

Lots of trolls here just read the headline and make a snarky comment. They don't actually want to discuss anything, they just want to say negative things about Apple regardless of whether it's true or not.

 

[Mrjoedot]

honestly impressive that software can fix issues from hardware.

 

[svish]

Though Apple may say it is safe, not happy with the situation. The software limiting the maximum radiation emitted should be made available worldwide.

 

[MyPhone99]

is this issue to all iphone 12 models or just for non pro 12 models?

 

[one more]

Two questions then:

1) If all iPhones have this radiation control mechanism, will not the French agency now want to go after all of them?

2) Why is iPhone 12 mini also included in the cover image, since the French had an issue with iPhone 12 only?

 

[Candlelight]

They’ve added a new line of code which reads “nuclearReactorOutput=Low”.

 

[Makosuke]

I don’t disagree with everything you said but there are enforced limits for cellphone emitted power density. So every country that has a regulatory body does care about health and safety limits. This is appropriate and implemented essentially everywhere.

That was my exact point, and at least what I intended to say, though perhaps it wasn’t clear.

The effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation on human tissue are consistent and measurable, and the level that modern cell phones put out has been deemed safe by, to the best of my knowledge, all countries that regulate such things at all.

My point was not that there’s no unsafe level of radiation--there certainly is--or that consumer health and safety regulation is bad--it’s certainly not--but that the scientific and medical consensus on what the safe level is is so universally accepted that there isn’t a single national regulatory body in the world that disagrees with it.

That alone is a pretty impressive feat, and it’s comforting to know that even if my own country has a lax consumer health and safety regulations (or none at all), the phone I’m using passes the bar for even the places with the most stringent requirements.

(My other point was that, even if Apple allowed the user to manually turn down the radiation output, the only people who would use the feature are those who wouldn’t be satisfied by that adjustment anyway, and in all likelihood would claim it as “evidence” that the standard level isn’t actually safe.)

 

[jonnysods]

Testicles around France rejoiced at this news.

 

[The Oak]

honestly impressive that software can fix issues from hardware.

The hardware is capable of different transmit power levels based on if being held or elsewhere. I would think the software would tell the hardware accordingly if it is being held for example. All they need to do is to have the software set to always be in hand held mode and hence the hardware will always transmit at the appropriate levels.

It is possible however too that the software can tell the hardware what powers to transmit at. Again, instead of being dynamic, the software can just be set to always transmit at its power level appropriate for when it is held.

 

[CarAnalogy]

It makes sense to me. Feels like many of you didn’t actually read the article…

This also further confirms the advice to set the phone down in a good coverage area and walk away from it using AirPods or the like when making a phone call. Apparently it really does improve the signal quality. And also is apparently just a tiny, tiny bit safer.

I mean there is still a lot of Bluetooth radiation going directly into your skull but I assume that’s even lower power. Wonder if France has considered that.

 

[Tagbert]

Unfortunately it may take decades of exposure to low levels and very large high quality studies to answer that question.
Those studies don't exist. Is there strong evidence of carcinogenicity from non-ionizing radiation? No. Have some studies suggested possible harm? Yes. Has it been proven that there is no harm? No.

So… basically all of the studies and data for the past 3 decades or so are just a lot of noise that doesn’t point to any particular problem with normal levels of non-ionizing radiation in radio frequencies.

 

[Tagbert]

Why would transmit power need to be high when off body or in a pocket? I don’t put my phone in my pocket or hold it to my face when calling. If transmit power is dynamic, wouldn’t it just adjust depending on signal strength?

It does adjust based on signal strength. The phone limits maximum power when near your body to avoid exceeding regulatory limits on the strength of RF signals near your body. The limits when not near your body are higher and the phone can boost the poser more when the signal strength is low. A lot of people use their phones for things other than phone calls and while the phone is sitting on a table or stand or such.