Why does the old iPhone slow down with the release of a new version, and how to avoid it. Apple apologizes for secretly slowing down older iPhone models
Almost every iPhone release is accompanied by a loud scandal related to the build quality of the smartphone. The iPhone 4 had “Antennagate” (it lost connection in your hands), the iPhone 6 had “Bendgate” (it bent). How is the iPhone X doing in this regard? Today we can already say that there are problems.
iPhone X screen problems
Air bubbles
“If you press on them, they disappear, but after 10-15 minutes they come back again.”
Obviously, the problem is not isolated - several other Reddit subscribers complained about the same thing.
Apparently, they had a problem with the glue that connects the glass and the OLED display. During the assembly process, all iPhones go through an air pumping procedure, so this is a common manufacturing defect.
Another Reddit user noted that a small circle appeared on the display of his iPhone X:
"WITH top part The display is fine, but the bottom one very easily collects smudges and fingerprints. It feels like the [oleophobic] display coating is not there at all, and this circle still remains.”
No other Reddit user reported a similar problem—apparently, something was wrong with the oleophobic coating.
iPhone X screen does not respond to touches at low temperatures
Many users have noted that the iPhone X display stops responding to touches in low temperatures (even at temperatures around zero degrees). Details.
Green stripe
Some owners flagship smartphone Apple is complaining about a vertical green bar that can appear anywhere on the display. Unfortunately, the bar cannot be removed either by rebooting or restoring the device. Details.
“Mesh”
From the words of one of iPhone owners X: if you reduce the display brightness to a minimum, then where gray text is displayed on the screen, a “grid” of various stripes begins to run. His observations were confirmed by another user:
“I think I noticed what you're talking about... When I scroll through posts, there's a slight red shadow on the gray text.”
Another user noted the same thing in the Control Center and in the multitasking menu (when the application is gray or white).
Another commenter recalled that this problem had already occurred on other devices:
"I don't quite understand what you mean by stripes, but on my old Galaxy The S8's display was terrible when I watched mostly dark videos on the lowest brightness settings."
Now it is not entirely clear what exactly we are talking about in this case. There can be two options - a manufacturing defect or a standard technology OLED problem with shades and colors, which Apple recently recognized.
Problems with iPhone X speakers
iPhone X owners also complain about the appearance of crackling and buzzing noises during any sound playback, including listening to music and videos, telephone conversations, alarm tones and ringtones. The problem is found on all iPhone X configurations.
Problems with Face ID on iPhone X
Social networks have been flooded with numerous videos demonstrating hacking or incorrect operation Face ID. Thus, Vietnamese enthusiasts demonstrated deception iPhone sensor X using a $150 mask.
In addition, there is a known story of a ten-year-old boy who was able to unlock his mother’s iPhone X using Face ID.
Problems with the iPhone X case
SquareTrade specialists say that new smartphone Apple is the most fragile smartphone created by developers from Cupertino. iPhone display X, like its glass rear end easily break after falling onto a hard surface from a height of just over a meter. It is worth considering that replacing the screen or back part in an official service will cost almost half the cost of an iPhone.
Of course, a few alarming messages are not a reason to panic. However, you can understand the feelings of upset iPhone X owners: when you buy a smartphone at a price good computer, you inevitably expect that everything will be fine with him. But defects in the first batches are an inevitable price to pay for the opportunity to become one of the first buyers. There is a long-proven rule in this regard: for those who do not want to become a victim of a manufacturing defect and spoil their mood, it is better to purchase a new one Apple smartphone six months after the start of sales.
Based on materials from yablyk
After the scandal with the slowdown of old iPhone models, which Apple managed to hide for a couple of years, the “apple” company decided to bring official apologies to all your clients. Previously, Apple admitted that it actually reduced processor performance in secret from the user.
“We know some of you feel like Apple has let you down. We apologize. There has been a lot of misunderstanding regarding this matter, so we want to clear things up and share some of the changes we are working on,” the post reads.
Apple emphasized that it has never intentionally shortened the lifespan of any of its Apple products. “Our goal has been to create products our customers love, and extending the life of iPhone is an important part of that,” the company says.
In their statement, the Cupertino team once again recalled that lithium-ion batteries of smartphones wear out over time, and therefore can no longer cope with peak loads, which can lead to unexpected shutdowns of the gadget.
That's why Apple decided to add a feature to the iOS 10.2.1 update that deliberately lowers processor performance on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE models. This allows you to not load the battery and avoid reboots.
WITH iOS release 11.2, the same function became available for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
Atypical behavior
This story left a bad taste, so Apple decided to take several steps to “regain the trust of those who began to doubt our intentions.”
To compensate, the company has reduced the price of battery replacement from $79 to $29 for all owners of iPhone 6 or newer models who need new battery. This promotion will last from the end of January to December 2018.
In addition, in new version iOS user will be able to monitor the state of its battery, and thus have an idea of the reasons for the “slowdown” of its gadget.
“For us, the trust of our customers is the most important thing, so we will continue to work to maintain it. We do what we love because of your faith and support—something we will never forget or take for granted,” Apple said in a statement.
Experts believe that such a move on Apple's part is extraordinary in many respects. In principle, an iPhone manufacturer does not often ask for forgiveness, but if this happens, then the reason for the apology is shortcomings in the software or problems in the hardware. This time, Apple had to apologize for a decision that was made deliberately without notifying its customers.
Thus, to paraphrase the famous meme, Apple apologized not for the “bug”, but for the “feature”, which means it admitted that it had made a mistake.
Apple shines the corner
Meanwhile, Apple will have to deal with several lawsuits that were submitted to the relevant authorities after it became known that iPhones were being deliberately slowed down. One of the plaintiffs is demanding a trillion dollars from the company because the Cupertino people misled her.
In addition, Apple was accused of unfair competition and hiding important information from its customers.
One of the lawsuits was filed in France, where, unlike America, intentional wear and tear of a device is considered a criminal matter.
The maximum penalty in this case is two years in prison for the defendant.
In light of recent events, an apology and a discount on battery replacements, it is unclear whether these legal cases will be brought to an end, or whether Apple will be able to negotiate a peaceful outcome. In any case, the consequences of this December scandal, which was caused by “the desire to provide the best consumer experience,” will be felt for a long time and will undoubtedly affect the reputation of the Tim Cook company.
Apple representatives officially admitted that the company deliberately underestimates the characteristics of the software old iPhones in new iOS updates. But, as the corporation assures, all this is done for the benefit of users - so that the battery does not run out on their gadgets that have begun to work poorly.
In early December, Reddit users drew attention to strange cases occurring in lately with the past iPhone generations: Some owners of sixth-generation smartphones noticed that their devices began to work slower. The discussion started with a post from Redditor TeckFire. He noticed strange things in technical specifications your iPhone 6S. Tests of a program released by an independent developer showed that its processor works with clock frequency processor, strikingly different from the official characteristics.
TeckFire initially thought the problem was old firmware, and updated iOS, but the processor frequency did not change. At the same time, his brother's phone, which had the same iOS version, showed other processor characteristics that were closer to normal. After some thought, the author of the post replaced the battery in the phone, and everything returned to normal - the processor again began to work at the same speed.
The Redditor suggested that Apple is adding a system feature hidden from users to the firmware. It reduces the speed of the processor when the battery in the phone loses capacity. TeckFire speculates that this feature may have been added to the system to ensure that users with "depleted" batteries do not experience shortened battery life. iPhone work without recharging - the slower the processor runs, the slower the battery will drain.
TechCrunch became interested in the problem of redditors (and it was noticed not only by TeckFire). Its representatives wrote a letter to the corporation asking for clarification of the situation with processor frequency surges. Apple released an official response and admitted several things in it: that the redditors' guess was absolutely correct, that hidden function, which buyers don’t know about, has been present in iOS for a year now, and as far as it concerns only phones old model. At the same time, the company stated that all this was done for the benefit of users.
Our goal is to provide the best experience to customers, which includes overall performance and extending the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries are less able to deliver the required amount of current in cold conditions, and over time they lose battery power, which can cause the device to shut down unexpectedly to protect electronic components.
Last year, we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, and iPhone SE that lowers the maximum specifications only when necessary to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down when cold or due to low battery. We have now extended this feature to iPhone 7 with using iOS 11.2 and plan to add support for other products in the future.
Apple says it downgrades "only when necessary," but TeckFire tested its iPhone with the battery at 80 percent charge. Moreover, talking about “ best experience and productivity,” the company is silent on how to iPhone buyers, which, due to lowering the processor frequency, have difficulty working with applications that previously worked normally.
Well, in the end, Apple does not explain why this feature was added secretly from users, and in general, why shouldn’t buyers decide for themselves what is more important to them - performance or battery life of the phone.
Do you think that on the day of the start of sales this year in Russia there will be a queue at GUM, which premiered last week? We have no doubt that, despite the obvious impoverishment of the population, the queue for the next “toys” of Jobs (or, probably, Cook) will be longer this time than in previous years. And the crowd will not be stopped by the price of new fashionable handsets, some models of which, after the next weakening of the ruble, have hit the “hundredth mark” (yes, several iPhone models will cost more than 100 thousand rubles in Russia).
It would seem, what kind of event is this? The next smartphone from Apple, which - let's be honest - this time really didn't surprise us with anything. Well, they spoiled the iPhone X a little, well, they released a terribly ugly budget (although I wouldn’t dare call it a budget) smartphone. But no, in fact, this time Apple is really going to “sell” smartphones to the whole world that have practically nothing new, for the same money (or more) phones they paid for a year ago.
And for our country, the new X models will be even more expensive. As a result, just think that the iPhone XS 512 Gb Max model costs 127,990 rubles. And this is for regular smartphone with most features used by only 2 percent of the population. Yes, this is the price of a good laptop!
Or think about it: four iPhone XS Max cost as much as . Or, instead of three new top-end smartphones, you can buy a new Lada Granta restyling. You can also buy a two-year-old used Hyundai Solaris in decent condition instead of five iPhones.
Well, now we have lived, as you can see, to the time when a telephone began to cost the same money as a laptop (interesting, I dreamed about this Steve Jobs, when he presented the first iPhone model?) . What a laptop, several new non-Ukrainian handsets cost as much as a used car.
Yes, even if a domestic car is an old “foreign car”, it is a car that cannot be compared with any phone. Yes, even if it is cast from gold, it will still remain electronic gadget called a phone/smartphone and cannot compare with a car.
What's going on with the world? As the anti-hero Antibiotic said from the film “Gangster Petersburg”: “What’s going on?”
And unlike the hero of this film, who finally got to the bottom of the truth, the phenomenon with Apple phones you are unlikely to find a logical and reasonable explanation. This is the fashion for gadgets, and fanaticism from Apple, and much more, from trends in society to...
As a result of many combined factors, many people around the world are ready to spend days and days waiting for the latest new products from Cupertino, spending their last money, or taking out credit for a cherished gadget with half-imposed and unnecessary functions, which the head of the company, Tim Cook, spoke about during the presentation of new smartphones, It's like Apple invented a perpetual motion machine.
On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with such iPhone craze. Well, you have the opportunity - buy a phone, even for 200 or even 300 thousand (just don’t take it on credit, taking the last money from the family).
The market is the market. Apple does what the consumer wants. Although, it seems to us, the consumer has long been waiting for some new achievements, new required functions. But, alas, the American company has not even thought about moving forward for several years. And this is logical. Why change anything when you can just make money on old smartphones wrapped in a new wrapper, calling technologies that appeared on Android phones 5 years ago a huge step in the smartphone market?
The worst thing is that half the world is following the cunning people from California. Especially the younger generation of people who don’t care what an American company does with their minds.
Do you know why this happens? The thing is that the world is becoming dumber right now, turning into a brainless consumer.
Have you ever wondered why over the past 20-30 years there have been practically no breakthroughs in the world (it’s a shame to even talk about Russia) in the field of any outstanding global projects? For example, why in the last century in just 10-20 years we conquered space, and the Americans flew to the moon, and now, 20 years later, things are still there? Where are the new scientific discoveries? ? And you can ask very, very many such questions.
Do you know what the answer to these questions is? The thing is that today's society, and especially the younger generation, does not care about science or any breakthroughs in technology. Now give the majority some product or service. As a result, many people enjoy life after receiving an iPhone, buying an expensive shirt on credit and eating a Big Mac. You and I live in an era of mass consumption of everything and everyone, which has long clouded our minds.
What do many people need to be happy today? A fashionable phone, beautiful clothes, a car, an expensive dog, a watch. The list goes on for a long time.
Alas, science is not in fashion today. Today, unnecessary gadgets are in fashion, but not science. Unfortunately, the era of reckless consumption is literally making people stupid. It won’t take long to reach the Middle Ages and start believing in witches and warlocks. And the beginning has already been made.
You watch the Ren-TV channel with anti-science programs. And the worst thing is that in Russia (and not only) more and more people are again starting to believe in fortune tellers, psychics, etc. Do you think television is to blame? No. The media always provide only the information that society wants to see and hear.
Unfortunately, all this is very difficult for many to understand, and for some, not at all. Especially for those who are ready to spend their last money on an iPhone or buy a smartphone on credit. And, naturally, it is unrealistic to reach their minds. A consumer is a consumer. He lives in another world.
But you must agree that instead American smartphones This money would be better used for something else. Well, for example, buy a less expensive phone and spend the remaining money on your family, or even help orphans by sending help to some fund.
But, alas, such thoughts usually do not appear in consumers’ heads. There's emptiness...