5 ms·

>which extends the life of old phones. Except they were caught purposely throttling older phones with those updates, not exactly what i'd call extending life.

rhinoceraptor 7y ago
> purposely throttling So that the phones don't randomly shut off because their lithium ion batteries were old. Yes, they should have told people but it wasn't done maliciously.
- vetinari 7y ago
  That's easy... make the batteries easily replaceable... oh wait.
  - makosharks 7y ago
    You can replace the battery by going to an apple store, giving them $49, and then picking it up a few hours later. That's not a terrific challenge.
    - capsulecorp 7y ago
      What if you don't live near an apple store? Why not let the user manage their own battery, that is also not a terrific challenge.
      - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
        You can ship your phone to Apple and be without it for about a week. Or, take it to a 3rd party repair shop.
        capsulecorp 7y ago
        Exactly.
      - makosharks 7y ago
        How far do you live from an Apple store? How far do you live from a phone repair store? Stop concern-trolling just because you're a snowflake who wants every phone to be bulkier, heavier, and have a few more failure modes.
  - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
    That would makes the phones considerably thicker and/or make the battery life significantly worse. I don't think replaceable batteries are really worth the tradeoffs given the constraints of a modern smartphone. Lithium batteries can be quite dangerous, so they need to be in a case to prevent damage that could cause them to catch fire. Then, the phone itself needs a battery door which adds even more thickness and potential failure points. Finally, once you have replaceable batteries, you give up water and dust resistance. I would bet that more phones have died of water or dust ingress than phones with dead batteries.
    - stordoff 7y ago
      > That would makes the phones considerably thicker and/or make the battery life significantly worse. Would it? The Lumia 950 has a user replaceable battery: Thickness - Lumia 950: 8.2mm; iPhone XR: 8.3mm Battery - Lumia 950: 3000mAh; iPhone XR: 2942mAh I remain unconvinced that other phones couldn't be engineered to have a user replaceable battery. Water resistance is potentially a fair point, but iPhones have had non-user-replaceable batteries for far longer than they have been water resistant, and I'm not sure it would be impossible to do _both_ (Tile trackers have user replaceable batteries, and are water resistant up to IP55).
- bogwog 7y ago
  > it wasn't done maliciously. Depends on how you look at it. One alternative solution to the old battery problem would be to send it to a repair shop to install a new battery. But Apple doesn't want people to have the right to repair their own devices, so that's not even seen as an option. Throttling to extend battery life is a convenient explanation that both solves the problem and avoids hurting their extremely profitable repair program (where they'd charge maybe $50 less than the cost of a new phone for a battery replacement).
  - graeme 7y ago
    You can replace an apple battery for $69. It was $29 for a while after the ios 11 battery troubles. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/09/13/apple-raise-iphone-battery-replacement-prices-january-1/1285226002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/09/13/a...
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  - abrawill 7y ago
    I don't know man. Battery replacement costs $69 or $49 depending on model. Not sure at what price you buy your phones but... https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-power https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-power
  - deleted 7y ago
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- deleted 7y ago
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- capsulecorp 7y ago
  >but it wasn't done maliciously. You are certainly entitled to your opinion.
  - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
    Would you rather your phone suddenly die rather than just run slower? Phones are critical safety devices nowadays.
- izacus 7y ago
  > So that the phones don't randomly shut off because their lithium ion batteries were old. Yes, they should have told people but it wasn't done maliciously. "old" - they were less than two years old. They were used up significantly faster than on other phones because Apple was pulling more power to get better benchmarks. This significantly lowered their lifetime and then "forced" them to make phones slower than advertised way before normal lifetime ended.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    You really think Apple cares about benchmarks against Android phones? People aren’t going to switch phones from iOS to Android because of benchmarks. Besides that’s not the way phone manufacturers benchmark well. Android manufacturers have been caught detecting the benchmark and then running in a higher power mode - not running higher all of the time. Batteries usually start losing their charge in two years.

rhinoceraptor 7y ago

> purposely throttling So that the phones don't randomly shut off because their lithium ion batteries were old. Yes, they should have told people but it wasn't done maliciously.

vetinari 7y ago
That's easy... make the batteries easily replaceable... oh wait.
- makosharks 7y ago
  You can replace the battery by going to an apple store, giving them $49, and then picking it up a few hours later. That's not a terrific challenge.
  - capsulecorp 7y ago
    What if you don't live near an apple store? Why not let the user manage their own battery, that is also not a terrific challenge.
    - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
      You can ship your phone to Apple and be without it for about a week. Or, take it to a 3rd party repair shop.
      - capsulecorp 7y ago
        Exactly.
    - makosharks 7y ago
      How far do you live from an Apple store? How far do you live from a phone repair store? Stop concern-trolling just because you're a snowflake who wants every phone to be bulkier, heavier, and have a few more failure modes.
- rhinoceraptor 7y ago
  That would makes the phones considerably thicker and/or make the battery life significantly worse. I don't think replaceable batteries are really worth the tradeoffs given the constraints of a modern smartphone. Lithium batteries can be quite dangerous, so they need to be in a case to prevent damage that could cause them to catch fire. Then, the phone itself needs a battery door which adds even more thickness and potential failure points. Finally, once you have replaceable batteries, you give up water and dust resistance. I would bet that more phones have died of water or dust ingress than phones with dead batteries.
  - stordoff 7y ago
    > That would makes the phones considerably thicker and/or make the battery life significantly worse. Would it? The Lumia 950 has a user replaceable battery: Thickness - Lumia 950: 8.2mm; iPhone XR: 8.3mm Battery - Lumia 950: 3000mAh; iPhone XR: 2942mAh I remain unconvinced that other phones couldn't be engineered to have a user replaceable battery. Water resistance is potentially a fair point, but iPhones have had non-user-replaceable batteries for far longer than they have been water resistant, and I'm not sure it would be impossible to do _both_ (Tile trackers have user replaceable batteries, and are water resistant up to IP55).
bogwog 7y ago
> it wasn't done maliciously. Depends on how you look at it. One alternative solution to the old battery problem would be to send it to a repair shop to install a new battery. But Apple doesn't want people to have the right to repair their own devices, so that's not even seen as an option. Throttling to extend battery life is a convenient explanation that both solves the problem and avoids hurting their extremely profitable repair program (where they'd charge maybe $50 less than the cost of a new phone for a battery replacement).
- graeme 7y ago
  You can replace an apple battery for $69. It was $29 for a while after the ios 11 battery troubles. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/09/13/apple-raise-iphone-battery-replacement-prices-january-1/1285226002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/09/13/a...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- abrawill 7y ago
  I don't know man. Battery replacement costs $69 or $49 depending on model. Not sure at what price you buy your phones but... https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-power https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-power
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
capsulecorp 7y ago
>but it wasn't done maliciously. You are certainly entitled to your opinion.
- rhinoceraptor 7y ago
  Would you rather your phone suddenly die rather than just run slower? Phones are critical safety devices nowadays.
izacus 7y ago
> So that the phones don't randomly shut off because their lithium ion batteries were old. Yes, they should have told people but it wasn't done maliciously. "old" - they were less than two years old. They were used up significantly faster than on other phones because Apple was pulling more power to get better benchmarks. This significantly lowered their lifetime and then "forced" them to make phones slower than advertised way before normal lifetime ended.
- scarface74 7y ago
  You really think Apple cares about benchmarks against Android phones? People aren’t going to switch phones from iOS to Android because of benchmarks. Besides that’s not the way phone manufacturers benchmark well. Android manufacturers have been caught detecting the benchmark and then running in a higher power mode - not running higher all of the time. Batteries usually start losing their charge in two years.