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Tech

22nd Dec 2017

Apple faces lawsuit after admitting it slows down old iPhones

Big news this week

Alan Loughnane

Big news this week…

Earlier this week, Apple admitted that it had been throttling the processing power of iPhones with older batteries using iOS updates.

They claimed to do this to “to protect its electronic components” as their batteries age and become less potent and, therefore, make the device last longer.

In a statement to The Verge, Apple said: “Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions.

“We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”

However, they never told consumers this until now and some have been complaining that the practice, even though it elongates a phone’s life, would likely convince customers to buy a new one.

On the back of the revelations, Apple was hit by two separate class action lawsuits this week, one filed in California, and another lawsuit filed in Illinois.

Both are claiming that Apple did not have user consent to slow down their phones.

Topics:

Apple,iPhone