
U.S. To Probe Apple Over Updates That Slow Older iPhones - uptown
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-30/u-s-said-to-probe-apple-over-updates-that-slow-older-iphones-jd1yahj7
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lotu
It bothers me a little the way people are assuming active malice where passive
indifference and normal progressions of technology and features is sufficient
to cause what we are seeing.

Apple could be inserting code to slow down phones in a very controlled and
deliberate effort:

    
    
      if (version <= iPhone7) {
        wait_ms(100);
      }
    
    

This is what I think of when someone says Apple is deliberately slowing down
phones but I don't find this credible.

For this specific case Apple's explanation, they started throttling down CPUs
based on battery age to prevent unexpected phone shutdowns make sense. I do
have issue with how this was initially messaged (a.k.a. it wasn't) but I
understand why, consumer tech news tends to be very low information. It
doesn't make sense for Apple to try to explain to users the details of every
tweak to power management settings, and if they did it would either be lost on
most consumers or be transformed in to negative headlines about how updating
your phone makes it slower, in large part because the headline "Will the New
iOS Update Slow Down your iPhone?" gets more clicks than "Apple makes
Incremental Improvements to Power Management of iPhones as Part of Long-Term
Strategy". So I understand the strategy of saying nothing.

Furthermore I expect most of the actual (not perceived) slow down is from
dozens of conversations like happening:

Eng: New feature FooBar is awesome we should include it in the next iOS
release. QA: FooBar isn't passing latency tests on our latest iPhone so you
can't include it. Eng: Darn :(

<2 years later>

Eng: I still think Foobar is awesome, and look it very snappy on my current
phone. QA: It works on our latests phones too, and users like it. Okay it is
in! Eng: Yay.

This is fundamental to how software has been developed forever. We make faster
hardware to be able to run more complex taxing software and than means older
hardware will be slower in comparison.

~~~
dwc
> For this specific case Apple's explanation, they started throttling down
> CPUs based on battery age to prevent unexpected phone shutdowns make sense.

At best it's a complete botch on Apple's part. I got that update and my phone
was noticeably slower, right off the charger at 100%. My typical usage pattern
has me plugging in my phone at night with usually more than 50% and rarely
around 40%. I'm _never_ in danger of unexpected shutdown.

The way things _used to_ work, I'd drain an iOS device and somewhere around
20% I'd get a popup to switch to power saving mode, with a choice to do it or
not. This is quite reasonable, usable, and the device remains fast until
you're in the danger zone. Wanna tweak it? Move from 20% to 25%. Done. Worried
that people won't switch to power saving mode and then have a shutdown? Make
the switch mandatory at 20-25% or whatever.

But slowing down older phones all the time... it's hard not to be suspicious
of motives.

~~~
chrisballinger
The issue is that the peak power consumption could exceed the maximum power
that the battery could deliver, not that the batteries were running out of
charge. By throttling power consumption you can prevent unexpected shutdowns
at the expense of maximum performance. This is especially problematic in
colder climates where phones were shutting down because the cold battery
couldn’t deliver enough juice, regardless of its charge level.

~~~
indemnity
Doesn’t this mean that they made an error while designing the hardware,
because required power output could not be sustained over a normal battery
lifespan?

But the decision process probably favoured shipping and trying to patch around
it in software because form always wins over function.

Unsurprised by the lawsuits, sounds like a massive engineering fuckup to me.

------
pxeboot
I am happy to see this issue getting so much attention outside of tech
circles. Apple has mostly gotten a pass for their anti-consumer behavior
recently and I hope the negative publicity from this forces them to improve
things.

~~~
signal11
It's ironic that Apple, which provides regular software updates, is being
scrutinized while it appears Google and other Android vendors -- whose track
record on updates is very spotty -- get a free pass.

To avoid a case of 'no good deed goes unpunished', I do hope Samsung, Google
and co get some attention over lack of updates for older phones/OSes too.
Their approach of not updating perfectly good phones just leads to greater
e-waste, not to mention wasting consumer dollars.

~~~
scintill76
No updates might actually be better than forced (practically? I don't use iOS)
updates that make your device less desirable to you, and can't be undone.

It's more fair and conceivable that Apple should be forced to meet certain
standards for updates they choose to release, than for any manufacturer to be
forced to make updates for some arbitrary/indefinite period of time.

~~~
sol_remmy
> No updates might actually be better than forced (practically? I don't use
> iOS) updates that make your device less desirable to you, and can't be
> undone

No real people hold this opinion. You don't hold this opinion.

You're saying that phone OS updates in general (whether from Google or Apple)
are so low quality that its better NOT to get them on older phones?

~~~
icebraining
Lots of real people hold that position. Just go to any Android-related forum,
lots of owners of older tablets/phones recommend not upgrading past version X
(usually for performance reasons.)

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macintux
As with every Apple "scandal" it seems the company is a Rorschach test writ
large.

If you're inclined to think the worst of them, well, obviously this reinforces
the idea that they're greedy, anti-consumer schmucks who deserve to be taken
down a notch.

------
garyrob
_Apple is delaying some key iPhone and Mac software features planned for
release this year to focus on quality improvements, Bloomberg News reported
earlier Tuesday._

In my book, that's the best news to come out of Apple in years.

------
winter_blue
I had an iPhone 6 Plus (from 2014) that _dramatically slowed down_ after an
iOS update that was released around 2 years ago (some point after the iPhone 7
was out).

This is a phone that costs with sales taxes, over $1000. At one point, it was
_so slow_ that I felt like throwing it on the wall, and breaking it into a
thousand small pieces. (There even was a lag between me typing on the on-
screen keyboard and those characters appearing.) I replaced the battery (about
a year ago), and the speed improved a bit, but not completely.

I _had to get a new phone_ because it was (still was) simply just too slow.
Honestly, there needs to be some sort of class-action lawsuit and compensation
for iPhone owners who have literally been swindled by this.

~~~
lightbyte
>I had to get a new phone because it was slow to the point of being unusable.

What new phone did you end up getting? I hope it wasn't another iPhone.

~~~
winter_blue
I got a used Nexus 6 (in excellent condition) from Glyde for $185 which worked
decently well. It was faster, but not super-snappy; and the battery life
wasn't great.

But I purchased the iPhone X with AppleCare+ about a month ago. It was a huge
purchase. The phone was $1,149, AppleCare+ was $199, and NYC sales tax was
close to $120. In total, I spent $1,468.

------
samsonradu
I think this wasn’t really news for most people, it’s been taken as granted
among my friends that you DON’T update an older iPhone in order to keep it in
good shape. If this news had been released an year ago I’d have thought it is
just capitalism 101, maximize profits. But there are software failures among
all latest Apple platforms, OSX High Sierra is terrible on my 2yo MacBook Pro,
I can’t think that is also intended for profit maximization. Looking forward
to the conclusion.

