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Apple Hit With Class Action Lawsuit After Admitting To Slowing Down Old iPhones (appleinsider.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Apple Insider: A day after Apple acknowledged slowing down iPhones with degraded batteries, a Los Angeles man is pursuing a class action lawsuit in the matter. Owners didn't agree to the prospect, and it hurts the devices' value, according to a filing by plaintiff Stefan Bodganovich, cited by TMZ. The case is said to be particularly concerned with the impact on iPhone 7 users. The suit asks that Apple stop throttling older devices, and pay compensation to affected people. Over the course of December, a number of people on Reddit and elsewhere have speculated that iPhones perform faster after battery replacements, mostly citing anecdotal evidence. Apple effectively confirmed that situation on Wednesday, but with the provision that it only throttles phones to prevent sudden, potentially damaging shutdowns. UPDATE: A second lawsuit has been filed against the company. Chicago Sun-Times reports "five customers have filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago against the tech giant for what they're calling 'deceptive, immoral and unethical' practices that violate consumer protection laws."
Slow down old phones, customers see how much faster the new ones are....profit!
If you bought a new phone because the old one got slow, when all you needed was a new batter costing 1/10th as much even at Apple's official service charges, you were tricked into wasting a lot of money.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Does the slow-down also happen when the phone is plugged into the wall?
If yes, then this lawsuit has a huge case here! Still, it should be noted in the manual at the minimum of this 'feature'.
He's the original boob and this was probably his idea.
This is retarded. There's clear reasons why someone would potentially want this feature. The suit shouldn't request they stop doing it, but rather make it optional and put it in control of the user.
Full disclosure: Typing this on a laptop which gives me the choice of performance or battery life in the power settings.
This exact points was covered in the discussion thread to an earlier slashdot article which covered this story.
Someone posted the results of some speed tests they had performed and it indicated that the performance degradation is driven by a software check on the handset version, not the condition of the battery.
Apple have a tremendous opportunity to dig themselves out of this with some excellent PR - by issuing a new version of iOS which doesn't only remove this feature, but which includes an App that gives a detailed, accurate summary of battery performance, with a recommendation regarding replacement.
If they were to do this, they might be able to turn this PR disaster into a positive story. It's just shocking [criminally shocking] that they are doing this in the first place.
Tim Cook rails against the privacy-invading business model of other tech companies, then we learn they accept billions in secret payments from Google to enable said business model on their phones. Apple release a software fix they claims resolves a shutdown issue they previously denied even exists, then we learn the "fix" was a hack that throttles the phone performance to unusable levels, which serves to both save them hundreds of millions in additional recall costs while also surreptitiously motivating users to upgrade to a newer model to get a usable phone again. These are not the actions of an ethical company.
Companies are generally not in the business of being completely honest and transparent. Some companies are just less dishonest than others. A company exists solely for the purpose of making money at any "legal" means necessary. They do this through a veneer of honesty and integrity. Show me a large company that has behaved 100% honestly and ethically. I am hard pressed to think of any.
Class action lawsuit settled. Lawyers to get $30 million. Phone customers to get a coupon for $5 off a new iPhone.
never noticed fires in cell phones? it doesn't man every phone catches on fire.
No, I haven't noticed nor seen any information regarding any increase in risk of old cell phones catching fire due to taxing an older battery. Is this unique to Apple?
I guess Apple is safe, then. The battery isn't glued in on iOS devices; I've replaced the battery in every phone my wife and I have ever had.
iOS devices are clearly designed to be serviced. Much like a watch, requires tools and more skill than a two year old.
Seriously, your "non-replacable battery" is pure bullshit. As with any machine, you need to use the right tools for the job.
Even on the glued-in MacBook batteries, Apple has always had a solvent to release the glue for servicing, and (shocker), it's even been reverse-engineered by the folks at iFixit.
If you're not willing to use the correct tools, find somebody who will -- which is pretty much why Apple replaces the batteries at cost (with the main cost being the guy willing to use the correct tools.)
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
We need to start taxing devices into which batteries have been glued. If an end-user can't replace the battery themselves, the lifespan of electronic devices is cut significantly. This results in more waste, and should be taxed accordingly.
This practice needs to stop.
Apple has a flat-rate iPhone battery replacement service for $79.
Now what?