All Articles Tagged battery life

Apple released iPhone and iPod touch 3.1.2 last thursday, and the changelog read like a who’s who of bug fixes. But did it fix what ailed your device? From battery life woes to “coma mode“, we want to know how you’re doing post-update — if you’ve updated, that is. Hit up the polls after the break and let us know! Read the rest of this entry »

Poor battery life and iPhone are a few words that get mixed together all too often it seems. While some will say it’s fine, others will say it’s pitiful. As many of you know, battery life will fluctuate greatly between users and their individual usage patterns but TiPb wants to provide you with some simple tips and tricks on conditioning your battery to provide a maximum life and squeezing as much usage out of each charge as possible.

The battery in an iPhone is a lithium-based battery which is most common in consumer portable devices. A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles in its lifetime and the following tips are just a few ways to efficiently gain longer battery lifespans while extending overall battery life of your iPhone.

• Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).
• Avoid heat – do not leave your iPhone in a hot car or in direct sunlight.
• Optimization of your settings. Yes, some of these are no brainers but can be effective. Simple things like:
  1. turning off Location Services,
  2. turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when not in use,
  3. fetching new data less frequently,
  4. setting the brightness of your screen below 50%,
  5. turning of the EQ while listening to music,
  6. turning off 3G while not surfing the internet (Yes, we said it…)

All of these add up to better battery life.

After you’ve tried some of the above tips and you are still not happy or your battery life is just horrid all together, you may want to try restoring your iPhone and do not restore from a backup file but rather restore as a new iPhone. All too often we hear about horrible battery life striking many of you after updating your iPhone to the latest software. If this is the case, 9 times out of 10 a separate restore as a new iPhone will clear up your battery issue.

Have some battery saving tips you’d like to share? Leave them in the comments for others to take advantage of!

An undisclosed number of users who have posted on Apple’s discussion boards about poor battery life following the iPhone 3.1 software update are being contacted by AppleCare helpdesk with a hefty list of 11 follow-up questions. These questions focus primarily on the usual battery culprits, email (especially push), WiFi and Bluetooth, and App Store apps. Number 10, asking “When you notice a power drop, does it seem to be a legitimate power drop, or rather an issue with the battery icon indicator?”, is certainly interesting.

The note also contains an attachment which, when double-clicked, installs what looks like an unsigned profile, similar to what is provided (in signed form) by developers using Ad Hoc provisioning for beta testing. (We’re guessing there’s a reason for it not to be signed, but — note to Apple — signing would make us feel so much warmer and fuzzier about it). This profile enables Battery Life Logging on the iPhone.

Once enabled, the iPhone will sync power logs back via iTunes, and they ask that those logs be sent back to Apple. (Due to the size of the logs, they recommend users not go for a few days without syncing, and provide instructions on turning off Battery Life Logging once the information has been accumulated.

AppleCare as contacted Apple discussion board users in the past surrounding other issues, like the iPhone 3G ringer following 3.0, so hopefully this means Apple is continuing to look into all major issues surrounding iPhone 3.1, especially the random lock ups and shut downs (dubbed “coma”).

According to our recent iPhone 3.1 battery life poll, 24% of you are experiencing worse battery life under iPhone 3.1, with 61% reporting roughly the same battery life, and 11% reporting much better battery life. If you’re one of the 24 percent’ers, let us know if you get contacted by Apple and make it any progress towards resolving the problem (for some tips from TiPb, see our previous How To: Trouble Shoot Battery Life post).

[Thanks to G. for the tip!]

So, how’s your battery life doing under iPhone 3.1? If you jumped on it immediately last Wednesday, or had a few days to try it out at least, have you noticed any big changes? Much better? Much worse? Or is it pretty much the same?

Yeah, we ask this every time there’s a new firmware, but that’s just because Apple seems to be tweaking things every time there’s a new firmware.

So, win, lose, or draw, let us know how it’s working for you. And if you’re having battery problems, remember to check out TiPb’s How To: Troubleshoot iPhone Battery Life Problems guide.

No doubt about it, issues with battery life remain a hot topic for iPhone 3.0 and iPhone 3GS users.

Now, if your battery drain is caused simply by use — you never put the iPhone (or iPod touch) down and are always playing games, pushing IMs, watching movies, etc. your only choice is to get a few more charging cables or battery extenders. If, however, you’re doing roughly the same things you’ve always done and getting substantially less battery life for your troubles, there’s a chance a few troubleshooting steps might just help get your power problems back under control.

Read the rest of this entry »

Back when Apple re-introduced Push Notification at the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Preview Event, Scott Forstall claimed that, unlike background multitasking that could cause an 80% drop in battery life, Push Notification would only cause a 20% drop. While some debated the truth (or truthiness) of his claims, it did set the expectation that users running Push Notification-enabled apps would see lower battery life, and gave an indicator of just how much less.

So, while it too a while, now that we finally have Push Notification, and some of the more popular messengers and games are implemented it, how’s your battery life doing?

Are you seeing a hit compared to your pre-Push Notification days, and if so, is it in the 20% range? Let us know which iPhone you have, how often you’re getting Push Notifications, and how your battery is holding up!

The forums are seeing a lot of action as of late and today is more of the same!

The rumor mills are just getting started about the next generation iPhone and you can expect that to increase by the day. Knowing that a new Apple phone is only 5-6 months away, will you be purchasing the next iPhone? Be sure to get your vote in and let us know why or why not!

The next thread comes to us from TiPb’s very own Rene Ritchie. He wants to know what podcasts are currently on your iPhone? I’m sure every single one of our readers already subscribed to iPhone Different and iPhone Live… right?

Usually the main question from someone who is looking into buying an iPhone is battery life. No different here, jstac wants to know about the iPhone 3G’s battery life. My answer is simple — all depends on how you use the device. It can be good and it can be bad.

Another question that gets asked a lot about the iPhone 3G is it’s build quality. While I personally have had no issues with mine since July 11th, other people have not been so lucky. How about you? Be sure to check out this ongoing thread on the build quality of the iPhone 3G.

To join in on the forum fun be sure to register! It’s a simple process that will only take a moment of your time.

See you on the forums!

In the years before iPhone, my smartphones had replaceable batteries and I usually carried a spare, especially on trips. Inexplicably, the iPhone doesn’t afford this “luxury” — the battery is not user-replaceable and when it’s dead, it’s dead. If you don’t have a charger handy, you are out of luck. This can be particularly frustrating if you are taking a long flight, want to watch a movie on your iPhone’s expansive screen, and still have enough juice left to call someone when you get to your destination.

Enter the mophie Juice Pack Battery Pack/Case for iPhone, available now at TiPB store for $99.95. Read on for the full review! Read the rest of this entry »

Apple rates the iPhone 3G’s talk time at 5 hours over the high-speed 3G network. While the call quality seems vastly improved due to more data being passed through the 3G pipe, some of the more chatty among us may find that 3G isn’t just fast — it’s non-user-replaceable-battery draining fast!

Don’t care as much about speed and clarity as you do sheer volume of talk time? Or what if you’re just in an area that’s not (yet?) covered by 3G? You’re in luck! Apple has provided a way to turn off the 3G — and blazing fast broadband-like HSPA speed that goes with it — and drop back down to 2.5/2.75G — and the dial-up-eque EDGE that is turtle to the 3G hare.

Boom! 10 hours of talk time! (And for those of you in countries with more restrictive/ridiculous data caps, a way to help pace yourself and starve your data-hungry iPhone).

Just remember: slow data transfer, not as good call quality, no simultaneous voice and data (you can’t talk and surf the web on EDGE at the same time).

Step-by-step instructions after the break!

Read the rest of this entry »