After weeks of beta testing, Apple is making its latest iOS update available. It’s also offering iPhone users an option to enable enable owners of older iPhones to turn off a feature that slows the device to prevent aging batteries from shutting down.
The free upgrade announced Wednesday will be released this spring.
The additional controls are meant to appease iPhone owners outraged since Apple acknowledged last month that its recent software updates had been secretly slowing down older iPhones when their batteries weakened.
Battery probe
Many people believed Apple was purposefully undermining the performance of older iPhones to drive sales of its newer and more expensive devices. Apple insisted it was simply trying to extend the lives of older iPhones, but issued an apology last month and promised to replace batteries in affected devices at a $50 discount, lowering the price to $29.
Despite Apple’s contrition, the company is still facing an investigation by French authorities , a series of questions from U.S. Senate and a spate of consumer lawsuits alleging misconduct.
Besides giving people more control over the operation of older iPhones, the upcoming update dubbed iOS 11.3 will also show how well the device’s battery is holding up. Apple had promised to add a battery gauge when it apologized to consumers last month.
Other features
Other features coming in the next update will include the ability to look at personal medical histories in Apple’s health app, more tricks in its augmented reality toolkit and more animated emojis that work with the facial recognition technology in the iPhone X.
“The new iOS 11.2.5 software update is now available as an over the air update for the iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch,” reports Geeky Gadget.
“The update brings a range of new features to Apple’s iOS devices.”
Among the upgrades: “Siri will now also play you podcast about other topics, you can ask Siri about sport and it will play sports news podcast from a range podcasts like ESPN or NBC. You can also ask about business news and get podcasts from Bloomberg or CNBC and more.”
VentureBeat reports that the new release also “includes support for the upcoming HomePod speaker.”
