Apple apologizes, issues fix for MacBook Pro throttling ‘bug’

Apple continues to be a thorn in my side. After years of critical coverage — despite my affinity for the company — I was enamored with its recent updates to the MacBook Pro line. I said as much in a take that ran contradictory to that of my colleague, Callum. Whereas he looked at it as a minor “spec bump,” I saw a new commitment to Pro-level users.

For years, we — as Apple fans — made excuses for the company. They weren’t false, but “it just works” was becoming a truism that was just as true about other modern operating systems. Windows made major strides in recent years, ChromeOS began gaining ground, and Linux is now more accessible than ever.

No longer would minimalist design — which had been copied ad nauseam — and seamless integration between Apple devices be enough. Editing 4k video, or creating AR/VR games and applications demanded performance, and that, until recently, was lacking on even the highest-priced MacBooks Apple offered.

So needless to say I loved an update that promised 70 percent more performance for those willing to pay the piper.

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And then it blew up in my face. Outlets all across the web started reporting that the Pro line I’d become so enamored with wasn’t actually achieving the stated performance specifications. There were throttling issues, a fancy way of saying Apple wasn’t pushing its hardware to the limit for fear of reliability issues due to the added heat caused by internal components.

But, today the company not only acknowledged the problem, it issued a fix along with an apology.

“Following extensive performance testing under numerous workloads, we’ve identified that there is a missing digital key in the firmware that impacts the thermal management system and could drive clock speeds down under heavy thermal loads on the new MacBook Pro,” Apple said in a statement. “A bug fix is included in today’s macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update and is recommended. We apologize to any customer who has experienced less than optimal performance on their new systems.”

Here’s to hoping this puts an end to the saga so that we can all go back to enjoying Apple’s best update in years.