Apple admits to intentionally gimping older phones.

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I am a sinner.
Sep 11, 2013
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Apple has finally admitted what we've all thought, they intentionally gimp phones a year, or more, old, because of 'battery degradation.' Even if the battery isn't bad enough for Apple to enact a repair on it, they still gimp phones intentionally. This is going to be a major s*** storm.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/20/a...ones-with-older-batteries-are-running-slower/

Because of a Reddit post and the loose interpretation of subsequent benchmark testsposted by Primate Labs’ John Poole, the “Apple throttles old iPhones” meme has reared its ugly head again.

The gist, as it always is, is that Apple is being super petty and trying to force customers to upgrade their phones by making their old phones run slower.

As always, the answer is no. It would be beyond stupid and incredibly short-sighted for Apple to do this and, if it was actually true, would likely lead to tangles of a governmental and legal nature that no company like Apple would ever want to happen.

Instead, Apple is focusing attention on smoothing out the very high and quick peaks of power draw that can cause problems with older batteries.

Here’s a statement that Apple provided when I inquired about the power profile that people were seeing when testing iPhones with older batteries:

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.

The short-form version of what Poole’s benchmarks are showing is the result of a power curve-smoothing algorithm that Apple rolled out last year to mitigate iPhone shutdown issues. I wrote about it here; you can read that and come back.

Basically, iPhones were hitting peaks of processor power that the battery was unable to power and the phones were shutting off. Apple then added power management to all iPhones at the time that would “smooth out” those peaks by either capping the power available from the battery or by spreading power requests over several cycles.​
 
It amazes me that people still love Apple. They seemingly can do no wrong in people's eyes.
 
I thought it was weird about a month after I paid off our two phones (back in Oct) the phones started acting up. We have never had a problem with them before that.
 
lol at the excuses. So what I'm seeing from most Apple people is that this is a good thing, because it helps people get more out of their failing battery. OR! Now hear me out. Let the damn user decide? You know on Android where you can set battery saver mode by yourself? Yea that's great. I've had phones with failing batteries. I left it full power and recharged mid day if needed, or if I knew I was going to be away from being able to do that for a while I'd turn on battery saver. lol at considering a forced gimped mode a feature. EXCLUSIVE APPLE FEATURES! SO BRAVE!
 
I've thought about moving back to Apple when my contract allows it. Welp, not anymore.
 
lol at the excuses. So what I'm seeing from most Apple people is that this is a good thing, because it helps people get more out of their failing battery. OR! Now hear me out. Let the damn user decide? You know on Android where you can set battery saver mode by yourself? Yea that's great. I've had phones with failing batteries. I left it full power and recharged mid day if needed, or if I knew I was going to be away from being able to do that for a while I'd turn on battery saver. lol at considering a forced gimped mode a feature. EXCLUSIVE APPLE FEATURES! SO BRAVE!
I have an iMac 5k, Macbook Pro Retina, iPhone since 3g, iPad Pro since, Apple Watch, and there is no defense for this. Apple is intentionally putting in poor batteries in order to support planned obsolescence. If this happened two years down the road, I can see a bit of Apple's thinking. Even then, I would cast an eye. Battery degradation so bad that it takes software gimping to make it usable, after only two years, is s***. This is literally happening to phones a year old.
 
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I've thought about moving back to Apple when my contract allows it. Welp, not anymore.
I'm so deeply intwined in Apple's ecosystem, I have no problems with that, that changing at this point is nearly impossible. If it was like Blu rays, and I could use apps I have on iOS on Android, without paying again, I would consider it. As far as a computer platform goes, OSX for life. It's the only platform for digital artists.
 
I have an iMac 5k, Macbook Pro Retina, iPhone since 3g, iPad Pro since, Apple Watch, and there is no defense for this. Apple is intentionally putting in poor batteries in order to support planned obsolescence. If this happened two years down the road, I can see a bit of Apple's thinking. Even then, I would cast an eye. Battery degradation so bad that it takes software gimping to make it usable, after only two years, is s***. This is literally happening to phones a year old.
The difference here is you aren't defending them. I work at a company that is yuge Apple fanboys. No surprise to see the boss post a defense of this (I paraphrased his post as my comment). While I wouldn't personally buy an Apple mainly due to price, I do love my work provided MBP. Don't care much for the iOS but Mac OS is great. If gaming support equalled Windows and you could install Mac OS directly on a PC without hoops to jump through I would strongly consider it.
 
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I'm so deeply intwined in Apple's ecosystem, I have no problems with that, that changing at this point is nearly impossible. If it was like Blu rays, and I could use apps I have on iOS on Android, without paying again, I would consider it. As far as a computer platform goes, OSX for life. It's the only platform for digital artists.
I wanna be a digital artist. I'm sick of pencil and paper and s***.
 
This is why I buy $100 android phones that are basically throw aways. iPhones are so expensive, but never seem to last either. I'm sure iPhones do way more stuff than my cheap phone but I ran run what I need and if I need to replace it after a year, oh well.
 
This is why I buy $100 android phones that are basically throw aways. iPhones are so expensive, but never seem to last either. I'm sure iPhones do way more stuff than my cheap phone but I ran run what I need and if I need to replace it after a year, oh well.
I do a lot on my phone, the forums, personal stuff, business stuff (billing, quoting, supplies, etc.). Toss-aways are not possible for me.
 
Everything important to me digitally is on my home PC, with multiple backup drives.

My phones have removable battery and microSD storage.

Where to go next?

I appreciate the Apple software, it's the best really, but I never allowed myself to go there because....this.

All my stuff is right there on hard drives that are all emulated and I can move it around to whatever device I need to. I have hard drives not hooked up that have the majority of my music on there if ever I need to go that way.

What will happen to Apple because of this? Nothing I'm sure.
 
Someone should quickly patent making your own products run like arse after a certain amount of uses!

Wait... You mean the lightbulb and printer companies beat me to it? f***!