5 ms·

So what? People buy more useless stuff all the time

by theplumber 4y ago

nindalf 4y ago
Apple takes great pride in supporting their iPhones for years after they stop selling them. This is the exact opposite.
- theplumber 4y ago
  That's the PR. The reality is more nuanced #Batterygate
  - mastercheif 4y ago
    #batterygate was an attempt to extend the life of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s models with aged batteries by preventing unexpected shutdowns which were caused by the CPU pulling to much current when operating at high frequencies. Apple should have been more transparent about what they were doing, but it’s difficult to argue that they were operating in bad faith. I’d wager unexpected shutdowns would result in more aggregate “unwanted” upgrades versus degraded peak performance.
    - gumby 4y ago
      I agree completely. Sadly, the reality doesn’t generate clicks, so pseudo-scandal it is.
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      It was a workaround for a problem they caused with the phone design. I won't cry bad faith, exactly, but it was bad that the phones would lose performance after a couple years without this being properly explained up front. Their battery replacement program also helped mitigate the issue, but now newer phones cost more to replace batteries on, also because of design decisions...
  - jamesrom 4y ago
    > The reality is more nuanced > #Batterygate Pick one.
- memsom 4y ago
  Not really true. The Apple Watch series 3 was released 2017, so it got 4.5 - 5 years of support. I don't think that is bad. It will still work, it will just not get any more OS updates. I sport an iPhone 6s. I guess it is unsupported from this year, but I have owned it since the December after it was launched. So it was supported for circa 6 years, give or take a few months. That was absolutely the longest any Apple iPhone was ever supported. Most get less (I want to say up to 4 years, but I have no actual figures to hand.) I'm not unhappy with the length it was supported to be honest. My previous phone was a Nexus 4 and that got way less, I don't think it was more then 3. The length the Apple Watch series 3 was supported it perfectly acceptable, and I bet few bough outside of the last 2 years still have great battery life anyway.
  - plorkyeran 4y ago
    The relevant thing is how long they support it from when they stop selling a device, not from when they started selling a device. You can still buy a brand new series 3 Watch from Apple _today_. Those devices are getting zero years of support.
    - hnaccount_rng 4y ago
      In principle I strongly agree, but I have yet to find a single third party app that I want on my watch. And as long as the watch is still able to do notifications, pinging, podcasts and unlocking of my MacBook, I wouldn't consider this too bad. But let's see how this shakes out in practice
  - joe5150 4y ago
    bought mine in October 2017 and still wear it daily to this day. it easily goes the full day and usually most of the next if I forget to charge it. it might last longer if I turned off the cellular antenna, but I've never needed to.
- tinus_hn 4y ago
  They will probably keep supporting it with security updates for quite a while, I don’t think they can get away with selling a device and then immediately pulling support.

So what? People buy more useless stuff all the time

nindalf 4y ago

Apple takes great pride in supporting their iPhones for years after they stop selling them. This is the exact opposite.

theplumber 4y ago
That's the PR. The reality is more nuanced #Batterygate
- mastercheif 4y ago
  #batterygate was an attempt to extend the life of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s models with aged batteries by preventing unexpected shutdowns which were caused by the CPU pulling to much current when operating at high frequencies. Apple should have been more transparent about what they were doing, but it’s difficult to argue that they were operating in bad faith. I’d wager unexpected shutdowns would result in more aggregate “unwanted” upgrades versus degraded peak performance.
  - gumby 4y ago
    I agree completely. Sadly, the reality doesn’t generate clicks, so pseudo-scandal it is.
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    It was a workaround for a problem they caused with the phone design. I won't cry bad faith, exactly, but it was bad that the phones would lose performance after a couple years without this being properly explained up front. Their battery replacement program also helped mitigate the issue, but now newer phones cost more to replace batteries on, also because of design decisions...
- jamesrom 4y ago
  > The reality is more nuanced > #Batterygate Pick one.
memsom 4y ago
Not really true. The Apple Watch series 3 was released 2017, so it got 4.5 - 5 years of support. I don't think that is bad. It will still work, it will just not get any more OS updates. I sport an iPhone 6s. I guess it is unsupported from this year, but I have owned it since the December after it was launched. So it was supported for circa 6 years, give or take a few months. That was absolutely the longest any Apple iPhone was ever supported. Most get less (I want to say up to 4 years, but I have no actual figures to hand.) I'm not unhappy with the length it was supported to be honest. My previous phone was a Nexus 4 and that got way less, I don't think it was more then 3. The length the Apple Watch series 3 was supported it perfectly acceptable, and I bet few bough outside of the last 2 years still have great battery life anyway.
- plorkyeran 4y ago
  The relevant thing is how long they support it from when they stop selling a device, not from when they started selling a device. You can still buy a brand new series 3 Watch from Apple _today_. Those devices are getting zero years of support.
  - hnaccount_rng 4y ago
    In principle I strongly agree, but I have yet to find a single third party app that I want on my watch. And as long as the watch is still able to do notifications, pinging, podcasts and unlocking of my MacBook, I wouldn't consider this too bad. But let's see how this shakes out in practice
- joe5150 4y ago
  bought mine in October 2017 and still wear it daily to this day. it easily goes the full day and usually most of the next if I forget to charge it. it might last longer if I turned off the cellular antenna, but I've never needed to.
tinus_hn 4y ago
They will probably keep supporting it with security updates for quite a while, I don’t think they can get away with selling a device and then immediately pulling support.