Lawsuit Claims Apple Forced Users to iOS 7 by Breaking Facetime

Megalith

Megalith

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Is it fair for a company to force its users to update their software? Probably not—especially when it is done for financial reasons, and said software could make older hardware perform worse. According to this class-action suit, Apple did just that by (allegedly) breaking Facetime in order to save money, which forced those users to migrate to iOS7—an update that reportedly performs badly enough on older hardware such as the iPhone 4 and 4S that they become useless.

Apple saw a chance to slow down or completely negate the fees in iOS 7. Among other system improvements, the next-generation OS included a method of creating peer-to-peer FaceTime connections without infringing on VirnetX patents. The only problem, according to the lawsuit, was that users continued to operate devices running iOS 6. Citing internal emails and sworn testimony from the VirnetX trial, the lawsuit alleges Apple devised a plan to "break" FaceTime on iOS 6 or earlier by causing a vital digital certificate to prematurely expire. Apple supposedly implemented the "FaceTime Break" on April 16, 2014, then blamed the sudden incompatibility on a bug, the lawsuit claims.
 
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While taking advantage of others appeal to brand loyalty in my owning of Apple's stock, I still hope they get taken to task for their continued abuse of customers/users as it's again long overdue. *cracks whip*:wideyed:
 
Delicieuxz said:
After the lawsuit is successful, Microsoft should be the next recipient of a class-action for similar behaviour.
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except that older hardware runs fine in newer MS OSs. Actually Windows 8 is allegedly better suited for PCs with less than 2GB RAM than W7. On the Apple side of things this is not the first time that a mandatory iOS upgrade made older iphones unusable
 
iPhone 4S is way too old at this point to expect software support. If you want to use that old of a device there will be downsides. You can get a 5S now for well under 200 dollars.
 
wizzi01 said:
If things were working fine before a forced upgrade, should there have been a forced upgrade?
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Exactly, this is Apple way to try and force people to upgrade their phones to a newer on even tho people are perfectly happy with what they got. It has happened with other Apple devices before.
 
The irony is that it's been proven multiple times that apples phones have actually enjoyed support (in the way of updates) for far longer than other devices do.

Alternatively, I see this failing due do almost every device we have that can be updated (consoles, steam, smart TVs, etc.) limit functionality if not fully updated. Most often consoles simply won't go online if you won't update to the latest firmware.
 
Nolan7689 said:
The irony is that it's been proven multiple times that apples phones have actually enjoyed support (in the way of updates) for far longer than other devices do.

Alternatively, I see this failing due do almost every device we have that can be updated (consoles, steam, smart TVs, etc.) limit functionality if not fully updated. Most often consoles simply won't go online if you won't update to the latest firmware.
Click to expand...

Never mind I'm dumb. The argument being that the update made their phone useless, so what I said is not really applicable.
 
Delicieuxz said:
After the lawsuit is successful, Microsoft should be the next recipient of a class-action for similar behaviour.
Click to expand...
But windows 10 is faster on old PC's than 7 was I was able to give new life to old laptops thanks to the free upgrade. As for iOS this has happened with all iPhones, app's break and force you to upgrade the OS making the phone too slow to use that's why I stopped using iPhones after my iPhone 4..
 
wizzi01 said:
If things were working fine before a forced upgrade, should there have been a forced upgrade?
Click to expand...
I Agree if this keeps going we will be throwing out our 3 year old TV's after they force an upgrade that stops Netflix from working.. If you don't need the New features and its working fine why upgrade? A phone just like a TV should work as well as it did the day you got it with all the same features.
 
geok1ng said:
except that older hardware runs fine in newer MS OSs. Actually Windows 8 is allegedly better suited for PCs with less than 2GB RAM than W7. On the Apple side of things this is not the first time that a mandatory iOS upgrade made older iphones unusable
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Windows 10's performance is virtually identical to the Vista/7 kernel.

Microsoft deliberately slowed down/broke updates for older versions of Windows to push users towards 10.
 
JohnnyGatt said:
I Agree if this keeps going we will be throwing out our 3 year old TV's after they force an upgrade that stops Netflix from working.. If you don't need the New features and its working fine why upgrade? A phone just like a TV should work as well as it did the day you got it with all the same features.
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There is no money in people holding onto their stuff. Everything built nowadays has planned obsolete. More things are coming out that you can't even replace the battery in them easy. As much as I want to hate Apple for this it has been a growing trend over the past 25 years. There is just no money in making things to last. I use to work maintenance for schools years ago where we had ancient HVAC equipment. Stuff that was 40+ years old. They still had the original motors and bearings humming along just fine. On anything new we would be lucky to get 5 years out of a motor. Sure the old stuff wasn't very energy efficient but it lasted and did its job better then anything newer.
 
Its not just apple. I have been notified by google that my os isn't supported for getting my mail or anything to do with Google. Yes , under the guise of security. So time to buy another phone or.....My cpu, memory, wifi, blue tooth all supported and still not good enough,because my os is a tad old. It sucks to be in the "built in obsolesence" catagory just so these companies can squeese an extra dollar out of you which you wern't ready to spend. When they tell you your contract is good for two yrs and your battery will last two yrs, they fail to mention that your apps or OS is going to fail also in two yrs.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Windows 10's performance is virtually identical to the Vista/7 kernel.

Microsoft deliberately slowed down/broke updates for older versions of Windows to push users towards 10.
Click to expand...

It's called end of support. What happens with all Windows OSs. They eventually lose support. Like every other electronic, mechanical, etc product in the world.

Now if you're talking the Win 7 update bug (where it takes like an hour to find updates), I don't know. It still updates, just takes a long time. Although, there seem to be others without that issue. *shrugs*
 
krotch said:
It's called end of support. What happens with all Windows OSs. They eventually lose support. Like every other electronic, mechanical, etc product in the world.

Now if you're talking the Win 7 update bug (where it takes like an hour to find updates), I don't know. It still updates, just takes a long time. Although, there seem to be others without that issue. *shrugs*
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Yes, its called prioritising.
 
vegeta535 said:
There is no money in people holding onto their stuff. Everything built nowadays has planned obsolete. More things are coming out that you can't even replace the battery in them easy. As much as I want to hate Apple for this it has been a growing trend over the past 25 years. There is just no money in making things to last. I use to work maintenance for schools years ago where we had ancient HVAC equipment. Stuff that was 40+ years old. They still had the original motors and bearings humming along just fine. On anything new we would be lucky to get 5 years out of a motor. Sure the old stuff wasn't very energy efficient but it lasted and did its job better then anything newer.
Click to expand...


And having to replace a energy efficient motor every 5 years, instead of a motor lasting 20+ years is actually LESS energy efficient in the long run. I replaced a 40 year old HVAC system in my house last year (air compressor was only 20 years old). No repairs in 18+ years. I just changed the filter regularly. Finally replaced it because it was drawing more a lot energy and the compressor was getting loud. Didn't think it would make it through another summer.

New system is much more efficient, only taking a little more than half the power (air) and gas (heat). Still, it will take 15-20 years to brake even with what it cost to install.

Energy efficient ratings should take into account how long a device is usable, and how much energy it takes to manufacture. If they did that you would see a lot of so-called energy efficient devices being ranked a lot lower.
 
Uncle said:
Its not just apple. I have been notified by google that my os isn't supported for getting my mail or anything to do with Google.
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Except with non-apple products, there is always the possibility of installing a newer OS.
I upgraded a number of old dual core laptops to Windows 10 and made them usable for a few more years.
I had an old Acer tablet. Stuck at android 4.2. Rooted it and installed Android 6.
Little slow in some games, but works fine for web, email, movies. Plan to keep using it for a few more years.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Microsoft deliberately slowed down/broke updates for older versions of Windows to push users towards 10.
Click to expand...
krotch said:
Now if you're talking the Win 7 update bug (where it takes like an hour to find updates), I don't know. It still updates, just takes a long time. Although, there seem to be others without that issue.
Click to expand...
The fix for slow Windows 7 and 8.1 updates is available from Microsoft. I have had to use it on my own systems, on customers and on new installs of 7 and 8.
Read both links and follow either Woody or Dalai's directions.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/31...-speed-up-windows-7-update-scans-forever.html
link mentioned in article http://wu.krelay.de/en/


How to speed up Windows 7 Update scans
 
I don't have the issues, but will definitely read over that, so I know how to fix it. Thanks.
 
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