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I know the intricacies of what they did. To summarise: some phones with older batteries would suffer brownouts because the internal resistance of the battery wa

I know the intricacies of what they did. To summarise: some phones with older batteries would suffer brownouts because the internal resistance of the battery was too high. They updated the OS to detect the brownout and throttle the CPU to prevent it happening again. So they didn’t slow down all old phones, only ones that had the problem. They actually attempted to fix older models. To me this is the opposite of planned obsolescence and appeals to my environmental view that all manufacturers should be supporting their hardware as least as long as Apple currently does. Now they didn’t communicate, and were fined. I think that is fair enough, but I feel the size of the fine was quite excessive given they were trying to extend the life of their customers hardware. Note that the other phone manufacturers that have exactly the same problems did nothing and are actually better off because of it.

fiddlerwoaroof 7y ago
Yeah, I had an old, slowed iPhone 5S and I had a third party shop replace the battery and when it can me back, it was significantly faster.
- schadara 7y ago
  Supposedly, Apple didn't "implement" battery throttling on the iPhone 5S - Apple's discount battery replacement program only applied to the iPhone 6 and up. This suggests that Apple switched to a flawed battery technology in hardware starting in the iPhone 6 that wasn't realized until years later. And, instead of issuing a recall or repair program, they pushed a silent cover up in the software. Whatever the motive, they should have been more open about it. I had an iPhone 5S that ran ok until I upgraded to iOS 13, IIRC. After that, the frames started skipping and it became frustrating to use.
mthoms 7y ago
Your "summary" curiously omits one of the most important details — That the battery could be replaced and the phone would perform like new. If not, the ever deteriorating battery would result in a never ending arms race of throttling. Inevitably, that phone and battery would be in the landfill instead of just the latter. Whether or not the whole thing was intentionally nefarious I'm not convinced. But the episode looks way worse than your comment suggests.
- thoraway1010 7y ago
  Man - almost every other phone brand ends in the the trash MUCH MUCH sooner than Apple, so this is funny to read. Seriously - can you tell me how long you received updates on your android phone? Apple is the absolute leader in getting longer life out of their phones, they have much higher resale as a result as well. Apple not only allows older devices to installer newer software (with bug fixes / security fixes / and supportable features) but they have been backporting stuff to a one step earlier iOS as well in terms of basic fixes. It's actually crazy especially in comparison to their competitors (that get no flak on HN) who literally ship with an old version of android AND DO NOT UPDATE IT!
  - mthoms 7y ago
    The statement wasn't about how Apple's phones compare with other phones. It was (pretty clearly I thought) about how long Apple phones with new batteries last against those without new batteries (and throttling applied). >Seriously - can you tell me how long you received updates on your android phone? I've used Apple computers exclusively since about 2005 and phones since around 2009. So no, I've never owned an Android phone. In fact, my small apartment has no less than 8 Apple devices in use between my partner and I. Why do you assume I'm not an Apple user? Because I said something mildly critical of them?
- thebruce87m 7y ago
  I didn’t leave it out on purpose. In my eyes it was a “limp home” mode so you would expect it to return to full performance. If it didn’t then that definitely would be a scandal. Yes, they definitely should have communicated better. 100%. It was non obvious to any users that the phone had been throttled and that it needed a new battery. I think the fine they got will remind them to be more explicit in the future. The feature still exists today, just explained better.
  - schadara 7y ago
    It's curious that this problem was introduced in the iPhone 6, but not in their earlier phones, wouldn't you say?

fiddlerwoaroof 7y ago

Yeah, I had an old, slowed iPhone 5S and I had a third party shop replace the battery and when it can me back, it was significantly faster.

schadara 7y ago
Supposedly, Apple didn't "implement" battery throttling on the iPhone 5S - Apple's discount battery replacement program only applied to the iPhone 6 and up. This suggests that Apple switched to a flawed battery technology in hardware starting in the iPhone 6 that wasn't realized until years later. And, instead of issuing a recall or repair program, they pushed a silent cover up in the software. Whatever the motive, they should have been more open about it. I had an iPhone 5S that ran ok until I upgraded to iOS 13, IIRC. After that, the frames started skipping and it became frustrating to use.

mthoms 7y ago

Your "summary" curiously omits one of the most important details — That the battery could be replaced and the phone would perform like new. If not, the ever deteriorating battery would result in a never ending arms race of throttling. Inevitably, that phone and battery would be in the landfill instead of just the latter. Whether or not the whole thing was intentionally nefarious I'm not convinced. But the episode looks way worse than your comment suggests.

thoraway1010 7y ago
Man - almost every other phone brand ends in the the trash MUCH MUCH sooner than Apple, so this is funny to read. Seriously - can you tell me how long you received updates on your android phone? Apple is the absolute leader in getting longer life out of their phones, they have much higher resale as a result as well. Apple not only allows older devices to installer newer software (with bug fixes / security fixes / and supportable features) but they have been backporting stuff to a one step earlier iOS as well in terms of basic fixes. It's actually crazy especially in comparison to their competitors (that get no flak on HN) who literally ship with an old version of android AND DO NOT UPDATE IT!
- mthoms 7y ago
  The statement wasn't about how Apple's phones compare with other phones. It was (pretty clearly I thought) about how long Apple phones with new batteries last against those without new batteries (and throttling applied). >Seriously - can you tell me how long you received updates on your android phone? I've used Apple computers exclusively since about 2005 and phones since around 2009. So no, I've never owned an Android phone. In fact, my small apartment has no less than 8 Apple devices in use between my partner and I. Why do you assume I'm not an Apple user? Because I said something mildly critical of them?
thebruce87m 7y ago
I didn’t leave it out on purpose. In my eyes it was a “limp home” mode so you would expect it to return to full performance. If it didn’t then that definitely would be a scandal. Yes, they definitely should have communicated better. 100%. It was non obvious to any users that the phone had been throttled and that it needed a new battery. I think the fine they got will remind them to be more explicit in the future. The feature still exists today, just explained better.
- schadara 7y ago
  It's curious that this problem was introduced in the iPhone 6, but not in their earlier phones, wouldn't you say?