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High School Student Tyler Barney Was The One Who Discovered Apple’s Slowdown Technique

High School Student Tyler Barney Was The One Who Discovered Apple’s Slowdown Technique

He ran some tests on his iPhone's battery capabilities and posted the results on Reddit

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Apple has been under some intense scrutiny over claims it deliberately slowed down people's phones in a bid to get them to upgrade. It's not as if they cost a few quid, they're incredibly expensive and getting a newer device can make a serious dent in your wallet.

The tech giant admitted it was slowing down phones only to prevent them from shutting down randomly, but that was only after a crafty American teenager was able to prove it.

Tyler Barney, 17, from Tennessee, posted on Reddit his experiences of his lagging iPhone 6S. His message read: "I did some research, and decided to replace my battery. Wear level was somewhere around 20 percent on my old battery.

Tyler Barney
Tyler Barney

Credit: Fox17

"I did a Geekbench score, and found I was getting 1466 Single and 2512 Multi. This did not change whether I had low power mode on or off.

"After changing my battery, I did another test to check if it was just a placebo. Nope. 2526 Single and 4456 Multi.

"From what I can tell, Apple slows down phones when their battery gets too low, so you can still have a full day's charge."

The post went viral and customers were pissed.

Many responded on Reddit with similar experiences, but thought it was just their individual device or them using too many apps.

Apple Battery
Apple Battery

Credit: PA

Apple responded to the growing fiasco and admitted that an operating system upgrade allowed the iPhone to slow down the processor in order to save battery power.

Don't get me wrong, we all love our phones lasting until the end of the day, but when it takes ages to load an app or type a message, then we have a problem.

The company is now facing a pretty severe PR nightmare and a few lawsuits which, if successful, could cost them dearly. As a way to save face, they've issued an apology to customers and will slash the cost of getting a battery replacement in the new year.

The letter says: "First and foremost, we have never - and would never - do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.

Apple iPhone X
Apple iPhone X

Credit: PA

"We've been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process."

You can read the message in full here.

But the teenage who sparked this almighty shit storm says we shouldn't be angry at Apple too much.

Speaking to Fox 17, Tyler says: "A lot of people are kind of blaming Apple saying, 'I feel so betrayed,' but the more I looked into it, the more I found this was basically inevitable, whether it be Android or iPhones."

Sources: Fox 17, Apple, Reuters

Featured Image Credit: Fox17/PA

Topics: World News, News, US News, Technology, Apple, iPhone