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The problem is that there was no notification to the user that the CPU was slowed down on purpose because the battery can no longer keep up, misleading them int
by Nextgrid 5y ago
The problem is that there was no notification to the user that the CPU was slowed down on purpose because the battery can no longer keep up, misleading them into thinking their device suddenly developed a mysterious fault and/or passive-aggressively annoying them into upgrading.
- jeffbee 5y agoYour CPU is always, always locked into a closed-loop control system involving temperature and voltage. Always! The user cannot also be in the loop. If you want a turbo button you'll need to accept 486-level performance and battery life.
- Nextgrid 5y agoIn practice, the behaviour of that loop is predictable and consistent, so people get used to it and calibrate their expectation of the phone’s performance on it. The problem is that a couple years down the line when the battery degrades, that feedback loop adjusts and as a result that performance significantly deviates from what it was originally with no obvious way for the user to understand why or tell whether it even actually happened or if they’re just misremembering what the original performance was. The user can be in the loop in a read-only way. If the control system suddenly makes dramatic & unexpected changes (to accommodate degraded power or thermal performance) the user should be notified so they can rectify the solution (replace the battery in this case). Apple would rather gaslight them into believing their phone is working fine and was just always this slow and it might be time for an upgrade.