Apple iOS 11.3 previewed; finally gives iPhone owners control over performance throttling

While the lawsuits still play on, **Apple** has now announced the preview of the iOS 11.3, an announcement that comes just after the **roll out of iOS 11.2.5** . [caption id=“attachment_4211601” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] iOS 11 interface on iPhone X .[/caption] Apple brings some new features to ARKit 1.5, enabling developers to create better and higher quality augmented reality experiences for iPhone and iPad owners. There’s new Animoji for **iPhone X** owners, adding a dragon, bear, skull and lion to iOS 11.3, bringing total character count to 16. Business Chat has been introduced to the Messages app where partnered businesses will now be able to communicate with users directly, without the need to share a user’s contact information. iOS 11.3 also adds the ability to view health records (from participating medical institutions) in the Health app. But as most iPhone owners will already know, it’s more about the controversial performance throttling and the option to disable it than anything else. [caption id=“attachment_4318941” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] There’s 4 new Animoji in iOS 11.3 including this cute and cuddly lion. Apple[/caption] iOS 11.3 will be available in spring. And Apple has promised that it will pack in a new feature in the Battery Settings that will allow owners of older iPhones to “see if the power management feature that dynamically manages maximum performance to prevent unexpected shutdowns” is switched on and now have the option to turn it off. The feature was first introduced in iOS 10.2.1 and with iOS 11.3, users can finally choose to turn it off and boost the performance of older devices at the cost of battery life. [caption id=“attachment_4318947” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] iOS 11.3 also brings Business Chat to Messages. Apple[/caption] Apple also clarified that we can expect to see this new power management feature only on older models. This would include the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. The new feature is not included in the currently released beta of iOS 11.3 (that is available for download today) and will appear in a later beta release. Apple has been in quite a fix after it revealed to customers that it does **throttle device software performance** to save on degrading battery life on its iPhones. The power management feature was introduced with iOS 10.2.1, but was never revealed to users of Apple devices. [caption id=“attachment_4318943” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] ARKit 1.5 brings plenty of improvements including a higher resolution for real world backgrounds.[/caption] Apple’s **explanation for throttling performance** fell on deaf years as angry and frustrated users did not see it as an excuse for slowing down their iPhones over time. Many perceived the move to throttle performance not to extended battery life (of batteries that degraded over time), but to force owners of older devices to upgrade to new models. The Cupertino giant quickly announced that it would be **providing battery replacements** with a reduced fee as an apology to the mess (a new battery causes the throttling to stop) but the company has been hit with **lawsuits worldwide** over planned obsolescence.