Apple Agrees To Notify iPhone Users If iOS Updates Will Affect Performance, UK Watchdog Says

A UK watchdog group said on Wednesday that Apple has agreed to clearly notify consumers if future iOS software updates slow down or change the performance of an iPhone. CNBC reports: The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority investigated the issue after Apple said in early 2018 that it had deliberately slowed down processor speeds through a software update on some iPhones to extend battery life. Public pressure stemming from the revelation forced Apple to provide discounted $29 battery replacements that were cited by the company as one reason iPhone sales last holiday quarter were slower than expected. That program has ended.

"To ensure compliance with consumer law Apple has formally agreed to improve the information it provides to people about the battery health of their phones and the impact performance management software may have on their phones," the U.K. government said on its website. The CMA said that Apple is legally required to tell consumers about the software and battery health, something the company was already doing through software on the iPhone as well as a letter on its website.

How it will read:

[spcebar]

"This update will slow down your phone. But if you don't install this update apps will stop working. And everything else will stop working. So you should probably install this update. Or buy a new phone. Do that actually."

Re: How it will read:

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, yes, my favorite thing about developing for Apple: you can only target the latest version of iOS. The version of iOS you target is tied to the version of Xcode you're using and not just a build property.

Decided to update Xcode to hopefully get it to stop eating Storyboard files? Hope you want to start targeting the newest iOS as well. Want to use the latest features but gracefully degrade on older devices? Well fuck you, that's simply not an option. Target the latest or else.

This is why Apple's "upgrade

Re:

[Hognoxious]

That's part of it. But the handset vendors who want to fuck around with it and put all manner of shit in there aren't exactly blameless either.

Re:

[iampiti]

On the other hand the fact that in Android development you can easily target older versions is out of necessity. If you couldn't your apps would only run in a small percentage of Android devices since so few of them run the latest version at any point in time

Re:

[Hognoxious]

Put empty loops in the first version, and then remove them (or reduce i ) on later versions.

Didn't IBM get caught doing that back in the day?

So, more default boilerplate

[SlaveToTheGrind]

They certainly won't want to be second-guessed later by some bureaucracy backed by nerds counting clock cycles, right? Safer just to say it every time....

another 'evil Apple' meme

[swell]

Apple clearly explained the benefit of the slower processor speed: without it, the battery would die unpredictably sooner. It allowed you to milk your phone for another while or two to finish a task. It was clearly a benefit to the user, unless you consider a sudden shutdown somehow better. We discussed it here before and those who were aware of the situation agreed that it was good. But the rumor mill rolled on with vague suggestions of some conspiracy from Apple.

What will users think when they discover that they can't use their full battery capacity?!?! That's right, your laptops, your phones, your fancy Tesla cars--you're lucky to get 80% of what your batteries can put out. Evil manufacturers have decided that it's best not to charge your batteries to a full 100% or let them discharge to 0%. So you're just going from ~10% to ~90% over and over and wasting 20% of your battery capacity. Yeah, they have some story that the batteries will last longer or start fewer fires or something. Clearly another conspiracy! [For the irony impaired- this is a comment you should just ignore.]

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

That's a very charitable interpretation of what happened.

When designing any battery powered device you must account for battery degradation. As the battery ages not only does its capacity decrease, but also its internal resistance increases.

When you draw current from a battery the voltage drops. As the internal resistance increases the voltage drop gets bigger. This case cause two problems:

1. Your state-of-charge estimate needs to account for the voltage drop, and if it doesn't adapt it makes your charge go

Re:

[Ormy]

Nobody had a problem with Apple applying the solution you describe. People had a problem with the fact that Apple was not open and honest about what they were doing until users noticed it. .