IOS gets option to make iPhones with outdated batteries faster

Apple will release an update within a few months, giving users the choice whether they want to make their iPhone with an outdated battery faster again. It is also visible how the battery in their phone is aging.

The update will be the first in a developer beta of the next iOS update, Tim Cook said in a video interview with ABC News. Then it will probably arrive in the final version of iOS a month later.

Apple doesn’t recommend turning off the phone slowdown feature, as it can lead to unexpected phone reboots, which the company says is inconvenient when you’re on a call, expecting a message, or want to take a photo. Cook vehemently denies that Apple was trying to encourage customers to buy new iPhones with the delay. “It’s about the user experience for us and we thought it was better to lower the speed than risk the phone rebooting.”

Cook says he apologizes to users because Apple made this change without clear communication. “We did say it, but apparently no one paid attention to it. Maybe we should have been clearer.” That statement is debatable: Apple reportedly discussed the change in a private meeting with a handful of journalists, but never discussed it publicly. In addition, Apple held back for a week and a half as users raised the alarm about slowing iPhones with aging batteries, despite many media outlets asking for comment. It was only after Geekbench released figures unequivocally demonstrating the delay that Apple confirmed the information.

Apple performed the update with iOS 10.2.1, because some iPhones were shutting down due to excessive peak load. This happens when the battery has lost part of its capacity due to age. The problem mainly affects smaller iPhones, because the battery in them has a lower capacity than the Plus models.

In addition to the update, users can replace the battery of their older model cheaper than usual. Apple has not confirmed or denied that the issue is due to a design flaw in its processors. Although every smartphone has to deal with aging batteries, the problem of falling phones from other brands occurs much less or not at all.