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Tim Cook Says Power Management Feature In Older iPhones Will Be Able To Be Turned Off In Future Update (macrumors.com) 162

Posted by BeauHD from the flick-of-a-switch dept.
In an interview with Rebecca Jarvis of ABC News, Apple CEO Tim Cook touched on the ongoing controversy over power management features in older iPhones. He says that a future update will allow customers to turn off the power management feature that has caused older iPhones to slow down. Mac Rumors reports: According to Cook, when the power management features were first introduced in iOS 10.2.1, Apple did explain what was going on, but following the controversy, he believes Apple should have been clearer. The company did indeed mention that the shutdown issue was caused by uneven power delivery and explained that its power management system had been tweaked, but there was no clear notice that it could cause devices to operate more slowly at times. Cook says Apple "deeply apologizes" to customers who thought the company had other motivations. Apple is introducing better battery monitoring features in a future iOS update, and Cook says Apple will also allow customers to turn off the power management feature, which is new information that the company has not previously shared. The majority of the interview was focused on the announcements that Apple made today. The company plans to contribute $350 billion in the U.S. economy over the next five years, as well as issue employees a bonus of $2,500 of restricted stock units following the introduction of the new U.S. tax law.
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Tim Cook Says Power Management Feature In Older iPhones Will Be Able To Be Turned Off In Future Update More

Tim Cook Says Power Management Feature In Older iPhones Will Be Able To Be Turned Off In Future Update

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  • Tim Cook says...

    Frosty Piss says he doesn't give a shit about this tempest in a tea pot spun up by Apple haters, lawyers looking for a buck, and people that get OUTRAGED at any and everything. Folks, step back from the Internet. But I will be taking my iPhone 5s in to have an Amazing Genius(TM) replace the battery for cheap...

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Wrong. 5S is not included in the cheap batteries, despite being still supported with IOS 11. Only 6 and newer are getting cheap batteries and there is already a 3 month wait time.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by msauve ( 701917 )
        Yep. And if Tim Cook wants to make an impression, he'd let users make their own decisions about what version of iOS they want to run, and give them the ability to side-load apps. This is just simple pandering in an attempt to avoid regulation.

        • Re:Good grief, settle down. (Score:5, Informative)

          by TheFakeTimCook ( 4641057 ) on Thursday January 18, 2018 @07:42AM (#55952041)

          Yep. And if Tim Cook wants to make an impression, he'd let users make their own decisions about what version of iOS they want to run, and give them the ability to side-load apps. This is just simple pandering in an attempt to avoid regulation.

          1. You are free to run whatever version of iOS you want to LEAVE on your Device (there actually are NO "Forced Upgrades"). But, I will CERTAINLY agree that you SHOULD be allowed to "Downgrade" to an earlier version of iOS, if you Upgrade and then decide it doesn't suit you or your Device. But, that's why I never Upgrade an older Device until I let a few months go by to see what the performance issues, if any, affect those who do Upgrade. For example, I am "avoiding" Upgrading my iPhone 6 Plus to iOS 11, because of reports of performance issues with iPhone 6 and iOS 11.

          2. You have been able to Side-Load ANY App you want on an non-jailbroken iOS Device running iOS 8 or later, using a couple of different methods:

              a. If you have a Mac, you can use XCode to Compile and Install any number of "Open Source" iOS Apps written in Swift and Obj-C (and possibly other languages) sprayed all over the intarwebs (or, uh, you can WRITE your Own!). XCode is a Free Download (again, if you already have a Mac), and you only need to be a Registered Developer if you are going to submit your Glorious App to the App Store.

          Slashdotters should be familiar with this distribution method, because it is PRECISELY how thousands of Open Source packages are distributed for Linux and other platforms.

          Here's a list on Github:

          https://github.com/dkhamsing/o... [github.com]

          And while you MUST use XCode, due to Code-Signing Requirements to submit to the App Store, (and also because it is probably still the best overall IDE for iOS Development), there ARE a few non-XCode iOS Development toolchains available. Caveat: I know NOTHING about these, what platforms they run on/support, etc. But here they are:

          https://www.jetbrains.com/objc... [jetbrains.com]

          https://www.xojo.com/ [xojo.com]

          https://www.visualstudio.com/v... [visualstudio.com]

          https://coderunnerapp.com/ [coderunnerapp.com]

              b. Using the Freeware Cydia Impactor utility, you can use a Mac or Windows (and maybe Linux?) PC to Install pre-compiled ".ipa" Files, WITHOUT needing to Jailbreak the iPhone... Then, all the User has to do is "Trust This Publisher" ONE TIME, and VOILA! The onus is on the USER (just like any good Slashdotter would want, right?) to decide whether they want to do this...

          http://www.cydiaimpactor.com/ [cydiaimpactor.com]

          Here's a list of some sites that host free iOS .ipa Files:

          https://www.gocydia.com/free-i... [gocydia.com]

          BOTH of these methods have been available and officially-supported since iOS 8 was released in September, 2014.

          But by all means, do keep up your mindless Apple-Hatred.

          Oh, and you Apple Haters and other Slashtards can ALL STFU about "Walled Garden", FOREVER, got it?

          • "1. You are free to run whatever version of iOS you want to LEAVE on your Device (there actually are NO "Forced Upgrades")."

            Until your bank says, "We long longer support your iOS. You have a month to update or else we're cutting you off."

            Which is the only reason why I updated my 5c from 8.xx to 10.3.3. And have continually regretted it.

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by MrDozR ( 1476411 )
              I think you need to vent your frustration at your bank for them developing an app that can't be supported on older OS'.
            • I'm with the sibling poster (who was either down-modded or just has low karma). This is like blaming Dell because some particular game doesn't run on Linux. For the overwhelming majority of people (Probably 99%+), keeping them on the latest and greatest is the right choice. I have no idea why anybody would *not* want to apply the latest security updates in almost all situations. And if Apple didn't push updates so hard, the same people would complain that Apple "left their users vulnerable."

              • I didn't mean to imply Apple was at fault. Merely stating that there are instances where you're more or less forced to update. I'm one of those people who think if it's not broke, don't fix it. So I rarely update any OS unless it's absolutely necessary.

                • I don't think anybody would argue with that. But with the state of software security today, it's pretty much always absolutely necessary.

            • "1. You are free to run whatever version of iOS you want to LEAVE on your Device (there actually are NO "Forced Upgrades")."

              Until your bank says, "We long longer support your iOS. You have a month to update or else we're cutting you off."

              Which is the only reason why I updated my 5c from 8.xx to 10.3.3. And have continually regretted it.

              So, let me get this straight:

              It's APPLE's fault that your BANK "forced you" to Upgrade?

              And your BANK Held your Money HOSTAGE, PREVENTING you from going BANK-SHOPPING?

              See the flaw in your logic?

              (BTW, I am typing this on my iPad 2, which CANNOT be Upgraded past iOS 9.xx, and MY Bank lets me use both its older App and its web portal just fine).

              Perhaps it IS time to switch Banks... AND STOP BLAMING APPLE!

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

            • Yeah you're entirely free to leave the insecure version of iOS on your phone, unless you want to take all the other shit they force on you.

              So, let me get this straight, Hater:

              1 Apple is teh Evilz if they strongly urge you to Upgrade.

              2. Apple is teh Evilz if they DON'T strongly urge you to Upgrade.

              Is that about it?

              • Comment removed based on user account deletion

                • For example: iOS now automatically turns wireless services back on after you turn them off, without your permission. I work near medical devices. This is an issue. So I can choose to take that, OR, I can choose to have spectre on my phone.

                  See the fucking problem?

                  It only does that if you use the "Control Panel". If you go to Settings and turn it off, it stays off.

                  And they did it the other way to keep people from being annoyed when they forget to turn their WiFi back on, which I'm sure their testing showed happened a LOT.

                  I agree it should probably have a dialog asking if you want to re-enable the WiFi; but you DON'T "have to take it". Just turn it off in "Settings" and you'll be good to go!

                  See, wasn't that simple?

                  So no, I DON'T see the fucking problem. Or rather I do

                  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

                    • Who gives a shit if it does that 'only from control panel', firstly, and secondly the wifi button _DOESNT TURN OFF WIFI_. So, let's say you have some non-tech savvy surgeon do this? Should that person have to know how to test that Apple chose to lie to them? If so, why?

                      More to the point, it shouldn't fucking do that at all -- and passively discouraging people by burying shit in 5 clicks versus one is basically the same thing.

                      Who gives a shit when people get annoyed? We're talking about peoples fucking lives vs phone security. It's not even a choice. You have to accept Apple's decision to make that WIFI auto choice.

                      The only thing simple in this thread is your fucking head.

                      Actually, I think that they actually did introduce some dialogs and changed the button appearances that more clearly explain what happens with the Control Panel settings vs. the "Settings" App.

                      http://www.idownloadblog.com/2... [idownloadblog.com]

                      Besides, I believe that "Airplane Mode" from the Control Panel actually DOES turn off all radios WITHOUT having to go to the Settings App.

                      And it's like two clicks. One to open the Settings App, and another to Open "WLAN" Settings.

                      Also, if someone is a surgeon, they are used to having

                    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

                    • Yeah, dealing with medical equipment isn't the same as dealing with a phone. You should see some of the people who are 50+ in the office who literally cannot even write an email. It's kind of astonishing. Also, the base premise remains -- "wireless off?" should mean "wireless off." Not "yeah, mostly off... we're just going to leave on a little wireless, so you can use location services/be tracked. ok?". Off means off, particularly when radio signals can be blamed for interfering with equipment (whether they can or not is a whole other story. I've yet to see one airline crash due to some dude leaving his cellphone on, or whatever, but the liability is there).

                      You obviously love Apple, so I'll give you a bone -- they've got a better security model than Android. That's really their only upshot at the moment.

                      I never use the Wifi Off (nor Airplane Mode); but I would imagine the reason they made the Control Panel "sort of" disable WiFi is that Apple's Support line glowed red-hot with people calling in mad as hornets because they turned their WiFi off in the Control Panel, and then couldn't use this or that feature (like AirDrop), or simply forgot to switch it back on the next day, and then thought their "WiFi was broken".

                      As you said, "old people" (and some not-so-old) are tech-averse, and simply REFUSE to dig-in

                    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

                    • No disagreement there, but I literally cannot use my phone at work now because of said idiots. I also cannot choose to not receive this type of update/change, which was to the earlier point. You go all or nothing with Apple. Don't want the forced reset of your entire icloud master key via your pin pad that came with iOS 10.3 or whatever? Well, too bad you don't get your security updates for Spectre/Meltdown. It's hard to separate security updates and user-content, for sure, but there should be an advanced mode or something -- like, you have to manually restart the phone by holding power and home, restart, hold home while it boots and select 'advanced'. Something mildly technically challenging to get away from the anti-security-but-more-user-friendly-mode they seem to default to now. Also, forced integration of Facebook/Twitter et al needs to die.

                      So tell me: Exactly WHICH Mobile OS allows you to do "granular updates"? In any practical sense, be it iOS or Android, unless you go to extreme measures, you take the good with the bad when you install an OS upgrade on a mobile device.

                      I'll wait...

                      You can do a fair bit of post-update tweaking of iOS if you want to spend some time in the Settings App.

                      And just like the utterly untrue "Forced Upgrades" meme, there is ABSOLUTELY NO "Forced Integration" of Facebook/Twitter, or really ANYTHING. I don't even HAVE a

                    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Wrong. 5S is not included in the cheap batteries, despite being still supported with IOS 11. Only 6 and newer are getting cheap batteries and there is already a 3 month wait time.

        Because the 5S is not affected by this. Only the 6 and above have the power management feature and can scale back the processor speed to lower battery consumption and are thus affected by bad batteries.

        But really, cheap 5S battery replacements are available quite easily - all those mobile repair shops can trivially change the batte

    • My experience with Apple re: the batteries (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I went in and said I wanted a replacement battery. This lousy hipster tried to guilt trip me by saying I should "consider the ecological impact" of taking advantage of the offer. I said okay...I still want the replacement.

      I didn't cause this problem; Apple did. I don't need some tree hugger trying to guilt trip me. Apple can recycle my old battery. Just replace the battery and fix the problem YOUR company caused without the Greenpeace pitch.

      Then he asked for my passcode so they could run diagnostics. I said

    • It's more like Apple trying to elude the many lawsuits worldwide. If it wasn't for the researchers who unleashed that slowdown "feature", Apple would never have done and talked a thing about it. Apple should have made this public and optional, from the start.

  • Very useful (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pubwvj ( 1045960 ) on Wednesday January 17, 2018 @11:36PM (#55951049)

    What Apple did is a very useful feature. I would rather have my iOS device slow down than crash because the battery is over taxed by surging processor power needs. Empowering the user is even better so that people who want their devices to crash can be satisfied too. All for that!

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Please pass some of that Apple-flavored Kool-Aid

    • Re:Very useful (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AvitarX ( 172628 ) <me&brandywinehundred,org> on Wednesday January 17, 2018 @11:49PM (#55951085) Journal

      Even better, have a toggle.

      It's a feature I'd love to be able to turn on even on a brand new phone, and turn off on an old one, depending what I'm doing and my charger situation.

      • This should apply to new phones that are quite cold. When my 6s+ was outside in 0F with 10 mph wind the battery lasts 10 minutes on a full charge even in a rubber case, this would help things till the phone warmed up.

      • It's a feature I'd love to be able to turn on even on a brand new phone

        They do have Low Power Mode [apple.com], which kinda does that now.

      • And that is exactly what Apple has done; provided a toggle so people can turn this off if they like phones that do not last as long on battery when the batteries age.

        Why would anyone flip that switch? I'm personally not sure, but that's how every other phone in the world works today so...

        • Re:And so it is (Score:4, Insightful)

          by AvitarX ( 172628 ) <me&brandywinehundred,org> on Thursday January 18, 2018 @12:22AM (#55951205) Journal

          An example may be I'm in an office with chargers, and I find the snow down irritating. I can keep it in high performance mode (also called performance I thought I'd have when I tried it in the store and purchased it, except maybe it feels less snappy as the newer apps want even more), but also, if I'm out all day, I can put it in low performance mode.

          Why would your personal preference of battery over performance only apply to a degraded battery?

          • An example may be I'm in an office with chargers, and I find the snow down irritating.

            Then why would you not have it plugged in - at which point there would be no slowdown...

            Why would your personal preference of battery over performance only apply to a degraded battery?

            It doesn't - but there's already a low power mode switch for exactly that scenario.

          • Re:And so it is (Score:5, Informative)

            by edwdig ( 47888 ) on Thursday January 18, 2018 @02:48AM (#55951477)

            The issue isn't about how long the battery lasts. It's about how much power the battery can supply at a given moment. There's a huge variance in how much power the phone needs depending on what you're doing at the moment. Accessing flash memory, enabling GPS/camera/bluetooth, downloading data, stressing the CPU, are all things that will make the power draw go up. You need to make sure the battery can handle the power spikes. If the battery can't handle the load, the phone just shuts off with no warning.

            The update slows the phone down any time the battery can't output enough power. Most of the attention is focused on old batteries, but cold weather can trigger it too. The original reason for the change was to deal with new phones with plenty of battery power remaining abruptly shutting off in winter weather. The phones wouldn't turn on again until you got them indoors in warmer air, at which point they'd realize they had plenty of power remaining.

            They didn't make it configurable because their main concern was making sure people outdoors with ice & snow on the ground had functional phones.

            • Here’s the problem I have with this whole story. If the reason Apple provided explained the situation 100%, then we should have been hearing reports of older iPhones suddenly crashing at ~30% battery charge for years. But we didn’t... the issue only started rearing it’s head after iOS 10.x came around.

              So why didn’t older iPhones have this problem with iOS 9, or 8, or earlier?

              • Here’s the problem I have with this whole story. If the reason Apple provided explained the situation 100%, then we should have been hearing reports of older iPhones suddenly crashing at ~30% battery charge for years. But we didn’t... the issue only started rearing it’s head after iOS 10.x came around.

                So why didn’t older iPhones have this problem with iOS 9, or 8, or earlier?

                Because, as the CPU/GPU speed/number of cores, etc. went up in models that happened to be released at the same time as those versions of iOS, the ability for those systems to MOMENTARILY draw enough power to cause a dip in battery-voltage deliverable to the system (and thus a power-management panic) increased to the point where it wasn't as rare of an occurence as it once was.

                • If this is the case how they providing an option to turn this feature off? Is this switch called please randomly crash my phone? If this truly is an issue just display a warning saying your phone battery is old please replace.

                  Do other phones experience the same thing?

                  • If this is the case how they providing an option to turn this feature off? Is this switch called please randomly crash my phone?

                    It should be; or possibly, the "Ok, you asked for it!" Switch.

                    If this truly is an issue just display a warning saying your phone battery is old please replace.

                    Yeahrightsure. You mean the "Please Contact the Class-Action Lawyer For Frivolous Lawsuit" Notification?

                    Do other phones experience the same thing?

                    Yes. THIS is why ALL the Class-Action Bullshit-Suits are DOOMED...

                    Samsung:

                    https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

                    HTC:

                    https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

                    LG:

                    https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

                    Even Older iPhones (that the meme says "Never used to shut off!") :

                    https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

                    Get the Picture?

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Ziktar ( 196669 )

                I've been reporting issues of my phones crashing in cold temperatures for the last 3 years to Apple. They tried replacing the phone, but it still crashed.

                To reproduce, take a phone at 50% or less charge to a location that is below freezing, and then go take a bunch of pictures. Make sure the phone is outside and not put back against your warm skin. The phone will shut off, and won't turn back on again until it's warm. Once you warm it up, it'll power on and say it has 30-50% battery remaining, and so long a

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by edwdig ( 47888 )

                It's been an issue for several years. It was definitely an issue with the 6S running iOS 9. It took Apple a while to pinpoint the problem. At first they found a batch of batteries with manufacturing flaws and thought that was the problem and did a recall. Then they realized it was a bigger issue and came up with the software fix.

                Also remember that each year phones get more features added. More CPU cores, another camera, additional sensors, newer wireless standards, etc. As they add more components, the diff

              • You can already find reports of people with iPhones that do this... or other smartphones [google.com]...
                You just need to look. Most people on Slashdot either get phones often enough or replace batteries in a few years, which means they would not encounter this. But there are a world of people with old phones and old batteries that have this happen - Apple was trying to help them and paid the usual price for good deeds.

            • The issue isn't about how long the battery lasts. It's about how much power the battery can supply at a given moment. There's a huge variance in how much power the phone needs depending on what you're doing at the moment. Accessing flash memory, enabling GPS/camera/bluetooth, downloading data, stressing the CPU, are all things that will make the power draw go up. You need to make sure the battery can handle the power spikes. If the battery can't handle the load, the phone just shuts off with no warning.

              The update slows the phone down any time the battery can't output enough power. Most of the attention is focused on old batteries, but cold weather can trigger it too. The original reason for the change was to deal with new phones with plenty of battery power remaining abruptly shutting off in winter weather. The phones wouldn't turn on again until you got them indoors in warmer air, at which point they'd realize they had plenty of power remaining.

              They didn't make it configurable because their main concern was making sure people outdoors with ice & snow on the ground had functional phones.

              EXACTLY!!!

              Mod Parent Up.

      • Like the "low power mode" that is toggleable on Android handsets?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Most Android phones have this features. If you enable battery saver mode it usually underclocks the CPU, as well as reducing GPU performance and limiting background apps even more than usual.

    • Re:Very useful (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Pseudonym ( 62607 ) on Wednesday January 17, 2018 @11:55PM (#55951115)

      My mother, who has spent a lot of her life on committees of one form or another, taught me something when I was very young that I have never forgotten: The problem is often not what is done, but the way it is done.

      Probably over half of all first world disputes can be traced to this.

      • If you want a real world example of this, go serve on your child's "parent educator" committee. Every school has one, although it's often under different names or could even be handled by the local PTA equivalent. It's where parents "help" the school decide how to spend a portion of district funds on campus.

        This help usually entails rubber stamping what the administration has already decided. So why do it then? Because that way if any other parent complains about the use of the funds, the administration

    • Agreed, but battery condition should have been reported in Settings. No excuse other than it was easier to not disclose the truth. My 6S+ is 2 years old and fine, so I'm not going to let them crack it open.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by I75BJC ( 4590021 )
      I agree. I want my iPhone to last all day. My iPhone IS affected by the update -- it slows down and takes a while to "wake up" during the day BUT I want my iPhone to last ALL day. So this update has been a Welcomed Blessing! I thank Apple for the update! It would have been nice to have notified of the update and it will be nice to have a choice BUT the power management update is a tweak that I definitely appreciate! GO APPLE!
    • Wake up, this was their lawyer/engineer dream team excuse for slowing down older phones so you'd buy a new one.
    • really? I would rather have my phone alert me that their is an issue and the battery should be replaced followed by asking me would you like to slow my phone down to reduce the instability till you can get it fixed.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 )

      What Apple did is a very useful feature.

      Stop that. Please. Apple injected a hidden function that slows down iPhones little by little, over time. To the point the user wonders: that thing is barely usable, maybe it's time to purchase the next newer model. That could have been a "feature" if users were made aware of it, and were able to disable it ; the slowness had side effects (the GPS became less accurate for instance) and the user might have chosen to utilize their device at full speed for a day, rather than a crippled phone for two ; also, peo

      • What Apple did is a very useful feature.

        Stop that. Please. Apple injected a hidden function that slows down iPhones little by little, over time. To the point the user wonders: that thing is barely usable, maybe it's time to purchase the next newer model. That could have been a "feature" if users were made aware of it, and were able to disable it ; the slowness had side effects (the GPS became less accurate for instance) and the user might have chosen to utilize their device at full speed for a day, rather than a crippled phone for two ; also, people, if they'd know, could have chosen to replace the battery ; since the function was hidden, users didn't even know they could just buy a new battery to basically get a new phone. That's definitely not a feature ; this is an intentional hack to make people think their phone is "too old and needs to be replaced with a new one".

        Oh, users were made aware of 'the 'feature' all right. The power management feature was introduced in one of those Apple keynote events and every user got a splash screen with 'new features in macOS ' so there is little justification to complain about a power management feature in a mobile device being 'hidden' with some kind of malicious intent. Furthermore it is entirely predictable that while you don't notice it on newer phones in normal use when CPU performance is degraded by the energy saver algorithm

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Unless people got a pop-up message saying "sorry, due to a design flaw we had to slow your phone down, give us $75 to speed it up again" then they were not informed.

        • Not exactly. The power management as it is and how it works was not detailed in a keynote before December 2017. In iOS 10.2, "iOS 10.2 also adds a telemetry diagnostic tool that Apple can use to report battery consumption" ; the "slowdown feature" was included in 10.2.1 but it's only "On December 28, 2017 Apple acknowledged that this update changed the power management during peak workloads to avoid unexpected shutdowns on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE. Wikipedia source [wikipedia.org].

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pubwvj ( 1045960 )

        "Stop that. Please. Apple injected a hidden function that slows down iPhones little by little, over time."

        Wow. Censor much?

        You don't like the feature.
        I do like the feature.
        In fact, several other people posting here like it too.
        Just because you don't like the feature we should not be censored from discussing it.

        So. Stop. That. NOW! right back at you. Don't censor. (/irony)

        • Again, the "feature" as it is was not detailed as it had to be (basically, slows down iPhones).
          Release notes said precisely at the time:
          "iOS 10.2.1 includes bug fixes (...) It also improves power management during peak workloads to avoid unexpected shutdowns on iPhone". here [apple.com].
          It's not a like/not like issue. It's incomplete and misleading information from Apple leading people not knowing why their iPhone is slow, slowness that might be fixed thanks to a battery change.
          What I don't like, though, it's people

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MSG ( 12810 )

      I've had innumerable mobile computing devices over the last 25 years, and quite a few of them for a long time. I have NEVER seen one of them spontaneously reboot because the battery couldn't output enough power at some point before the charge, measured by the battery monitor, depleted.

      If Apple's devices can't run at normal speed without crashing, 12-18 months after purchase, then they're possibly the shittiest device sold in decades.

      I can't believe people accept such claptrap.

  • All this time Apple has been gaslighting us....yes, boys and girls, the update DOES slow down your igadger....
  • Not what I needed. What I needed to know was you were doing it in the first place before I replace two iPhones due to performance issues instead of buying new batteries.

  • Apple has been forgetting to pay their taxes in Europe... yet, they seem happy to pay taxes in the US... It's time to pay up !

  • This is fantastic news!

    Everyone who is upset about the phone shutting down when it's in danger of simply shutting of on over-current, and destroying their filesystem, rather than showing down, can turn it off.

    And then their iPhones, instead of slowing down, will shut off and destroy their filesystems.

    And then they won't be able to call anyone to bitch about it, because they will have bricked their iPhones.

    Genius!

    • Phones don't just shutdown because of overcurrent from old batteries. Phones shutdown due to poor battery system design.

      Protip: If you can put enough power into your phone to fully charge it in an hour, you can pull that current out at the same rate if not much higher.

      Stop excusing Apple's fuckups.

      Posted while sitting next to a 3 year old Galaxy S5 which works just fine except that the battery only lasts about 20min if I use it for navigation because it's just that quite fucked. But hey it doesn't reboot, a

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      If the iOS filesystem is so crap that it can be corrupted by sudden power loss, and if the recover mechanism is so shit that it can't recover from a corrupt filesystem... Well, that's a design flaw, not the user's fault.

      • If the iOS filesystem is so crap that it can be corrupted by sudden power loss, and if the recover mechanism is so shit that it can't recover from a corrupt filesystem... Well, that's a design flaw, not the user's fault.

        It's not entirely screwed up.

        I mean, it's not like it's EXT3 or something. It actually commits transactions to stable storage before returning that the write completed to the kernel.

        This issue is really one of lost data that's been cached in places like the address book or in the caller ID log, etc.m which has not been written to stable storage by commcenter or whatever other App happens to be involved.

        So it's more like the data in cache is lost.

        Hmmm... I guess it *is* like EXT3...

        In any case, the issue is

  • appler: It's just that we'll make sure that the update will be in the future, long future.

  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I would like to personally thank Tim Cook for allowing me to control power management on my own phone. It saves me the bother of downloading and running Open Source software.
  • The power management features being quietly turned on/off is really missing the mark here. Even when relatively new, iPhone 6/6s tend to shut down randomly, presumably due to voltage, even if the battery is sufficiently charged. This is especially true in cold weather. The battery simply isn't sufficiently paired for the hardware. These devices need batteries that can handle a higher maximum load. Replacing the battery with a newer one of the same specification only solves half the problem.
  • What this shows is that user pressure works (sometimes at least). A relatively minor problem (IMO) turned huge and then was all over the media. It even got Apple, a company with a known attitude of "We know what's best for you" to add an option to disable the controversial feature.
    The sad part (IMO) is that this hasn't happened for some basic freedoms and features that one would've taken for granted of computers only a few years ago like being able to install software not approved by nanny Apple, or having

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