Apple admits slowing older iPhones, says it's to prevent battery issues

CNET ^ | December 20, 2017 | Shara Tibken

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

I’m still running iOS 10.1 on my 7+. Sounds like a good reason not to upgrade. Thanks!

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

What you wrote is EXACTLY what I DESPISE about Apple. I for one, don't want Apple "to do the thinking" for me. For example, I want to edit my personal spell-check dictionary. Recently Apple made the AppStore default to be all reviews. That alone would drive me from Apple, but some apps are changing it back to the most recent version.

Last year we did get a $600 rebate on our new phones, which is why we're still Apple. With 5 of us on an ATT family plan our monthly cost is about $45 per phone (7+ 128GB) with 20GB data for all of us.

[Yaelle]

Yeah, that is bs that Apple would slow them. However, my 6 is ridiculous RE charging. It doesn’t always accept charging any more. I’m going to slightly upgrade and because of your post, I will give my old 6 — with a new battery — to my youngest son who is old enough now for a phone.

BTW I love my new iPad Pro. It is bigger than I realized but I’m still dragging it everywhere I go in the house. One huge complaint is that they don’t make high end cases with effing HANDLES. Why is every case maker so STUPID? Why do briefcases have handles? Because people drop briefcases 100% less when they have handles. Same with iPad. My kids all have the rubber handle ones and there is nothing like handles to not drop stuff.

[wardaddy]

My oldest son asked me yesterday have you noticed phones slowing up?

He and I have same phone 6+

I said yes maybe a little but I thought it might be the carrier Verizon

Then I saw this article here last night late

Is it obsolescence engineering or preserving battery?

I’m not in Cooks brain nor do i want to be

These tech behemoths are a new animal in a new world of info transmission and purchasing and communication

So many new paradigms established and Apple always acts very proprietary which is irksome at times

It’s a damn shame nearly all are run by progressives

One thing I’ve learned is code writers are not engineers or physicists

[Concentrate]

Progressives always say it’s for our own goodProgressiveProgressives always say it’s for our own goodProgressives always say it’s for our own goodProgressives always say it’s for our own goodProgressives always say it’s for our own goods always say it’s for our own good

I can't paste the comment between the eyes. Therefore, I can't post my comment in the proper manner.

Has anyone else had this problem, or is it at my end?

Anyways, IMHO, the problem with smartphones in general is that the background apps turn on automatically and waste power. Like when was the last time you used Zoe picture whatever? Never, right? Or maybe a couple of times a year.

Apps should only turn on when summoned.

Coming to my point, progressives all have eyephones, which don't let you turn background apps off, which waste a lot of power. Remember global warming?

What hypocrisy!

Get an HTC. It has extreme power saver which shuts off everything except phone, email and text. A full charge can last 2 days.

[Reno89519]

We are rivaling on the counts and, yes, frustrating to know that slowing is intentional and nothing we can do about it short of an upgrade.

[wardaddy]

I was droid for years till my kids pushed me to try Apple

Then you get so much biz and personal stuff stored on Apple and the Apple TV intersection

And switching back to droid seems daunting

I love my iPad which im on now and but i prefer droid phones for business because they’re just more open for stuff that helps

Apple really controls that

I like apple text keyboard but apple voice to text if you have a southern accent is just ridiculous

My ten dollar Samsung tracphone does that better

For me to switch back to droid for all my stuff I’d need a professional to do it

I own a lot devices and most are apple ....nearly two dozen I think

My wife has that Motorola with the detach speaker and hasselblad

I don’t like the apple cult thing and Hollywood must have accessory thing nor their politics

The left creamed us in this area

[captain_dave]

I was an Apple iphone user since 2005, but as of a month ago, now an Android user.

[Swordmaker]

TXnMA has pointed out to me that the caption on the photo of "Tin Whiskers" aka "dendrites" is likely incorrect. Although it is a replication of the caption of where it was published, he is correct. His comment to me "Judging by the trace thickness shown on that SEM, those leads are PWB thickness, not “thin film” IC thickness," I concur.

I bow to TXnMA's expertise in the matter. . . consider the caption hereby edited to reflect that change. Thanks. FR is great in that we can always find someone who is an expert in the field we need here.

Thanks, TXnMA for the correction.

[Swordmaker]

I just switched to Android, an unlocked Motorola e4 Plus, which I bought at Best Buy for $200. A new iPhone at more than 3x the price was not worth it.

A brand new iPhone SE is just $349 unlocked from any carrier. . . and some carriers are providing it at a discount. You didn't do your research very well.

[minnesota_bound]

This is “battery” neutrality in action...slow action : )

[Swordmaker]

Yeah, that is bs that Apple would slow them. However, my 6 is ridiculous RE charging. It doesn’t always accept charging any more. I’m going to slightly upgrade and because of your post, I will give my old 6 — with a new battery — to my youngest son who is old enough now for a phone.

I've found that charging problems is usually the cable. There is actually an IC chip in the cable that is getting flakey or the cable's wire is actually broken and it will connect when it is plugged in one direction (It's a bi-directional plug) but not the other due to an intermittently connecting wire just at the union between the wire in the cable and the jack plug. Basically, when it's plugged in one way, the cord is bent down and no connection is made, but plugged in the the other the bend is slightly different and the connection is made.

I had one such cord. . . and occasionally did not notice I had plugged it in the wrong way and woke up the next morning to an iPhone that had not charged overnight. That cable has been file thirteened and replaced with a Belkin braided Lightning charging cable. So far it's better.

[Yaelle]

Ha Ha Ha hah ha, I do note that some our our strategically placed cables do better than others, and I just ordered a bunch of the good cable from amazon yesterday to see if it helps.... yes, the belkin braided. (And I wanted pink but with so many men here I settled for gold ones)

[Krosan]

I recently switched to a chinkphone and am quite happy. $120 bought me a lot of performance. Same with my son. The Chinks probably spy on me, but I don’t work with anything important, so I don’t care.

[SamAdams76]

First they came for the Jews but I wasn’t Jewish so I didn’t care...

[Krosan]

Ehhh ....

It’s not like this with me. The minute my job let’s me in on some secrets I’ll switch to another phone and change my password.

---

You hear that Lt. Dung? All you do is futile!

[dennisw]

The solution is to stop complaining and buy a battery replacement kit for about $20 which includes pry tools and battery. Failing this get yr iPhone battery replaced at a genius bar. I have a one year old HP laptop I need to pry open and put in an SSD. My challenge for the new year.

I think I know the trick now. You start prying open where the DVD player is after removing the DVD player. Have to buy the plastic pry tools or find something else. Perhaps sharpening the edge of a hard credit card with a fine file. You have any other objects I can improvise into pry tools? Thanks.
A guitar pick?

[Swordmaker]

What you wrote is EXACTLY what I DESPISE about Apple. I for one, don't want Apple "to do the thinking" for me. For example, I want to edit my personal spell-check dictionary. Recently Apple made the AppStore default to be all reviews. That alone would drive me from Apple, but some apps are changing it back to the most recent version.

These articles are mischaracterizing what Apple is actually doing, Truth. There is no deliberate "slowing down" of these older iPhones with aged batteries. That's not what Apple said their new algorithm does. These FUD articles are taking what Apple actually said and turning it into something completely different based on a GEEK BENCH test that stresses the phone by running the processor, the GPU, and all the memory at full speed, drawing everything the battery can deliver, and then some, which is exactly what this algorithm is designed to PREVENT from happening, so it ameliorates that behavior temporarily while the device is under that stress.

What Apple actually said was this:

"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."

Nothing there says they have reduced the continuous normal operational speed of the older model iPhones.

[Swordmaker]

Check iFixIT for instructions for that model HP. They have tons of how to step by step guides.

[dennisw]

Greatly appreciated! Ifixit has enough HP laptops listed that I can figure out mine from reading a few of them.