Geek News

In a letter to Senator John Thune , Apple confirmed that it would bring transparency to the way its iPhones handle CPU slowdowns due to aging lithium-ion batteries. If you have an Apple Developer account, you can check out the solution the company has baked right into its upcoming iOS 11.3 release. As first noticed by 9to5Mac , the iOS 11.3 beta has a new "Battery Health" system preference screen, with a "Performance Management" section. In the new "Peak Performance Capability" section of the Battery Health screen, you can now see the maximum capacity of your battery (as compared to when it was new), and you can also see if the operating system has applied a performance management tweak due to an "unexpected shutdown because the battery was unable to deliver the necessary peak power," as the explanation reads. Image Credit: 9to5Mac 9to5Mac notes that all devices that upgrade to the new iOS will start with this management system disabled. ...

If you've got an HP notebook or mobile workstation computer, you'll want to check out the latest battery recall from the company. Lithium-ion batteries for affected HP laptops were shipped between December 2015 and December 2017. There have been eight reports of the battery packs overheating, melting or charring, three of which include reports of $4,500 in property damage and one report of a first degree burn to a hand. You'll want to go to here to see if your model is one of the ones named in the recall. If so, you can enable a battery safety mode and get instructions on how to get your battery replaced by an authorized technician, since these batteries are not able to be replaced by consumers. According to the recall notice , affected models include HP ProBooks (64x G2 and G3 series, 65x G2 and G3 series), HPx360 310 G2, HP Envy m6, HP Pavilion x360, HP 11, HP ZBook (17 G3, 17 G4, and Studio G3) Mobile Workstations. In addition, batteries sold as replacement or acc...