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So many people on here seem to be intent on micromanaging their device's battery. IMO the whole point is to let macOS handle it so you can focus on actual work.

So many people on here seem to be intent on micromanaging their device's battery. IMO the whole point is to let macOS handle it so you can focus on actual work. I know Apple has screwed up in the past with throttling iPhone CPU's (bad). At this point they know not to go to those lengths again.

anamexis 7y ago
The only thing they screwed up on was not telling people they were throttling. They're still doing it (which is good).
- kohtatsu 7y ago
  To be fair that's a pretty big thing to screw up. I commend Apple for a lot (see my last 3 comments), but I think they cross the line of too-voodoo too frequently. I think they'd do well to dispel more magic.
  - askafriend 7y ago
    That "issue" was way overblown. Apple's change did the right thing. It fixed a ton of older phones which before were rendered unusable since they would experience random shutdowns due to naturally degraded Li-Ion batteries. Every manufacturer should implement the kind of fix Apple did (and I'm sure at this point, they have). They even mentioned the change in the original release notes for the iOS update.
    - yakkers 7y ago
      The problem with how Apple did it originally was that it was completely opaque to the user. As far as the average user was concerned, their phone was slowing down for no reason. The Battery Health menu should have been implemented from the start, and the controversy probably would have been completely avoided.
    - mthoms 7y ago
      >They even mentioned the change in the original release notes for the iOS update No, they didn't. The amended the release notes after the fact. https://www.idownloadblog.com/2018/02/06/apple-on-ios-10-2-1-throttling-disclosure/ https://www.idownloadblog.com/2018/02/06/apple-on-ios-10-2-1...
    - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 7y ago
      I still think they could've (and should've) been more transparent. Android has been doing it for years, and it's always been toggleable. If Apple didn't want to implement a toggle that's fine, but they could have easily indicated to the user that their device's battery has degraded, that batteries are replaceable, and that performance can be restored by replacing said battery.
      - skavi 7y ago
        Android phones aren’t supported long enough for their OEMs to have to deal with widespread battery degradation.
    - Polylactic_acid 7y ago
      It wasn't the right thing. People thew out their phones because they were slow not knowing they could have been fixed cheaply with a new battery.
      - kohtatsu 7y ago
        Hopefully nobody actually throws phones out. That bundle of molecules does not belong in a landfill. My library has a dropbox to refurbish old ones for blind people, for example, but I'm sure dozens of places will be happy to take them off your hands.
        Polylactic_acid 7y ago
        They certainly do, I have seen it often. I'm not even sure what to do with old phones. I don't know of any recycling places. I usually just let them sit in a stack in a draw. I once had a phone come with a bag to mail for recycling but I haven't seen something like that for a while.
        radmarshallb 7y ago
        The Apple Store will take any phone in any condition and recycle it for you.
      - askafriend 7y ago
        Apple has offered battery replacements for years before they rolled out that patch. Replacing the battery would have fixed the issue at any time. It's not like they were holding it back.
        Polylactic_acid 7y ago
        What they failed to do was show the user a message saying "Your phone has been slowed down due to an old battery, get a battery replacement at an apple store to restore the original speed" Absolutely no one is going to assume their phone is slow due to an old battery.
- hrktb 7y ago
  They also needed to put the option to disable it. Now anyone who was pissed off by this behavior can disable it, which makes it a way better situation.
AshamedCaptain 7y ago
What part of "setting a charging threshold" is "micromanaging". The entire motivation of being able to set a charge threshold is to get the software to do it, instead of being just plain silly by forcing yourself to change your plug in / unplug habits.
aeyes 7y ago
Would be nice if that worked though. I have a 2 year old MacBook with a dead battery, turns off anywhere between 40 and 60% after about 1 hour of use. Until they come up with something that actually works I'd be grateful to be able to set a lower max charge if I know that the device is mostly used plugged in. And since nobody has been able to come up with anything in over 10 years of dead batteries from devices which are always plugged in, I doubt that this will be resolved anytime soon.
p1necone 7y ago
I don't understand why the iPhone CPU thing was such a big deal. It's a perfectly sane power management feature. Apple had to choose between two options: A. Devices lose battery life per charge over time, eventually powering off randomly because not enough power can be supplied to run the hardware. B. Devices throttle their CPU over time to keep battery life per charge relatively stable, and avoid powering off. Apple chose B. I also don't understand the people who are so upset that Apple didn't say anything - any hardware/software company will make thousands of little tradeoffs like this during R&D, they can't be expected to publicly announce every time they make a decision during development.
- manmal 7y ago
  It was such a big deal because Apple has a monopoly on „acceptable“ replacement batteries (the system shows a warning when you insert a 3rd party battery), and they charge 3x their actual worth.
  - nonninz 7y ago
    If I buy an used iPhone I want to make sure all the parts inside are original. The warning is there for that reason. The phone still works with 3rd party batteries.
  - p1necone 7y ago
    That's absolutely a separate problem worth being mad about, but that doesn't change the cpu throttling thing being afaic a perfectly sane power management feature. I'm surprised to be defending Apple on this, normally most things they do seem pretty anti consumer and leave a bad taste in my mouth. But in this specific case I really don't think they deserve the scorn.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  The major legitimate complaint was that Apple was extremely poor at communicating this to their users.
hrktb 7y ago
So they are trying to automatise a system so people don't have to think about it, but a bulk of reactions are about finding ways to make it behave better in their specific use case. Doesn't it mean Apple basically half-assed it ?

anamexis 7y ago

The only thing they screwed up on was not telling people they were throttling. They're still doing it (which is good).

kohtatsu 7y ago
To be fair that's a pretty big thing to screw up. I commend Apple for a lot (see my last 3 comments), but I think they cross the line of too-voodoo too frequently. I think they'd do well to dispel more magic.
- askafriend 7y ago
  That "issue" was way overblown. Apple's change did the right thing. It fixed a ton of older phones which before were rendered unusable since they would experience random shutdowns due to naturally degraded Li-Ion batteries. Every manufacturer should implement the kind of fix Apple did (and I'm sure at this point, they have). They even mentioned the change in the original release notes for the iOS update.
  - yakkers 7y ago
    The problem with how Apple did it originally was that it was completely opaque to the user. As far as the average user was concerned, their phone was slowing down for no reason. The Battery Health menu should have been implemented from the start, and the controversy probably would have been completely avoided.
  - mthoms 7y ago
    >They even mentioned the change in the original release notes for the iOS update No, they didn't. The amended the release notes after the fact. https://www.idownloadblog.com/2018/02/06/apple-on-ios-10-2-1-throttling-disclosure/ https://www.idownloadblog.com/2018/02/06/apple-on-ios-10-2-1...
  - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 7y ago
    I still think they could've (and should've) been more transparent. Android has been doing it for years, and it's always been toggleable. If Apple didn't want to implement a toggle that's fine, but they could have easily indicated to the user that their device's battery has degraded, that batteries are replaceable, and that performance can be restored by replacing said battery.
    - skavi 7y ago
      Android phones aren’t supported long enough for their OEMs to have to deal with widespread battery degradation.
  - Polylactic_acid 7y ago
    It wasn't the right thing. People thew out their phones because they were slow not knowing they could have been fixed cheaply with a new battery.
    - kohtatsu 7y ago
      Hopefully nobody actually throws phones out. That bundle of molecules does not belong in a landfill. My library has a dropbox to refurbish old ones for blind people, for example, but I'm sure dozens of places will be happy to take them off your hands.
      - Polylactic_acid 7y ago
        They certainly do, I have seen it often. I'm not even sure what to do with old phones. I don't know of any recycling places. I usually just let them sit in a stack in a draw. I once had a phone come with a bag to mail for recycling but I haven't seen something like that for a while.
        radmarshallb 7y ago
        The Apple Store will take any phone in any condition and recycle it for you.
    - askafriend 7y ago
      Apple has offered battery replacements for years before they rolled out that patch. Replacing the battery would have fixed the issue at any time. It's not like they were holding it back.
      - Polylactic_acid 7y ago
        What they failed to do was show the user a message saying "Your phone has been slowed down due to an old battery, get a battery replacement at an apple store to restore the original speed" Absolutely no one is going to assume their phone is slow due to an old battery.
hrktb 7y ago
They also needed to put the option to disable it. Now anyone who was pissed off by this behavior can disable it, which makes it a way better situation.

AshamedCaptain 7y ago

What part of "setting a charging threshold" is "micromanaging". The entire motivation of being able to set a charge threshold is to get the software to do it, instead of being just plain silly by forcing yourself to change your plug in / unplug habits.

aeyes 7y ago

Would be nice if that worked though. I have a 2 year old MacBook with a dead battery, turns off anywhere between 40 and 60% after about 1 hour of use. Until they come up with something that actually works I'd be grateful to be able to set a lower max charge if I know that the device is mostly used plugged in. And since nobody has been able to come up with anything in over 10 years of dead batteries from devices which are always plugged in, I doubt that this will be resolved anytime soon.

p1necone 7y ago

I don't understand why the iPhone CPU thing was such a big deal. It's a perfectly sane power management feature. Apple had to choose between two options: A. Devices lose battery life per charge over time, eventually powering off randomly because not enough power can be supplied to run the hardware. B. Devices throttle their CPU over time to keep battery life per charge relatively stable, and avoid powering off. Apple chose B. I also don't understand the people who are so upset that Apple didn't say anything - any hardware/software company will make thousands of little tradeoffs like this during R&D, they can't be expected to publicly announce every time they make a decision during development.

manmal 7y ago
It was such a big deal because Apple has a monopoly on „acceptable“ replacement batteries (the system shows a warning when you insert a 3rd party battery), and they charge 3x their actual worth.
- nonninz 7y ago
  If I buy an used iPhone I want to make sure all the parts inside are original. The warning is there for that reason. The phone still works with 3rd party batteries.
- p1necone 7y ago
  That's absolutely a separate problem worth being mad about, but that doesn't change the cpu throttling thing being afaic a perfectly sane power management feature. I'm surprised to be defending Apple on this, normally most things they do seem pretty anti consumer and leave a bad taste in my mouth. But in this specific case I really don't think they deserve the scorn.
saagarjha 7y ago
The major legitimate complaint was that Apple was extremely poor at communicating this to their users.

hrktb 7y ago

So they are trying to automatise a system so people don't have to think about it, but a bulk of reactions are about finding ways to make it behave better in their specific use case. Doesn't it mean Apple basically half-assed it ?