3 ms·

Heh, I'm usually not the one to defend Apple, but... She calls it malware, if she was an Apple engineer, she should be able to give a hint where to look so tha

Heh, I'm usually not the one to defend Apple, but... She calls it malware, if she was an Apple engineer, she should be able to give a hint where to look so that interested parties can disassemble the code and investigate. With no specifics, it looks like a former engineer that holds a grudge. Not saying that this is the case, but she would make her position stronger with some specifics. It seems to me that it's much easier to just not optimize new code paths for older devices, introduce changes that require more performant hardware (cough, Liquid Glass), etc. That together with the natural bloating of applications and websites does enough to slow down older phones. Especially because Apple has always been conservative with the amount of memory in their phones. E.g. even the iPhone 17 still has 8 GiB RAM, while comparably-priced Android phones have 16 GiB RAM.

plufz 5mo ago
Yeah Apple is smart enough to know that large conspiracies tend to leak sooner or later. Your solution would absolutely have been my choice if I wanted to slow down old iPhones, and I’m quite sure the leadership at Apple are smarter than me.
fsflover 5mo ago
> She calls it malware, if she was an Apple engineer, she should be able to give a hint where to look so that interested parties can disassemble the code and investigate There is a bunch of HN comments complaining that the new iOS is significantly slower on older devices [0]. It even led to unusually slow adoption [1]. Then, Apple tried to force older devices to upgrade [2]. Previously, Apple deliberately slowed old iPhones down and got fined for that [3]. How can you still give the benefit of the doubt after all this? > It seems to me that it's much easier to just not optimize new code paths for older devices The new iOS is much heavier for all devices. There is nothing specific for older devices. It looks like a deliberate attempt to kill older devices though, just like they did before. And it is extremely profitable for Apple to do that. Deliberately designed software to make your experience worse in order to gain some profit is nothing else than malware, isn't it? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45544181 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45544181 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46548654 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46548654 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134965 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134965 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18292417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18292417
- tristanj 5mo ago
  There is no intentional slowing. These phones are just old. If you replaced the processor inside an older phone with the latest gen one, you would not notice any performance gap. Smartphone CPUs are improving exponentially at 20% per year. A 5 year old processor will have half the performance of the latest generation processor. Smartphones are one of the very few industries improving exponentially. Most people do not comprehend this. For example, mature technologies such as internal combustion engine vehicles really only improve a few percentage points per year. You could buy a car from 10-20 years ago and it would not feel obsolete.
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]
  - fsflover 5mo ago
    > These phones are just old. If you replaced the processor inside an older phone Are you saying that the processor got slower with time? The same, old tasks got slower, not new ones. > There is no intentional slowing. There was proven intentional slowing. Why are you so sure it can't happen again, given it's still profitable?
    - deleted 5mo ago
      [deleted]
    - tristanj 5mo ago
      No. The operating system, nearly all apps, and most websites are designed to run on faster hardware. The hardware in modern phones is improving by double digit percentages each year. Websites add more features. Apps do the same. Same with the operating system. iOS has added hundreds of features over the past 5 years. Software is optimized to perform well on current generation hardware, not old hardware. The smartphone industry is the fastest improving industry on the planet, and devices become obsolete faster than most people comprehend. It's a perception issue. Most other technologies are mature and older devices work fine without issue. A microwave sold 20 years ago performs the same as a modern one, but a 20 year old phone is ancient.

plufz 5mo ago

Yeah Apple is smart enough to know that large conspiracies tend to leak sooner or later. Your solution would absolutely have been my choice if I wanted to slow down old iPhones, and I’m quite sure the leadership at Apple are smarter than me.

fsflover 5mo ago

> She calls it malware, if she was an Apple engineer, she should be able to give a hint where to look so that interested parties can disassemble the code and investigate There is a bunch of HN comments complaining that the new iOS is significantly slower on older devices [0]. It even led to unusually slow adoption [1]. Then, Apple tried to force older devices to upgrade [2]. Previously, Apple deliberately slowed old iPhones down and got fined for that [3]. How can you still give the benefit of the doubt after all this? > It seems to me that it's much easier to just not optimize new code paths for older devices The new iOS is much heavier for all devices. There is nothing specific for older devices. It looks like a deliberate attempt to kill older devices though, just like they did before. And it is extremely profitable for Apple to do that. Deliberately designed software to make your experience worse in order to gain some profit is nothing else than malware, isn't it? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45544181 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45544181 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46548654 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46548654 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134965 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134965 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18292417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18292417

tristanj 5mo ago
There is no intentional slowing. These phones are just old. If you replaced the processor inside an older phone with the latest gen one, you would not notice any performance gap. Smartphone CPUs are improving exponentially at 20% per year. A 5 year old processor will have half the performance of the latest generation processor. Smartphones are one of the very few industries improving exponentially. Most people do not comprehend this. For example, mature technologies such as internal combustion engine vehicles really only improve a few percentage points per year. You could buy a car from 10-20 years ago and it would not feel obsolete.
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
- fsflover 5mo ago
  > These phones are just old. If you replaced the processor inside an older phone Are you saying that the processor got slower with time? The same, old tasks got slower, not new ones. > There is no intentional slowing. There was proven intentional slowing. Why are you so sure it can't happen again, given it's still profitable?
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]
  - tristanj 5mo ago
    No. The operating system, nearly all apps, and most websites are designed to run on faster hardware. The hardware in modern phones is improving by double digit percentages each year. Websites add more features. Apps do the same. Same with the operating system. iOS has added hundreds of features over the past 5 years. Software is optimized to perform well on current generation hardware, not old hardware. The smartphone industry is the fastest improving industry on the planet, and devices become obsolete faster than most people comprehend. It's a perception issue. Most other technologies are mature and older devices work fine without issue. A microwave sold 20 years ago performs the same as a modern one, but a 20 year old phone is ancient.