News - iPhone 4S battery drain potential fixes discussed

[HEXUS]

'Setting Time Zone' could be the issue as users speculate on iPhone 4S power problem.

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[crossy]

Location services can be turned off manually by heading to Settings -> Location Services -> scroll to bottom to System Services -> Setting Time Zone.

I'm slightly curious about this - so does the 4S actually try and set PST/CET/BST/etc automatically based on periodic snoops as to where on the world you are?

If this is the case, then while it's undoubtedly a clever feature, I'm sure that there's easier ways to do it (manually!). Or are 4S owners a globe-trotting bunch?

Seems a bit weird to me that it's a time zone setting you have to use to turn the location settings off - wouldn't a "Location Settings = On/Off" switch be more user friendly?

(None of the above is said sneeringly/sarcastically - I'm genuinely interested in what's going on here)

[Jay]

All phones I have had set their time and date via the actual network on first join. Maybe its different in the US where a single network can be in many different time zones?

[Hicks12]

Or maybe iphone users are finally getting a taste of what a normal battery life is with a "high end" device, finally being on the level of the current dualcore phones it certainly will have a hard time being better... with its nice high res screen it has to work harder on idle .

8 hours is a bit terrible though so hopefully they sort it out!.

[Unique]

I'm slightly curious about this - so does the 4S actually try and set PST/CET/BST/etc automatically based on periodic snoops as to where on the world you are?

If this is the case, then while it's undoubtedly a clever feature, I'm sure that there's easier ways to do it (manually!). Or are 4S owners a globe-trotting bunch?

Seems a bit weird to me that it's a time zone setting you have to use to turn the location settings off - wouldn't a "Location Settings = On/Off" switch be more user friendly?

(None of the above is said sneeringly/sarcastically - I'm genuinely interested in what's going on here)

there is an off/off switch. if you turn on then it lists the apps that use locations and you then get the option of turning each on individually on or off. so you may have an app like a satnav that you do want it for, but you don't want facespace and tweeter using it. it's a more detailed privacy option

[crossy]

there is an off/off switch. if you turn on then it lists the apps that use locations and you then get the option of turning each on individually on or off. so you may have an app like a satnav that you do want it for, but you don't want facespace and tweeter using it. it's a more detailed privacy option

Thanks - I'd kinda hoped that it wouldn't be that obtuse. The mechanism you've outlined seems pretty reasonable.

[Hoonigan]

Well I've turned off the Time Zone Setting in my options, lets see how much difference it makes..

Even if it's only an extra 15 minutes, it's still a little better

[keithwalton]

It only takes one app that prevents the phone from going into deep sleep to cause significant battery drain.

It's why google has gone to so much effort with the battery stats section of gingerbread. You get a graph of battey % vs time. But you also get indicators for when gps, wifi or screen was on and whether the phone was awake or sleeping.
Also for every app thats been running since the last time the phone was fully charged you get % of battery use, cpu time in foreground and background and how long the app has requested the phone to be awake.

Of course it could be that samsung has sold them chips that intentionally run hot and drain lots of power or that apple have shoehorned a tablet chip into a phone by underclocking it.

[SiM]

You're draining it wrong.

[crossy]

It's why google has gone to so much effort with the battery stats section of gingerbread. You get a graph of battey % vs time. But you also get indicators for when gps, wifi or screen was on and whether the phone was awake or sleeping. Also for every app thats been running since the last time the phone was fully charged you get % of battery use, cpu time in foreground and background and how long the app has requested the phone to be awake.

Yes, that's a great feature - and of course one that's in ICS too now. I used it recently to track down a battery mugger app and discovered that I'd inadvertently let it do location-aware, so it was switching on GPS when lauched.

Of course it could be that samsung has sold them chips that intentionally run hot and drain lots of power

Of course they wouldn't do that... Apart from anything else it'd make more sense to screw over the iP5 (especially since it'll be head-to-head with the SGSIII)

You're draining it wrong.

cue coffee spray!

[Steve]

finally being on the level of the current dualcore phones it certainly will have a hard time being better... with its nice high res screen it has to work harder on idle .

You might be right about the screen, but a dual-core processor can be more energy efficient that a single-core, provided it's used correctly (which it probably isn't).