Apple issues apology for performance throttling, offers discounted battery replacement service throughout 2018

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple broke the silence about the issue that iOS 10.2.1 causes performance on older iPhones to slow down, ostensibly to counteract battery degradation. It's an issue that created a lot of confusion, with some pundits claiming that Apple is purposely throttling performance to push users to upgrade to newer devices. Apple issued a statement on its website explaining the issue in detail. The company, who makes most of its profits off the iPhone, is also offering discounted battery replacement services for older iPhones throughout 2018.

Responding to increasing confusion and even lawsuits from disgruntled users, Apple took to posting an open letter on its website.

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Samsung rumoured to release Galaxy S9 at the start of March 2018

Looks like Samsung is getting more confident that it’s back to business for them as the South Korean company reverts to its standard launch pattern for previous flagships—at least according to this new report. Aside from launching the rumoured Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus at Mobile World Congress, which will run from February 26 to March 1, we are supposedly expected to see the new devices go on retail on March 11, at least in South Korea and the US. If Samsung follows tradition, they’ll launch the S9 phones on February 28, giving them just two weeks for the phone to go officially on sale.

Samsung pushed back the sale of the S8 last year following the self-imposed pause the company took to after investigation over the Galaxy Note7 had to happen. But it looks like the company is ready to get right back to business and with the S9 seen as an incremental update to the S8. Plus, with no big issues plaguing the current flagship, there isn’t anything hampering them from going about things as scheduled.

Source: Forbes

WhatsApp to end support for BlackBerry OS and Windows Phone by the end of the year

With 2017 ending in just a few days, WhatsApp just announced its ending support for two old operating systems on December 31: the BlackBerry OS and Windows Phone 8.0. For BlackBerry, that includes BlackBerry 10, while Windows Phone encompasses the older iterations. While the app will still function on those platforms, without support this means some features might stop functioning suddenly. You also won’t be able to create new accounts or re-verify existing ones. The Facebook-owned messaging service is encouraging users to upgrade to other support platforms to make sure they get the service they can expect from WhatsApp. But they also remind users that they can’t transfer chat histories from one platform to another, but you can export and send your chat history attached to an email.

Source: VentureBeat

Snapchat might be bringing Stories to the web

Snapchat is looking to snap up more users or at least encourage its existing user base to do use its service more. It’s being reported that the social network is working on bringing its Stories Everywhere to the web or on other apps. It’ll be an embedded web player that would help increase exposure to snaps and hopefully encourage people to download the app or at least watch content from the service. Snapchat has been struggling to attract new users, so it needs to extend beyond its walls. If there’s any truth to these rumours, it’ll give them an advantage over Facebook and Instagram since both don’t offer embedded stories just yet. But with Facebook known to quickly copy Snapchat features, we aren’t sure if that advantage will last long. Snap is refusing to comment on the report.

Source: Engadget