Apple Will Let Users Deactivate Performance Throttling on iPhones
Apple Will Let Users Deactivate Performance Throttling on iPhones.
Apple has come under fire in recent weeks for its decision to slow down older iPhones with degraded batteries, but it wasn’t just the actions that got Apple in hot water. What really irked consumers is that Apple did it without telling anyone or providing a way to opt out of the “optimization” features. Now, Apple CEO Tim Cook has relented, saying users will be able to turn off the power management features.
Apple’s PR nightmare begins a year ago with the release of iOS 10.2.1. That was the first version of the OS that checked battery health and made changes to system performance when a battery was not working well. All lithium-ion batteries lose some voltage as they age, and Apple found that some of its phones were unable to keep the high-power CPU cluster powered as the batteries got old. The solution was to throttle performance on these devices to prevent unexpected shutdowns.
After months of increasingly frustrated complaints from iPhone owners, benchmarking firm Geekbench poured over its data and confirmed that, yes, newer versions if iOS had introduced throttling without telling anyone. Apple is currently defending itself against several lawsuits related to the incident. It has also offered to replace the battery in any affected iPhone for $29. A new battery resets the optimization settings, returning a device to full performance.
Apple CEO Tim Cook.