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Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by scblock on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @11:04AM (#16529633)
iPhones, Android phones, music players, and other electronic things, if the weather is cold enough. Are we just trying to find anything bad to say about Apple so we can say it? Why is this on the front page?
Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by Bartweiss on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @11:08AM (#16529675)
The instructions on this page offer "Use iOS devices where the ambient temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F)."

Hopefully Apple is just being cautious and giving a range where they're confident no one will have problems. But if not, that's a pretty narrow range. I've had problems with music players and Android phones down at <5F, certainly, but <32F is the one part of this that looks like an Apple-specific issue.

Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by tinus_hn on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @11:12AM (#16529713)
If you look at the manual the other devices probably have similar specifications.
Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by jackhack on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:15PM (#16530193)
It's not just phones.

The Toyota Prius is also vulnerable at extremely low temps. From the owner's manual: "When the hybrid battery (traction battery) is extremely cold (below approximately minus 22 degrees Farenheit [minus 30 degrees Celsius]) under the influence of the outside temperature, it may not be possible to start the hybrid system. In this case, try to start the hybrid system again after the temperature of the hybrid battery increases due to the outside temperature increase, etc."

edit: of course, gasoline-only cars have a similar problem. Oil gets THICK at -22F and without an electric engine block heater, the starter may not be powerful enough to turn that engine over.

At least you can put a phone inside your jacked to warm it up. Not so easy with an automobile.

Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by em3rgent0rdr on Thursday March 08, 2018 @02:50PM (#16547081)
My understanding is automobiles will use some battery power to simply keep the battery in an ideal temperature range. Maybe phones could have the ability to burn a bit of energy in cold weather to simply keep the battery warm, if desired by user.
Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by vonzeppelin on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @11:09AM (#16529689)
I've never had a problem with my phone when it's been below freezing out.
Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by pmjordan on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @11:18AM (#16529761)
This may be obvious, but when it's cold out, it helps to keep the phone in a warm pocket close to the body (e.g. on the inside of your coat) rather than a bag or so. I've never had any issues with iPhones that way; using it for more than a short period of time when it's very cold is unpleasant anyway, so it never gets the chance to cool down too much. (I can confirm this works even at -40°, although you've got to be very careful with charging cables at that sort of temperature. Don't try to bend them, they'll snap.)
Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by plorkyeran on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:42PM (#16530424)
I had a lot of problems with my 4S spontaneously shutting down when snowboarding (when it was still pretty new) until it occurred to me to store it inside of my jacket rather than an outer pocket.
Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by deadcell on Thursday March 08, 2018 @07:38PM (#16548975)
So not Canada, half of the year?
Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by wonton2 on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @11:18AM (#16529760)
iPhone from 6 and up are notoriously bad at cold weather. Previously people talked about reduced battery life in cold weather, but it was never really a big problem (I guess the batteries were thicker). But with the iphone it drops from 80% to 5% then dies in a matter of minutes. People I know have been talking about it and I dont go out on a cold day with the battery at less than 50%. Which was never the case before, even with iphone 5.

Edit: now we are talking temperatures below -10c

Re:iPhones may shut down in cold weather by majortennis on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @11:12AM (#16529706)
I've seen people with 30, 40% batteries iphones die for no apparent reason. My samsung in the same temperature not shutting down. Theres plenty bad things to say about apple. This one i can confirm