In a rare move, Apple today published a detailed document explaining new features in a minor revision to iOS.
Why would they do this?
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Well, as you may recall, Apple recently came under fire for deliberately slowing down iPhones in order to preserve battery life over time. The firm admitted to this practice, and apologized, though it slyly claimed that it only applies to the previous few generations of iPhones. (When anyone who uses an iPhone knows that this performance degradation was common to all versions.) Later, it said that it would allow users to control performance throttling in a future update.
Well, iOS 11.3 is that update. Such a small update would normally pass without any mention by Apple, sans a quickie release notes accompanying the release. But this time, Apple is touting iOS 11.3 as containing “major updates.” Ah, hyperbole.
“This spring, iOS 11.3 will deliver exciting new ways to experience augmented reality on iPhone and iPad, new Animoji on iPhone X, and the ability to view health records in the Health app,” Apple announced.
Sure. That is all very exciting. But the only thing anyone actually gives a crap about is how iOS 11.3 will allow users to configure performance and battery life on aging devices. And to understand that, we’ll need to see the first iOS 11.3 beta, which I will be installing on my iPhone as soon as its available.
In the meantime, Apple does include a brief mention of what we can expect.
“iOS 11.3 adds new features to show battery health and recommend if a battery needs to be serviced … [but only on] iPhone 6 and later,” the firm notes. “Additionally, users can now see if the power management feature that dynamically manages maximum performance to prevent unexpected shutdowns, first introduced in iOS 10.2.1, is on and can choose to turn it off … These features will be coming in a later iOS 11.3 beta release.”
So that last bit suggests that iOS 11.3 Beta 1 will not include this functionality, I guess. Or, perhaps, that the new power management functionality will actually be in a future iOS 11.3.1 or 11.3.2 (or whatever) release.
iOS 11.3 will be available this spring as a free software update for iPhone 5s and later, all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, iPad 5th generation, iPad mini 2 and later and iPod touch 6th generation, Apple adds.
dontbe evil
<p>animoji…that's a revolutionary os</p>
Stooks
<blockquote><a href="#239995"><em>In reply to the_sl0th:</em></a></blockquote><p>We have two iPad 2's from 2011. They are getting replaced very soon because they are slow and non-retina. They are also stuck on iOS 9.3 or whatever. Their batteries however are still in great shape.</p><p><br></p><p>Apple hardware lasts a long time in my experience.</p>
wocowboy
Premium Member<p>A very salient point that was included in the press release about iOS 10.3 is the list of devices on which it can be installed. It includes all iPhone and iPad models for several years back, and this is normal for Apple and is what really distinguishes iOS from Android. Android Oreo only comes installed on a portion of new flagship phones, not every new model, and whether or not it can ever be installed at all or even be offered to users to be installed on anything other than those new flagship phones is dependent on the whims of phone manufacturers and cellphone carriers, so some phones released just a year ago might never be able to run Oreo at all or not until a year or more has passed until the OS can be "tested" by those manufacturers and carriers and piled with bloatware, customizations, and other crap that customers do not want.</p><p><br></p><p>Yes, users can sideload and install Oreo on their own, but that is a geeky and difficult process that the vast majority of users have no interest in ever doing. I will gladly install iOS 10.3 on my iPhone X and I would do the same if I had an iPhone 6. Processors have advanced in between those two devices and the performance of iOS might be a little different on each, but at least I would know I would have the benefit of privacy and security updates that have advanced over the years, and that is something that Android users cannot say at all.</p>