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Anybody knows what has happened that multiple manufacturers (at least Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, and now Apple) have released _all within this year_ updates to "en

Anybody knows what has happened that multiple manufacturers (at least Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, and now Apple) have released _all within this year_ updates to "enhance battery health management"? Even on devices which were otherwise out of support already. I ponder what has happened. I didn't hear any recent stories of battery explosions, huge battery recalls, or new regulations, yet all manufacturers are reacting to something.

riscy 6y ago
Apple got sued for throttling iPhones with overly aged batteries. My understanding is that for all battery-dependent devices, you either sometimes throttle the CPU so it doesn’t demand more voltage than the battery can reliably deliver, or else you risk sudden power loss at what appears to be 20% life. After the lawsuit I assume now all manufacturers leaving it up to the consumer to decide which behavior they want.
- Reason077 6y ago
  There's nothing wrong with throttling in itself. Pretty much anyone will prefer a performance hit to a spontaneous shutdown. Where Apple got in trouble was that they were doing it secretly. Now days they still do the throttling, but you can go into battery status and it tells you if the battery is delivering peak performance or not.
  - Karunamon 6y ago
    It actually gets worse in Apple's case. They were doing it secretly, which is bad enough, but they were also denying warranty repairs to throttled phones (since policy was to only conduct the repairs once an arbitrary "health" metric fell below a certain point, and the throttling kicked in first). This meant your options were to either deal with the crap performance, or void your warranty by installing a third party battery.
    - Reason077 6y ago
      > "your options were to either deal with the crap performance, or void your warranty by installing a third party battery." Or pay Apple a not-entirely-unreasonable fee to get them to replace the battery ($49 IIRC?), a bit more than the third party price but perhaps worth it for peace of mind.
      - plorkyeran 6y ago
        When they first rolled out the throttling they were still charging $79 for a battery replacement. They cut the price significantly specifically as a response to the backlash.
      - Karunamon 6y ago
        That price only went into effect after the outrage broke. Additionally, people were turned away at Apple stores since according to the diagnostics, there was nothing wrong with their battery. You couldn't just walk in and demand a battery replacement or a replacement of any other part that passes diagnostics.
stu2b50 6y ago
This in specific is because so many people have gone from using their laptop battery to keeping their laptop fully charged on the plug all the time due to WFH. That can be unhealthy if the device keeps the battery topped off.
hn_check 6y ago
Why did everyone suddenly add dark mode, or push-notifications, or... It became something journalists started saying "Finally" about, so everyone had to do it. Batteries degrade if they're constantly being recharged, so they've all gotten smarter about it.
cesarb 6y ago
The exact phrasing Dell used is "modified battery algorithm to prolong lifespan and minimize risk of swelling", as seen for instance at https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices/com.dell.uefia86a3f07.firmware https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices/com.dell.uefia86a3f07.firmwar... and several others in that site. I looked at a few of the Lenovo ones, but didn't see anything battery-related in the recent changes.
- AshamedCaptain 6y ago
  In HP's May P87 BIOS update there is "Changes the default setting of the HP Battery Health Manager in the BIOS Settings from Maximize My Battery Duration to Let HP Manage My Battery Health. The new default setting dynamically changes how the system charges the battery based on usage conditions over time to provide optimal battery health. " (The HP Battery Manager itself is also a recent feature)
crazygringo 6y ago
Just regular market competition. One manufacturer announces a feature, other manufacturers think "oh crap, we don't want anyone buying a competitor rather than us because of that" so they implement it too ASAP. I've been in a lot of product decision meetings. In my experience, there's no quicker or more effective way to justify building a feature than "our competitor has it".
- AshamedCaptain 6y ago
  I don't think so: 1. this feature does not have a lot of user visibility, 2. in fact many laptops already allowed you to set this (e.g. Lenovo and Dell) but it seemed regular users didn't care at all, 3. Apple does not tend to do that, anyway (for better or worse).

riscy 6y ago

Apple got sued for throttling iPhones with overly aged batteries. My understanding is that for all battery-dependent devices, you either sometimes throttle the CPU so it doesn’t demand more voltage than the battery can reliably deliver, or else you risk sudden power loss at what appears to be 20% life. After the lawsuit I assume now all manufacturers leaving it up to the consumer to decide which behavior they want.

Reason077 6y ago
There's nothing wrong with throttling in itself. Pretty much anyone will prefer a performance hit to a spontaneous shutdown. Where Apple got in trouble was that they were doing it secretly. Now days they still do the throttling, but you can go into battery status and it tells you if the battery is delivering peak performance or not.
- Karunamon 6y ago
  It actually gets worse in Apple's case. They were doing it secretly, which is bad enough, but they were also denying warranty repairs to throttled phones (since policy was to only conduct the repairs once an arbitrary "health" metric fell below a certain point, and the throttling kicked in first). This meant your options were to either deal with the crap performance, or void your warranty by installing a third party battery.
  - Reason077 6y ago
    > "your options were to either deal with the crap performance, or void your warranty by installing a third party battery." Or pay Apple a not-entirely-unreasonable fee to get them to replace the battery ($49 IIRC?), a bit more than the third party price but perhaps worth it for peace of mind.
    - plorkyeran 6y ago
      When they first rolled out the throttling they were still charging $79 for a battery replacement. They cut the price significantly specifically as a response to the backlash.
    - Karunamon 6y ago
      That price only went into effect after the outrage broke. Additionally, people were turned away at Apple stores since according to the diagnostics, there was nothing wrong with their battery. You couldn't just walk in and demand a battery replacement or a replacement of any other part that passes diagnostics.

stu2b50 6y ago

This in specific is because so many people have gone from using their laptop battery to keeping their laptop fully charged on the plug all the time due to WFH. That can be unhealthy if the device keeps the battery topped off.

hn_check 6y ago

Why did everyone suddenly add dark mode, or push-notifications, or... It became something journalists started saying "Finally" about, so everyone had to do it. Batteries degrade if they're constantly being recharged, so they've all gotten smarter about it.

cesarb 6y ago

The exact phrasing Dell used is "modified battery algorithm to prolong lifespan and minimize risk of swelling", as seen for instance at https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices/com.dell.uefia86a3f07.firmware https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices/com.dell.uefia86a3f07.firmwar... and several others in that site. I looked at a few of the Lenovo ones, but didn't see anything battery-related in the recent changes.

AshamedCaptain 6y ago
In HP's May P87 BIOS update there is "Changes the default setting of the HP Battery Health Manager in the BIOS Settings from Maximize My Battery Duration to Let HP Manage My Battery Health. The new default setting dynamically changes how the system charges the battery based on usage conditions over time to provide optimal battery health. " (The HP Battery Manager itself is also a recent feature)

crazygringo 6y ago

Just regular market competition. One manufacturer announces a feature, other manufacturers think "oh crap, we don't want anyone buying a competitor rather than us because of that" so they implement it too ASAP. I've been in a lot of product decision meetings. In my experience, there's no quicker or more effective way to justify building a feature than "our competitor has it".

AshamedCaptain 6y ago
I don't think so: 1. this feature does not have a lot of user visibility, 2. in fact many laptops already allowed you to set this (e.g. Lenovo and Dell) but it seemed regular users didn't care at all, 3. Apple does not tend to do that, anyway (for better or worse).