Apple purposefully slows the operation of older phones

[L. Coyote]

Link to tweet

[Dr Hobbitstein]

1. Not NEARLY as nefarious as it sounds.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2017/12/20/apple-addresses-why-people-are-saying-their-iphones-with-older-batteries-are-running-slower/amp/

Because of a Reddit post and the loose interpretation of subsequent benchmark tests posted by Primate Labs’ John Poole, the “Apple throttles old iPhones” meme has reared its ugly head again.

The gist, as it always is, is that Apple is being super petty and trying to force customers to upgrade their phones by making their old phones run slower.

As always, the answer is no. It would be beyond stupid and incredibly short-sighted for Apple to do this and, if it was actually true, would likely lead to tangles of a governmental and legal nature that no company like Apple would ever want to happen.

Instead, Apple is focusing attention on smoothing out the very high and quick peaks of power draw that can cause problems with older batteries.

[Demsrule86]

23. Oh it is true...just ask anyone who bought the stinking IPODS.

Windows did it too...might take some time but apple should consider that Windows is not making phones anymore.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

24. Did you read the link I posted?

Those are the actual facts, from actual tech experts.

The only time they are slowed down is when the batteries are no longer functioning properly. It’s to prevent random shutdowns, which were an issue prior.

[FreeState]

2. Bad title - thats not what is happening

Apple slows the operating system when the battery degrades. Put a new battery in and it speeds back up.

[Hortensis]

21. Thanks, FreeState and DrHobbitstein, for information.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

22. No problem!

[Gabi Hayes]

3. All I know is what they told me about my iPad 2: it wont handle the new iOS updates, and became

Unusable after three years. Junk

Now I have a new one from costco and will use it for three months

If I like it, I might keep it, but sure looks like planned obsolescence to me....

[Dr Hobbitstein]

4. Just because it can't run the newest iOS doesn't make it junk.

My boss still runs a first gen iPad, with zero issues. He's stuck 3 versions back.

That's kind of how computers work. Old ones won't run the latest and greatest.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. I know....just pissed that I cant used it anymore. I want a MOUSE!

Touch screen eats

[Dr Hobbitstein]

8. Unless it's broken, you can use it just fine...

Of course, if you want something with a mouse, buy a computer, not a tablet.

[Gabi Hayes]

10. Well aware. My old iPad doesnt even turn on anymore, after running as fast as a slug in molasses

Apple store told me not to even bother bringing it in. Said it wasn’t worth looking at. They could’ve been shining me, but what am I sposed to do? I can barely work my way around the basic garbage. So I bought an iPad from costco

I was using a Bluetooth keyboard with an iPod Touch for awhile. That was fun

One thing I stumbled upon is that I can watch appletv/YouTube and go to other sites at the same time without signing up for the rotten YouTube red, or whatever scam they call it....

Made my day

[Dr Hobbitstein]

13. Yeah, most likely your battery is dead...

Some of the older ones aren't worth replacing.

When they start slowing down, usually it's the battery on it's way out.

[TheBlackAdder]

6. I'm running on a 16-year-old PC. While Windows is a bit of a pain, Linux runs fine on it.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

7. Linux is, of course, far less taxing.

Apple blocks installs if it won't run smooth. Smart on their end.

ETA: I run a dual core Pentium that I built 10 years ago. I added an SSD and a better graphics card, but it's maxed at 4g ram. It runs Windows 7 flawlessly.

I also run a 2012 Mac Mini i7 quad core with 16gig ram and an SSD. It will run the latest MacOS just fine (although the audio interface I use in my recording studio hasn't been supported by Mac or Windows since 2012, so I'm actualy about 3 or 4 versions behind on MacOS until I can upgrade the antiquated hardware, but it works fine, so why bother?).

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Win10 is bloated with NSA collectors, Cortana, Amazon directory reporting, etc.

That was one of the big pushes MS did, to force people to upgrade from WIN7 and above.

They are trying to harvest as much user data, pass it to Amazon for direct marketing, to Microsoft and then to the NSA. I had a course on US Intelligence and the doctor teaching it, who the military consults at times, says WIN10 is the most insecure and intrusive operating system on the market.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

14. Yeah, I can't stand it.

My daughter's laptop came with it installed. I downgraded it to 7, which IMHO, is the last good MS OS.

[TheBlackAdder]

17. I'm waiting for the Hades Canyon to come out, if it isn't good, I'm going with a Zotc water-cooled.

Intel came out with a nice mini PC, called the Skull Canyon, but it had noise issues. The Hades Canton is its replacement.

I'm looking for a near silent system that is low powered and can sit on the desk without being too obvious.


The operating system will be Qubes OS, and I'll run Windows VM windows underneath it. When you close them out, they are completely removed and do not affect the Qubes OS operating system. I want to do this for privacy, as I will be working on sensitive copyright material and I do not want images of it sent up to Microsoft's Cloud. I'm an IT officer, and public clouds are one of the most insecure places to store information. Companies need indemnity insurance to cover events, because it's not if the data gets stolen or compromised, but when.

[Atman]

12. Bullshit. My wife is still using her iPad 2 every day.

Who is the "they" that told you your iPad 2 was junk? Sounds like you were suckered by a salesman at BestBuy

Will it run the newest IOS? No, but pretty damned close. It runs just fine. More Apple bashing. I'm more freaked out about it than my wife is because her iPad has a horrible case that's really dated. Just kidding.

Seriously, your iPad is just fine. Unless you want all the fancy features like Siri (why would you?) than your old iPad will work just fine.

[Gabi Hayes]

16. Take it easy.....it wont even turn on. Is that not the definition of junk? Tell me somebody who

Will even look at it. I’d be happy to get it fixed, and run earlier IOS, but whatever I have now (can’t see it cause it’s.....dead) made it too slow to use. What am I supposed to do?

I have no need for bells and whistles. YouTube....here....email....Netflix/Apple TV. That’s about it. Siri is totally worthless. I asked her where the shutdown menu for a MacBook was (the menu bar was hidden) And all she’d give me was a list of Chinese restaurants....over and over

Finally called support; waited for an hour

Not apple bashing, btw. I want to keep mac cause I hate hate hate micro, and am too old/ignoro to use other systems

Just want as little aggro as possible

If you can tell me how to turn it on (lights up for about a minute then goes blank again after full charge), or who to take it to, I’d be more than happy to go back to it.

[Atman]

18. Your iPad's symptoms have nothing to do with the new IOS.

Maybe a completely dead battery? My wife's iPad has been through this -- two years ago, it's still functioning. Leave it plugged in for a day, you'd be surprised. It might pop back to life.

All I'm saying is, don't jump to blaming Apple just because of today's news stories. We've done NOTHING to my wife's iPad, despite having it blackout for almost 12 hours. Just updated IOS, and it works fine since. I'm not saying yours isn't toast, but don't give up on it. Let it go! Make sure it's shut down, leave it plugged in for a day or two. You'd be surprised.

Just sayin'. I could be wrong, but I speak from experience.

[Gabi Hayes]

19. Ive done all that, done a factory reset, which worked ok til the next IOS download, which got

through despite my assiduously refusing to accept. Then it got bad again

News stories have only kept me from downloading the latest IOS, which they badger me about relentlessly, til it’s deemed OK.....what’s the word? I haven’t checked, and don’t know who to believe, anyway

That’s the good thing about costco....they still do a three month take back, with no problem.

I might keep this if it works out, but if I can get the old one fixed, i’d Be happy to row in the same boat as you all are

I don’t blame Apple, nor do I trust them; it was the apple store that didh’t want to look at it in the first place

I appreciate the advice, and listening to YouTube while I type is nice again.....

How do you deal with Adblock,etal., on safari? I could never get it to load....tried ublock this time, and it ignored the download commands, several times, so I gave up. I switch to Firefox on and off, in search of losing the ad garbage

This is how little I know: does going mozilla subject me to PC concerns: virus/malware/worms, etc?

Thanks

[Atman]

20. My tech-geek son tells me Firefox is the Internet Explorer of today.

He installed Chrome on my machine on my last update. I also use Ghostery for ad blocking. It works quite well on Safari.

[brooklynite]

15. Nobody makes you upgrade to the new IOS...

Your iPad 2 is 6 years old; in computer terms thats ages ago.

[mythology]

11. While Apple didn't disclose this properly (a common issue with tech companies)

This is actually fairly consumer friendly. It slows the iPhone if the battery is older and can't operate as well. My Samsung phone has a similar issue where sometimes when the battery is low (but not critical), it will turn itself off. I find that rather annoying.

If you want something on this to criticize Apple for, it's making it so bloody hard to replace the battery and like many companies, not being fully transparent about what they are doing.