Other The $1 Trillion (with a T) lawsuit

[jav6454]

yup, it happened.

http://bgr.com/2017/12/27/iphone-slowdown-class-action-lawsuits-999-billion/amp/

Frankly, both sides have valid arguments.

On one hand Apple deliberately slowed down iPhones without informing users in order to preserve battery life. Something which meant users saw degraded performance and jumped onto the newest one instead of opting for a cheaper battery replacement.

On the other we have battery life cycles and how they work debilitate power delivery to critical components.

 

[Apple_Robert]

There is already an active thread on the subject.

 

[Brandonjr36]

So will Apple have to stop slowing older phones now??

 

[jav6454]

There is already an active thread on the subject.

Yet that thread only deals with separate cases and not this one case which is has already pinged damages. Different angle.

 

[Hieveryone]

There is already an active thread on the subject.

I don't mind another thread tbh. This is a huge issue.

That being said, I think Apple should stop slowing down phones. It's a complicated issue, agreed, but NOT when it comes to throttling my CPU. Leave it alone! When my battery gets bad, I'll just change it.

 

[Thor_1]

That being said, I think Apple should stop slowing down phones. It's a complicated issue, agreed, but NOT when it comes to throttling my CPU. Leave it alone! When my battery gets bad, I'll just change it.

I agree. If this was such a major issue that Apple had to release iOS changes to address it, they should have alerted the consumer. Let it be our choice.

 

[jav6454]

The average Joe doesn’t know about battery life or battery cycles... hell, all they want is something “that just works”.

Giving a technical decision to the masses is recipe for disaster given the complexities surrounding whether or not to make up for lost battery capacity. Something someone in engineering or with a strong computer background (or informed consumer) can easily do. But your average Joe? No.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Actual damages? Nah I’m not buying it. People who upgrade to the latest of the latest don’t because of speed. Well sure some may do but not that many. People upgrade to the latest because they want the latest.

Only in America.

 

[Hieveryone]

The average Joe doesn’t know about battery life or battery cycles... hell, all they want is something “that just works”.

Giving a technical decision to the masses is recipe for disaster given the complexities surrounding whether or not to make up for lost battery capacity. Something someone in engineering or with a strong computer background (or informed consumer) can easily do. But your average Joe? No.

Ummm changing batteries is within the intellectual ability of most electronic consumers, I hope

 

[Hal~9000]

The average Joe doesn’t know about battery life or battery cycles... hell, all they want is something “that just works”.

Giving a technical decision to the masses is recipe for disaster given the complexities surrounding whether or not to make up for lost battery capacity. Something someone in engineering or with a strong computer background (or informed consumer) can easily do. But your average Joe? No.

The average Joe doesn't know about the bluetooth and wifi control center toggles not actually toggling the radios off in iOS 11 either... so what did Apple do? They educated people via pop-up in iOS 11.2 so they understood.

Saying your customers are too stupid to understand things is a lazy excuse for any company, especially Apple, instead of thinking of a better solution or trying to simply educate your customers like Apple could have done on this issue.

The reason they didn't simply include a "battery health / throttling" pop-up (like they did with the control center toggles) is simply because doing so would have costed them a few bucks via customers asking for battery replacements under warranty.

P.S. why the **** hasn't Apple even clarified anything as to WHEN the throttling kicks in? We still have no clue how this throttling virus "feature" works yet. Does it kick in at 90% battery capacity? 80%? 70%? Who knows! The fact that Apple is being secretive about it and only admitted to doing so once caught red-handed tells you everything you need to know...

 

[TokMok3]

Just release a software update with the option for the user to decide. I will be happy with that, and when the time comes, just change the battery.

 

[Thor_1]

P.S. why the **** hasn't Apple even clarified anything as to WHEN the throttling kicks in? We still have no clue how this throttling virus "feature" works yet. Does it kick in at 90% battery capacity? 80%? 70%? Who knows? The fact that Apple is being secretive about it and only admitted to doing so once caught red-handed tells you everything you need to know...

Considering the iPhone 7 now has this "feature" I would say 15 months is all Apple thinks there battery will meet the demands of the phone.

 

[Hal~9000]

Considering the iPhone 7 now has this "feature" I would say 15 months is all Apple thinks there battery will meet the demands of the phone.

It's really a lack of morals on Apple's part to give ZERO real information on the technical aspects of their software throttling and how it works. Where's all your "courage" now Apple, huh?

I mean, just look at the last iPhone keynote and just how much time they devoted to explaining all the technical information of how FaceID works... yet they can't even give anything besides a few vague sentences that don't explain anything as to WHEN their throttling "feature" will begin crippling your devices performance?

Seems shady as hell to me. The lack of transparency on Apples part is telling and I hope they get their butts handed to them in court for it.

 

[Hieveryone]

Bingo.

Why wasn’t there a pop up letting us know we’re throttled?

I didn’t think of that. But I’m sure Apple could’ve thought of it. They’ve got all those engineers working.

@Hal~9000

 

[aristobrat]

P.S. why the **** hasn't Apple even clarified anything as to WHEN the throttling kicks in? We still have no clue how this throttling virus "feature" works yet. Does it kick in at 90% battery capacity? 80%? 70%? Who knows! The fact that Apple is being secretive about it and only admitted to doing so once caught red-handed tells you everything you need to know...

Apple did make a statement on the issue (below).

Remember when the iPhone X launched and there were reports of it shutting down unexpectedly in cold conditions? See what Apple says below about cold conditions? So I'm guessing that even the iPhone X is being throttled now (in cold conditions).

Thing is, Apple states that they only throttle in situations that would cause the iPhone to unexpectedly shutdown.

90% of the forum posts about the issue are bitching that they don't want Apple throttling "to save their battery". Apple said nothing about doing this to save batteries. They said they do it to prevent unexpected shutdowns. That's a point I rarely see mentioned.

@Hieveryone, it sounds like your stance is that once you battery hits the point where it could cause the iPhone to shutdown throughout the day as you use it, that's what you want it to do... Really?

Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.

Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.

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The reason they didn't simply include a "battery health / throttling" pop-up (like they did with the control center toggles) is simply because doing so would have costed them a few bucks via customers asking for battery replacements under warranty.

I don't know if the warranty has changed, but a battery dropping in capacity due to normal usage didn't used to be covered. So your iPhone could only be 9 months old (and within its normal one-year warranty period), but if your battery capacity is 80% because you've put it through 500 charging cycles, that's not a hardware defect that the warranty would normally cover.

 

[Hal~9000]

Apple did make a statement on the issue (below).

Remember when the iPhone X launched and there were reports of it shutting down unexpectedly in cold conditions? See what Apple says below about cold conditions? So I'm guessing that even the iPhone X is being throttled now (in cold conditions).

Thing is, Apple states that they only throttle in situations that would cause the iPhone to unexpectedly shutdown.

90% of the forum posts about the issue are bitching that they don't want Apple throttling to save their battery. Apple said nothing about doing this to save batteries. They said they do it to prevent unexpected shutdowns. That's a point I rarely see mentioned. @Hieveryone, would you rather have your iPhone unexpectedly shutdown throughout the day until you get your battery changed?

That's a very vague cop-out statement by Apple that doesn't give any real technical information as to when the throttling begins or how it works. Is it at 90%? 80%? When? Oh thats right... we don't know. We just have to trust Apple, a company who has shown themselves to lack integrity on this issue by only admitting to it when being caught red-handed by users, that they are looking out for our best interest when there is possibly a profit motive behind all this for them.

This situation stinks thanks to Apple. They should be better than the "statement" given above.

 

[aristobrat]

This situation stinks thanks to Apple. They should be better than the "statement" given above.

I agree with you 100% on those two points.

At this point, I'd imagine they're preparing a media event where they do explain everything (with a huge-ass presentation), like Steve Jobs did with the iPhone 4 antenna issue. And until then, they probably aren't going to say anything...

 

[Hal~9000]

I agree with you 100% on those two points.

At this point, I'd imagine they're preparing a media event where they do explain everything (with a huge-ass presentation), like Steve Jobs did with the iPhone 4 antenna issue. And until then, they probably aren't going to say anything...

I sure hope so, it would be a great idea for damage control, but personally I doubt they will.

So far their actions have shown to me that they would rather try and sweep this issue under the rug and hoping it goes away... rather than doing the right thing and being transparent.

This whole issue could have been avoided by Apple simply having a pop-up (like they did to explain the control center toggles in iOS 11.2) explaining to customers that their battery has degraded to the point where shutdowns may occur, and how in the settings customers can either turn on the throttling OPTION or pay for a battery replacement.

 

[ZipZap]

The average Joe doesn’t know about battery life or battery cycles... hell, all they want is something “that just works”.

Giving a technical decision to the masses is recipe for disaster given the complexities surrounding whether or not to make up for lost battery capacity. Something someone in engineering or with a strong computer background (or informed consumer) can easily do. But your average Joe? No.

I think this is about a software fix to prevent the phone from catching fire. That is a serious issue. Slowing down a phone after the fact and saying nothing to the consumer is mistake number 2. The masses should have been given the option of an exchange.

 

[C DM]

I don't mind another thread tbh. This is a huge issue.

That being said, I think Apple should stop slowing down phones. It's a complicated issue, agreed, but NOT when it comes to throttling my CPU. Leave it alone! When my battery gets bad, I'll just change it.

What's the usefulness of the same thing being repeated over and over in thread after thread?

 

[Hal~9000]

What's the usefulness of the same thing being repeated over and over in thread after thread?

Increased customer awareness & backlash until Apple fixes this obvious screw-up.

Don't like hearing about it? Click the other thousands of threads in the forum...

 

[C DM]

Increased customer awareness & backlash until Apple fixes this obvious screw-up.

Don't like hearing about it? Click the other thousands of threads in the forum...

Repeated threads about the same thing don't do that. Since anyone who has made it to fouls like this one certainly can't miss any of that and more than likely already know that without new threads about the same things appearing.

And it's getting harder to find threads about something else when new threads relating the same discussions keep on popping up and various existing ones getting taken down the same path. It's not about not liking to hear about it, it's about not needing to hear the same thing over and over in new threads when existing discussions about those things are already happening and then the same discussions end up happening over again without anything new surfacing and mostly between the same people without much of anything useful.

 

[jav6454]

The average Joe doesn't know about the bluetooth and wifi control center

[...]

secretive about it and only admitted to doing so once caught red-handed tells you everything you need to know...

I’m going to go ahead and say the following:

Bluetooth and WiFi are different. How so? It’s either on or off, or rather now it doesn’t connect for 24hrs or it does. Nothing technical there. Like a light switch.

In this case, choose whether to throttle or not your CPU due to battery wear and tear is different. What if your battery is already within a 1.5 year age at which it only retains 60% of the original charge? How would a user know that 60% is a good number to start using throttling? By reading guides? No. Most people, again not all, will not read up on guides regarding batteries.

Hell, many customers do not even read the manuals of their devices. Point being many tips and tricks threads here that post the exact same information found in either the iPhone pamphlet that came in the box or the Tips App in the iPhone/iPad.

Steve knew this, and that is why he obsessed with Apple having control of everything and leaving OS controls out of the user’s hands. Point being the new way of closing apps when multitasking was introduced. Before, when other mobile OSes had to close an app, you had to close the app and services related to it. But careful if you closed the wrong process! You might make your OS unstable. This is just an example.

Batteries are complex, and having throttling of CPUs to alíviate any potential charge issues is welcomed. However, being shady as f**k about it is not ok. You tell your customer why you are doing his and how to resolve it. Like I said earlier. I’m sure many would have gladly paid $79 for a new battery instead of a new iPhone. However, that hurts the bottom line now does it?
[doublepost=1514438682][/doublepost]

Repeated threads about the same thing don't do that. Since anyone who has made it to fouls like this one certainly can't miss any of that and more than likely already know that without new threads about the same things appearing.

And it's getting harder to find threads about something else when new threads relating the same discussions keep on popping up and various existing ones getting taken down the same path. It's not about not liking to hear about it, it's about not needing to hear the same thing over and over in new threads when existing discussions about those things are already happening and then the same discussions end up happening over again without anything new surfacing and mostly between the same people without much of anything useful.

Bear in mind, this is not about the original lawsuits filed in MR’s original report. But rather a new class action that seeks $1 Trillion for all plaintiffs.

 

[44267547]

changing batteries is within the intellectual ability of most electronic consumers

No, it's not. Unless it's a removable battery that can be changed, how many iPhone owners do you know actually have the knowledge to physically change a battery themselves or even care to attempt it? In all likeliness, they would rely on Apple or a third party repair store to change the battery. Consumers don't even have the appropriate pentalobe screwdriver to disassemble the screws from the chassis.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

What's the usefulness of the same thing being repeated over and over in thread after thread?

Then they can pretend it is a really big issue with hundreds of unique threads and posts
[doublepost=1514443859][/doublepost]

No, it's not. Unless it's a removable battery that can be changed, how many iPhone owners do you know actually have the knowledge to physically change a battery themselves or even care to attempt it? In all likeliness, they would rely on Apple or a third party repair store to change the battery. Consumers don't even have the appropriate pentalobe screwdriver to disassemble the screws from the chassis.

Absolutely! I’d hate it if those upset by this get to force the reintroduction of user changeable batteries.