Major iOS Upgraded Disaster

[a1call]

Interesting CBC infestation video.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/...pire-1.4855069

[a1call]

Apple last year apologised for deliberately slowing down older iPhones. The company later tried to fix the performance on old devices with its iOS 12 update. But it appears the company is going ahead with its controversial performance throttling mechanism anyway.
...

Apple has just rolled out 12.1 update that brings back the “performance management system” for older iPhones. Interestingly enough, the list of older iPhones include iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X – phones that are just one year old,

https://m.hindustantimes.com/tech/ap...H4QRy69YI.html

[fivemack]

Performance management is a reasonable reaction to old batteries - Apple CPUs do tend to draw three to four watts when they run flat out, and if the battery drops voltage when asked to deliver that much current you’ll get unwanted power-downs.

Don’t blame the OS maker for app companies who neglect their applications after release ... the price of getting Apple to be your retail channel is that you can’t release an app once and expect the same version to work five years later.

[retina]

Originally Posted by fivemack

Don’t blame the OS maker for app companies who neglect their applications after release ...

But you can blame Apple for designing the devices to last only a limited time. Those unchangeable/integrated batteries are the worst idea ever. Batteries are a consumable item. Once all the energetic goodness has been wringed out of the battery the user is expected to buy a whole new device. You don't buy a car with unchangeable tires, and you shouldn't buy a pocket computer with unchangeable batteries.

[fivemack]

Originally Posted by retina

But you can blame Apple for designing the devices to last only a limited time. Those unchangeable/integrated batteries are the worst idea ever. Batteries are a consumable item. Once all the energetic goodness has been wringed out of the battery the user is expected to buy a whole new device. You don't buy a car with unchangeable tires, and you shouldn't buy a pocket computer with unchangeable batteries.

No, once the battery is worn, which takes a couple of years, you take the device to the Apple Store and they change the battery for you for £25, £65 or £79. Changing the battery is reasonably straightforward with the proper tools (I say 'reasonably straightforward' because the Apple Store did manage to break my iPhone 6S+ when doing so; this meant, because Apple understand customer service, that I left the shop with a freshly-reconditioned iPhone 6S+ at no extra cost beyond an hour spent waiting for iCloud backups to restore over the shop's wifi).

[retina]

Originally Posted by fivemack

No, once the battery is worn, which takes a couple of years, you take the device to the Apple Store and they change the battery for you for £25, £65 or £79. Changing the battery is reasonably straightforward with the proper tools (I say 'reasonably straightforward' because the Apple Store did manage to break my iPhone 6S+ when doing so; this meant, because Apple understand customer service, that I left the shop with a freshly-reconditioned iPhone 6S+ at no extra cost beyond an hour spent waiting for iCloud backups to restore over the shop's wifi).

£25 for a battery is a rip-off price. It shouldn't need "specialised tools" to do a simple battery change. It shouldn't be so hard to change a battery that even a "trained professional" (aka a store sales person) with the "proper tools" can still manage to break the device. Plus you can't carry around a spare battery and change it out on demand when you need.

TL;DR - You get less flexibility with higher costs and more delays.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by retina

But you can blame Apple for designing the devices to last only a limited time. Those unchangeable/integrated batteries are the worst idea ever. Batteries are a consumable item. Once all the energetic goodness has been wringed out of the battery the user is expected to buy a whole new device. You don't buy a car with unchangeable tires, and you shouldn't buy a pocket computer with unchangeable batteries.

How about a car with an unchangeable battery? Oh, wait -- maybe a Tesla? I don't know, I can't afford one of those things.

There seems to be quite a variety of things maliciously designed to make routine maintenance difficult or impossible. Apple designed its computer mouse so it would be very difficult to open it up, clean the dust out of the works, put it back together, and have it work.


I have a 2-cycle weed whacker whose manual recommends cleaning the exhaust port annually -- but you have to have a qualified professional do it! I examined the thing visually, and found the reason why: gaining access to the exhaust port requires removing some screws -- and one of the screws was positioned so that the plastic housing blocked access with a screwdriver. Removing the housing -- and getting it back on and having everything work -- was the hard part. For one thing, the pull cord went through the housing.



In both cases, I went on line, and discovered DIY-ers had posted workarounds.

[VictordeHolland]

Apple gives devices 4-5 years of software support/updates. With most Android phones it is 2-3 years security updates and you might not get an upgrade to a higher version.
For instance, my Samsung Galaxy S6 (released April 2015) came with Android 5, got upgrades till Android 7 (but not 8!) and the last security update was in April 2018.

[Nick]

Easily replaceable batteries are bad for the supplier because the consumer gets to choose who to buy the battery from and so the battery price drops.
Easily replaceable batteries are bad for anyone gathering data from the device because the target gets the ability to turn her phone off when they want it to stay on.

[GP2]

Originally Posted by Nick

Easily replaceable batteries are bad for the supplier because the consumer gets to choose who to buy the battery from and so the battery price drops.

But then the price drops so much that the battery manufacturers cut corners and then the device catches fire. An then it's a big PR disaster because in the public's eye the phone manufacturer will get blamed.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Nick

Easily replaceable batteries are bad for the supplier because the consumer gets to choose who to buy the battery from and so the battery price drops.
Easily replaceable batteries are bad for anyone gathering data from the device because the target gets the ability to turn her phone off when they want it to stay on.

These are two outstanding points. They highlight why Apple is so very wealthy. They have retained tight control over their supply chain; which helps protect the money spigot which is the flood of data collected from a phone which can never be truly off.