Saturday, September 30, 2023
Friday, September 29, 2023
Apple ‘Punishing’ iPhone 15 Users By Disabling New iOS Battery Feature
Apple ‘Punishing’ iPhone 15 Users By Disabling New iOS Battery Feature
The iPhone 15's new battery health meter is disabled when the battery is replaced independently. ... [+]
“Apple’s iPhone 15 includes a feature that shows how many cycles the battery has been through, which appears to be a direct response to concerns aboutrapid battery degradation in the iPhone 14. But a repair specialist has found that the new feature is disabled when the battery is replaced.
Ricky Panesar, founder of repair specialists iCorrect, discovered this when tearing down the recently released iPhone 15 Pro. When an iPhone 15 Pro battery is independently replaced with another genuine battery from the same iPhone model, the option to view the new battery health measurements disappears.
“If you replace the battery you will immediately lose functionality of battery health, and also the new cycle count feature. So there's extra levels of pairing this year than there was last year with the battery… you're punishing me [users] by not giving me the features.”
The new iOS 17 battery features include detailing exactly how many times the battery has been fully charged to 100% (known as a cycle), when it was manufactured and when it was first used. If the power pack is replaced without Apple's authorization, it will simply say “unknown” next to the aforementioned categories. A warning message will also pop up saying that the device is unable to determine if the battery is a genuine Apple part, even if it is.
The error message that pops up when the battery is replaced without Apple's authorization.
The new battery health feature is a win for longevity and for giving secondhand buyers confidence when shopping. But the loss of the cycle count, and other metrics, undermines the new feature’s pro-user credentials because it makes it harder, and more expensive, for owners to replace their batteries by limiting who can carry out that repair.
Disabling battery metrics when the component isn’t replaced in a specific way is part of Apple’s policy of serialization, otherwise known as parts pairing.
The company is adding integrated circuits to individual components with unique serial numbers. If you want to replace your iPhone 15 battery, or any other component, you will need to use a genuine part—that can only be purchased from Apple—with a corresponding unique serial number, and the parts have to be synced up using Apple’s proprietary calibration tool. Serialization can be found all over the iPhone, MacBook Pro and iPad—from the camera to the display.
MORE FROM FORBESApple Software Lockdown Is Causing New MacBook Display ProblemsBy Janhoi McGregorElsewhere in the device, Panesar discovered that the front-facing camera “glitches” when replaced with another genuine iPhone 15 camera module. The LiDAR sensor will lose some core functionality in certain apps if its replaced, which Panesar says has been the case since the iPhone 13, and the display loses its True Tone function when swapped.
There is some good news, though. There were concerns among the repair community that the introduction of USB-C could see the charging port paired to the logic board, which in theory could restrict iPhone 15 owners to only using Apple chargers or cables through reductions in data speed or warning messages. This was fueled by some leaked images of the charging port before the iPhone 15 was released. However Panesar says that this isn’t the case and that the level of serialization in the iPhone 15 isn’t wildly different to the iPhone 14.“
Thursday, September 28, 2023
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Tensions With China Cross a New Line in the South China Sea
Tensions With China Cross a New Line in the South China Sea
“The Philippines is pushing back against China’s territorial claims. But Chinese forces have been unrelenting in using direct confrontation, raising worries about an escalation.
Sign up for The Interpreter newsletter, for Times subscribers only. Original analysis on the week’s biggest global stories, from columnist Amanda Taub.
The video may seem too simple, too understated to mark a serious international incident in the South China Sea: a quick clip of a diver using a knife to cut a section of rope underwater.
But that diver was with the Philippine Coast Guard, and the rope was part of a sea barrier placed by Chinese forces to keep Philippine boats away from an area they had a legal right to fish in. In that moment, the Philippines took one of the most forceful steps yet in contesting China’s unrelenting territorial claims ever closer to the Philippine Islands.
“The barrier posed a hazard to navigation, a clear violation of international law,” the Philippines said in a statement, adding that the action had come on direct orders from President Ferdinand E. Marcos Jr.
Since he took office in June 2022, Mr. Marcos has signaled wanting a more muscular foreign policy approach toward China. But until now, those actions were confined mostly to rhetoric, deepening alliances with the United States and other countries, and releasing videos of aggressive activities undertaken by the Chinese Coast Guard against Philippine vessels.
The surprise this time was that the action was being taken by Manila. It has left little doubt that the Philippines is offering more forceful resistance to China’s territorial designs.
While the Biden administration is likely to see that as good news, apprehension is rising in the region about how China might counter that resistance, and whether there could be a risk of sparking a direct military clash among China and the Philippines and its allies, including the United States Navy fleet patrolling the region.
After the rope was cut and the Philippines lifted the anchor that kept it in place, China removed the barrier. On Tuesday, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry brusquely dismissed the Philippine statement. “We advise the Philippines not to cause provocation and cause trouble,” he said.
Song Zhongping, a commentator in Beijing who is a former military officer, said the Philippines was emboldened to cut the barrier “because the United States continues to encourage the Philippines to confront China in the South China Sea.”
“China must take decisive measures to put an end to the Philippines’ provocation,” Mr. Song said. “We can’t allow the Philippines to commit endless provocations and pose a serious threat to China’s national sovereignty and security.”
China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, some of it thousands of miles from the mainland and in waters surrounding Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. In the past decade or so, China has asserted ever greater control over these waters, using two island chains called the Paracels and the Spratlys to expand its military footprint by building and fortifying outposts and airstrips.
These actions have alarmed much of Asia and the United States, which says it has a vested interest in maintaining freedom of navigation in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. China’s military buildup, and increasingly aggressive action by its coast guard and maritime militia, have also raised questions about China’s intentions in the region and its willingness to comply with international law and norms.
The tensions are particularly pronounced in the Philippines, where fishermen have been blocked by Chinese vessels from fishing, and Manila has been prevented from fully exploring oil and gas deposits within an area that an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in 2016 to be part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
Many analysts say China is likely to stop short of taking any military action against the Philippines, a treaty ally of the United States, for fear of being embroiled in a broader conflict with Washington and other U.S. allies in the region. In August, the American defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, reaffirmed that a mutual defense treaty with the United States “extends to Philippine public vessels, aircraft and armed forces — to include those of its Coast Guard — in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea.”
“If the U.S. has to engage in a military confrontation with China in the South China Sea, you can’t expect Australia and Japan, for example, to just sit there and idle about while their American allies are fighting the Chinese,” said Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore. “They will be drawn into it somehow. So this is something that I believe any good Chinese planner will have to consider.”
Mr. Koh said he expects China to ramp up its presence in the South China Sea, perhaps by sending more vessels around disputed areas like Thitu Island and the Second Thomas Shoal to prevent Filipino fishermen from operating freely and to block maritime law enforcement vessels.
Bilahari Kausikan, a former ambassador at large with Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said he believes “Beijing has enough problems at home without wanting to add to them by picking a confrontation with the U.S. as well.”
Mr. Kausikan said “the risk of conflict would be higher” if the Philippines had not removed the barrier, “because then the Chinese would be tempted to push the boundaries even further.”
But Leonardo Cuaresma, president of the New Masinloc Fishermen’s Association in the Philippines, said that in the municipality where the barrier was cut, he was nervous about how China could react.
“Here in Masinloc, it’s natural to feel fear because should there be a conflict, we will be the first one to feel it,” Mr. Cuaresma said. “It’s difficult, because we don’t know if there will be a war or what. We are anxious.”
Mr. Cuaresma said he and his peers have not been able to fish in the Scarborough Shoal for years because of China. “The moment we get near the entrance of the shoal, they would immediately block us,” he said. “Their smaller boats would sail beside us and tell us: ‘Go away, Filipino.’”
Alongside the high emotions, there is still anxiety in Manila about how to deal with China.
Koko Pimentel, the Philippine Senate Minority Leader, told a Senate hearing that he agreed with the Marcos government’s decision to remove the Chinese barrier. But later, in a text message to a New York Times reporter, he offered a cautious addition: “We should avoid conflict as much as possible. Do everything through dialogue and diplomacy. Differing positions are a fact of life, and we should be able to navigate through life with this reality.”
Antonio Carpio, a former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice in the Philippines and an expert on the South China Sea, said the Philippines was just mirroring what Malaysia and Indonesia did recently when both countries sent their ships to survey in disputed waters despite threats from China.
“If you assert your right and you stand your ground, well, China will not do anything,” he added.
Mr. Carpio said that, more broadly, the international community must pay attention to what is happening in the South China Sea because “what is at stake in Ukraine and in the South China Sea are exactly the same.”
“All nations must oppose this, because this is not just a matter of the Philippines, it’s about the future of the world,” he said. “If the U.N. Charter, which outlawed the wars of aggression, is overturned, then only nuclear powers will be able to settle disputes according to their dictates. It will be ‘might is right’ again.”
Camille Elemia and Joy Dong contributed reporting.
Sui-Lee Wee is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times. She was part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for public service for coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. More about Sui-Lee Wee”