Earlier this evening, Tim Cook surprisingly announced that, with a future iOS update, users will be able to turn off iPhone performance throttling. Cook noted, however, that such a move would put users at risk for unexpected shutdowns as their battery ages.
We’re curious, would you turn off iPhone throttling as your battery aged, if you knew you could suffer from unexpected shutdowns?
Cook’s announcement came in an interview with ABC News, seemingly focused on Apple’s tax reform announcements today. The Apple CEO said that Apple has decided to give users the option to disable performance throttling if they’d rather risk unexpected shutdowns, but maintain full CPU and GPU performance.
Apple originally said in December that it would release an iOS update in the future with more transparency about iPhone battery life, but the company made no mention about customers having the ability to disable throttling altogether:
Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.
Cook today continued to that transparency Apple will offer in its software-enhanced battery information:
“We’re going to give people the visibility of the health of their battery so it’s very, very transparent,” he said. “This hasn’t been done before.”
He continued, however, to say that Apple will inform users when it’s slowing down their iPhone to prevent unexpected shutdowns, and subsequently offer the option to turn the throttling feature off:
“We will tell somebody, ‘We’re reducing your performance by some amount in order to not have an unexpected restart.’ And if you don’t want it, you can turn it off. Now we don’t recommend it, because we think that people’s iPhones are really import to them, and you can never tell when something is so urgent.”
Cook’s announcement took many users by surprise. It comes as Apple faces a multitude of lawsuits and increasing scrutiny from consumer protection groups and government agencies. The Apple CEO says the update will be released to developers in February.
Would you turn off battery performance throttling and risk unexpected shutdowns? Let us know in the poll below and discuss down in the comments.
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