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Apple's iPhone slowdown sparks multiple lawsuits

The plaintiffs in three separate suits contend that an Apple software tweak that slows down older iPhones was a ploy to spur upgrades to pricier models.

www.cnet.com

After years of complaints from consumers that their iPhones seem slower once a new model is released, Apple on Wednesday disclosed it was indeed slowing the performance of some older iPhones under particular circumstances. When batteries age, become very cold or operate at low power, their currents can spike when the phone's computer tries to hit higher speeds. Rather than having a phone shut down automatically to protect itself, Apple said that last year it tweaked its iOS software for some older iPhones so they slow down instead.

• Northern District of Illinois, Eastern division, represents five people who allege the company purposefully updated the phones' operating system to dampen its performance as a way of "fraudulently forcing iPhone owners to purchase the latest model from Apple,"
• Two additional lawsuits were also filed Thursday in the Central District of California and the Northern District of California. Both of those suits allege largely the same thing -- that Apple knowingly misled consumers about battery problems in an effort to get them to upgrade to the latest iPhone models.

Verizon, Other ISPs Won't Say How Badly They Plan to F*ck You Over Now

Now that the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission has decided to toss a massive favor to their friends in the telecom industry and revoke open internet rules, there may soon be no regulatory barrier preventing ISPs from implementing paid prioritization schemes or outright blocking or censoring competitors.

gizmodo.com|Tom McKay

According to an Associated Press review of seven of the country’s biggest telecom providers, ZERO were willing to “rule out the possibility” of establishing fast or slow lanes for various streams of content. 

Three providers—Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile—declined to specifically say they would not block or censor content in the future.

Of course, trying to plumb these statements for actual commitments is a fool’s errand, since ISPs have 

• a long history of lying
• throttling applications they claim consume too much bandwidth, or blocking competitors and things like BitTorrent.

While ISPs trying to force their users back into AOL-style walled gardens is probably not going to happen, consumers should be prepared for telecoms to renege on their promises of self-regulation as soon as it’s convenient.

Comcast hints at plan for paid fast lanes after net neutrality repeal

Comcast still won't block or throttle—but paid prioritization may be on the way.

arstechnica.com

Comcast now vaguely says that it won't "discriminate against lawful content" or impose "anti-competitive paid prioritization." The change in wording suggests that Comcast may offer paid fast lanes to websites or other online services, such as video streaming providers, after Pai's FCC eliminates the net neutrality rules

We contacted Comcast today to ask how it defines "anti-competitive paid prioritization." A spokesperson did not answer that question but referred us back to previous Comcast statements on the topic.

We have published a new story detailing how Comcast deleted its "no paid prioritization" pledge immediately after the FCC announced its net neutrality rollback.

Looking forward to all the #innovation we're going to unlock with #netneutrality repeal! #paywall #lootboxes

— Ajit Pai‏ @RealAjitPai -  Dec 6, 2017

Verizon to start throttling all smartphone videos to 480p or 720p

No 4K video allowed—new bandwidth limits apply to mobile hotspots, too.

arstechnica.com

Verizon Wireless will start throttling video streams to resolutions as low as 480p on smartphones this week. Most data plans will get 720p video on smartphones, but customers won't have any option to completely un-throttle video.

1080p will be the highest resolution provided on tablets, effectively ruling out 4K video on Verizon's mobile network. Anything identified as a video will not be given more than 10Mbps worth of bandwidth. This limit will affect mobile hotspot usage as well.

Customers who buy a new unlimited data plan can get higher-quality video for an extra $10 per month. The higher video quality of 720p on phones and 1080p on tablets will be available on Verizon's "Beyond Unlimited" plan, which is $85 a month for a smartphone connection and another $20 for a tablet.