Meet the 17-year-old who exposed Apple's iPhone slowdown which could cost the tech-giant BILLIONS in lawsuits

Tyler Barney, a 17-year-old high school student in Mt Juliet, Tennessee, said he made the discovery that decreased performance has to do with phones lithium-ion batteries when his iPhone 6s 'became buggy.' 

Barney said that while he waited on the new updated operating system to be released by Apple, he tried his brother's older model iPhone 6. Though the phone was an older model, it was about a year younger, and he said it was noticeably faster. He decided to look into why that might be, and found a suggestion that he replace his battery. When he did, his phone sped up instantly. Barney then took to the message board website Reddit, where he posts under the username TeckFire, to share his findings. 

His post went viral and led to Apple's admission 'throttling' phones to extend their life and stop them shutting down as batteries age and become less effective.

The discovery has triggered class-action lawsuits from angry customers around the world - and will likely cause the company billions of dollars in legal fees.

On Thursday Apple issued an unprecedented apology and published a letter saying 'We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down', and revealed it is slashing the price of a replacement battery, and planning to show users exactly how much their battery has degraded.

source=dailymail uk