You might recall Apple catching some hell at the end of last year when it came out that the company was intentionally slowing down some older iPhones in order to protect their batteries. Since then, there have been lawsuits, apologies and a promise that come the next update to iOS 11, you can take the life of your old ass phone into your own dumb ass hands if you so choose. Basically, Apple has decided to do now what it should have done in the first place. As far as I’m concerned at least, slowing down the phones was never the problem. Keeping quiet about it was the problem.
In an interview with ABC News, Cook said the update will arrive next month in a developer release before a wider public rollout. “We’re going to give people the visibility of the health of their battery so it’s very, very transparent,” he says. “This hasn’t been done before.”
Cook also says the update will more clearly inform users when their iPhone is automatically reducing its performance in an effort to prevent unexpected shutdowns. “If you don’t want it, you can turn it off,” Cook says, though he maintains that this is not recommended — something Apple stands by in its apology letter that addressed consumers after the backlash in December.