macOS Sierra 10.12.2 Removes 'Time Remaining' Battery Life Indicator

[actinide]

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Consider this a "re-tweet" of your post. It was too good not to share again!
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I literally lol'd when I saw this. I can't believe Apple is taking this route.

Windows OS is designed to work on for laptops/desktops/tablets with different types of configurations (AMD, INTEL, NVIDIA, GIGABYTE, SAMSUNG, ASUS, CREATIVE, SEAGATE, HP, MEDION, DELL, and the list goes on). It shouldn't be a surprise that the OS is not totally bug free, or unstable. With Windows 10 they have set up the bar pretty high, as it is considered the most stable windows operating system. Microsoft is leveling up with Apple.
Apple, who has to deal with a handful of configurations, is not able to keep the OS bugfree. We keep having the same issues at launch of an apple product, whether its hardware or software. What's up with that?
Are they heading the same route as PC vendors / Microsoft (with vista or windows 8), I doubt that, but their arrogance does repel hardcore professionals (many 2D and 3D designers, not generalizing) and other consumers away towards Google and Microsoft based devices.

For most people it is about making compromises. I for one, and many others (again not generalizing, but designers as myself) consider windows based laptops (see convertibles) as a great substitute. It takes courage to leave the apples' ecosystem.

 

[Spectrum]

Wrong analogy.

The fuel indicator is the battery percentage, while the estimated time remaining is like the Range - which is useless most of the time. What if you were going up hill for the rest of the trip?

The range will recalculate and reduce - just as I would expect it to. I really cannot understand the logic for removing this useful feature other than most people that are defending the move must be really dim.

 

[Bacillus]

Order by Phil Schiller:
The % indicator will be replaced by the emoji id #33757 "Ostrich burying Head in Sand"
(update Touchbar drivers)

 

[JasonH42]

Shocking, it was useful regardless of accuracy

 

[Spectrum]

i can definitely reach 10 hours with my machine.
Just can't do it actually using it for anything useful to me, and with the brightness past 60%.

Well, it's not that simple.

While cars are one of the closest analogies, like all analogies, it's not perfect. I think the variables are different, and for the most part observable and understandable on vehicles. If a range says I have 200 miles left on a tank of gas, but I sit in bad traffic for an hour with the AC blasting, I'm going to get a hit on my gas rating but I'm going to know I got stuck in bad accident on the freeway.

If you've ever had a car that has this range, or even gives your current MPG, you know you can play games with the readings. Whoo! I'm going downhill, I'm getting infinity MPH!" Or, I Just slammed on the gas and I'm getting 10MPG."

Now, there is something with Sierra on battery life. Read through my post history and you'll see me complaining about it. But even on El Cap, I've never truly trusted the "time remaining" gauge. In both directions. I've had it last less than the time showed, more than the time shown, and I've had it charge in well under the estimated time. Even on El Cap, I spent more time analyzing the time remaining than I should, when I don't really care it's not on my iPad.

There are more apps and processes running on my laptop than on my car. I know, I know, cars are all computers but I can't download an app onto my car's fuel injection system, and it doesn't get updates (unless I bring it in for service).

The battery life gauge is like the MPG reading when you're coasting downhill or slam on the gas. For giggles, on El Cap I pulled the plug on my Air while I'm typing this (it's idle. I'm typing on this on another computer). In the 3 minutes I've been working on this, I've gone from 7:31 remaining to 7:48. And that's idle with Safari running in the background. Refocusing back to Safari brought me to 7:38 remaining. I just opened up Word and went to 7:28. Kicking off an Office 2016 update I'm now showing 6:38 remaining.

The only measurement that's mattered is "I did these typical tasks and my battery lasted x hours." I've always seen how long it drained down to 75% (assuming I'm not playing a graphics game) and based my battery life on that.

But what you are describing: the change in estimate, is useful. It means that some activities use up more gas than others and as a result you have less range. Why is this misleading? It's actually really useful!

 

[mschmalenbach]

I would like Apple to remove the estimate of download times too. I'm downloading the OS update, and estimated time is swinging wildly between 27 minutes and 4 days. I suspect the closer estimate is "sometime"...

 

[aknabi]

So by hiding the time remaining we will now get 10 hours of battery life? They're not trying to cover up a problem, right?

Indeed... maybe they should hide the percentage as well... have a maxed out 15 nMBP and simply had Safari with Netflix... watched two Downton Abbeys (brightness at 85-90%) for approx 2 hours and battery was at 52% when done... When running Xcode with a medium sized app (but not doing full builds/archives) the percentage gauge is like a stopwatch... around 2 hours... not a killer for me as I'm near AC, but I paid 5000Eur for this machine (with VAT)...

At this point anyone that goes "yeah if you don't like Apple, buy one of those other low-cost machines with their 4-5 hour battery life" needs a upside the head smack... I'd be smiling now with 4-5 hours... but still feel screwed about what I paid for it.

If it wasn't for Xcode I'd switch... was going to buy a 12" MB for the girlfriend, but ended up with a Miix 700 for half the price... it's a much more versatile and great machine than my 12" MB (yes I have almost every piece of Apple gear made... do love my trash can though). If I can hackintosh the Miix may become my new cafe machine.

 

[47phones]

Mine is still there after the update?
Did I do anything wrong? :-D

But still.. congratulations apple.. you solved the battery issues on MBP TB - finally! :-D
</irony off>

 

[iFoure]

Apple goes to the beach
Apple digs a hole in the sand
Apple makes a turd in the hole
Apple covers the turd with sand

Apple thinks that the turd stops existing when no one can see it

but the turd IS STILL THERE!

Apple, your underlying problem is not fixed by removing the time indicator. Don't be stupid. Ditching the "Time remaining" doesn't give more usage hours to those who are complaining. It just pisses them off more. Be a good company and REALLY fix the problem.

 

[jetho]

I'm not really understanding all the hate in the comments (not that I'm surprised, tough). If anyone has actually observed the calculated estimations of the battery life over the course of a charge, one would have definitely noticed how inaccurate they are. Depending on your task the value changes every few minutes by high amounts of time (CPU clock speeds change vastly during usage). Anyone who seriously relied on these estimations would have run into problems, no doubt.

I find the remaining percentage a far better indicator of battery life. I therefore don't think Apple's move to remove the estimation is bad or misleading, tough their timing to do that could have definitely been better. However, I hope they'll come up wit a better way of estimating battery life in the future.

 

[leman]

Apple, your underlying problem is not fixed by removing the time indicator. Don't be stupid. Ditching the "Time remaining" doesn't give more usage hours to those who are complaining. It just pisses them off more. Be a good company and REALLY fix the problem.

You mean like this guy: #1530? Or this guy: #1? Don't get me wrong, there is no doubt that some people are having legitimate battery issues, but there is also a scary amount of people who conclude that their battery is subpar just from looking at the estimator.

BTW, in regards to 'fixing': I have already seen a number of reports on the forums that the new 10.2.2 fixes some of the battery complains.

 

[dilbert99]

People have been bitching about battery life since the dawn of time...in my years of Apple support, i've always been able to find a process or app that is the culprit. But it is much easier to blame someone else

What, you mean Apple for not showing what App is running away with the battery? What you mean they have that now? So we are using it wrong.
Ah so we get exceptional battery life as long as we launch hypermileing apps?

 

[Virinprew]

Just like iPhone 4's antennagate. They made the signal bar taller. Really Apple?

 

[dilbert99]

Windows 10 is terrible right? I don't have a choice, do I?

I switched to windows (dell XPS) the other week after my 2012 rMBP died. Not sure what the supposed issues are with windows 10?

The main thing I have seen so far is crashplan not supporting HIDPI monitors so the text overlaps.

 

[dadiy]

Surely there's a plist file somewhere with a setting to turn it back on?

 

[c3pa]

will there be a 3rd party addon in the mac store?
I see a market for this - if apple allowed it.

No addon in the mac store, but a dongle is on the pipeline.

Only $ 79.99 + free shipping.

 

[dilbert99]

pros don't need estimates, they calculate their battery life by hand on a piece of paper

And when they need extra storage/ram its just as well they know how to write if they don't know how to solder
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No addon in the mac store, but a dongle is on the pipeline.

Only $ 79.99 + free shipping.

You're cracking me up

 

[esk]

This is so hilarious. I can't believe that's the actual apple way of improving their battery.

 

[MACRM32]

Wow! I thought we were trying not promote fake news. /s

Windows figured this out years ago. Is it really that complicated? LMAO

Isn't this like putting a piece of tape over your check engine light?

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of my Windows 10 showing estimated time remaining.

 

[dilbert99]

I was serious. I sat the machine down, and set it not to sleep. With the brightness at about 50%, it lasted 15 hours before it shut down. The estimated life never showed more than 6-7 hours. It's the estimate that's inaccurate.

were you using it or was it just sitting there?

 

[Tunster]

I'm not really understanding all the hate in the comments (not that I'm surprised, tough). If anyone has actually observed the calculated estimations of the battery life over the course of a charge, one would have definitely noticed how inaccurate they are. Depending on your task the value changes every few minutes by high amounts of time (CPU clock speeds change vastly during usage). Anyone who seriously relied on these estimations would have run into problems, no doubt.

I find the remaining percentage a far better indicator of battery life. I therefore don't think Apple's move to remove the estimation is bad or misleading, tough their timing to do that could have definitely been better. However, I hope they'll come up wit a better way of estimating battery life in the future.

You've just twisted your own argument against the complaints. The time remaining WAS useful if something CPU intensive kicked off. It's better to see that as it alerts you to a possible dead battery in an hour because of a locked background progress rather than the silent percentage counter which gives no obvious indication. I don't think anyone used it for pure accuracy.

It's pretty obvious what Apple's intentions are. Especially during a minor release of an OS. I'd like a time remaining on the top bar of my iOS device. Will they give me that option? Probably never. At least until battery tech goes to the next level.

 

[NobodyOwens]

So by hiding the time remaining we will now get 10 hours of battery life? They're not trying to cover up a problem, right?

I guess Apple's claim of 10 hours was measured in porn hours, the way some performers in the porn industry measure their appendages in prono inches.

 

[jetho]

The time remaining WAS useful if something CPU intensive kicked off. It's better to see that as it alerts you to a possible dead battery in an hour because of a locked background progress rather than the silent percentage counter which gives no obvious indication. I don't think anyone used it for pure accuracy.

How does it alert you exactly? You get an alert when you're at 5% remaining (or something similar). If you want to spot some CPU intensive tasks, you specifically have to look at the estimation. When doing that, you automatically see the "Apps that consume excessive amounts of energy" list (not sure what the actual English translation is). So, I don't see any relevant information taken away from you in your example.

 

[atm1991]

will there be a 3rd party addon in the mac store?
I see a market for this - if apple allowed it.

Sorry can't be bothered to read through all the replies but in case someone hasn't already suggested it, iStat Menus will restore this functionality Apple have now decided to pull in their infinite wisdom. I don't work for them but I did used to work for Apple and cannot believe the rate at which they are capitulating.

 

[vinsalducci]

Apple’s MacBook battery time remaining estimate can still be found hidden in Activity Monitor.

"Hidden"

Right where it has been all along.