Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 878 posts

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#391

Post by metasaval »

pishpash wrote: post #253
eddieh wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, this is just how Apple is treated by much of the industry. People love to hate Apple, so there will always be: "Fingerprint Scanner: how Apple is stealing your identity and eroding your privacy", "Thin phones: how your phone will break in half", "WiFi On/Off: Apple & NSA tracking you even when you think your WiFi is off" articles, etc. This battery thing is just the latest Apple FUD and panic with a pe…

Corporations don't have feelings, no need to be so personally attached. Who cares if Apple gets hate?

I don't think anybody really cares that much, except for I guess the biggest of Apple fanboys. There are fanboys for everything: Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. There's also the inverse, haters for everything. It is interesting, however, how MUCH hate Apple gets proportionally to other companies. Especially around this story, there was a lot of misinformation around what was really going on. There just seem to be a lot more people willing to bash Apple for everything, moreso than there are people doing the same to other companies. And especially more than there are Apple fanboys.

I do use Apple products, but every company and product should be scrutinized equally. Not that it matters if Apple gets hate, they're still a billion dollar company, but I do find it interesting on why they get that hate at times when it's not really worth it.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#392

Post by geophile »

That's well and good, but this letter avoids the elephant in the room. Apple has gone way too far in sacrificing functionality for style.

I'll accept a seam in the phone, and a slightly thicker phone, if I could replace the battery myself. (That might also avoid the camera bump.)

The latest MBP really shit the bed with that poorly conceived touchbar, and the horribly inferior keyboard.

And in general, for many years now, Apple laptops have gotten far less serviceable in the name of sleekness.

Then there is the issue of software quality. That is a different issue, although perhaps the decline reflects corporate priorities, (sleek hardware is more important than anything). ITunes and Photos are just terrible. Bloated, confusing, inconsistent even within themselves, and certainly across releases. I dread having any contact with Apple's cloud -- it just never acts the way that I want it to, and I tread very carefully to avoid propagating deletes to places I don't want them to go. I don't want files to move seamlessly from one place to another, and to be downloaded on demand. It chews up my phone's monthly data allotment, and it doesn't work at all when I have no connection. Sharing is a disaster. I don't share anything because it is unclear who gets access to what.

Another aspect of software quality is a noticeable uptick in bugs. That iOS 11 texting bug (couldn't type "I" correctly) was a huge embarrassment, and it took an astoundingly long time to fix. And I heard many reports of crashes with iOS 11. My iPhone 6 is staying on iOS 10. Then there was the MacOS login-as-root-with-no-password bug.

I am seriously thinking about my non-Apple computer future. I have a mid-2015 MBP -- the last good one, as far as I'm concerned. I'm hoping that when I need an upgrade there will be some nice hardware compatible with Linux (fingers crossed for Razer). I'm stuck on the iPhone (because I trust Google not at all), so I'll need to figure out how to get that to coexist with Linux.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#393

Post by astrange »

SimonPStevens wrote: post #380

From the statement... "All rechargeable batteries are consumable components" If they are "consumable", why aren't they user replaceable. As far as I'm concerned any company that seals consumable parts inside a device isn't acting the interest of their users.

They can be replaced for $29.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#394

Post by euyyn »

kbyatnal wrote: post #263
colejohnson66 wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What about those of us that already paid to have the battery replaced? Devil’s advocate: one doesn’t complain if they buy something the day before it goes on sale at a store. It’s just bad luck.

Actually, you do complain and then get the store to match it or use your credit card price protection.

Or just go to the cashier and tell them you want to return it and buy it again at the discounted price. They don't even make you walk to pick a new one.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#395

Post by comicjk »

joering2 wrote: post #301
jmull wrote: post #115

> Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29... > Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance. There we go. It took too much trouble and too long for it to happen, but Apple is stepping u…

How long ago did you updated your kit from Amazon? I did days of research and did not come up with any seller with genuine quality batteries. Since two mildly exploded and one bloated to triple the size destroying the phone (mostly the case), I would be careful putting Amazon $25 batteries kit into expensive phone.

I did this with my iPhone 4S about four years ago with no problems. The kit was $10. I destroyed the old battery in the process of getting it out - too much glue - but the new one worked fine.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#396

Post by thanatropism »

matwood wrote: post #313
austenallred wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know it's not common for people to say this out loud, but I spent $1200 on an iPhone last month, and a. I don't care about a headphone jack, at all; I use Airpods and the experience is phenomenal b. Consider me crazy, but I actually like my phones getting smaller and lighter What if Apple is just making a phone for people like me, and is comfortable with those trade-offs?

I'm with you. The iPhone X is the best iPhone I've ever used. The headphone jack uproar was a tempest in a teapot. Apple saw the stats that either a) people use the headphone that come with the phone or b) they upgrade to wireless headphones. The small group of people using expensive wired headphones can afford an additional $7 permanent attachment. Yes, Apple prioritizes size and design over everything else. Removab…

I'm just an anecdote, but I lamented the removal of the headphone jack because it means my 6SE is my last iPhone.

I take pills for attention deficit disorder. I lose stuff. I lose corded and cordless headphones multiple times a month. And hey, I know my inattentiveness to be an annoying end of a spectrum. People have things going on in their lives. Not everyone neatly takes care of their in-separate-ears tiny bluetooth speakers. We're a segment of the market.

They're betting that they can do better without the likes of us -- lose some, earn more from the rest. Maybe their cash position enables them to take such risks.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#397

Post by metasaval »

satysin wrote: post #41

To be fair that is a pretty decent response. The reality is batteries do degrade over time and they have to manage that. They should have been transparent about what they were doing and I'm not sure giving the user control over it is all that sensible. Are there any battery experts who can chime in with their opinion on this?

As posted above, Android phones do show this behavior, too. However, and I'm no battery expert, I think that Apple was running the CPU incredibly close to the red line and draining the batter faster than necessary. They already have the fastest phone CPU by quite a large margin, they could probably run it at a lower frequency that the batteries can better match, leading to slower degrading.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#398

Post by siproprio »

In the support article [1], it says:

> Many key areas are not impacted by this power management feature. Some of these include:

> * Apple Pay

How could Apple Pay ever be affected by power management? Why are they even mentioning this service?

[1]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208387

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#399

Post by hendersoon »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #243
hendersoon wrote: post #68

That's a great response PR-wise, but it doesn't answer the question of why these batteries are degrading to a point where unexpected shutdowns are a concern in a single year. The iPhone 7 is only one year old. That just isn't OK.

Design flaw. They use small batteries so there is absolutely no slack.

Perhaps. That could explain why other phone manufacturers don't do it.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/28/16825288/...

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#400

Post by shock-value »

jkestner wrote: post #370
marklyon wrote: post #73

My wife’s 6+ was incredibly slow after the iOS upgrade. My 6+ drained the battery incredibly quickly. I was told that upgrading the iOS would fix that problem [0]; it didn’t. Instead it slowed my phone to the point of being unusable. If I’d have known replacing the battery would have fixed both of them, I’d have done that. Instead, I stupidly bought two new, very expensive phones. Since we were already locked into th…

The battery issue is unrelated to your slowdowns if you were experiencing them constantly. Lost in all the media reports is that the throttling only happens at peak system power demand. My 6s Plus also was constantly slow until last week, when I backed it up, wiped it, and restored. Now it's as fast as ever, on the latest iOS. We take the underlying computer for granted, but apparently the iPhone can benefit from a c…

This is not true according to my experience. See https://imgur.com/a/VH0Bs. Note that in my case the performance restoration came about after I had my battery replaced -- no data wiping or other system cleaning occurred.

> Lost in all the media reports is that the throttling only happens at peak system power demand.

Throttling at least occurs during app loading. Apple admits as much and it was true (subjectively) in my experience. If loading an app qualifies as "peak system power demand" your point is kind of lost because loading apps is something everyone with a mobile device does very frequently.

Post reply on HN