5 ms·

In my personal experience, the sole reason for those updates is to cripple your hardware and battery life in order for you to upgrade to newer hardware.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
In my experience, my iPhone 6 is perfectly usable, as is an old SE and 6S Plus. Batteries degrade, and after being replaced they work fine. And they’re still getting updates this year.
- Xylakant 6y ago
  I can second this. I’m hanging on to my SE for the form factor and it’s still going strong. My wife’s SE is nearing a battery replacement after what feels like half a decade of usage. I dread the day the SE will no longer be supported. Typing this on an iPhone SE
- Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
  >Batteries degrade, and after being replaced they work fine. If the batteries were user replaceable, it would have been a perfect story. Sending the device back to the manufacturer (authorised service center) can be inconvenience(data formatting, TOTP apps etc.) at best to security breach(malware install, device imaging etc.) at worst. Also, if indeed a user decides to replace the battery on their own, an iPhone is the least repairable phone out there and getting worse with every iteration.
  - rstupek 6y ago
    The procedure to get an iphone battery replaced is to make an appointment at the apple store and they swap it out as you wait.
    - jsheard 6y ago
      That's great if you live near an Apple Store, but only 25 countries have Apple Stores and half of those only have 1-3 stores for the whole country.
      - saagarjha 6y ago
        Then you can go to an AASP.
        zaroth 6y ago
        Or spend 15-30 minutes replacing it yourself?
    - Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
      Does the technician change battery before your eyes? Didn't happen when I went to AASP and anything can happen in that room they do their work. Maybe we know a technician we trust, who can repair iPhone before our eyes, but alas independent repair shops doesn't get Apple love[1]. [1]https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/06/apple-independent-repair-shops-contracts/ https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/06/apple-independent-repai...
christophilus 6y ago
Typing this on a perfectly fast iPhone 6.
GeekyBear 6y ago
Refusing to fix bugs and issue patches is much cheaper, if forcing obsolescence is your goal.
- darksaints 6y ago
  The vast majority of security vulnerabilities and bugs that end users experience are fixed within the first few years of the device's shelf life. Security vulnerabilities tend to go unnoticed by most end users, and therefore don't really play a role in forcing users to upgrade. Wouldn't it be nice though if users could choose to patch security vulnerabilities without installing updates that deliberately slow down the phone?
  - acdha 6y ago
    Do you have a citation supporting the claim that old bugs don’t affect users? That’s certainly not true in the Windows world. Similarly, “updates that deliberately slow down the phone” sounds like a conspiracy theory. The closest we’ve come to that being real would have required a caveat “… when your battery has degraded to the point that the phone would otherwise crash”, which is an important distinction.
    - darksaints 6y ago
      It's pretty hard to fine a company that has one of the world's largest legal departments €25m based on a conspiracy theory. And no, that caveat isn't even close to the truth. Apple states that they do it "once the battery begins to degrade", which is so ambiguous that it could even apply to brand new batteries, because all batteries begin to degrade upon their first usage. In my case, I had a 9 month old iPhone 6 that drastically slowed down due to the update. When the apple store told me that it only slowed down phones with aging batteries, I asked them to replace my battery for my phone which was still under warranty. They "tested" it and told me my battery life was perfectly fine. Fuck that...have not and will not ever buy an apple product ever again.
      - valuearb 6y ago
pdimitar 6y ago
Guess you didn't read the articles explaining that reduced performance on phones with heavily amortised batteries is to be expected. And didn't read the testimonials of people who paid for a new battery and got their device working fast again.

lotsofpulp 6y ago

In my experience, my iPhone 6 is perfectly usable, as is an old SE and 6S Plus. Batteries degrade, and after being replaced they work fine. And they’re still getting updates this year.

Xylakant 6y ago
I can second this. I’m hanging on to my SE for the form factor and it’s still going strong. My wife’s SE is nearing a battery replacement after what feels like half a decade of usage. I dread the day the SE will no longer be supported. Typing this on an iPhone SE
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
>Batteries degrade, and after being replaced they work fine. If the batteries were user replaceable, it would have been a perfect story. Sending the device back to the manufacturer (authorised service center) can be inconvenience(data formatting, TOTP apps etc.) at best to security breach(malware install, device imaging etc.) at worst. Also, if indeed a user decides to replace the battery on their own, an iPhone is the least repairable phone out there and getting worse with every iteration.
- rstupek 6y ago
  The procedure to get an iphone battery replaced is to make an appointment at the apple store and they swap it out as you wait.
  - jsheard 6y ago
    That's great if you live near an Apple Store, but only 25 countries have Apple Stores and half of those only have 1-3 stores for the whole country.
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      Then you can go to an AASP.
      - zaroth 6y ago
        Or spend 15-30 minutes replacing it yourself?
  - Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
    Does the technician change battery before your eyes? Didn't happen when I went to AASP and anything can happen in that room they do their work. Maybe we know a technician we trust, who can repair iPhone before our eyes, but alas independent repair shops doesn't get Apple love[1]. [1]https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/06/apple-independent-repair-shops-contracts/ https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/06/apple-independent-repai...

christophilus 6y ago

Typing this on a perfectly fast iPhone 6.

GeekyBear 6y ago

Refusing to fix bugs and issue patches is much cheaper, if forcing obsolescence is your goal.

darksaints 6y ago
The vast majority of security vulnerabilities and bugs that end users experience are fixed within the first few years of the device's shelf life. Security vulnerabilities tend to go unnoticed by most end users, and therefore don't really play a role in forcing users to upgrade. Wouldn't it be nice though if users could choose to patch security vulnerabilities without installing updates that deliberately slow down the phone?
- acdha 6y ago
  Do you have a citation supporting the claim that old bugs don’t affect users? That’s certainly not true in the Windows world. Similarly, “updates that deliberately slow down the phone” sounds like a conspiracy theory. The closest we’ve come to that being real would have required a caveat “… when your battery has degraded to the point that the phone would otherwise crash”, which is an important distinction.
  - darksaints 6y ago
    It's pretty hard to fine a company that has one of the world's largest legal departments €25m based on a conspiracy theory. And no, that caveat isn't even close to the truth. Apple states that they do it "once the battery begins to degrade", which is so ambiguous that it could even apply to brand new batteries, because all batteries begin to degrade upon their first usage. In my case, I had a 9 month old iPhone 6 that drastically slowed down due to the update. When the apple store told me that it only slowed down phones with aging batteries, I asked them to replace my battery for my phone which was still under warranty. They "tested" it and told me my battery life was perfectly fine. Fuck that...have not and will not ever buy an apple product ever again.
    - valuearb 6y ago

pdimitar 6y ago

Guess you didn't read the articles explaining that reduced performance on phones with heavily amortised batteries is to be expected. And didn't read the testimonials of people who paid for a new battery and got their device working fast again.