The next iOS update — slated for a developer release in February — will apparently allow iPhone users to disable intentional slowing down owing to aging batteries.
The next iOS update — slated for a developer release in February — will apparently allow iPhone users to disable intentional slowing down owing to aging batteries. The update will also apparently show their battery health status to help users make an informed choice – whether or not they would
The next iOS update — slated for a developer release in February — will apparently allow iPhone users to disable intentional slowing down owing to aging batteries. The update will also apparently show their battery health status to help users make an informed choice – whether or not they would like to go ahead and allow for a slow down — Apple CEO Tim Cook said while speaking to ABC News. This comes a month after Apple admitted that it intentionally slows down older iPhones to prevent issues that may arise as their batteries depreciate.
„We’re going to give people the visibility of the health of their battery, so it’s very, very transparent,“ Cook said. „In the situation, in which we will tell somebody, saying we’re reducing your performance by some amount in order to not have an unexpected restart. And if you don’t want it, you can turn it off. Now, we don’t recommend it, because we think people’s iPhones are really important to them, and you never can tell when something so urgent. Our actions were all in service of the user, I can’t stress that enough. Maybe we should have been clearer at a point in time, but our actions were always the purest,“ the Apple CEO added.
ALSO READ: Apple deliberately slows down older iPhones but it could have done it differently
Controversy began when owners of the iPhone 6,6s, and 6s Plus, started complaining that there devices were shutting down out of the blue, even though they had sufficient battery. This, they claimed, was usually happening during peak current demands, like in the middle of playing a game. The solution, they added, was to plug in and recharge their devices. Nothing else would get them back online. Apple acknowledged the issue and a fix was then rolled out through the iOS 10.2.1 update. The iPhone 6,6s, and 6s Plus, no longer shut down out of the blue. But they did slow down, according to some owners.
Later, popular benchmarking company Geekbench sprung into action after an iPhone owner apparently took to Reddit to narrate how his/her iPhone 6s had been running frustratingly slow and that the problem went away after a battery replacement. Other Reddit users also reported of a similar performance dip with lower charge levels despite not having Low Power mode enabled, adding due credence to the theory.
The company ran some tests and found that Apple had made changes to iOS — the software that drives all its iPhones, iPads and iPods — that deliberately „limit performance“ of older iPhone models „when battery condition decreases past a certain point.“
The Geekbench data got a lot of online buzz, and finally Apple responded. Apple, for long, has been criticized for messing around with older iPhone models so the company can make way for people to invest in brand new, next-generation ones. Apple’s response to Geekbench and a plethora of iPhone owners who’ve made those allegations over the years seemingly confirmed all of that. Apple does indeed slow down older iPhones, but, apparently there’s a method to its madness. Apple says it’s doing this to protect your iPhone.
Apple’s intentions behind slowing down older iPhones with ageing batteries may not have been vile, still owners are – rightfully — arguing that Apple should have been more transparent about the whole issue. The Cupertino major may be looking to do just that with next iOS update.
