Apple is draining our Batteries to update their crowd sourced databases

[JRoDDz]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4995

Per link above:

"Crowd-sourced Wi-Fi and cellular Location Services

If Location Services is on, your device will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to augment the crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations. In addition, if you are traveling (for example, in a car) and Location Services is on, a GPS-enabled iOS device will also periodically send GPS locations and travel speed information in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to be used for building up a crowd-sourced road traffic database. The crowd-sourced location data gathered by Apple does not personally identify you."

Apple is using location services to provide them data for building up their own databases at OUR batteries expense.

 

[CSMchris376]

Turn it Off

Go into Settings>Location Service>System Services>Diagnostics & Usage and turn it off. That way you are not sending that information to Apple.

 

[Small White Car]

Well then turn off location services.

And then you'll say "but I want to use the GPS for other things." To that I say, ok, so you want the BENEFIT of a fast GPS system built off our backs, but you don't want to CONTRIBUTE anything to that system?

Sorry. Pick one. Either use it and be happy it's fast and easy because of this, or turn it off and ignore it.

 

[JRoDDz]

Go into Settings>Location Service>System Services>Diagnostics & Usage and turn it off. That way you are not sending that information to Apple.

It still collects the information and holds it in the phone as evidenced by the purple and grey arrows next to these location services indicating that they were used in the past 24 hours thus using your GPS and causing faster battery drain.

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Well then turn off location services.


And then you'll say "but I want to use the GPS for other things." To that I say, ok, so you want the BENEFIT of a fast GPS system built off our backs, but you don't want to CONTRIBUTE anything to that system?

Sorry. Pick one. Either use it and be happy it's fast and easy because of this, or turn it off and ignore it.

You can turn off the "System Services" section under "Location Services" and the GPS will still work for maps and and other apps as normal.

 

[CSMchris376]

So you are saying you had them turned off and they are still querying the GPS, or that they showed they were querying prior to you turning them off. Of course if it was on and they checked it would show it, but then you need to have it off for 24 hours before it would be clear. OR, am I misunderstanding what you typed?

 

[JRoDDz]

So you are saying you had them turned off and they are still querying the GPS, or that they showed they were querying prior to you turning them off. Of course if it was on and they checked it would show it, but then you need to have it off for 24 hours before it would be clear. OR, am I misunderstanding what you typed?

I am saying that I turned off "send diagnostics data to Apple", yet I still queries on these location system services unless you turn each of them off by going to location services, then scrolling to the bottom, and clicking system services.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Apple is using location services to provide them data for building up their own databases at OUR batteries expense.

Wrong, they are adding the info to their database to help us out. How in the heck do you think we get traffic flow updates. They don't pull it out of thin air, they do it by the info our phone provides.

 

[terraphantm]

That should do the trick.

My battery life seems to have gone way up after disabling the iAds thing

 

[dccorona]

Id be willing to bet these things have negligible effect on battery ice, particularly the first 2

the first 2 listed won't use GPS at all. Tower an WiFi location information is used to help in triangulation and to speed GPS lock...their locations don't have to be exact in the database. The chip the iPhone uses is capable of low-level cell tower triangulation to find an approximate location with almost no extra battery power use...this is how reminders works, and id be willing to bet this is what they pull on for the above 2 things

the traffic update may be a little different...but GPS querying for a location occasionally won't do much. It is having it on constantly that drains the battery

 

[7even]

Id be willing to bet these things have negligible effect on battery ice, particularly the first 2

the first 2 listed won't use GPS at all. Tower an WiFi location information is used to help in triangulation and to speed GPS lock...their locations don't have to be exact in the database. The chip the iPhone uses is capable of low-level cell tower triangulation to find an approximate location with almost no extra battery power use...this is how reminders works, and id be willing to bet this is what they pull on for the above 2 things

the traffic update may be a little different...but GPS querying for a location occasionally won't do much. It is having it on constantly that drains the battery

I've noticed traffic doesn't show up on the map if you turn off Traffic under System Services. Could have been a fluke though.

 

[kappaknight]

Do you live in the middle of Australia where a socket is hard to come by? I mean, it power is everywhere, and you're using a powerful phone with features that requires power, then what is the problem? Turning these things off is not going to get you an extra few days of talk time, a few more minutes at best.

Why not save your complaints for something valid?

 

[ap3604]

Do you live in the middle of Australia where a socket is hard to come by?

Do you live in some imaginary world where people actually carry around your wall charger and power chord with them all day to charge their phone?

Apple quoted battery life times that people aren't getting so they are going to complain. Get over it

 

[verwon]

Do you live in some imaginary world where people actually carry around your wall charger and power chord with them all day to charge their phone?

It's a real problem and people are going to complain. Get over it

Yes! We can also purchase extended battery cases!

 

[terraphantm]

I've noticed traffic doesn't show up on the map if you turn off Traffic under System Services. Could have been a fluke though.

Mine shows traffic still. I don't even know what that traffic thing actually monitors though - how would the iPhone know whether I'm stuck in traffic or just riding a bike or something?

 

[7even]

Mine shows traffic still. I don't even know what that traffic thing actually monitors though - how would the iPhone know whether I'm stuck in traffic or just riding a bike or something?

Good question. I was wondering about that the other day. It might work only when you have the maps app open or something. If I recall correctly, that's how Google does / used to do it on Android.

 

[ZipZap]

If Apple want to collect it....I want to be paid for providing it.

 

[CmdrThor]

If Apple want to collect it....I want to be paid for providing it.

They are not forcing you to send them that information. Enough people will leave the settings on default that it would be silly for them to offer to pay for it. Also I'm guessing you gave authorization to collect the data if the setting is on, and were notified the setting is on by default in the terms of service agreement we all read so closely.

 

[Gav2k]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

The traffic thing monitors your speed when traveling down roads and send back that information to apple who then share the traffic data with other users.

 

[za9ra22]

Do you live in some imaginary world where people actually carry around your wall charger and power chord with them all day to charge their phone?

Apple quoted battery life times that people aren't getting so they are going to complain. Get over it

This would be a perfectly valid argument if it weren't for the fact that clearly some/many are getting perfectly acceptable battery usage without having to mess around with these settings or needing to vent about Apple wasting their battery life collecting data that is used for the collective good.

The solution to this issue isn't in fiddling with settings, but in resolving what is increasingly apparent to be devices with defective batteries.

 

[vitzr]

If Apple want to collect it....I want to be paid for providing it.

While I don't disagree, we both know the likelihood of this ever becoming a reality is nil. Apple gets away with whatever Apple wants.

 

[za9ra22]

Apple gets away with whatever Apple wants.

Of course, it's that simple. Except that all the providers out there are also collecting broadly similar data from users, and if Apple didn't it would be no time before someone with a Samsung Galactic GeeSmasher 9, mkV starts boasting about how their device can do stuff like traffic reporting, device, friend or services locating that Apple haven't even dreamt of.

Apple collect this data because users want it and because it's common practice. Those that don't want to help provide it are given the means to opt out.

There is a battery usage overhead involved, but given that these services existed when Apple were testing the device, their battery performance numbers would also include these functions. Users not getting reasonably close to those battery performance numbers aren't doing so because location services are causing the problem. Turning them off is fixing a symptom, not the fault.

 

[fuzion11]

Here's one for you intelligent guys out there....

Under settings>>wifi>> it says that "having wifi on, increases location service accuracy" (or something close to that)

When I have wifi turned on and even though I'm not connected to any router or network, asides from my regular 3G network...am I still going to get better accuracy for L/S??? Or do you only get better accuracy when you're connected to a wifi network?

 

[samcraig]

Sorry - is this thread from back when the 3GS was released - because nothing's really changed - and this isn't "news."

Where was the OP when all the news stories came out about location data not only being sent back to apple but that it was a huge database stored on the phone (more than Apple had originally intended).

Old news. If you don't want to send info to Apple - turn location services off - or get a different phone and send your info to Microsoft or Google

 

[Tarzanman]

Sorry - is this thread from back when the 3GS was released - because nothing's really changed - and this isn't "news."

Where was the OP when all the news stories came out about location data not only being sent back to apple but that it was a huge database stored on the phone (more than Apple had originally intended).

Old news. If you don't want to send info to Apple - turn location services off - or get a different phone and send your info to Microsoft or Google

Unlike Apple, Google doesn't pretend that the information is for improving cell service (which is a laugh).

Also, Google gives you the option to not send any of the location data back (it is quick clearly marked in settings, and you phone usually asks you before it tries to turn it back on).

I guess its more a question of whether you think Google or Apple is more likely to lie to you about the data they are collecting.

 

[samcraig]

Unlike Apple, Google doesn't pretend that the information is for improving cell service (which is a laugh).

Also, Google gives you the option to not send any of the location data back (it is quick clearly marked in settings, and you phone usually asks you before it tries to turn it back on).

I guess its more a question of whether you think Google or Apple is more likely to lie to you about the data they are collecting.

I was being mostly tongue-in-cheek