Apple and Samsung Fined

If you thought your iPhone or Galaxy were slowing down after that last update, it wasn’t your imagination. Last December Apple fessed up that its iOS software slowed down the performance of older iPhones and boy, oh, boy, did that throw customers into a tizzy. Now, while Apple claims it was doing this to “counteract problems in aging lithium-ion batteries,” and NOT to make you have to run out and buy a new phone, well, a lot of people weren’t buying it.

Now it seems Italy wasn’t buying it, and wants Apple and Samsung to pay for it. The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) fined both Apple and Samsung 5 million euros (about $5.7M) for releasing software updates the “significantly reduced” the performance of their phones, urging customers to install thee updates that weren’t “adequately supported by their devices,” and failing to provide customers “an effective way to recover the full functionality of their devices.” Apple was fined an additional 5 milliion euros for “allegedly” failing to provide adequate information on how to maintain and replace iPhone batteries.

Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized to customers, says now Apple’s sending out iOS updates with alerts about a possible performance slowdown to compensate for a “bad battery,” so you can opt out of that feature if you don’t want it. They’re also offering a menu to show you “battery health,” and offering to replace batteries for just $29. By the way, that offer expires December of this year. Hey, at least Apple admitted it and tried to make amends. Sort of. Samsung still denies ever being anywhere near the place, see? They were framed, see? You’ll never take ‘em alive…

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