Chances are that by now you’ve heard the crazy story of how an American man has launched a class action against Apple because he believes two-factor authentication (2FA) on an iPhone or Mac takes too much time.
It’s a truly bizarre story, and many have been baffled by Jay Brodsky’s claims including his allegation that it takes between two and five minutes for him to pass the 2FA security check.
But things began to fall a little more into place when I discovered overnight that this isn’t the first time Jay Brodsky has sued Apple.
Last year, in a separate class action, Brodsky sued Apple for damages and compensation for “willfully, maliciously, oppressively and despicably” slowing down his iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s.
You may recall in late 2017 Apple ‘fessed up to “smoothing out” quick, high peaks of power drawn iPhones with ageing batteries:
“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. 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.”
“Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”
Sure enough, two years ago – before all the kerfuffle – Apple claimed it had dramatically reduced the number of unexpected sudden device shutdowns.
Personally I would be happier with an occasionally slightly slower old phone than a dead old phone.
I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine whether Jay Brodsky’s class action for his iPhone 6 slowing down shines any light on why he chose to now launch a class action against Apple for its two-factor authentication feature.
This is just another example of the mindset wherein people expect the state to protect them from the "pain and suffering", "harm", or "economic loss" of having to adjust to the real world. And, as usual, that protection must come at someone else's expense, of course.
You said it, Graham: Which is better—a slightly slower phone or a dead phone?
This is a money grab—an attempt by the plaintiff to pick Apple's pocket because he's too lazy, too cheap, too unimaginative, or too inflexible to change his behavior (adapt). There is no unalienable right to NOT have to adapt to change. Change is part of nature.
Things like battery life and other technical issues are governed by the laws of physics (natural law), not by the laws of the state (artificial law). People who rely more on the latter in an attempt to violate the former are headed for extinction.
Apple deserve everything that they get! And more!
Bout a 2017 iPad in 2017 – I don't have it now. Why? Stopped charging two months past warranty. Their charger, it was there on the desk and fine in the morning. Midday, "Hmm, must have pulled the connector out, or something." But no.
Apple's response? Basically, it is out of warranty, go away.
Apple fanboys love to stand up for them, but these people are crooks. They have incredibly deep pockets for lawyers and stuff, but they make cheap crap that fails. I have friends who lament the old days when an Apple computer meant a reliable one.
Don't take my word for it, look up Louis Rossman's channel on YouTube.
Grapham I find your article bias on the side of Apple, do you need to declare anything?
Cases you may not have considered because your no in touch with whats going on out there in the wild.
I am a reseller and for support services I regularly need to login to my account on a clients mac to correct the limitations of the Apple eco system and having 2 part authentication would cost these clients more in service time and make my job harder. I am one of the lucky ones that turned off this shitfuckery early on (An extreme degree of nonsense, especially when coming from an authoritative figure.)
In the case of a son that is managing his older fathers account he get a message every time something changes, just a god dam nuisance
In the case of a father wanting to locate a teenager just logging into the teens iCloud generates a 2 part Authentication number to the teens iPhone making it impossible to use,
If I lost or missplaced my Iphone I would login to iCloud go to find my iPhone and get it to make a noise, cannot do this with 2 partfuckery
When talking to Apple last year the Genius told me that you could turn this off within 2 weeks of creating the account but last night at a clients this was proved to be untrue and Apples documentation says this true of newer operating systems which Apple is always pushing you towards where you want it of not.
HACKED OVER 2FA
When and where did the idea for 2FA come from? Whose idea was it? The fact that when you Google the topic to find out whose butt it crawled out of, all you get is “2FA is the messiah,” tells me there is an ulterior purpose behind it that is evil. Seems to coincide with “the Russians hacked the Election” fake news narrative, which is another red herring promoted by Fellow Travelers. I hate it. I don’t want it. Don’t need it. It is BS, and needs to crawl back into the derrière it crawled out of.