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Apple will soon let you turn off its iPhone-slowing software

The tweak will arrive in an upcoming iOS update as early as this spring.

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Ben Fox Rubin Former senior reporter
Ben Fox Rubin was a senior reporter for CNET News in Manhattan, reporting on Amazon, e-commerce and mobile payments. He previously worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and got his start at newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
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Ben Fox Rubin
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Apple has been slowing down your older iPhone, but you'll soon be able to do something about it.

 Sarah Tew/CNET
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Following an uproar from customers, Apple said Wednesday it's adding a feature to an upcoming iOS update that will let them turn off software that slows down older iPhones.

Apple in December revealed it had released software about a year earlier that makes older iPhones run more slowly to prevent problems with aging lithium ion batteries, such as unexpected shutdowns.

As part of the upcoming iOS 11.3, iPhone users will get a recommendation if their battery needs to be serviced. Plus, they will be able to see whether the power management feature that slows a phone's performance is on and can then choose to turn it off, the company said.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said last week that the new features were in the works, telling ABC News that an iPhone update will let people disable the software that slows down its phones.

iOS 11.3 is set to arrive in the spring. Apple will release the iOS update to beta users shortly, but the new battery feature will arrive in a later beta release, the company said.

The planned features may help smooth over some customers' anger about slowdowns and show that Apple is trying to be more transparent about performance changes it makes to older iPhones.

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Watch this: Tim Cook promises iOS update will stop iPhones from slowing down

The new feature will be found in the Battery section in Settings and will be available for iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

In response to customer complaints about the slowed iPhones, Apple has cut the price for replacing an iPhone battery from $79 to $29. The battery update will be part of a broader iOS update, which includes augmented reality updates and new health records for iPhones.

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