3 unfortunate similarities between Apple and the electric car industry

[Redaktion]

Even before rumours started circulating about Apple creating its own electric vehicle, some of Apple's business practices shared a lot in common with electric vehicle manufacturers. While not uncommon in the tech industry, they set a worrying precedence for both the way business is conducted and products purchased in the future.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/3-unfortunate-similarities-between-Apple-and-the-electric-car-industry.769314.0.html

[Mr Majestyk]

Well said and 100% spot on. I will not be buying an EV anytime soon, certainly not before solid state batteries are the norm and there is ZERO cost premium for an EV. In fact EV's should be cheaper to make. I will never ever pay for a feature via subscription either. I will drive an ICE/PHEV for a very long time. Doubt solid state batteries will be widespread for another decade.

[Julian M]

I love my iPhone and my Mac, but honestly I wouldn't risk driving their car around only to find out a software update canceled preemptive braking because Apple didn't like the sound tires make when harsh braking is necessary to prevent an accident.

They should stick to lifestyle stuff like their Vision Pro headset for rich folks to look at pictures while lounging about in their mansion.

[RobertJasiek]

Apple promised at least 10h battery life for my iPad Mini 4 but failed: the actual battery life was 11:50. From Apple's POV, this was too good. Therefore, Apple issued an OS update to restrict battery life to 10h from the next day on.

Initially, the OS of the iPad allowed viewing battery life since the last charging. From Apple's POV, this was too good. Therefore, Apple removed this feature so that one has to manually stop usage times, manually protocol them and manually calculate the battery life since the last charging.

[A]

Apple promised at least 10h battery life for my iPad Mini 4 but failed: the actual battery life was 11:50. From Apple's POV, this was too good. Therefore, Apple issued an OS update to restrict battery life to 10h from the next day on.
Initially, the OS of the iPad allowed viewing battery life since the last charging. From Apple's POV, this was too good. Therefore, Apple removed this feature so that one has to manually stop usage times, manually protocol them and manually calculate the battery life since the last charging.

Conspiracy theory

[RobertJasiek]

Otherwise (if it is not intentional conspiracy), letting an unintentional OS bug reduce the battery duration by 15.5% and then not fixing it for 8 years would be Apple's utmost incompetence. Either possibility is terrible.

[A]

Otherwise (if it is not intentional conspiracy), letting an unintentional OS bug reduce the battery duration by 15.5% and then not fixing it for 8 years would be Apple's utmost incompetence. Either possibility is terrible.

Measurements can't be reliable without a standardized controllable test and big dataset. You can't see what iPad is actually doing in background and/or in sleep, e.g. it could be indexing your images in sleep or downloading something after update, or auto-brightness kept screen one notch brighter, or Wifi signal was one notch weaker, etc.

[RobertJasiek]

During the first ca. three months of my iPad usage indoors during winter typically at brightness suitable indoors, I charged typically every two days after having used the iPad for 11:50, which I checked every time in the battey control view, where the usage time since last charge was stated, watching the battery running out of juice. Every time, it was very close to 11:50.

(On a few exceptional days, I tested permanent maximum brightness and got 5:30.)

After the infamous minor iOS update, I did the same but now it was close to 10:00 every time. I continued to use the iPad typically only recharging after the battery running out of juice. I continued to watch the battery control view regularly until roughly two (?) years later the view was crippled.

Therefore, I do have sufficient, regular and accurate information on the battery life of my iPad. Besides, during the first ca. 2 1/2 years, the battery duration did not noticably decrease hardwarewise; this only came after 3 years and more from 3 1/2 years on.

One might speculate on what iOS might have done to create the 15.5% lower battery duration after that infamous minor iOS update but what matters is my evidence of aforementioned careful battery status observation with the utmost clear sudden drop from before to after that minor iOS update.

It also fits into the pattern of similar actions of paternalism by Apple, and the timimg is after all the relevant reviews on the Mini 4 were published. If neither purely malicious intent (allegedly forcing people to buy new devices more often) nor a pure bug (or several bugs) without fixing, a third theory is Apple-paternalism of using roughly 80% charge for a longer battery lifetime without ever admitting doing so and without ever giving the user a choice. I would have preferred continued 100% use per charge and expected a shorter battery lifetime.

[A]

Therefore, I do have sufficient, regular and accurate information

By no means it's accurate because you haven't used iPad exactly the same way every day. Any of the apps you use also could be the culprit. Or some settings change you've made and forgot.

[RobertJasiek]

LOL. It is Safari almost all the time for browsing or web video streaming, 2% a TV program guide. 1% simple text editing. I also check which apps are open; nothing unexpected. I avoid using more apps because a) 16GB storage is small and b) the restrictive, limited i(Pad)OS file management prevents eveything else I might want to do on a computer and was even much worse during the first years of this iPad. So if you want to blame an app and bugs, that would be Safari and the culprit be Apple.

Settings I always do carefully. Most settings have been the hard work of deactivating each individual option (because Apple fails to offer Deactivate All) as early as possible and then never touch these settings again, unless an iOS update creates a new option, which I immediately deactivate. I do not use any notifications (other than those forced upon me by Apple), widgets or whatever they are called in iPadOS, nor lock screen widgets (other than Apple's forced iCloud terms requests).

Bluetooth deactivated. Sleep mode.

So my iPad usage is about as simplistic as Apple allows me.

The only exceptions every few weeks are file transfer to / from a PC for a few minutes and i(Pad)OS updates.

My usage before / after the mentioned update was the same.

[A]

It is Safari almost all the time for browsing or web video streaming

Different websites have dramatically different power consumption. Auto-screen brightness, differences in Wifi signal strength, etc.. Many minor things can hugely affect battery life in "home testing" so i never trust these claims.

You need to have a fixed testing routine or you need to test side by side, which is not the case here of course.

[RobertJasiek]

Whatever websites I visited, it was 11:50 before and 10:00 after that iOS update. Needless to say, the same or same kinds of webpages. E.g., NBC or ARD.

[A]

Whatever websites I visited, it was 11:50 before

It's literally not possible.

[RobertJasiek]

Sure, sure, some variation from 11:40 to 12:00, most of the time 11:48 to 11:52. Such consistency occurs if one visits simple webpages and avoids FaceTime replacements.

In later years (after the crippling of the battery status view), I occasionally used FaceTime and noticed that it consumes the battery fast so I understand your doubts. FaceTime-like functionality in a webbrowser might be easily bad, I can imagine.

Not so in plain simple webbrowsing, where I never use camera or microphone. For social media, I use text.

[A]

Sure, sure, some variation from 11:40 to 12:00, most of the time 11:48 to 11:52.

Still not possible