[ad_1]
Apple has fallen victim to another lawsuit that claims the California company intentionally slowed down older iPhone models. The lawsuit, which was filed in Italy by consumer advocacy group Euroconsumers, seeks 60 million euros from the world’s most valuable company, which is currently valued at around $ 2.4 trillion. If the lawsuit is successful, owners of the affected iPhone models will receive around € 60 per device, or around £ 53 converted.
The smartphones affected by the so-called battery scandal are the iPhone 6, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Thus, if you have purchased one of these devices and the lawsuit is successful, you may be entitled to compensation granted to Euroconsumers. Consumer group politician Els Bruggeman said, “When consumers buy Apple iPhones, they expect quality products that last. Unfortunately, this is not what happened with the iPhone 6 series. Not only were consumers scammed, and they had to face frustration and financial harm, from an environmental standpoint, it is also totally irresponsible. “
Batterygate refers to the fallout from iOS 10.2.1, which introduced measures to slow the performance of iPhone models with aging batteries. Apple introduced the feature without informing customers that it could deliberately slow down the chipset inside their handset. According to Apple, without tempering its processor performance, it could squeeze too much power from older, degraded batteries – causing the phone to crash. Prior to the feature’s implementation, there were a growing number of reports of users complaining that their iPhones were shutting down with 20-30% battery life supposedly left in the tank.
Apple says the shutdowns were due to aging battery capacity and the power required for its processors to run at full speed, when launching graphics-intensive games or video editing, for example.
Following the controversy, Apple added the ability for iPhone owners to turn off peak performance limitations, although the U.S. firm warns that – as the lithium-ion battery continues to degrade – this could result in more unexpected stops when using the smartphone. Apple also later added a battery status indicator in iOS that shows an estimate of the maximum capacity of your battery cell. Lithium-ion cells are only capable of a certain number of charge cycles – that is, full flat charges.
The issue likely caught people’s attention not because their iPhones were no longer getting maximum chipset output to avoid frustrating shutdowns, but because it followed years of unfounded rumors that Apple would intentionally slow down older iPhones around September to push customers to upgrade to the latest model. Dubbed planned obsolescence, Apple claims it has never degraded performance to convince people to buy a new handset.
Apple claims it has never artificially slowed down any of its smartphones – only performance that is aggressively managed to maximize the life of its batteries, which cannot be replaced without specialized tools typically only found in Apple stores. .
Interestingly, processor speed is only one component of the software patch introduced by Apple. IPhones with degraded batteries will also darken their screens more aggressively to save power, lower the maximum volume of the built-in speaker, and even turn off the LED flash in the camera app to prevent the system from firing more light. energy that the battery cannot provide.
Apple has already agreed to pay $ 500 million to settle a lawsuit in the United States over the battery scandal. He also paid $ 113 million to settle a separate multi-state investigation into the case.
Talk to The edge Of the latest lawsuit, a spokesperson explained, “We never did – and never would – do anything to intentionally shorten the lifespan of an Apple product or to degrade the user experience. to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that. “
[ad_2]
Source link