According to Apple’s release notes, iPhone OS 2.1 delivers “significantly better battery life for most users.” “Most” appears to be the operative word in that sentence, as a number of users are reporting seriously degraded battery life after the update. One iPhone Atlas reader, Jerry Flaby, writes:

“Since updating to 2.1 I have seen a dramatic decrease in battery life. I can make it about half a day with moderate use as opposed to a day and a half before the update. My usage meter continues to grow when I am not using the phone. I have tried soft reboot, hard reboot, restore from backup, and reseting all settings. None worked!! Some people have narrowed this down to a push issue with both MobileMe and Exchange. I personally have used push with exchange with no problems, until now. I have turned off push and will see if it helps. This is by far the worst problem I have had with this phone. It makes text lag and reception issues look like a joke in comparison. Also, I cannot get a fix with GPS while 3G enabled. Works fine with 3G disabled.”

Flaby’s sentiment is echoed across Apple’s Discussion boards.

Among the workarounds and fixes that have proven at least semi-successful with regard to boosting battery life under iPhone OS 2.1 so far:

Drain the battery completely Use your iPhone until the battery dies completely (indicated by a battery icon appearing on the screen when the sleep/wake button is pressed), then fully recharge the device. It appears that the full discharge may reset circuitry that prevents a full charge from occurring, despite iconic indication of a full charge.

Turn off location services It appears that the Maps application and some third-party applications that use GPS functionality fail to power down the necessary hardware components when they are no longer in use. Navigate to Settings > General > Location Services and turn these services off when you are not using Maps or another location-enabled app.

Turn off Push then restart The iPhone 3G’s Push functionality for Exchange and Mobile Me accounts can destroy battery life. Turn this option off in “Settings” then restart your iPhone by powering it off then on.

Restore the iPhone with original settings Launch iTunes and select the second option in the “Version” section on the Summary page for your iPhone. This restore process will erase your iPhone software and data, including all settings, which can be restored later via iTunes.

via http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/09/18/poor-battery-life-under-iphone-os-21-fixes/

Posted on September 19th, 2008 by admin
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he mid-day charge. It’s a term that iPhone 3G owners are getting to know all too well. You unplug the device in the morning then set out on your day, only to find that sometime in the afternoon you need to recharge the battery again. Many complain about this annoyance and wonder why Apple made a device with such a limitation.But let’s be honest. The real reason that the iPhone 3G’s battery drains so quickly is that you’re using the iPhone 3G much more than any other phone. And doing complex things on it.

One of those things is browsing the web. It’s not just browsing a text-based mobile version of the web, on the iPhone you get the full-on graphical front and can run web apps that use JavaScript. The device’s web browsing share has doubled in the past few months since the launch of the iPhone 3G, according to new data by analytics company Net Applications.

The data shows that it went from an already high 0.15 percent in April 2008 to .30 percent in August. In the past month alone it’s risen 58 percent. Look at the chart below, growth is exploding. The iPhone is about to pass Windows 98 and is about one third of the way to Linux’s web browsing market share. That’s pretty incredible.

The other thing that has people using the iPhone so much are the applications. With the launch of the App Store, Apple and third party developers have bombarded us with already well over 1,000 apps to use of the device. Many of these are more battery-intensive including games and apps that use the phone’s location capabilities — again, sucking up battery life.

Already, over 60 million apps have been downloaded via the App Store. That’s 60 million new things to do on a device that already was a phone and a web browsing machine. Oh yeah, and an iPod. I probably use my iPhone to listen to music more than anything else.

Sure, my Motorola RAZR had better battery life then the iPhone 3G, but I basically only used it to make calls and occasionally send a text message. I would use it maybe four or five times a day, most of the time for just a few minutes, and as such, the device would last the whole day.

You could use the Internet on it, but it was a joke. The screen was so small and the connection so slow.

Despite some varying results, the iPhone’s new 3G chip makes browsing the Internet and using apps faster and so people tend to use them more. When asked by Apple didn’t include a 3G chip in the first iteration of the iPhone, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had the following to say at an event in London last year:

“The 3G chipsets that are available to semiconductors work reasonably well except for power. They are real power hogs. So as you know, the handset battery life used to be 5-6 hours for GSM, but when we got to 3G they got cut in half. Most 3G phones have battery lives of 2-3 hours.”

Some suggested Jobs was being disingenuous with that statement and simply made a mistake in not including a 3G chip in the original iPhone. Now, some of those same people are complaining about the iPhone 3G’s battery life. Even though tests have shown that its battery life is actually better than almost all comparable 3G devices.

The iPhone has turned notion of how we use mobile phones on its head. It’s no longer just a device for making calls. It’s a PDA, a gaming machine, a location device, a music player, a movie player, a camera, and Internet browser and a phone.

Its battery “sucks” because we’re sucking its battery dry.

via http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/02/the-real-reason-you-iphone-3gs-battery-sucks-youre-using-it-too-much/

Posted on September 3rd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Battery | No Comments »

As much as I love the iPhone 2.0 release on both my 1st Generation iPhone and my new iPhone 3G, it has problems. The biggest problem I have with 2.0 is how fast it can chug down a full battery. While some of the new features that consume all this power are absolutely great, to be honest most of the time you don’t really need them running. So why not learn how to quickly turn them on and off to get all that battery time back.

1. Pause Push

The push feature is great, I’ve figured out that I get email on my phone faster than it hits my inbox on my computer. But do you really need to get it instantly, are emails from facebook really that critical? You might think so, but honestly think about how often you look at your email on your phone. If you’re like me you can afford to turn Push off on your personal mail. Here’s how:

1. Open “Settings”
2. Select: “Fetch New Data”
3. Flip the “Push” Switch from “On” to “Off”.

By default, this turns the “Fetch” feature to “Every 15 Minutes”. This is the default for how the previous releases of the iPhone managed it. If you want to conserve even more power consider increasing that to 30 minutes, an Hour, or even manage it Manually. I personally have it set to “Every 15 Minutes.”

2. Wi-Fi, Why?

With Wi-Fi turned on, your iPhone will search for access points at all times. If it finds an access point that it has connected to before in the past, it will automatically connect to it, even if you don’t plan on using internet features in that area. All this searching and constant connecting and disconnecting drains power.

So turn it off when you aren’t using it and then when you take your phone out to really surf the internet, flip it back on. Here’s how to turn it off if you don’t know how:

1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “Wi-Fi.”
3. Flip the “Wi-Fi” Switch from “On” to “Off”.

If however, you’d prefer to have your Wi-Fi feature turned on, you can still conserve a bit of energy. All you have to do is turn the “Ask to Join Networks” feature off. This way when the phone is not connected to a Wi-Fi access point, it won’t be trying to get you to connect to networks you don’t know. 

1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “Wi-Fi.”
3. Flip the “Ask to Join Networks” Switch from “On” to “Off”.

This will also prevent those annoying popups that happen when you are driving around and it finds networks.

3. How Bright You Are.

Don’t you love that great, bright screen of the iPhone? Sometimes it’s so bright you should wear sunglasses, right? Well, why not turn the brightness down? It’s saves power and you don’t need to wear sunglasses at night any longer. Here’s How:

1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “Brightness.”
3. Slide the “Brightness” Slider to the left. Down to something that is still comfortable and usable for you.

You can take it one step further and turn the “Auto-Brightness” switch to off. This will power down the light sensor and prevent the device from adjusting the screen brightness depending on the brightness of then environment. Personally I leave this option On.

4. Gee 3G.

This last one is for iPhone 3G users only. Like Wi-Fi, the 3G feature is a constant data connection to the internet. But you aren’t constantly on the internet, so why have it on all the time. Just turn it off when you aren’t using it. Here’s How:

1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “General.”
3. Select “Network.”
4. Flip the “Enable 3G” switch from “On” to “Off.”

This feature is such a power drain that Apple even mentions it on the “Network” screen. Something else that I have figured out by having 3G turned off is that my reception goes up and I get fewer dropped calls. Why exactly this is happening I don’t know. My educated guess though is this:

Not every cell tower in an area is 3G enabled in any given area. The iPhone was programmed to first look for a 3G tower and then any tower if a 3G one doesn’t exist in that area. This means that you could literally be standing next to a tower that isn’t 3G enabled and it still won’t connect to it, cause it wants the 3G one first.

5. The Last Resorts

There are two options, that are guaranteed to conserve your battery power when you are in a dire situation and you need to make sure that you can make calls and sends messages.

• Turn On Airplane Mode.
• Turn iPhone Off.

The iPhone is a great device. It’s really the new crackberry. The only problem with the release of iPhone software 2.0, it won’t even last till the end of the day on a single charge. Apple clearly has some work to do, to get it back to where it was. In the mean time it, with the 5 tips above, your iPhone will last a lot longer. Try them out and let me know how much longer your iPhone lasts in the comments below. 

BTW: If you know of another tip on how to save power on your iPhone, let us know in the comments below.

via http://www.w3source.com/2008/08/04/tip-5-ways-to-power-your-iphone-longer/

Posted on August 5th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Battery, iPhone Tips | No Comments »

IntoMobile has a few good tips on how to extend your iPhone’s battery life, and most of them involve the most obvious thing you can do to keep your iPhone running: cut down on any and all extra functions. They actually recommend to turn off 3G, but you don’t have to go that far — just by holding down the Home button, you can close any background applications sucking up juice. And by resetting your phone, you can do the same thing — clear out anything running that you’re not using.

Actually, while I was in Los Angeles last week, I heard the great Leo Laporte mention a great tip on his radio show: turn off the “Ask to join networks” feature in the WiFi settings. If you’re like me, you almost always know when there’s a WiFi network around that you can use on your iPhone, and so it’s pointless (and a waste of battery life) for the iPhone to be constantly searching for one. You can always flip it back on if you do want to do a little poking around, but leaving it off will significantly help battery life.

In fact, when in extreme trouble, you can go even farther and just switch the whole thing into Airplane Mode. It’ll make your phone useless, but when you really need it — out on a trip, or waiting to make an important call — the extra battery time might make all the difference.

Posted on July 24th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Battery, iPhone Tips | No Comments »

Gizmodo compiled this impressive chart of battery times for the iPhone 3G as reported by various reviewers.

Most reviewers found the iPhone 3G did have around 5 hours of talk time which was amongst the best for 3G handsets that were testing. The “mixed” use included web browsing and had far more variable results. In those tests, the iPhone 3G ranged from 2 hours and 52 minutes of use as high as 5 hours and 49 minutes.

Hardware site Anandtech actually performed dedicated web browsing tests for the iPhone 3G compared to the original iPhone on EDGE. They found that iPhone 3G (in 3G mode) could browse for 3 hours and 17 minutes, while the original iPhone browsing on 2G could browse for 5 hours and 42 minutes.

via http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2008/07/16/iphone-3g-battery-life-tests/

Posted on July 16th, 2008 by admin
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One of the downsides to the original iPhone is that you couldn’t replace the battery yourself. Sure, you could take it to your local Apple store and they would do it pretty quickly for a fee, but we like the ability to do things ourselves. Well it seems that you may actually be able to do just that with your shiny new iPhone 3G.

he key word is “may”. The key difference between the original iPhone and the 3G’s batteries is that the original was soldered in. The new 3G battery is not, which means it may be possible to replace it yourself. Of course you have to actually get ahold of the battery.

Posted on July 11th, 2008 by admin
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Twitterific’s author, Craig Hockenberry, notes that enabling background tasks for an iPhone version of Twitterific resulted in battery drainage in 4 hours.

The heart of the problem are the radios. Both the EDGE and Wi-Fi transceivers have significant power requirements. Whenever that hardware is on, your battery life is going to suck. My 5 minute refresh kept the hardware on and used up a lot of precious power.

This information provides some perspective on Apple’s decision to limit background applications from running on the iPhone.

Thanks to http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2008/03/17/background-tasking-and-battery/

Posted on March 18th, 2008 by admin
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So you’ve just finished hacking your iPhone and installed every application you could find, but what the heck happened to your iphone battery life? In the process of installing various things, you’ve likely installed OpenSSH, the tool which allows remote login to your iPhone from a computer. The problem is, SSH requires that a listener called SSHD constantly runs, waiting for a remote login attempt. This in turn drains your battery. The solution is to disable SSHD when you don’t need it. Read on for the how-to.

For most seasoned iPhone hackers, disabling SSHD is a piece of cake. Unfortunately, it’s not very easy or convenient. Instead, us mortals need a simple tool

In this guide, I’m assuming that you’ve installed Nullriver’s Installer.app and OpenSSH. Here’s how it’s done:

* Step 1: From Installer.app, download Community Sources if you haven’t already.
* Step 2: Under Utilities in Installer.app, install Services
* Step 3: Go back to the home screen and wait for the iPhone to reload the Springboard. Slide to unlock and launch Services.
* Step 4: From Services, toggle SSH off.

That’s it! Your battery life should now return to its original state. If you ever need to use SSH (including SFTP) again, simply use Services again to turn SSH back on.

Posted on October 22nd, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Battery, iPhone Tips | No Comments »

What’s this picture, sent to us by reader Mike, and found on Apple’s website? Why, it’s a screengrab from iTunes, with a nifty little battery icon right there next to the iPhone listing.

Yes, but Mike, I hear you saying, what does that mean? It means, my friends, that a new iTunes update is right around the corner. 7.4.3 doesn’t have this icon, and so it’s very likely that within the next day or two, we’ll see a brand new version of iTunes, complete with this nifty battery icon, and who knows what else.

Why Mike, I hear you saying again (I have great hearing), that’s terrific! Could this, you say, have anything to do with the recent 1.1.1 iPhone update? Will this coming iTunes update affect, perhaps, my homemade ringtones, or my jailbroken iPhone?

To those questions, I don’t have solid answers– the update is probably due out fast, so we’ll know soon. But I do, like many of you, have a Magic 8-Ball. I’ve consulted it, and in this case, it’s telling me: “Outlook not so good.”

Via http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/28/new-itunes-coming-with-battery-indicator-for-iphone/

Posted on September 29th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News, iPhone Battery | No Comments »

While we love to hear about your attempts at hacking your iPhones, we also love to hear that all your digits are still intact! That’s why we’d like all enterprising iPhone modders to pay attention to what happened to Hackint0sh forum member Pipas, during what appears to be an attempt to unlock the handset using the hardware method.

“We were so happy, all the iphone software part was done, so we started opening the iphone. The antenna cover was a bit tricky but eventually it came off. Then we started to open the metal cover (after taking out the 3 screws) and PUFF, up it went in smoke, I think my collegue must have touched something. It literally went up in black smoke. I was so hot that when I tried to pick it up I burnt my fingers. So, this is for shure the most difficult part of the whole process”

Current thinking is that it was a shorted circuit across the iPhone’s Li-Ion battery pack which, since it’s not meant to be user-replaceable, probably lacks the shielding that such units designed for us mortals to touch would have.

The key thing to remember is that even though your iPhone may be switched off, the iphone battery still contains a charge and there’s still a current going through the electronics inside. These guys were lucky to get away with burnt fingers - we’d like all of our readers to keep all of their faculties!

Posted on September 5th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: AT&T iPhone, iPhone Battery, Unlock iPhone | No Comments »