It's not just FB. Apple changed something 9.0 that made apps from 8.x act weird and use background services even when opted out of. So yeah, it's on Apple.
So let me see if I understand. Because they failed to monitor their own cellular data usage, it's Apple's fault... Is that their argument? Really? This is nothing more than people trying to dodge responsibility for their own actions while also trying to shake down deep pockets.
My battery usage in Settings. Yahoo Fantasy Football is right up there for background usage, followed 3rd by Mail app. When you have more bg activity than on-screen, that's an issue. Happened after 9.0 upgrade. This should translate to respective network usage as well. Also, when I had wifi assist ON initially, I'd notice it defaulted to LTE before immediately going to wifi when I would check the time in the middle of the night.
I have had so many [I]techtarded[/I] people (people I help with tech stuff) come up to me, text me, or call me about this "scandal" with iOS 9. I have not only left it on, but have also told everyone in my household to keep it on.
Since I have a quality wireless router, that is well placed in the home, and have mapped where the signal works through the walls both inside and outside the house, I knew this would not a problem for my household (and in fact be a benefit).
This is also a feature I've been wishing for on this site for years, but also one I submitted to Apple years ago due the simple fact that the system knows when the the WiFI's noise, RSSI, and MCS reaches a point that it will not likely make an effective connection, and if it's unsure it could send a ping* to a specific Apple website to see what the ICMP times are as a verification. I'm just surprised it took this long to be implemented.
Regarding the lawsuit, I think it's bullshit, but I do agree with [@]BeltsBear[/@] that Apple should have left this disabled at first as well as had a warning for users, or perhaps had it as part of their new device/iOS update setup with a full screen that had this feature prominently shown with the warning there so users would know about it and get the option to enable it then. Note that 4K video on the 6S-series is off by default despite stating it as a feature.
PS: when it comes to the Apple Watch, I really wish they didn't use the terminology Unpair Apple Watch, on the iPhone in the Watch app under Apple Watch. To me, this gives the impression that it unpairs it like any other BT connected device to your iPhone, when in fact it's quite destructive. It will do a backup, and then erase your Apple Watch, in much the same as going to Watch » General » Reset » Erase Apple Watch Content and Settings. I learned this the hard way when I got my new iPhone. Since I had about 8 hours between the unpairing from my iPhone 6 Plus that I sold and finally getting to pair my iPhone 6S Plus, I lost everything that my Apple Watch recorded that day for Activity, as when it "pairs" it again, it wipes it clean. These are not the proper terms for this sort of secured syncing between these devices. I also filed this concern with Apple so perhaps in 5 years it will change¡
[SIZE=1]* Some might say that a ping with a one hop limit (i.e.: trace route) to the router itself would be more accurate to test the connection, but many routers can have ICMP replies disabled so that wouldn't necessarily be a consistent way to test this connectivity.[/SIZE]
I do agree that Apple should've left this off by default and prompt user about turning it on with a warning. However, it is not Apple's responsibility to manage its users' cellular data.
Even if Wi-Fi Assist wasn't available, these backgrounded apps would've still ate through their data plans regardless because it wouldn't use cell by default anyway and having Assist turned off wouldn't stop the data from going through when the user switches to the cell network.
I have it turned on and I don't see any more usage compared to prior iOS version.
I don't like class action suits but sadly I agree they have a point. This should have been off as a default with a warning pop-up when turning it on.
I wonder if AT&T/Verizon had anything to do convincing Apple to turn it on by default, and bury the setting all the way at the bottom of the very long list of apps, where most people would not bother to scroll all the way down (because endlessly flicking the screen is so annoying). All so those carriers could make a few more dollars.
"As reported on 9to5Mac, WiFi Assist is a new setting for maintaining a strong online connection. If you're in an area with bad WiFi, the enabled feature will automatically transfer your device from WiFi to a cellular connection." What part of this says that WiFi Assist won't use cellular data? It uses a cellular connection and that is never free.
What else do people need, someone to hold their hand for every purchase and explain everything?
However there is some strange things about it, clearly labeling a warning and default off should happen for the feature, likely 90% of people don't know it.
Gotta blame Apple here. Companies do this kind of crap all the time by making something opt-out instead of opt-in. They should have turned the feature off by default and allowed the user to activate by choice. No matter how you look at it people are incredibly stupid and would have been upset either way. And I can see the data usage argument easily if a user has crappy Wi-Fi in parts of their home and doesn’t realize they are using cellular data watching that movie. The same thing goes for the Apple Music trial period. Instead of billing subscribers if they don’t opt-out of renewal Apple should have made opt-in the requirement. If you want to keep Apple Music then you have to DO something to keep it. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a similar lawsuit coming from Apple Music users who got billed but didn’t want to renew. And Apple made it incredibly unclear what a user had to do to NOT renew.
Apple is certainly not the only company doing this sort of thing. They all do it from time to time.
Every free trial for any service since the dawn of time has required you to opt out before the end of the trial or else be charged. To expect otherise is ridiculous. I'm sure someone will point out the exception that proves the rule.
However there is some strange things about it, clearly labeling a warning and default off should happen for the feature, likely 90% of people don't know it.
They could have default set to on and the first time it is about to switch to cellular pop up a warning with a few choices such as always use assist, never use assist, use it this time only, always warn before using assist.
"As reported on 9to5Mac, WiFi Assist is a new setting for maintaining a strong online connection. If you're in an area with bad WiFi, the enabled feature will automatically transfer your device from WiFi to a cellular connection." What part of this says that WiFi Assist won't use cellular data? It uses a cellular connection and that is never free.
What else do people need, someone to hold their hand for every purchase and explain everything?
Exactly. People are responsible for knowing the products they purchase. This is no different then losing a wifi signal and then your phone switching back to cellular. Is that Apple's fault too if someone doesn't notice that and starts watching videos? Of course not. The bottom line, it's your responsibility to monitor your cellular usage. One quick few second glance at the top of your phone will show you if you're on wifi or not.
Just use the Apple router and then you won't have any issues. Mine works flawlessly.
It's more complicated than that. There are physical and radio impediments that could cause your WiFi to be poor, even within your own home. In my experience, most people have extremely poor optimization in their WiFi network. From buying a cheap router, still using a very older router that doesn't work with the number of wirelessly connected devices the average home has now, to placement, and channel selection. Even people I know that work in the network field do little to no testing of their network.
Except you can't take it with you. Most wifi outside the home is crappy and this feature helps out a lot.
Or even as you navigate across a campus with varying levels of WiFi signal strength. My work area is awesome, fifty feet down the corridor it drops to useless while LTE there is fine.
"What a crock of absolute BS. How often are these people on wifi network so poor that it forces the phone onto cellular data instead? Honestly. I'd compare their bills and usage from before the new feature. Lastly, I have fully unlimited dada with T Mobile... It's not Apple's fault they don't." It happens all the time in my house depending on which room your in. I had to turn it off on all of our devices. My kids were going over there limit and I was being charged $20-$30 extra a month.
People are responsible for knowing the products they purchase.
That is ridiculous. Not everyone is a nerd. If an aspect of a product could have an adverse affect such as draining your wallet there should be a warning. That said, at least with AT&T, I receive a text warning my data is almost depleted and another text when I actually go over.
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Source?
So let me see if I understand. Because they failed to monitor their own cellular data usage, it's Apple's fault... Is that their argument? Really? This is nothing more than people trying to dodge responsibility for their own actions while also trying to shake down deep pockets.
My battery usage in Settings. Yahoo Fantasy Football is right up there for background usage, followed 3rd by Mail app. When you have more bg activity than on-screen, that's an issue. Happened after 9.0 upgrade. This should translate to respective network usage as well. Also, when I had wifi assist ON initially, I'd notice it defaulted to LTE before immediately going to wifi when I would check the time in the middle of the night.
Since I have a quality wireless router, that is well placed in the home, and have mapped where the signal works through the walls both inside and outside the house, I knew this would not a problem for my household (and in fact be a benefit).
This is also a feature I've been wishing for on this site for years, but also one I submitted to Apple years ago due the simple fact that the system knows when the the WiFI's noise, RSSI, and MCS reaches a point that it will not likely make an effective connection, and if it's unsure it could send a ping* to a specific Apple website to see what the ICMP times are as a verification. I'm just surprised it took this long to be implemented.
Regarding the lawsuit, I think it's bullshit, but I do agree with [@]BeltsBear[/@] that Apple should have left this disabled at first as well as had a warning for users, or perhaps had it as part of their new device/iOS update setup with a full screen that had this feature prominently shown with the warning there so users would know about it and get the option to enable it then. Note that 4K video on the 6S-series is off by default despite stating it as a feature.
PS: when it comes to the Apple Watch, I really wish they didn't use the terminology Unpair Apple Watch, on the iPhone in the Watch app under Apple Watch. To me, this gives the impression that it unpairs it like any other BT connected device to your iPhone, when in fact it's quite destructive. It will do a backup, and then erase your Apple Watch, in much the same as going to Watch » General » Reset » Erase Apple Watch Content and Settings. I learned this the hard way when I got my new iPhone. Since I had about 8 hours between the unpairing from my iPhone 6 Plus that I sold and finally getting to pair my iPhone 6S Plus, I lost everything that my Apple Watch recorded that day for Activity, as when it "pairs" it again, it wipes it clean. These are not the proper terms for this sort of secured syncing between these devices. I also filed this concern with Apple so perhaps in 5 years it will change¡
[SIZE=1]* Some might say that a ping with a one hop limit (i.e.: trace route) to the router itself would be more accurate to test the connection, but many routers can have ICMP replies disabled so that wouldn't necessarily be a consistent way to test this connectivity.[/SIZE]
Even if Wi-Fi Assist wasn't available, these backgrounded apps would've still ate through their data plans regardless because it wouldn't use cell by default anyway and having Assist turned off wouldn't stop the data from going through when the user switches to the cell network.
I have it turned on and I don't see any more usage compared to prior iOS version.
Gotta blame Apple here. Companies do this kind of crap all the time by making something opt-out instead of opt-in.
...
They opted-in when they installed iOS9. Shouldn't install a new OS unless you know the implications.
I don't like class action suits but sadly I agree they have a point. This should have been off as a default with a warning pop-up when turning it on.
I wonder if AT&T/Verizon had anything to do convincing Apple to turn it on by default, and bury the setting all the way at the bottom of the very long list of apps, where most people would not bother to scroll all the way down (because endlessly flicking the screen is so annoying). All so those carriers could make a few more dollars.
Apple has a support page. Not sure when it was actually first posted: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205296. I was also able to quickly find articles talking about WiFi Assist during the iOS 9 beta period, including this one: http://www.informationweek.com/software/operating-systems/ios-9-beta-wifi-assist-app-revamps/d/d-id/1321671
"As reported on 9to5Mac, WiFi Assist is a new setting for maintaining a strong online connection. If you're in an area with bad WiFi, the enabled feature will automatically transfer your device from WiFi to a cellular connection." What part of this says that WiFi Assist won't use cellular data? It uses a cellular connection and that is never free.
What else do people need, someone to hold their hand for every purchase and explain everything?
Gotta blame Apple here. Companies do this kind of crap all the time by making something opt-out instead of opt-in. They should have turned the feature off by default and allowed the user to activate by choice. No matter how you look at it people are incredibly stupid and would have been upset either way. And I can see the data usage argument easily if a user has crappy Wi-Fi in parts of their home and doesn’t realize they are using cellular data watching that movie. The same thing goes for the Apple Music trial period. Instead of billing subscribers if they don’t opt-out of renewal Apple should have made opt-in the requirement. If you want to keep Apple Music then you have to DO something to keep it. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a similar lawsuit coming from Apple Music users who got billed but didn’t want to renew. And Apple made it incredibly unclear what a user had to do to NOT renew.
Apple is certainly not the only company doing this sort of thing. They all do it from time to time.
Every free trial for any service since the dawn of time has required you to opt out before the end of the trial or else be charged. To expect otherise is ridiculous. I'm sure someone will point out the exception that proves the rule.
However there is some strange things about it, clearly labeling a warning and default off should happen for the feature, likely 90% of people don't know it.
They could have default set to on and the first time it is about to switch to cellular pop up a warning with a few choices such as always use assist, never use assist, use it this time only, always warn before using assist.
Just use the Apple router and then you won't have any issues. Mine works flawlessly.
Except you can't take it with you. Most wifi outside the home is crappy and this feature helps out a lot.
Apple has a support page. Not sure when it was actually first posted: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205296. I was also able to quickly find articles talking about WiFi Assist during the iOS 9 beta period, including this one: http://www.informationweek.com/software/operating-systems/ios-9-beta-wifi-assist-app-revamps/d/d-id/1321671
"As reported on 9to5Mac, WiFi Assist is a new setting for maintaining a strong online connection. If you're in an area with bad WiFi, the enabled feature will automatically transfer your device from WiFi to a cellular connection." What part of this says that WiFi Assist won't use cellular data? It uses a cellular connection and that is never free.
What else do people need, someone to hold their hand for every purchase and explain everything?
Exactly. People are responsible for knowing the products they purchase. This is no different then losing a wifi signal and then your phone switching back to cellular. Is that Apple's fault too if someone doesn't notice that and starts watching videos? Of course not. The bottom line, it's your responsibility to monitor your cellular usage. One quick few second glance at the top of your phone will show you if you're on wifi or not.
It's more complicated than that. There are physical and radio impediments that could cause your WiFi to be poor, even within your own home. In my experience, most people have extremely poor optimization in their WiFi network. From buying a cheap router, still using a very older router that doesn't work with the number of wirelessly connected devices the average home has now, to placement, and channel selection. Even people I know that work in the network field do little to no testing of their network.
mmmm .... water pipes or the gas line maybe ... LOL Hopefully this will get tossed for being totally ridiculous.
Except you can't take it with you. Most wifi outside the home is crappy and this feature helps out a lot.
Or even as you navigate across a campus with varying levels of WiFi signal strength. My work area is awesome, fifty feet down the corridor it drops to useless while LTE there is fine.
Take away their iPhones. They are a danger to themselves.
It happens all the time in my house depending on which room your in. I had to turn it off on all of our devices. My kids were going over there limit and I was being charged $20-$30 extra a month.
People are responsible for knowing the products they purchase.
That is ridiculous. Not everyone is a nerd. If an aspect of a product could have an adverse affect such as draining your wallet there should be a warning. That said, at least with AT&T, I receive a text warning my data is almost depleted and another text when I actually go over.