France Fines Apple $27.4 Million For Slowing iPhone Software (dw.com) 40
French authorities on Friday said tech giant Apple has agreed to pay $27.4 million for failing to inform users that software updates to older iPhone models could slow down the device, according to French media. From a report: Le Parisien reported it was the highest fine for fraud ever imposed by the consumer watchdog. The crackdown comes two years after Apple admitted its iOS software slowed down the performance of older phones -- in particular, devices with shorter battery life.
Volkswagen next? (Score:2)
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I hope french don't look into what VW did to fix diesel issues.
Well, by now I would assume the French are used to Germans just going around them.
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Well, by now I would assume the French are used to Germans just going around them.
Lol, well played, sir, well played.
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Not quite though: VW actually increased operating performance and reduced under-testing performance. In the end, this could've been avoided if the testing was better, but at the time, the tweaks VW did were smarter than the test.
In a way they are the same if you see it as a polluting performance decrease - they reported x horsepower induced in y CO2 emissions, but it was more like y+ALOT.
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I hope french don't look into what VW did to fix diesel issues.
They didn't fine Apple for slowing down the phones. They fined apple for not informing the users they did so. No one who had the VW fix applied is in any way unaware of the performance loss, heck a large number of people (not in Germany) got a payout because of said performance loss.
too slow... (Score:2)
Microsoft? (Score:5, Funny)
Sheesh, then MS must owe the French what, about 10 billion?
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Nope, MS can legitimately claim their slowdown is due to incompetence.
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Sheesh, then MS must owe the French what, about 10 billion?
Except that if you ran performance benchmarks you'll find raw performance in Windows has steadily increased due to better kernel schedulers over the years. Additionally computers still run at their rated speeds.
Now as for the bloat... well let's not pretend users who use Windows don't expect it to bloat with every update :-)
That's like me getting fined $10 (Score:2)
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That can happen if you keep it long enough.
Generally libraries cap that at the cost of the book.
Slow was the least of my worries (Score:2)
Re: Slow was the least of my worries (Score:1)
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How many security updates does your four year old Android phone get?
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Why would they give a shit about making your device unstable and slow?
Plenty of consumers will not upgrade their devices and tell everyone that iPhones are slow. It might drive sales on one side, but hurts them on the other.
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Hell, most of them will just assume it's the device just aging naturally;
I knew that quartz crystals changed their frequency with respect to the normal force of gravity, but I didn't know they changed so drastically over mere time as to be perceptible to the end user as a CPU clock speed decrease.
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Was it a 7? Those had a battery recall where it would do stuff like that.
As much as I don't like Apple... (Score:5, Insightful)
Engineering is about compromise. We all heard: "fast, correct, cheap: choose two". Here is a similar tradeoff: "battery life and stability versus speed". The lithium batteries naturally degrade over time, and cannot sustain original power levels. Hence CPU slows down to prevent abrupt power offs.
Nevertheless, Apple being Apple, they were not open about it. If people had known beforehand, and had a choice I think the outcome might had been different.
Re:As much as I don't like Apple... (Score:5, Informative)
The lawsuit wasn't over the action itself.
It was over doing it without making users aware, or giving them a choice.
Re:As much as I don't like Apple... (Score:5, Interesting)
Firstly a lot of the slowdown was due to software bloat. Fine on newer phones with more RAM, faster flash and better CPUs, but crippling for older devices.
Secondly Apple's battery woes were a mistake. Don't make excuses for them, other manufacturers have avoided this problem by properly specifying batteries in the first place so that when they degrade they are still able to deliver enough power to the phone. Apple obviously failed to test behaviour with degraded batteries, a pretty basic mistake that any decent electronic engineer with knowledge in that area should have pointed out.
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THIS^^^
None of this would be an issue if it was trivial to replace the battery.
Re: As much as I don't like Apple... (Score:2)
Re:As much as I don't like Apple... (Score:5, Interesting)
The issue wasn't the normal and expected degradation of capacity or current over time. The issue was that Apple didn't design to account for this on the iPhone 6/6s, which resulted in the phone intermittently shutting off without warning when peak current usage exceeded the degraded capacity of the battery. This was a design defect in the 6/6s, and rather than recall the phone and/or battery design they instead tried to hide the issue in a firmware update that throttled the CPU at well below its initial operating rate.
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Apple marketing failed. If the phone is slow to save battery and you don't tell the user, that's treated as a bug. If the phone is slow and you tell the user, then you can market it as a feature which may extend the life of the phone.
Does Apple have to remove the slowdown code? (Score:2)
Either that or a new phone.
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No, why would they? They didn't get in trouble for slowing down the device. All they need to do is inform the users.
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Too late now unless they offer a way for users to undo the update and get the old behavior back.
27 million (Score:2)
Haha this may cause their accountants a real problem they wonâ(TM)t be able to fish that out of even a rounding error. They probably donâ(TM)t even have the ability to cut a check for such a low amount.
How much for holding it wrong ? (Score:2)
Apple Lies (Score:1)
that is what, .002% of their value? (Score:2)
Not arguing whether or not the fine was warranted, but I doubt apple execs were shaking in their boots about this happening again.
Invest in the EU and France (Score:1)
All part of investing in modern France.
Land of the tax, home of the gov fine.