U.S. DOJ and SEC Launch Investigation Into Apple Over iPhone Slowdown [Report]

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Posted January 30, 2018 at 8:45pm by iClarified

The United States Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission have launched an investigation into Apple's secret slowdown of iPhone devices, reports Bloomberg.

The agencies are investigating whether Apple violated securities laws concerning its disclosures about a software update that slowed down certain iPhones to prevent unexpected shutdowns.

The government has requested information from the company, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the probe is private. The inquiry is in early stages, they cautioned, and it’s too soon to conclude any enforcement will follow. Investigators are looking into public statements made by Apple on the situation, they added.

Investigators are reportedly concerned that Apple misled investors about the performance of its older phones.

In December, Apple announced it would be dropping the price of battery replacements from $79 to $29 after it was discovered that iPhones were being secretly slowed down as their batteries aged. Apple touts the slowdown as a feature but it was put in place to avoid unexpected shutdowns on the iPhone 6s; something that doesn't appear to have commonly occurred with earlier generation devices. Rival smartphone manufacturers have since announced that they do not throttle their devices casting doubt on Apple's claim that this is necessary due to the nature of lithium-ion batteries. Last week, Apple announced that the upcoming iOS 11.3 software update will show battery health, recommend if a battery needs to be serviced, and allow users to disable throttling. Unfortunately, turning off throttling will not solve the unexpected shutdown problem for users with an iPhone 6/6s.

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U.S. DOJ and SEC Launch Investigation Into Apple Over iPhone Slowdown [Report]

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SayingWhatEveryonesThinking - February 6, 2018 at 4:20pm

Always appreciate your wit and thoughtful contributions here. Thank you for your words made up of indistinguishable characters.

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SayingWhatEveryonesThinking - February 6, 2018 at 4:15pm

Not saying Apple is perfect - I have my own gripes with them but by and large they are the best we have. This battery issue is being trumped up to ridiculous levels of hype and it is not a big deal. It’s actually fine, and their solution is fine. When the feature rolls out in a future iOS update I would keep my setting to preserve battery on and let it slow down my aging phone. You can keep it running full speed and have a batter last a lot less and that is okay too. Call me a fanboy because I am, but only because the competition is so incredibly terrible by comparison. You may want an old Windows phone - NYPD are getting rid of theirs and I bet you could get one at a good price. They’re getting iPhone 7s and loving it because it helps them do their jobs so much faster and better.

@6italia0 - February 3, 2018 at 5:57am

Just replaced my battery today with an aftermarket battery and now my phone is back to normal. I was on iOS 10.3.2 where battery life wasn’t great, but not absolute and complete sh!t like it was immediately after updating to 11.2. My battery would literally decrease percentage by the second, I could actually watch it drop rapidly. Sometimes it wouldn’t though, maybe it would never decrease and eventually just shit off, maybe I’d have 100% and then the phone would shut off at 40-60% (sometimes 70%) and then the phone would display the dead battery logo and would require charging to turn back on, then I’d have less than 20% when it did turn on. But that’s not the worst part. My phone was so ungodly slow as in I could type out an entire sentence, the phone would type it, but only after about 10-15 seconds after tapping the keyboard would it register and actually type the characters. Then there was the app crashing, if I put a few photos into a Facebook post and tried to type words after, the app would crash, if I tried to edit a picture in the photos app, it would crash or never load whatever I was doing. If I did pretty much any of the basic functions of any apps it would crash. Often times just listening to music would trigger a random shutdown.

SayingWhatEveryonesThinking - February 6, 2018 at 4:19pm

That’s insane. Apple would have fixed that for a very reasonable price. You probably spent more getting the aftermarket than the new reduced price Apple is charging. If Apple fixed it, it would have been as good as new. What your phone was doing was very much out of the ordinary.

Yayaya - January 31, 2018 at 2:42pm

Oh buddy, was just about to say that. Nice!

Basswow - January 31, 2018 at 8:32pm

...was supposed to be a thumbs up ;-)

MUKAI - January 31, 2018 at 6:32am

I say these guys should be giving free Apple care extensions, or at least extend the amount of time to purchase an affordable Apple care. Let’s see what they do cus they are on hot water.

SayingWhatEveryonesThinking - February 1, 2018 at 6:43am

They’re doing it already. Giving really cheap battery replacements is above and beyond.

waheb09 - January 30, 2018 at 10:01pm

I really don't know what's left there to be investigated!!

Name14 - January 31, 2018 at 8:05am

The size of the bribes to be paid for a lesser sanction.

SayingWhatEveryonesThinking - February 1, 2018 at 6:47am

Exactly. They already explained what they did. Nothing wrong.

Lizxoxoxo - January 30, 2018 at 8:58pm

Guilty as charged.