Apple iPhone news: New update will address processing speed decrease in older phones

A customer tests the features of the newly launched iPhone X at VIVA telecommunication store in Manama, Bahrain, November 3, 2017.REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Apple has announced some very good news to owners of older iPhone models: their devices will no longer be hindered by poor processing speed as soon as the latest iOS version, iOS 11.3, gets implemented.

Tim Cook, the company's Chief Executive Officer, recently announced the new feature as posted in a report by The Verge.

According to the report, once the update is added, users will now be able to "see if the power management feature that dynamically manages maximum performance to prevent unexpected shutdowns, first introduced in iOS 10.2.1, is on and can choose to turn it off." A beta version of the update is available, but does not currently include the battery features.

The changes in battery management is the company's response to several complaints regarding older generation iPhones' performance. A lot of users complained of their device slowing down greatly or crashing unexpectedly since they upgraded their operating system to a specific version.

Apple explained that the decrease in processing speed was a countermeasure to prevent unexpected crashes on older iPhones because the succeeding versions of the operating system already exceeded the limitations of the previous generation's hardware, thus the battery needed to be preserved by limiting the devices processing.

The fix, however, was ill received by the public, and some people accused the company of slowing down the devices on purpose in order to force people to purchase newer iPhones, leading to several lawsuits from different people around the United States last year.

In response to the negative issues, Apple issued a statement of apology to the public and lowered their battery replacement fees down to $29, and the coming update will definitely be well received by older generation users as they would no longer need to replace their batteries prematurely.

Aside from the battery management option, several other features will also be included in the latest update such as improved augmented reality, a feature that will help doctors update medical records via iPhone, and new animoji.