Apple may have recently settled a class-action lawsuit over its iPhone “throttling” practices, but the iPhone maker is not finished with the subject by any means. Apple is facing another probe over the subject, this time from Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich, reports Reuters.
The probe, which could also involve the state of Texas, has been ongoing since 2018 and is pushing Apple for data about “unexpected shutdowns” of iPhones and the company’s throttling, or slowing down, of the devices through power management software
Last week, a separate document showed the Texas attorney general might sue Apple for such violations in connection with a multi-state probe, without specifying charges. The attorneys general offices in Arizona and Texas declined to comment when contacted by Reuters, as did Apple.
The issue stems from a “performance management system” Apple included in iOS 10.2.1 with no mention of the feature in the updates release notes. In a statement a month later, Apple mentioned on “improvements” that resulted in significantly fewer unexpected iPhone shutdowns.
The iPhone maker only revealed what the “improvements” consisted of when it was discovered that some iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 devices scored lower on benchmarks after installing the iOS updates.
The performance management system has been disabled by default since iOS 11.3 and is only enabled if the device suffers an unexpected shutdown. The feature can also be manually toggled by users.