Top 5 Apple Stories of 2017 (Premium)

2017 marked the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, Apple's most important and dominant product. So it's not surprising that iPhone dominated the headlines this year.

And not always for positive reasons.
#1: Apple admits it purposefully slows down older iPhones
In the most bizarre Apple story of 2017—-which is saying something, given the nuggets below—-Apple was found to be purposefully slowing down older iPhones in order to preserve battery life over time. The evidence was overwhelming, but that wasn't the end of it. Apple admitted that it was doing so, and on purpose.

“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices,” an Apple statement noted. “Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.”

This response didn't please anyone except for a handful of Apple pathetic toadies. Indeed, several class-action lawsuits were instantly launched.

And then the incredible happened: In the waning days of 2017—-as I was literally writing this very article—-Apple actually apologized. It lowered the price of iPhone battery replacements, and it pledged to add features to iOS so that users could make decisions for themselves.

Wow.
#2: iPhone X
Ahead of Apple's annual WWDC show, I opined that the iPhone had gotten boring after 10 years. I guess I should have waited for "iSlowgate," above. Or for the iPhone X, which changes everything. Again.

Sorry, a bit of Apple marketing mumbo-jumbo got in there somehow. But the iPhone X really is a big deal: It thoroughly modernizes the iPhone experience for the first time since the release of iOS 7, and it adds forward-leaning new functionality like facial recognition.

But as I noted in my review of the iPhone X, Apple's newest iPhone is controversial, too. Its notched screen is unnecessarily intrusive. The Face ID facial recognition is still slow. The all-glass design is easy to break. And iPhone X is a lot more expensive, and expensive to repair, than Apple's other iPhones.

No matter. The iPhone X is the future. And for the legions of Apple fans out there who had grown tired of the previous dated designs, it is both a breath of fresh air and a peek at the future.
#3: Apple stumbles into the Post-PC world
Ever since Apple introduced the iPad Pro, I've been wondering if this product—-and/or a related effort from Google to combine Android with ChromeOS—-could signal the final death knell for Windows and the PC. This would require Apple to take iOS much further than it had to date, however. Relegating the iPad Pro to a sad role as a large iPad with a keyboard cover.

But Apple showed some signs of life at WWDC 2017 when it announced that iOS 11, for the first time, would include new productivi...

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