Apple confirmed last week that it’s going to release an iOS update to let users to disable the controversial throttling feature on old iPhones. It has announced iOS 11.3 today and it’s this firmware version that’s going to add a toggle for disabling processor throttling to end slowed performance on older iPhones with naturally degraded batteries. An iOS 11.3 beta has been released today but the new battery feature isn’t included.
Apple has been involved in the batterygate controversy for over a month now. Following reports that older iPhones had been slowed down, Apple confirmed that it sent out an iOS update last year to throttle processors on old iPhones with chemically degraded batteries.
The company did this to prevent those handsets from accidentally shutting down when the processor came under heavy load and that subsequently resulted in a power spike that the battery may not be able to handle. Apple throttled the processor on those handsets to ensure that there wasn’t power spike big enough that the battery couldn’t handle.
At the end of the day, what customers saw was that Apple was intentionally slowing down their iPhones. Some even felt that the company was doing this because it wanted them to upgrade their iPhones.
Apple has since apologized for the entire episode and has now confirmed that iOS 11.3 will bring the ability to opt out of this functionality when the software update is released this spring.
Once they install the update, they will be able to “see if the power management feature that dynamically manages maximum performance to prevent unexpected shutdowns, first introduced in iOS 10.2.1, is on and can choose to turn it off,” according to Apple. They will also be able to find more detailed information on battery health for the iPhone 6 and later.
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