Apple starts enabling worldwide discounts on iPhone battery replacements

Further to an earlier announcement regarding discounted iPhone battery replacement services for customers of older iPhones who may be experiencing performance slowdowns, Apple has enabled the discounted replacement service globally starting today.

Canadians who bring their older iPhones for a battery replacement to Apple Retail stores will be able to benefit from the reduced fee. 

"Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $64 — from $99 to $35 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, available worldwide through December 2018. Details will be provided soon on apple.com/ca," Apple said in an official statement earlier today. The initial timeframe for the discounted battery replacement was supposed to be in January 2018.

"We expected to need more time to be ready, but we are happy to offer our customers the lower pricing right away. Initial supplies of some replacement batteries may be limited," an Apple spokesperson clarified.

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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Apple and (RED) celebrate $160 million raised for AIDS awareness and treatment

Apple's been a staunch proponent of AIDS awareness with its involvement in the (RED) initiative. As one of the earliest partners of the program, Apple has released various (product) RED variants of products of which partial proceeds would go into AIDS awareness and treatment. The company also puts World AIDS Day front and centre by dressing up their stores with symbolic RED Apple logos and having their staff wear the colour. The company now celebrates a milestone.

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Apple to offer free coding and fun challenges in stores for Hour of Code

Apple today opened registration for thousands of free Hour of Code sessions available at all Apple Stores from December 4 through 10. The company also introduced a new educational challenge in Swift Playgrounds and added new teacher resources to the Everyone Can Code curriculum to help teach Swift, Apple’s easy-to-learn programming language that anyone can use to create world-class apps.

For the fifth year, Apple Stores will participate in Hour of Code with daily coding sessions in celebration of Computer Science Education Week. Young aspiring coders can learn coding basics during a Kids Hour session, while those age 12 and above can use Swift Playgrounds on iPad to learn coding concepts and even program robots. A new Teacher Tuesdays session helps educators learn how to teach code to students using new resources and discussion topics.

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