Apple's latest battery debacle

...And Terry is a bamer fan (#WarEagle) so anything he thinks/says is questionable right out of the gate...

Holy sh!t it's time to switch to OpenHAB...

Half of the state is ready to burn the other half with Bama making the playoffs despite losing to Auburn. I don't think they have what it takes to make it past Clemson, but since I'm a closet Georgia fan, I hope they do...

Terry

I used to think the same.. and before that I used to think Linux on the desktop was the next big thing. But it’ll never happen. It’s just too complicated for the average user, even when wrapped up in a fancy UI.

And with that amount of openness frankly fragmentation would become even worse than android. I think Apple has got the balance near perfect.. the only thing I wish would be they’d be slightly more open on some things such as side-loading apps. I appreciate exactly why they don’t want that though.. both from a security AND financial point of view.

MacOS is just as complicated as Linux, even more so in some cases, under the covers. Linux doesn't HAVE to be complicated, it just needs somebody to get behind it for mass-marketing. Ubuntu is really quite pleasant to use, and I've taught several seniors in the area to use it as a safe alternative to Windows. They never see the terminal, or a shell prompt; they don't have to.

Terry

I have to go with Durosity on this one

That’s one of the signs of the apocalypse isn’t it?

Clearly Durosity has hacked into Jay's account, again...

Terry

I did love the G4 Cube. I’ve got one sitting on my desk with a 23” Cinema Display and some sound sticks.. it’s a gorgeous design. I plan to do something with it someday.. perhaps a raspberry pi.. for indigo pi?

It was beautiful, I really wished they would have continued the line. I really hated they got out of the server market too, they made some really good hardware.

Terry

MacOS is just as complicated as Linux, even more so in some cases, under the covers. Linux doesn't HAVE to be complicated, it just needs somebody to get behind it for mass-marketing. Ubuntu is really quite pleasant to use, and I've taught several seniors in the area to use it as a safe alternative to Windows. They never see the terminal, or a shell prompt; they don't have to.

Terry

I know. At its core Darwin is very similar to NetBSD (or at least was back in the day when I still had the mental power to understand such things..). But the difference is Apple has the design experience to build a full UI on top of that to the extent that most people don’t even know it’s there. Last time I played with Linux a few years ago it still fully felt like I was in Linux.. no UI really ever properly masked that.

I did love the G4 Cube. I’ve got one sitting on my desk with a 23” Cinema Display and some sound sticks.. it’s a gorgeous design. I plan to do something with it someday.. perhaps a raspberry pi.. for indigo pi?

It was beautiful, I really wished they would have continued the line. I really hated they got out of the server market too, they made some really good hardware.

Terry

They did. The Xserve series was fantastic. I have a vague hope they might re evaluate their position now they seem to be reinvesting in the pro market, what with the new iMac Pro and hopefully this new Mac Pro they’ve promised for next year. Not getting my hopes up too high though.

MacOS is just as complicated as Linux, even more so in some cases, under the covers. Linux doesn't HAVE to be complicated, it just needs somebody to get behind it for mass-marketing. Ubuntu is really quite pleasant to use, and I've taught several seniors in the area to use it as a safe alternative to Windows. They never see the terminal, or a shell prompt; they don't have to.

Terry

I know. At its core Darwin is very similar to NetBSD (or at least was back in the day when I still had the mental power to understand such things..). But the difference is Apple has the design experience to build a full UI on top of that to the extent that most people don’t even know it’s there. Last time I played with Linux a few years ago it still fully felt like I was in Linux.. no UI really ever properly masked that.

I think it's perspective, my 6 year old uses Linux every day. She's way too disastrous to give her an expensive Mac-anything. But Ubuntu 17.04 on a $300 laptop is perfect for her. She can go to her kiddie web sites, play a bunch of games that are out there for kids on Linux, and print pages out to color. She has no clue she's using a highly technical operating system, it does what she wants and that's all she cares about. I don't have to worry about her breaking it, or it getting a virus. My computer-illiterate 19 year old is similar. She had a custom Linux desktop before I bought her a MacBook. You couldn't pay her to use a Windows laptop. She says "that's what old people use"

Terry

It's more of a hassle - let me decide if I want to solve for performance or battery life. If I get 80% usage from my 6+ as I did when it was new, but the speed is the same, that's fine for me, I'm never far from power. Others may not agree, but thats why it should be selectable. Maybe it's just the last straw on a pile of things that are already ticking me off, but for some reason it really burns me up. Yeah a batter my not cost that much, but it'll take a lot of my time, and it'll be a hassle, and that has a price higher than a battery. All needless if they'd just leave the damn thing alone.

This is a common misperception, as I understand the issue. It's not about performance vs battery life. It's performance vs sudden crashes. As the battery ages, not only does the capacity go down, but the peak current outflow also goes down. To the point where it cannot keep up with the processor running at peak speed. This is the cause of the sudden shutdown at 14% that Jay mentioned. So Apple had to reduce the processor demand (by reducing speed/performance) so that the processor doesn't crash from being current/voltage starved.

I'm not sure how Apple should have approached communicating this. From an engineering POV, they were correcting a situation that was causing unexplained shutdowns. Seems like the right thing to do, no?

PS - I love my iPhone X. Huge screen and great camera in a housing about the same size as my iPhone 6. And Face ID is really faster than Touch ID as long as I'm actually facing the phone directly. And for my wife, who Touch ID never worked right for, it's even better.

[jay (support)]

I'm not sure how Apple should have approached communicating this. From an engineering POV, they were correcting a situation that was causing unexplained shutdowns. Seems like the right thing to do, no?

Any communication is better than none and thus the uproar. I think consumers are smart enough to understand that they could take a high-level description. More importantly, they could have made it much clearer that one option is to replace the battery. I've never seen a single marketing message to that effect. I understand they want to protect revenue, but I think they could have created a combined message of battery age and replacement to those people seeing the issue. I will say that I never asked at an Apple Store - they may have communicated it.

PS - I love my iPhone X. Huge screen and great camera in a housing about the same size as my iPhone 6. And Face ID is really faster than Touch ID as long as I'm actually facing the phone directly. And for my wife, who Touch ID never worked right for, it's even better.

It is pretty remarkable. Too bad they didn't put as much effort in making sure the entire iOS 11 release worked as well/smoothly as FaceID. That notification date bug was a HUGE screwup and their followup/communication was horrible as well. It hit me almost immediately after I restored my X with my iPhone 6 backup.

Android has been looking better and better lately, especially with the latest generations of Samsung and Google phones.

I think that for you it might make sense for you to consider given that you have slowly invested in the Android ecosystem... it would be harder for those in a pure-Apple environment with limited or no exposure to Android. The Google and Samsung phones rival Apple's quality in the last few iterations of each -- some things on one device are better, some on another, yet something else on a third is better. I think it comes down to pure personal preference these days.

I still use both Apple and Android products every day, though more on the Android side for the last couple of years (discounting the desktop which is OS X). I like both and have ties into both ecosystems. There are times when I am jealous of an Apple product and others that I thank the stars I am not using Apple hardware. There is no one single answer there.

As for Android... no. Until Google makes it so that ALL models of phone are guaranteed updates for at least 3 years after the release of the device, AND that they get those updates on the day google release it I'm never going to get one. I don't care what whiz-bang new features it has.. the update situation is ridiculous.

I don't get the point of that demand... but I guess that is just me. Nearly all the major manufacturers are supporting their devices for a 2-3 year minimum, which for phones is often about the usable life of it before I am itching to upgrade anyway. And lately the software upgrades from both Google and Apple have been kind of lackluster -- not that they are not good but from an upgrade standpoint they haven't added a ton to older hardware IMO.

I've tried Android devices a couple of times and frankly they seem glued together as well.

Now Jay, from the ones that I know of you trying that is not exactly a fair comparison... el cheapo tablets compared to Apple's? I use both and I would say the high end Android's are definitely on par with Apple's production devices. Now, if you were looking for the middle end (even $500 devices) I would say you are better going with an older Apple verses the mid tier devices from most Android manufacturers, with a few exceptions.

I love my iPhone X. Huge screen and great camera in a housing about the same size as my iPhone 6. And Face ID is really faster than Touch ID as long as I'm actually facing the phone directly. And for my wife, who Touch ID never worked right for, it's even better.

I'm not a fan of the Face ID. Now granted I haven't lived with it for an extended time, and I would likely adjust, but I like being able to unlock the phone from pocket or without a direct look. Now, having said that, I think I would prefer Face ID in everyday use as compared to a Samsung fingerprint reader placement. I have no issue with the technology or the security - I think that part of it is great and quite a wonder that they have it working as well as it does... just a usability difference in how I personally use the phone I guess.

Adam

like being able to unlock the phone from pocket or without a direct look

Serious question - if you're not looking at the phone, why are you unlocking it? What are you going to do?

like being able to unlock the phone from pocket or without a direct look

Serious question - if you're not looking at the phone, why are you unlocking it? What are you going to do?

There’s tons of times I want to unlock when it’s not in direct line of sight. When it’s flat on a table for instance. Also I find it slower as with Touch ID it’s unlocked by the time it gets to my eye line where as faceid is just that tiny bit slower. Not a bit deal and the rest of the x makes up for it but it is worse for me in my opinion than touch in my particular use cases


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There’s tons of times I want to unlock when it’s not in direct line of sight. When it’s flat on a table for instance. Also I find it slower as with Touch ID it’s unlocked by the time it gets to my eye line where as faceid is just that tiny bit slower. Not a bit deal and the rest of the x makes up for it but it is worse for me in my opinion than touch in my particular use cases

Flat on the table is the only use case I've run into that FaceID is slower. My experience is that the ease of the swipe-up vs positioning a finger on the sensor makes normal unlocks a wash. You can do the swipe as you raise the phone, so you don't really loose any time. IME, anyway.

Serious question - if you're not looking at the phone, why are you unlocking it? What are you going to do?

Generally when glancing at it -- checking it discretely in a meeting for instance. The front may be at an angle to me or barely visible such as not fully out of the pocket. Latched on to a bike handlebars, etc.

You can do the swipe as you raise the phone, so you don't really loose any time. IME, anyway.

For me I just sort of 1/4 swipe up on the horizontal bar across the bottom to make sure it recognizes me, then I can release it and retry without it going to the passcode screen - this is helpful when you are facing the camera in a way that doesn't automatically engage facial recognition and doesn't require you to hit cancel on the passcode screen to try again.

Also, did you know that:

Hey Siri, who's phone is this?

Will disable face ID and revert to passcode only? As will Holding all three buttons on the X. And to return face ID:

Hey Siri, goodbye.

So when the cops are chasing you, as they do because - you know, they are "the man" and "big brothers foot soldiers", and they grab your phone to download the super sensitive classified information we all keep on there, like pictures of kittens, you can scream "Hey Siri, who's phone is this?" and they shalt thusly be denied cute kitten pictures until thoust dost permit them.