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Apple has been accused of slowing down old iPhones by tying performance to battery condition. This could cause some users to upgrade to a newer model rather than get the battery replaced:
Apple may be slowing down older iPhones in order to counteract problems with decreased battery capacity, according to Primate Labs founder John Poole. The news could add fuel to the conversation around planned obsolescence—the idea that tech companies purposely slow down older devices to encourage users to buy new models. Claims of planned obsolescence have hit almost all the big firms, and have reached the status of a major conspiracy theory in many tech circles.
In a recent blog post, Poole, whose company created the Geekbench benchmarking system, set out to detail the data behind a particular Reddit post claiming that Apple was slowing down iPhones with low-capacity batteries. The user was getting lower-than-expected scores on Geekbench, which improved after they replaced the battery in their iPhone 6S.
[...] Of course, part of the battery issues have to do with the changes that came with iOS 10.2.1, Poole wrote. Apple introduced the update to combat a bug causing the sudden shutdown of iPhone 6 and 6S models. "I believe (as do others) that Apple introduced a change to limit performance when battery condition decreases past a certain point," Poole wrote in the post.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @07:54PM (10 children)
When the battery degrades, just leave the phone plugged in to the wall all day, like a landline.
Or, you know, the phone could, like, slow down, to conserve battery, dude, bro, like, whoa.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @07:56PM (5 children)
FUCK APPLE FUCK APPLE FUCK FUCK APPLE
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @07:58PM (4 children)
Fuck ... Apple.
Posted from my iPhone
(Score: 2) by unauthorized on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:16PM (3 children)
You have that backwards mate. It's not you who fucks Apple, it's Apple who fucks you!
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 19 2017, @09:15PM (1 child)
In Soviet Russia . . .
(Score: 2) by unauthorized on Tuesday December 19 2017, @09:56PM
In Capitalist America, Apple fucks you. In Soviet Russia, iPhone posts YOU!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 19 2017, @11:22PM
Apple... fuck!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:05PM
If Apple were truly innovative, their batteries would explode even better than the Samsung Note 7. Thus the battery would never have a shorter battery life and the issue is moot.
Apple fanboys would applaud a suggestion to leave their phone plugged in to electrical power all day -- if it came from Apple. They would cheer and applaud. And call it "courage", like removing the industry standard headphone jack.
Why make the phone slow down to conserve battery? If the battery life gets shorter and shorter, this will prompt the owner to either (1) get the battery replaced, or (2) buy a new phone. Ahh, but I see the brilliant move now. Slowing down the phone would prompt the user to get a new phone -- but not to have the battery replaced.
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday December 19 2017, @09:04PM
If you had to make a picture of Apple Computing in the new millennium, I'd put a guy listening to music on an iphone plugged to the wall, using the airpods.
In the 80s it would be a guy next to an open apple ][ meddling with an add-on card.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday December 19 2017, @09:33PM
Samsung Galaxy S3 is a beautiful alternative. Mine has given me many years of service! Although my CIA guy told me it doesn't work in Israel or the Middle East. Because their cyber is different.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday December 20 2017, @04:39PM
My Android phone has special power saving modes, but they don't hide the settings from me and it doesn't automaticcaly and invisibly activate itself. First off, people might want to enable to power saving feature for other reasons, like if the battery is low and they aren't near a charger. If you're implementing the feature, it makes sense to provide access to it. Secondly, it's nice to know what the hell is going on, instead of just degrading the users' experience without explanation. And keeping the power saving mode on even when plugged in or with power saving settings explicitly disabled is just inexplicable.
Having a power saving mode is smart. Implementing it the way Apple did is just being an asshole.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:02PM (2 children)
So you could just flash a warning once a day, or maybe whenever you plug/unplug it from power; "This device's battery no longer meets the recommended minimum quality for optimal performance. We recommend replacing the battery to get the most out of your Apple device. Click here to see a few suggestions on how to arrange this quickly, or click here to disable this warning forever."
It's such a simple thing they could do, and still gain sales and keep users, I doubt they intentionally did this to obsolete the old devices. I think it's a little paranoid to assume they did.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:08PM (1 child)
Why prompt the user to get the battery replaced when you can prompt them to buying a new phone?
If Apple wanted users replacing batteries, they would have made the battery easily replaceable. Like other phones. (or explode like Samsung.)
Replacing the battery doesn't lead to new phone sails.
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:47PM
*Must ... Resist ... *
At the rate the phone are growing, you can surely plan to use them as Sails by the end of the decade !
*shame, shame shame*
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:08PM (3 children)
After suffering "the slows" on a few well used ThinkPad XP laptops, I've often wondered if IBM/Lenovo and/or MS had some planned obsolescence built in. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to appear in diagnostics I've tried and it doesn't go away even with a complete re-install of the OS (from the hidden partition). Eventually the machine gets so slow that it has to be retired.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by etherscythe on Tuesday December 19 2017, @10:01PM
Try reinstalling to the patch level that it originally shipped with. The default Windows 7 SP1 image has ballooned from ~4GB on original media to twice that or more just with the updates integrated and recaptured. That's a lot of post-sale "value" added!
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @12:17AM (1 child)
CPUs do slow down when they start to overheat. Hard drives start failing and slow down as they have to rewrite data to different sectors behind the scenes. Etc... When XP came out people were upgrading computers every couple years. No one would have expected a laptop to be used for 15 years. There was no reason for planned obsolescence because tech advances ensured the next model was a massive improvement which was worth getting. Most of the tech companies weren't addicted to subscriptions yet. Unless the laptop was only a couple years old, there's no reason to jump to conspiracies.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:35PM
CPU thermal paste dried up : ( Easy fix on a desktop!
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:18PM
I seem to recall that PalmOS could downclock the PalmPilot's DragonBall processors significantly, in response to the battery voltage dropping. I suspect this was to extend battery life for a PDA at the expense of wakeup time and up to a limit, interactive performance. It at least gives you a continuous but non-debilitating indication that it's time to replace/charge the batteries and doesn't leave you stranded mid-day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @09:01PM
I'm okay with such a feature as long as the user can easily override it to have regular speed but less battery life.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Tuesday December 19 2017, @09:05PM
I seem to recall that Apple has already been called out for deploying an OS image to older phones that is optimized for only the new hardware. And that they have no intention to compile multiple images to target all of their phones on the market.
So, is this a new software feature in the OS update causing the slowdown, or is it more pipeline misses in the op codes?
INB4 hardware geeks yell at me about Apple's chips not having execution pipelines or whatever: I'm not a hardware guy, so I'm sure I used the wrong vocab there. My head is already hung in shame, no need to call me out. Peace!
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Bot on Tuesday December 19 2017, @09:10PM
Rule #1 of planned obsolescence: make it look like an accident.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 19 2017, @09:39PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday December 19 2017, @10:09PM
Charts are unconvincing.
Sorry. The claimed disparity between 10.2.0 and 10.2.1 take a magnifying glass to find.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday December 19 2017, @11:00PM (1 child)
So the Geekbench article above stated, "While we expect battery capacity to decrease as batteries age, we expect processor performance to stay the same." While as a professional I agree with that statement, I think Apple has (probably correctly) gambled that the consumer doesn't care about processor performance but cares about overall battery life. (At least, the consumer won't notice a degradation in processor performance as much as a degradation in operational life.)
And while it's strictly anecdotal, my wife is still using an iPad we purchased over three years ago and I use iPhones for two years in between upgrades. My wife doesn't use hers all that much, but our iPhones seem to last far longer than Id've expected them to... and I'd guess this is why.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday December 20 2017, @07:17PM
Two years is pretty much the *minimum* expected lifespan of a phone. I know plenty of people (myself included!) using Android devices that are 4+ years old with no complaints. And if the battery starts to go, I can easily replace that myself, no disassembly required...and that would cost around $30 compared to $600+ for a new phone.
If it was a *feature*, it would stop running slowly when you plugged it in. If it was a feature it would stop running slowly when you disabled power saving mode. If it was a feature it would tell you what the problem was. The fact that it doesn't appear to do any of that means that it's not a feature, it's a trick. Designed to encourage people to buy new phones every year or two. Mobile processors are finally getting "fast enough" for most casual usage, so they're looking for new ways to force people to upgrade. First is was the non-removable battery, but it's still possible to get those replaced, so now they're trying to directly degrade the user experience so people won't even know what the problem is or how to fix it, other than buying a new one.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday December 19 2017, @10:27PM (1 child)
Batteries have have a few different measurements they can offer up.
Original Capacity
Current Capacity
Current charge as Percent of Original capacity
Current charge as percent of Current capacity
Since batteries capacity decline over their life, it often depends on which of these your software is reading.
I have no clue what Apple software read and displays to the user, but Percent of Current capacity is misleading and may show 70% charge but measured late in the battery life, it may actually be 30% of Original Capacity.
Maybe part of Apple's system just uses Percent of Original Capacity to decide how hard it should push the battery (by controlling cpu utilization).
How long till my phone dies is probably more important to most people than how fast I can play some game on the phone.
Not everything has to be a conspiracy. Some of this is just the sad facts of LiPoly life expectancy.
Its time for phone manufacturers to return to replaceable batteries.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Wednesday December 20 2017, @03:44AM
Reading between the lines I'd guess it isn't a question of battery life. Internal resistance increased with age beyond tolerance, voltage dropped too far and voltage regulation was failing under heavy load leading to the phone shutting down. Downclock a bit, max peak power drain drops dramatically and problem solved. Apple is doing the correct thing here to solve the problem once you realize they AIN'T going to eat replacing the batteries on phones so far out of warranty. The problem is the non-user serviceable battery, otherwise they could just tell people to order a new one for $20 and solve the problem the right way.