Apple unveiled the rumored iPhone 15 series at its ‘Wonderlust’ event on September 12. The latest handsets boast several new features, including a new USB Type-C port for the first time, titanium construction, camera upgrades and Dynamic Island on all models. This year, the Cupertino-based company also extended support for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NavIC) to iPhone 15 Pro models. With this new step, Apple joins India’s efforts to promote its own developed alternative to the GPS navigation system. Additionally, a source code reportedly found in the iOS 17 beta indicates that the iPhone 15 will have an option to limit the maximum battery charge percentage.
The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are listed with support for NavIC. This was first spotted by TechCrunch. For those who don’t know, NavIC is India’s own navigation system and is similar to the American GPS and Russia’s Glonass. The system was developed by the Indian space agency ISRO for military and commercial users and was previously known as IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System). NavIC consists of eight satellites and covers mainland India and the region extending up to 1,500 kilometers from its borders.
This is the first time Apple has included support for NavIC in any of its iPhone models. With this move, Apple appears to be in line with India’s efforts to promote NavIC adoption. The Indian government has pushed smartphone companies to enable NavIC support on the handsets they will sell in India from January this year.
In addition, the iPhone 15 series will reportedly have a new feature that will allow users to limit the battery charge percentage to maximize battery health. According to a source code spotted by 9to5Mac in the iOS 17 beta released to developers, Apple will let users cap the maximum cost for the iPhone 15 series.
Once it goes live, the option is expected to be present in the Battery Settings menu. If you enable this feature, charging will stop when the battery reaches the percentage that the user has set as the maximum. Conversely, when the feature is disabled, a message will appear stating that the iPhone will “charge to its full capacity.” It’s very similar to the “Optimized Battery Charging” option and is expected to keep the battery healthy over time. Smartphones from Samsung and OnePlus also offer similar features.
The new charging optimization feature is expected to be compatible with the iPhone 15 series with USB Type-C port charging. We can expect to hear more about this functionality once Apple’s new software for iPhone – iOS 17 – goes live to the public on September 18. The iPhone 15 series, on the other hand, will go on sale from September 22.
