Very spicy episode this week on The CultCast: We break down why everyone is pissed that Apple is slowing down iPhones and Macs with older batteries, and how you can tell if you’re being throttled. Plus, it’s been a great year for Apple hardware — don’t miss our picks for Apple gadget of the year!
Our thanks to Upsie for supporting this episode. Why pay $200 for AppleCare+ when an iPhone X accidental damage warranty from Upsie is $80 less? Get 10 percent off your first purchase at upsie.com with code “CultCast” at checkout.
Episode
CultCast #316 – The BEST Apple Gadgets of 2017!
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This week’s stories
How old batteries are slowing down your iPhone and Mac
- It all started with a post on Reddit (TeckFire):
- My iPhone 6S has been very slow these past few weeks, and even after updating multiple times, it was still slow. Couldn’t figure out why, but just thought that iOS 11 was still awful to me. Then I used my brother’s iPhone 6 Plus and his was faster than mine? This is when I knew something was wrong. So, I did some research, and decided to replace my battery. I did a Geekbench score before the battery change, and found I was getting 1466 Single and 2512 Multi. After changing my battery, I did another test, and this time it was 2526 for Single and 4456 for Multi. From what I can tell, Apple slows down phones when the battery gets too low.
Apple hit with two lawsuits over slowing down iPhones
- Apple has admitted to purposely throttling the performance of aging iPhones, but they say it’s not to shorten your device’s life, but to lengthen it.
- Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.
- 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.”
A bad battery will result in a slowed Mac too
Slow iPhone? Here’s how to check the health of your battery
- coconutBattery is a FREE Mac app that performs a single task — it checks the status of the battery in your Mac, or the battery of any iDevices connected to that Mac.
- It shows you the state of your battery health, charge cycle, and the current capacity vs. the designed capacity
- iStat menus also works for battery health and charge cycle plus a ton of other super useful information
Today in Apple history: Steve Jobs loses ‘Man of the Year’ award to the PC
- Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” issue hit newsstands on December 26, 1983, and Steve Jobs fully expected to be on the cover.
- The award represented just how far personal computers had come in just a few years, not just technologically but also as a world-changing industry.
- Apple, only five years old at the time, had not yet released the Macintosh. However, the Apple II was phenomenally successful. Apple was also on the verge of launching the Lisa, its first machine to offer a graphical user interface and mouse.
- But when Steve received his issue of Time, it was not himself on the but a PC. It was the first time the magazine had featured a non-human on the cover. <.li>
- Steve Jobs 27 years old. And when we ready to article, he was so upset, he actually cried.
