http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42508300

(Am i first, am I first…just once?! )

The company now says it will replace batteries for less and will issue software in 2018 so customers can monitor their phone’s battery health.

Some customers had long suspected the company slowed older iPhones to encourage customers to upgrade.

Apple admitted slowing some phones with ageing batteries but said it was to “prolong the life” of the devices.

In a statement posted on its website, the firm said it would reduce the price of an out-of-warranty battery replacement from $79 (£58) to $29 (£21) for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later.
So admitting to a 37 quid overcharging for battery replacements too 😉

Going to be interesting to see how the suggested law suit will go there.

“At Apple, our customers’ trust means everything to us. We will never stop working to earn and maintain it. We are able to do the work we love only because of your faith and support – and we will never forget that or take it for granted,” it said.

I feel a little queasy.

non story really

non story really

C’mon. Give Mike this one. He needs a win.

But I do agree to a degree. Apple made this all worse by being all Apple about it. I see why they did it, but they left themselves wide open for the accusations of planned obsolescence. All they had to do is publish what they were doing/notify users when CPUs were being throttled.

Personally, as a owner of a 18month-ish iPhone se, I am mildly happy about getting a new battery for £29 sometime next year. Phone works fine for me, so to extend its life for a relatively modest amount is ok. Not great, but ok.

The story should be Apple apologises for getting caught.

They’ve been denying they slow down older phones for ages…

Great. Just after I ordered a diy battery change kit for my 6 for £21.95, they offer to do it for £21.
Harrumph…

Excellent news, my iPhone 6 battery is definitely tired afer 3+ years (cocnut battery app on the mac says so) so a cheap genuine replacement is on the way in late Jan 🙂

https://www.apple.com/iphone-battery-and-performance/

I have no issue with Apple slowing the phone as battery ages/gets low on charge. Would rather have a slow phone than one which suddently switches off. Yes IMO a non-story

What about those who upgraded due to the CPU being throttled, tho? Apple removed the choice the end user should have had.

Interesting! (As COMPLETELY opposed to being a “non-story” 😕 )

What about the iPads? I have one completely ununsable iPad and another which is just about ok to watch films on but not much else. Must be loads of people who’ve ditched iPads cos Apple updates have deliberately slowed them down! Where’s the apology for that?

Jamie I’d be most surprised if many users really did upgrade due to tje throttling as it only occurs at low charge levels and a new battery fixes the issue

This is going to kill unofficial battery replacement sellers. Tjry’ll get no iPhone business for a year

DezB my iPad1 battery is just fine. Air 2 must be 4 years old and feels like new battery life wise

Tablet batteries have an easier life as they’re charged less frequently as a rule.

DezB my iPad1 battery is just fine.

Nothing to do with the battery – it’s the OS they slow down with the updates. That’s what makes them unusable. The battery on my 1 is fine too.

Nothing to do with the battery – it’s the OS they slow down with the updates.

Evidence?

AIUI that’s not what this story is about. FWIW my five year old iPad 3 is on the newest iOS it can take and runs fine.

I was also running an iPhone 4S up until a few months ago and that also ran acceptably (I replaced the battery twice).

New OSes have new features, these can require more horsepower. That is unavoidable. There is a good reason that Windows 10 doesn’t work to well on a 286 with 512KB ram.

But Apple do a pretty reasonable job of supporting old devices with iOS updates that only enable features they can handle.

That’s a touch cheeky. I’m pretty sure iOS whatever would struggle on a 1980s Macintosh too.

However win10 is fine on my GF’s 10 year old laptop.

But that’s getting off the point. And the poster above is right, if Apple had been less Apple about this, then it would’ve been a non-issue. And it’s not just at low battery levels, if the battery is degraded enough it throttles the phone continuously, without telling you why. So people have been assuming their phone is outdated and paying for a new one, I don’t think that approach is an oversight on apple’s part…

it’s the OS they slow down with the updates.
Evidence?

Well, the actual story is about how they slow down the iPhone with the O/S updates… the iPad gets the same updates and mine most definitely have slowed down each time an update has installed (some more than others), so that’s enough evidence to suggest to me that they are slowing down the iPads in the same way as the iPhones to make users upgrade. I must be stupid though.

I’m also fairly pleased by this news, my iphone 6 is 3 and a bit years old now (got it in October 2013) and I’ve just had the screen replaced a couple of weeks ago under the EU consumer laws.
A new battery in it will mean I don’t need to buy another new phone for a couple of years, which would be frankly incredible. I’ve never been able to stick a phone for much more than a year before.

If you buy a phone it is YOUR property.
Apple should ask before doing anything to it.
I’m sure if apple said before hand that they were going to slow them down and then set fire to them they would still be lauded as the most wonderful people in the world.

New OSes have new features, these can require more horsepower. That is unavoidable. There is a good reason that Windows 10 doesn’t work to well on a 286 with 512KB ram.

Actually Windows has been getting lighter and better on old kit since Vista. It’s remarkably efficient now. If Microsoft can do it then Apple should be able to as well.

I’ve just had the screen replaced a couple of weeks ago under the EU consumer laws.

First off well done EU.
I’ve never heard of this. When my MAC was being looked at everybody at the geek bar was having a new screen fitted at around a £100 a go.
I see so many cracked screens when my customers place their phones on the counter how would they go about getting a replacement screen?

I’ll repeat what I put on the other post. The OS becomes more and more sophisticated with each update and slower phones with slower and less capable processors struggle to run the newer OS’s. You’re old phone is going to slow down whether Apple does anything deliberate or not.

This could be done in a deliberate and controlled way to improve the user experience on older phones, which is what Apple has done. the only problems as far as I can see is stye have not advertised that that is what they are doing so people are ‘outraged’ and ‘offended’ and ‘feel used and abused’ with Apple. If they had advertised it and maybe given people a button to choose wether they wanted this functionally or not then this would;nt have been an issue. Maybe in the next updates we’ll see that.

My iPhone 5 is chugging along nicely, it’s a bit slow and clunky, but it can do a hell of a lot more than it could when it was new, the battery life is a lot worse than it was (was never good on the 5) and it gets red hot when it’s doing something so the processor is obviously struggling to cope.

Software developments always outpaces hardware developments so hardware will always be the limiting factor. At least Apple are trying to actively manage that to extend the life of older devices. I still know a couple of people on iPhone 4’s.

Apple are not the only tech people doing this. Whats’App have just announced they are ceasing to support any phone from the iPhone 3 and older. The app will just cease working on those older devices, so devices earlier that 2009. Where’s the hullabaloo around WhatsApp? Forcing people to buy new phones if they want to continue using WhatsApp.

In any other product old things slow down and can’t perform like they used to. It’s a fact of life. It’s a big problem for tech companies about what to do with older devices and the continuation of support for software for them. Nobody complains when their 1963 Jag can no longer run with the new Jags, or they can’t buy parts any more for them. People don’t slate Jaguar for no longer supporting their older models. We just accept it, but some people just love to slate Apple whatever they do. There are the fan boy’s who love Apple whatever, and their opposites who will hate them no matter what they do. But take an objective view on it then it’s pretty standard behaviour for any technology company. It really is a non-story.

As the the headline “Apple finally admits…..” they probably were asked the question by a journalist for the first time and said yes, so no cover up or conspiracy for years that journalists have been struggling to uncover.

I don’t really see what the problem is.

I don’t really see what the problem is.

In order to negate battery life being an issue for older phones, Apple throttle off the CPU.

This make phone slower.

People may buy new phone due to slow old phone.

Apple probably knew this would happen, yet didn’t publicise issues (which would make this a non-issue)

People find out.

Lawsuits.

Apple hold hands up after being caught, and introduce the things they should have been doing anyway.

The end.

Well, the actual story is about how they slow down the iPhone with the O/S updates…

No it isn’t?

The story is that about a year ago they made a change to iOS to prevent phones with old batteries suddenly shutting down when they experience a current spike.

They do that by throttling the CPU when the battery is old.

AIUI replacing the battery with a new one removes the throttle.

That in itself seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. As others said, they should have just been less Apple about it.

People may buy new phone due to slow old phone.

Or people may buy new phone due to poor battery life.

People love to complain.

Americans love class action lawsuits for perceived ‘losses’

Personally I’ll get an good quality battery fitted in my wife’s 6, and next year my 7 for a great price.

The OS becomes more and more sophisticated with each update and slower phones with slower and less capable processors struggle to run the newer OS’s. You’re old phone is going to slow down whether Apple does anything deliberate or not.

That’s just lazy software engineering. The OS knows what hardware it’s running on and should be able to modify its feature set to suit. It’s what Windows does. But that’s not what Apple do – it’s their way or the highway.

The OS knows what hardware it’s running on and should be able to modify its feature set to suit.

OMG, Apple are forcing me to upgrade because I don’t get the latest features. Etc etc etc…

Or people may buy new phone due to poor battery life.

Or they may buy a new phone due to the ghost of Steve Jobs leaving a message on a piece of burnt toast. The fact is people may have had an option they were denied.

Personally, I don’t really give a shit. I just love to complain. I’m off now to slag off Newman’s Own Ranch Dressing as it tastes all fizzy.

Apple hold hands up after being caught, and introduce the things they should have been doing anyway.

The way it’s being presented is ‘Apple deliberately slow down old phones because they’re evil bastards’ whereas actually it’s ‘Apple slow down phones as the battery ages so the phone operates more effectively’. Yeah I guess they should have told people they were doing it sooner.

It’s what Windows does. But that’s not what Apple do

Yes it is.

Older models don’t get all the features when a new iOS comes out and very old models don’t get the new iOS at all.

But of course then people complain about planned obsolescence. 🙄

They literally can’t win.

It’s what Windows does. But that’s not what Apple do

How is Windows mobile operating system working out for them?

The way it’s being presented is ‘Apple deliberately slow down old phones because they’re evil bastards’ whereas actually it’s ‘Apple slow down phones as the battery ages so the phone operates more effectively’. Yeah I guess they should have told people they were doing it sooner.

As I said. If Apple had just said that’s what they’re doing it’s a non-story. It coming out like this adds credence to those who touted those rumours of planned obsolescence. As it’s hard to argue against, even if untrue.

iPad1 is on iOS5. Battery preservation software was introdiced for iOS 10.2 (?) for iPhone 6 onwards

They slow doen the devices when battery gets to low to avoid a system shutdown

You are never going to please all the peolple all the time. For me this episode is a result as I will be getting a new Apple original battery for £20+

As it’s hard to argue against, even if untrue.

It’s not hard to argue against if people were able to look at actual facts and not blindly follow misleading headlines designed to stir controversy. I guess you can blame Apple for not managing that better but people are **** idiots.

There’s plenty of annoying/cynical things that Apple do but I don’t really see how this is one of them.

The story is that about a year ago they made a change to iOS to prevent phones with old batteries suddenly shutting down when they experience a current spike

Oh, see, I read that as Apple’s excuse for screwing up the old devices. Whereas it’s actually to force people to upgrade. Hence the lawsuits. (The reverse of what grum said). If they admit they’re slowing the devices then they will lose the lawsuits, won’t they.

Well as excuses go it sounds like a pretty valid one. They’d prefer phones with old batteries to run slightly slower but reliably, rather than being faster but flakey. Makes sense. Flakiness is bad for their image, especially on business contracts, and costs them money in customer support.

If the idea was just to throttle old phones to evilly force upgrades then they could just throttle based on the phone model, not the battery age.

it’s actually to force people to upgrade.

Or just replace their battery, which now costs £20.

How easy is it to book an appointment to get your battery changed?
If I remember it was quite difficult to get one to have my Mac looked at.
£20 is a good price and fair play to them for doing it.
All we need now is a back button and an expandable memory and I’d think about one.

They’ve had a software back button since iOS 9 zippy:

Agree on the expandable memory though!

Apple should ask before doing anything to it.

They do. Unless you accept automatic updates.

I’ll get a ladder so you can get off your high horse.

There’s plenty of annoying/cynical things that Apple do but I don’t really see how this is one of them.

The point is that it should’ve been optional. You should have been able to decide if you wanted it slowed down for increased reliability.