MacRumors

Bryan Fuller, who was set to serve as showrunner on Apple's upcoming "Amazing Stories" reboot has opted to cut ties with Apple over creative differences, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Fuller is said to have wanted to turn "Amazing Stories" into a Black Mirror-style show, while Apple is aiming for a more family friendly series.


"Amazing Stories," which Apple picked up in October, is a science fiction and horror series created by Steven Spielberg. It originally ran on NBC from 1985 to 1987, and during the two years that it aired, the show won five Emmy Awards. The show focused on a new topic each episode, similar to "Tales From the Crypt" and Twilight Zone."

Fuller has been involved with "Amazing Stories" since 2015, and was originally set to write the script for the show before Steven Spielberg became involved. Fuller has, in the past, ended several other projects because of creative and financial differences, including "American Gods" and "Star Trek: Discovery."

Previous rumors have suggested that Apple wants to produce television shows with broad appeal that are also tame enough to be shown in an Apple Store. The company is said to be shying away from content that includes nudity, raw language, and violence, and it has reportedly turned down edgier content.

Apple is planning to create 10 new episodes of "Amazing Stories," with plans to spend more than $5 million per episode. "Amazing Stories" is not yet in production and it's not clear when the series will launch.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue today spoke at Variety's 2018 Pollstar Live event in Los Angeles, California, where he discussed Apple Music and the Music Business with Variety Executive Music Editor Shirley Halperin.

Cue's talk wasn't streamed live for viewers at home to watch, but several attendees shared Cue's major talking points on Twitter.

eddycuepollstar


Unsurprisingly, some of the discussion focused on the HomePod, which is officially launching this Friday. According to Cue, the HomePod will use its built-in A8 chip and AI algorithms to automatically adjust the bass, treble, and other settings on a song-by-song basis, so there won't be a need for users to fuss with settings.

In fact, Apple is confident enough in the HomePod's ability to make these adjustments that there are no built-in options to allow users to manually adjust sound.

Cue didn't want to share information about Apple's upcoming original programming plans, despite the fact that the company has inked deals for eight TV shows so far. He did, however, say that we may hear "a lot more" about Apple's plans in "a little bit of time," suggesting Apple will share details on its television goals later this year.

Details are light on the other points that Cue covered in his talk, but should more information surface on what he had to say, we'll update this post.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

The Unicode Consortium today announced it has finalized a new set of 157 emoji that companies like Apple will be able to implement later this year. There are actually only 77 new emoji in total, as some have multiple skin tones.

ios 12 emoji
Jeremy Burge, who runs the popular emoji-themed website Emojipedia, has shared sample images of every new emoji in an Apple-like style to show how they might look on devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.


Emoji 11.0 will include several new hairstyles and types, including male and female faces with red hair, curly hair, gray hair at a younger age, and no hair or baldness, along with hot and cold faces, and woozy and pleading faces.

emoji faces
Other notable inclusions are new male and female superhero and supervillain options, a face with a party hat, and emojis for well-known activities such as sewing, knitting, lacrosse, softball, frisbee, chess, and skateboarding.

emoji 11 superheroes
New animals and insects include a kangaroo, parrot, peacock, swan, badger, llama, lobster, hippopotamus, raccoon, and mosquito.

New food options include a bagel, lettuce, mango, and cupcake, among others, while new objects range from a fire extinguisher and test tube to a toilet paper roll and sponge. There's even a pirate flag and an infinity symbol.

emoji 11 objects
Emoji 11.0 will be part of the Unicode 11.0 standard, scheduled for release this June. The new emoji typically start showing up on mobile devices in August or September, so expect to see them on iPhones and iPads around iOS 12. The new emojis should extend to the Mac and Apple Watch at some point too.

Next up will be Emoji 12.0, part of the Unicode 12.0 standard, scheduled for release around March 2019. New guidelines in Emoji 12.0 will allow for emojis that currently face to the left or right only to face either direction.

Apple will be hosting a session at this year's Game Developers Conference for the first time, offering an introduction to ARKit, its augmented reality platform for developers.

The session will be presented by Michael Kuhn, who leads Apple's ARKit engineering team.

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Entitled "Introduction to Apple's ARKit: Best practices and recent updates," the talk will cover core concepts of the ARKit framework and the ARKit API. It's designed to teach game developers how to get started with ARKit, and it will cover ARKit best practices.

This session introduces core concepts of the ARKit framework, it's underlying principles, and the ARKit API. It explains how to get started with ARKit using the different tracking and scene understanding capabilities as well integration into rendering/game engines. The session also highlights best practices for AR like starting an experience, placing objects in the real world, interacting with them and implications for games. In addition it explains basic concepts and challenges of AR and Computer Vision to help avoid common pitfalls and allow the creation of great experiences.

Apple has not previously offered developer sessions at GDC, but this is the first GDC since the launch of ARKit and Apple is likely hoping to get more game developers interested in implementing augmented reality features.

ARKit was introduced as part of iOS 11 back in September of 2017, and since then, developers have incorporated augmented reality features into more than 2,000 apps. Major improvements are coming to ARKit with the launch of iOS 11.3 and ARKit 1.5, which may come out right around when GDC takes place and will likely be a topic of discussion.

augmentedreality
ARKit 1.5 can map irregularly shaped surfaces for better detection of ambient surroundings, it can recognize and map vertical surfaces like walls and doors, and it includes an image detection feature that works on everything from movie posters to bar codes.

The 2018 Game Developers Conference will kick off on March 19 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and it will last until March 23.

Tag: ARKit

Snap Inc. today announced an all-new Live feature that will allow users of the iOS and Android apps to stream key snippets of major televised events, the first partner being NBCUniversal in time for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang.

Beginning this Saturday, February 10, Snapchat users will see these live streams of the Olympics in the app's Discover page. NBCUniversal will also be Snapchat's first media partner to create custom Context Cards surrounding a major live event. These cards include behind the scenes looks at the event from athletes, schedule of the Games, earned medals for nations and individual athletes, and more.

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Snapchat has provided coverage of the Olympics before, through Stories of the 2016 Rio Olympics, but this will mark the first time that the app will be live streaming key moments from a television event. Additionally, this is the first time that NBC has ever distributed live Olympics programming outside of its own platforms. The coverage will include two original shows from NBC Sports as well, called Pipe Dreams and Chasing Gold, which were created exclusively for Snapchat.

The Olympic updates will start on Friday, February 9 with themed lenses, filters, and stickers, before the new Live feature launches on Saturday. Snap said this coverage will last throughout the Olympics and users can expect one major moment from the Games to be shared on the app every day. As Live support for the Olympics debuts, the company is also still rolling out a major app redesign to its user base around the world.

The Olympic-related news comes one day after Snap's latest earnings call, during which it reported that it increased to 187 million daily active users worldwide in the quarter that ended December 31, 2017. That's a rise from 178 million in the third quarter of the year, and reportedly convinced investors that Snapchat "can survive competition" with rival Instagram.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.3 update to its public beta testing group, one day after providing the second beta to developers and two weeks after releasing the first tvOS 11.3 public beta.

The new tvOS 11.3 public beta can be downloaded by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under "System." "Get Public Beta Updates" will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the Apple TV will download the beta software.

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tvOS 11.3 introduces support for AirPlay 2, allowing the Apple TV to be added to the Home app as part of a HomeKit setup.

With AirPlay 2, you can play the same music on multiple Apple TVs in different rooms, and when AirPlay 2 officially launches, that same functionality will extend to other AirPlay 2 devices like HomePod and AirPlay 2 compatible speakers.

Other new features in tvOS 11.3 include enhancements to Match Content support, automatic frame rate switching on the fourth-generation Apple TV (a feature that was added to Apple TV 4K in a past update), and automatic mode switching for AirPlay video sessions.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Apple today released the second public beta of an upcoming iOS 11.3 update to its public beta testing group, one day after seeding the second beta to developers and two weeks after releasing the first public beta.

Beta testers who are members of Apple's beta testing program will receive the new iOS 11.3 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on an iOS device.

Those who want to join the beta testing program can sign up on Apple's beta testing website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas. iOS betas are not always stable and should not be installed on a primary device.


iOS 11.3 is a significant update that introduces multiple new features like Messages on iCloud for storing your iMessages in iCloud, and ARKit 1.5, a new, upgraded version of ARKit that can more accurately map irregularly shaped surfaces and recognize and place virtual objects on vertical surfaces like walls.

Four new Animoji are available for the iPhone X (lion, skull, dragon, and bear), the Health app has a new Health Records feature where you can store your medical records, and AirPlay 2 features are available in both iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3.

Starting in iOS 11.3 beta 2, the update includes a new "Battery Health" feature that's designed to provide iOS users with more information about their batteries.


Battery Health offers details on maximum battery capacity and peak performance capability, and for devices with degraded batteries, it provides information on if and when a device is being throttled with performance management features. It also provides a way for customers who do have a device with a degraded battery to turn off performance management all together.

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By default, iOS 11.3 disables performance management on the iPhone, and the feature is only re-enabled once a device experiences an unexpected shutdown.

Other new features in iOS 11.3 include an Apple News "For You" section that displays the top videos of the day, Advanced Mobile Location (AML) for sharing more accurate location data when placing an emergency call in a supported country, and a new Privacy icon that will show up whenever Apple asks you for info. iBooks has also had the "i" removed from its name, so it's just "Books" now, and in the App Store, you can sort app reviews by rating and date.

Business Chat, which will let you interface with businesses like Wells Fargo, Delta, Hilton and Lowe's right in the Messages app is coming when iOS 11.3 is released, and improvements to Apple Music will bring better support for music videos. Apple says iOS 11.3 will be released to the public in the spring.

Related Forum: iOS 11

safaripreviewiconApple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced almost two years ago in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 49 includes bug fixes and feature improvements for Service Workers, Fetch, Intelligent Tracking Prevention, CSS, Rendering, SVG, JavaScript, Web Inspector, Media, Storage, Security, and Accessibility.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple's aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 4.3 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the first beta and two weeks after releasing watchOS 4.2.2, a minor update focusing on bug fixes and performance improvements.

Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software update.

watchos43beta
To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone.

watchOS 4.3 brings support for Nightstand mode in portrait orientation, a feature that was previously only available when the watch was in landscape orientation.

There's a new charging animation when the Apple Watch is placed on the charger, and your Activity data is now displayed on the Siri watch face.


The update also includes the return of a much-desired feature that allows music playing on the iPhone to be controlled using the Music app on the Apple Watch. In prior versions of watchOS, the Music app could only be used to control music playing from the watch itself. With tvOS 11.3 installed, there's also an option to control music playing on the Apple TV with the watch.

Apple plans to release watchOS 4.3 to the public in the spring, and until then, it will be limited to developers. Apple offers public betas of tvOS, iOS, and macOS, but watchOS betas are not available for public beta testers.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 10
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)

Yesterday, reviews for the HomePod launched online and with them new details about Apple's smart speaker began emerging ahead of its release date on February 9. One new tidbit of information came from Rene Ritchie's review of the speaker on iMore, which confirmed that any music streamed via HomePod does not count toward an Apple Music subscription's device streaming limit. Additionally, HomePod does not count toward the 10 device limit placed on devices associated with an Apple ID.

apple music streaming error
This means that subscribers with single memberships to Apple Music will be able to ask Siri to play a song on HomePod while listening to music on another iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Prior to HomePod, if single membership users streamed Apple Music on an iPhone and then began listening to music on a Mac, for example, the iPhone would disconnect from the music and serve up a warning about the new stream.

When users get their HomePods this weekend, it appears that they won't have to worry about the speaker taking up similar streaming limits on their Apple Music accounts. Apple Music family plans already support simultaneous streaming across multiple devices, but the HomePod feature should work the same for those users as well.

That includes HomePod not counting against any Apple Music device or concurrent stream limit — set it up one or more HomePods with your iPhone or iPad, leave the house with that device, and anyone who stays or comes home can still listen to Apple Music on any or all the HomePods you've set up.

Another small tidbit relates to how HomePod affects each user's music recommendations within the "For You" tab of Apple Music. According to The Loop's Jim Dalrymple, there's a toggle in the HomePod section of the Home app (where the speaker will be controlled on iOS devices), and turning it off allows users to prevent the HomePod's streams from impacting how Apple Music's algorithms recommend new music.

When using the feature, no music streamed via HomePod will count towards the subscriber's overall taste profile, but if users want HomePod streams to affect recommendations they can ignore the setting.

One thing about having multiple people access the HomePod that bothered me was that it would affect my “For You” section in Apple Music.

When you love songs, play songs and add songs to your library, Apple Music will suggest similar music, assuming that is what you want. If someone else, or a group of people come over and start playing genres you don’t like, it would screw everything up.

Well, it turns out I didn’t have to worry about that after all. There is a setting in the Home app that allows you to prevent the music played on HomePod from affecting the “For You” section of Apple Music.

This way, when users know a lot of people will be around the HomePod -- at a party, for example -- they can toggle the setting off. Then, if other people begin asking HomePod to play music that doesn't particularly align with the tastes of the main account, that Apple Music subscriber's New Music Mix and other song/artist recommendations won't be thrown off.

The same setting will also control the albums and playlists that appear on an Apple Music profile. In leaked screenshots posted by iGen in January, it was confirmed that turning off this one setting will prevent both music recommendations from being affected as well as "Listening To" history from being updated. It also synchronizes the playback status of podcasts on all devices connected to the same Apple ID.

If you're interested in reading up on everything else we know about the HomePod so far, be sure to check out our full HomePod Roundup.

Related Roundup: HomePod
Buyer's Guide: HomePod (Neutral)

Apple today apologized after sending incorrect information to some iOS developers using its Search Ads Basic service yesterday. The reports actually belonged to other developers, according to Steve Troughton-Smith and others affected.

app store search ads basic
The follow-up email blames the mishap on a "processing error" and adds that all future reports of these kind will require developers to sign into their accounts to view their dashboards to ensure this issue does not occur again.


The full email was shared by developers Louis D'hauwe and Pat Murray on Twitter, as spotted by Cult of Mac:

Thank you for being a part of the iOS developer community and for using our new Search Ads Basic service.

Due to a processing error, the January monthly results email we sent to you contains incorrect app promotion information.

Accurate performance information is always available in your Search Ads account. To ensure such an issue will not recur, all future performance communications will direct you to sign in to your account to view your Dashboard.

We apologize for the inconvenience this error has caused. We value your business and will work hard to make our new Basic service something you'll love.

Introduced late last year, Search Ads Basic works so that developers only pay out if a user installs the app. It includes suggestions on how much a developer should pay based on historical data pulled from the App Store based on the type of app being marketed, and uses App Store trends to target the ideal audience.

Over the past few weeks, iOS app developers have been sharing stories on Twitter about their apps getting rejected by Apple's App Review team because emojis were used in "non-keyboard based situations." So if an app displayed an emoji in its user interface, where the user did not type it in with a keyboard, Apple said it was not complying with its trademark and Apple Emoji imagery guidelines.

As accounts of similar situations begin to build, Emojipedia this week reported on the topic, and attempted to make sense of the new rules, with a handful of examples of apps that have been using emoji within their UI and are now being rejected by Apple. In the iOS app "Reaction Match," a Game Center error screen saw the use of the loudly crying face and alien emojis become problems for developer Eddie Lee. He eventually removed all instances of the emojis, and the App Store reviewers then accepted the app.

emojipedia reaction match app examples

Image of Reaction Match's rejected (left) and approved (right) app screens via Emojipedia

Github client app GitHawk faced similar issues, with Apple rejecting the app for its use of emojis as "media" in various parts of the app. As developer and software engineer Ryan Nystrom explained, these instances of "non text input" emoji use got flagged, but once he removed the emojis and used them only as "content" and as text input examples, the app was approved.

inbox zero emoji from githawk

Like other newly discovered App Store guidelines, there is some inconsistency in Apple's processes and the exact rules remain unclear. For example, a few major apps apparently violate the new emoji-as-text-only rule -- like Snapchat's emoji friend scores -- but appear to not have had issues in recent updates. Other areas of uncertainty include emojis in push notifications and in responses from chatbot apps.

As Emojipedia pointed out, this could affect smaller developers the most and cause their user interfaces to become less personalized.

Smaller developers will be hardest hit as Apple's professionally designed emojis were a quick and easy way to provide imagery in an app that fit in with the system. They will now need to create their own icons to fill the gap, embed a licensed emoji set, or have a naked-looking UI.

Larger developers have the budget to create their own emoji or icon sets, or to license existing ones. The largest or most popular apps may see Apple overlooking breaches of this new policy.

Apple is known to consistently introduce tweaks and updates to its App Store Review Guidelines, occasionally amending harsher rules that create unexpected problems for some apps. For example, last June Apple introduced new guidelines that banned apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service in an effort to fight clones and spam on the App Store. Eventually, the rule negatively affected small businesses who rely on such templates, and Apple amended its guidelines to be less restrictive.

Outside of the traditional emoji characters, Apple launched a new set of advanced emojis with Animoji on the iPhone X. The new feature creates 3D models of existing emojis and tracks their animations to the user's facial features using the iPhone X's TrueDepth front-facing camera, which resulted in the phenomenon of "Animoji Karaoke" videos that Apple itself eventually got in on.

Related Forum: iOS 11

Uber yesterday updated its iPhone app, and while the release notes do not mention any specific changes, the latest version appears to re-enable the ability to request a vehicle for pickup using Siri or Apple Maps.

uber apple maps siri
After updating the Uber app, we were successfully able to ask Siri to hail us a ride, while tapping on the Ride tab in Apple Maps once again listed Uber as one of the ride-hailing services available alongside Lyft.

While the Siri and Apple Maps integrations are working again in the United States, we encountered errors when trying to hail an Uber with Siri and Apple Maps in Toronto, Canada, where the features were previously supported.

As noted by Christian Zibreg at iDB, some users may need to manually re-enable the Siri and Apple Maps integrations in Settings → Uber → Siri & Search and Settings → Maps under "Ride Booking Extensions."

The ability to hail an Uber ride with Siri or Apple Maps had disappeared in late January following an earlier update to the Uber app. Both features were originally added in iOS 10, and it's unclear what prompted their temporary removal.

Uber's app is available for free on the App Store.

Microsoft today updated its Cortana app for iOS with native iPad support. The design looks essentially the same as the iPhone version, but with an interface optimized for the larger 7.9-inch to 12.9-inch screen sizes of Apple's tablets.

microsoft cortana ipad
The release notes also mention that Cortana now opens 20 percent faster:

What's new:
Introducing a brand-new Cortana for iPad design. Enjoy an exclusive layout and interface for your iPad.
Cortana now launches 20% faster! Enjoy a lightning-fast experience.

Like rivals Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, Cortana is a digital assistant that can set reminders, schedule calendar appointments, respond to queries, and provide other information through machine learning techniques.

Apple only allows third-party assistants to function within their apps, however, limiting their usefulness versus Siri on iPhone and iPad. For example, Cortana can't be invoked with a voice command when an iOS device is locked.

Nevertheless, iPad users now have one more assistant to choose from alongside Siri and Alexa. Cortana is available for free on the App Store.

Apple is in talks with its investment bank Goldman Sachs about the possibility of offering customers financial loans when buying Apple products, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

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The Wall Street firm is in talks to offer financing to shoppers buying phones, watches and other gadgets from Apple, people familiar with the matter said. Customers purchasing a $1,000 iPhone X could take out a loan from Goldman instead of charging it to credit cards that often carry high interest rates.

Talks between Apple and Goldman Sachs remain at an early stage and could still fall apart, according to WSJ. Both the tech giant and the investment bank declined to comment for the report.

Part of Goldman's discussions with Apple are said to involve taking over some form of Apple's iPhone upgrade program, which is designed for users who want to have the newest iPhone every year and comes with AppleCare+ included.

Those who sign up for the program in its current form can trade-in their existing iPhone for a new model after 12 monthly installments are made, starting a new cycle of the program each year. Apple started the program in September 2015 with the help of Citizens Financial Group, who finance the zero-interest loans for iPhone upgrades and higher-interest options for other device purchases. The program was introduced around the same time that wireless providers began reducing buyer subsidies for iPhones.

Goldman Sachs is said to view the potential financing deal with Apple as a way of growing its new consumer bank, as it looks beyond corporate clients to more fully embrace retail banking and consumer lending. Two years ago the investment firm launched Marcus, an online lender that helps people refinance credit-card debt, while the bank is also building a "point-of-sale" financing business that will offer loans to shoppers at checkout, according to people familiar with the firm who spoke to WSJ.

Related Forum: iPhone

Alipay, the mobile payment system offered by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, will soon be accepted in Apple retail stores across China, making it the first third-party mobile payment system to be accepted at brick-and-mortar Apple stores anywhere in the world (via Reuters).

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The partnership with Apple was announced in a statement on Wednesday by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, which runs Alipay. Apple's regional China website, iTunes Store, and App Store have accepted Alipay for over a year, but Apple has now agreed to accept Alipay payments across all of its 41 local retail stores in the country, where Apple Pay has thus far received a lukewarm reception.

Alipay is China's most used mobile payment platform, but Alibaba is looking to keep one step ahead of Tencent Holdings' rival digital payment system, which is integrated into hugely popular chat app WeChat.

Reports of discussions about a potential partnership between Apple and Alibaba date back to November 2014, when the idea of integrating Alibaba's Alipay with Apple Pay was first considered as a more comprehensive mobile payments solution for the Chinese market.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the first beta and two weeks after releasing macOS High Sierra 10.13.3.

The new macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 beta can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store with the proper profile installed.

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macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 includes bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that weren't addressed in macOS High Sierra 10.13.3. The update includes support for some features that are also available in iOS 11.3, like Messages on iCloud, which uploads all of your iMessages to the cloud. It will also support Business Chat, a feature coming when iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 are released to the public.

The new macOS update also includes the smoke cloud wallpaper that was previously only available on the iMac Pro, and it introduces a warning when opening up a 32-bit app as part of an effort to phase them out.

In the future, Apple plans to phase out 32-bit Mac apps, just like it did with 32-bit iOS apps. Apple says macOS High Sierra is the last version of macOS that will support 32-bit apps without compromises.

Related Forum: macOS High Sierra

Starting with the second beta of iOS 11.3, Apple has introduced a new "Battery Health" feature that's designed to provide you with more information about the state of your battery and whether or not it's impacting device performance.

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If your iPhone has a degraded battery that is leading to throttling issues, the "Battery Health" section will let you know about it, and it will provide an option to turn off performance management to put a stop to any throttling that's going on.

There are, however, some nuances to this feature that you need to know about, which we'll outline below.

When Installing iOS 11.3

When you first install the iOS 11.3 update, all performance management features that might have been enabled are automatically disabled. So when you first install the beta, you don't need to do anything because performance management is turned off.

You will, however, need to watch out for an unexpected shutdown that turns your device off, because if this happens and you have a bad battery, performance management will be turned back on. More on this below.

Accessing Battery Health

You can check out the status of your battery in the new Battery Health section, which will tell you the maximum capacity of the battery in your iPhone and whether or not it's running at peak performance capacity. Here's how to get to it:

  1. Open up the Settings app.
  2. Scroll down to "Battery" and tap it.batteryhealthsettings
  3. Tap on "Battery Health."

All the info you need to know about your battery is listed here. Maximum Capacity will let you know how your battery is performing overall, and it directly correlates to how long your iPhone will last on a single charge.

Peak Performance Capability will let you know if a degraded battery has resulted in performance slowdowns.

What it Looks Like When Your Device Running Normally

When your iPhone is running as normal, under the "Peak Performance Capability" section, it will say "Your battery is currently supporting normal peak performance."

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You may still have somewhat degraded Maximum Battery capacity as this number slowly declines after charging cycles, but throttling does not kick in until the battery becomes severely degraded and can no longer offer enough power to support spikes in processor usage.

What it Looks Like if You Have a Bad Battery

If you have a bad battery, it will say "Your battery's health is significantly degraded," and it will let you know that an Apple Authorized Service Provider can replace the battery to restore full performance.

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It will also tell you if performance management features have been turned on, and it will provide an option to turn them off.

What Happens When You Have an Unexpected Shutdown

As mentioned above, all performance management features are disabled automatically upon installing iOS 11.3. If your device has a bad battery and it shuts down because of it, performance management will be automatically enabled.

If this happens, you will see the following message under "Peak Performance Capability" in Battery Health.

"This iPhone has experienced an unexpected shutdown because the battery was unable to deliver the necessary peak power. Performance management has been applied to prevent this from happening again."

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If you have an unexpected shutdown AND your battery capacity is significantly degraded, you'll see a slightly different message suggesting an immediate battery replacement.

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How to Disable Performance Management if Your Battery is Bad

After experiencing an unexpected shutdown, performance management is turned on automatically on your iPhone. You will, however, see a small "Disable" option when this happens, and if you tap it, you'll be given the option to disable performance management.

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Disabling performance management will turn off any throttling that's been applied, but it will leave your device vulnerable to future unexpected shutdowns.

You will not see the option to disable performance management until your device has experienced at least one unexpected shutdown, and once you disable it, there is no option to turn it on again.

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If your iPhone shuts down again while performance management is disabled, though, performance management will automatically turn it on again.

This means you will need to turn performance management off again each time your device experiences an unexpected shutdown, as Apple believes slower performance is preferable to sudden losses of power.

How to Permanently Disable Performance Management

If you have a device with a bad battery that is experiencing unexpected shutdowns and is subjected to Apple's performance management feature, the only permanent solution is to get a new battery.

Having your battery replaced will restore an older iPhone to full working order, with maximum capacity and performance capabilities.

Apple is offering $29 battery replacements for the iPhone 6 and newer through the end of 2018. Your battery does not need to be experiencing shutdowns to be replaced - you can also get a replacement for a battery that's not operating at maximum capacity, no questions asked. You can get one $29 battery replacement per device.

Newer devices like the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X that have a high maximum capacity near 100% don't need replacement, but at levels below 90%, it could be worth getting a new battery while Apple is still offering them at a discounted price. To get a battery replacement, contact Apple Support.

If you have AppleCare+ or are under your one-year device warranty and have a battery that's below 80 percent, you won't even need to pay the $29 fee -- that's considered a defective battery and Apple will replace it for free.

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Devices Impacted by Performance Management

Performance management features have been installed on the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and SE. On other iPhones, like the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X, you will be able to see readings for Maximum Capacity and Peak Performance Capability, but you won't need to worry about throttling or unexpected shutdowns.

Related Forum: iPhone