Apple amidst the lawsuits facing about slowing down of older iPhones has released a new iOS Beta update to developers. Apple confirmed in December that software in its iPhone 6, 6s and SE models, which deals with dangers from ageing batteries, could slow down the phone’s performance. Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook in January, this year has stated that Apple would release a software update to allow users to turn off the feature. The company also offered cut price of battery replacements from $79 to $29 for older iPhones such as iPhone 6 or later.
As promised Apple released a new iOS 11.3 Beta 2 update, which featured Battery Health feature for the older iPhones. To enable this feature, the user needs to go into – Settings>Battery>Battery Health (Beta). Upon entering user can find a section called Maximum Capacity, which is a measure of battery capacity to when it was new. Lower capacity of the users’ respective battery may result in few hours of usage between charges.
iOS 11.3 Beta 2 – Battery Health feature (Image: Apple)
This update will also have the most anticipated feature – the throttling of the battery. This feature named as ‘Peak Performance Capability’ will also users to tweak their battery performances. According to The Verge, “If the device has experienced a shutdown due to battery degradation — which could happen with a given battery health of as high as 95 per cent — the page will tell you that “performance management has been applied to prevent this from happening again” along with the option to disable the throttling. You can’t turn this back on until you get another unexpected shutdown, at which point it will automatically be re-enabled.”
Currently, the update has been rolled to developers and Public Beta might be released in the coming weeks. The company says all rechargeable batteries become less effective as they age, so they are not recommending users are not use or tweak with this feature.
