They optimized for battery life by sacrificing some performance. That's basically what they did.

The rest is BS and media circus.

I had iPhones since 2008 and never felt compelled to "buy a new" every year, just because there was tiny percentage perf drop.

For one, the drop in battery (and thus perf tradeoff) happens after 3 or more years of use, not after the first year.

Apple is the only company that supports old phone models with new releases for as long, and the company with the best resale value.

So, don't buy into the media/ambulance chasers hoopla...

>On the "we force you to buy our OWN UNIQUE cables because f... the global standards and nature" they are still doing pretty bad

Most people already have 2-4 cables at home. Why include new ones if they don't need them? Just to churn out more plastic? Or is it a problem that in your $600 to $1200 purchase also needs to factor in a $20 cable if you don't already have one?

Environmentally speaking I'd force companies to mimick this: (a) use standard chargers and cables, (b) do not provide them in the box. People that already have several don't need them, people who don't can buy a standalone one (even third party for cheaper). The Lighting cable is not a standard (i'd force Apple to move to USB-C), but it's ubiquitous enough (it's not some obscure, per-device cable, like we had in days of yore).

>On the "you can only buy (iOS) apps from us and nobody else, yeah!" I don't find that so good either.

I do. I wouldn't want to be forced to use the Google store for certain apps, the Facebook store for other apps, random third party stores with shady malware apps imposed upon the less savvy users, and so on...

I buy iPhones because of the integration. Go get a Librem phone for the "ultimate" open experience...

> The rest is BS and media circus.

Eh, I don't object to Apple slowing down the phone in the name of stability when the battery is worn.

It's more that they did it without telling the user it was happening or documenting that it could happen.

And given that it was by the same company that pioneered the glued-in battery, and is famously unhelpful to third-party repair shops, it's reasonable to see that as part of a pattern.

> For one, the drop in battery (and thus perf tradeoff) happens after 3 or more years of use, not after the first year.

People's experiences vary a lot depending on their phone use. I have a computer at home, a computer at work, and a commute where I can't use a phone. Use 20% charge per day and slow-charge every night? Battery will last for years!

On the other hand, someone who spends two hours a day streaming netflix while they commute then use their phone a bit a home as well? The sort of person who charges twice a day? They're going to see the symptoms of battery wear a lot earlier.

And even then, I have various family members who are still on a 6S, because they feel it's fast enough. A 5 year old phone that still gets the latest OS updates and feels pretty smooth. You can't get the same from a competitor that targets non-technical users. (I am sure that there is some open source Android 11 build that runs on the Nexus 5X.)

Three things:

1. It takes more than a year, maybe 3-4, to degrade the battery enough for it to affect performance in any way.

2. There are many iPhone models at different price points, the cheapest one being $399.

3. If they didn't cap the performance they would be making headlines for "Older iPhones suddenly power off for no reason" instead.

Their only mistake was to not communicate good enough to the users that performance would return back to normal after a battery replacement.

Even my mom has it happen from using Facetime all day.

Of course, that's how batteries work. However, 500 charge cycles will likely not affect CPU performance but rather the battery life (which is why I said "enough for it to affect performance").

I had 1352 charge cycles and 75% battery health before replacing it and even though the battery life was shortened, I did not experience any sudden shut downs.

Google/Facebook is much more difficult.

Google I agree is harder and not using Google (including Android) makes it pretty hard not to use other tech giants like Apple and Microsoft.

You can mostly avoid using one or two of the dominant firms. It's pretty hard to avoid using all of them.

Instagram and WhatsApp are how Facebook really gets its hooks in these days. They manage to avoid the stink of their parent company's brand.

That said, Instagram is falling out of favor with the yutes. They're moving into TikTok now, which is just as invasive with the added bonus of Chinese state censorship added on.

Considering the looong time that it took (takes!) to get out USB-C, and the early "fried laptop" issues, one can't exactly blame them ?

Cables? Really? I am sure you are not ordering on Amazon, because that is an environmental mess.

NFC. Complaining about a feature you got and it seems, wanted?

Jesus. Stop whining.