Apple laptops no longer say how many hours of battery life they have left - but there's a secret shortcut
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Mac users used to be able to get a rough estimate of how much battery life their laptop had left by clicking on the battery icon in the toolbar. Click on it, and it would tell you about how much time you could get out of your laptop's juice, based on your remaining battery life and current usage.
For example, right now, my MacBook Air should get about 4 hours and 49 more minutes before I need to plug in. Like this:
Screenshot
With Tuesday's update, Apple is killing the "remaining" estimated battery life from the toolbar. Going forward, the battery indicator on Macs will only display the percentage remaining, like iPhones or the Apple Watch.
Apple explained in a statement to Business Insider:
"With macOS Sierra we have continued to advance our power management, and by design there is now an increased range between high performance and low-power states. When combined with the differing ways people use their Mac throughout the day, the calculation of remaining battery life displayed as a measure of time has become less accurate. With the latest update to Sierra, we have removed the remaining time indicator. Macs will continue to present the percentage of battery capacity remaining, which is consistent with other Apple products."
However, Mac users will still be able to get a rough estimate of how much battery life their laptops have left. But instead of the toolbar, users will have to find it in Activity Monitor.
Users can find their laptop's battery life remaining through Applications > Activity Monitor > Energy. (Or you could search in Spotlight - that magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your Mac's screen - for "Activity Monitor.")
It should look like this:
Screenshot
The fact Apple's tweak is more cosmetic than anything - that the remaining charge is still available, just hidden - hasn't stopped tech fans from snarking on Twitter and connecting the change with recent disappointing MacBook Pro battery life:
Not gonna lie I laughed out loud when I heard Apple was removing 'battery time remaining' from MacOS' tool bar. https://t.co/itw8zqAZt1
- Matthew Panzarino (@panzer) December 13, 2016
"Battery life on these new MacBook Pros suck"
Apple Support: We'll fix that!
Apple PR: Just remove the indicatorhttps://t.co/kyuHckeI9n
- Paul Haddad (@tapbot_paul) December 13, 2016
Users complained about bad battery life, so Apple removed the time remaining info from the menubar in macOS 10.12.2; problem solved!
- Justin Pot (@jhpot) December 13, 2016
And people say Apple isn't innovating on the Mac anymore.
- Justin Pot (@jhpot) December 13, 2016
Today's macOS update rids of the "time remaining" battery life panel of the menu bar. They've solved the battery issues w/ the new laptops!
- 5H4NE (@tradedsymmetry) December 13, 2016
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