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battery life not what I expected

bill-p said:
Click2Flash has been replaced by Click2Plugin, which blocks more than just Flash.

Both have the option to automatically replace Flash containers with HTML5 containers, thereby reducing load while you don't watch videos.

While you watch videos, however, HTML5 or Flash doesn't make a difference, and Flash is actually more compatible at this time.

I'd actually suggest that you install Adblock instead of Click2Flash or Click2Plugin. That'll boost battery life much more than Click2Flash while browsing the web, because now your computer doesn't have to keep working on those millions of ads that you see.
Click to expand...

I'm no computer expert, but aren't the internet banner ads mostly created with Flash. So by having Click2Plugin blocking flash + all manner of other plugin, doesn't this have the result of boosting battery life?

More importantly, "AdBlock" for Safari has been noted to leak memory for many users. Watch your activity monitor while AdBlock is enabled and watch Safari and Safari Web Content start to really eat up RAM after having a couple of tabs open. It gets worse the longer you have your browser active. The plugin, in many cases, makes for a longer page load time (because it is working so hard to block those pesky ads).

I have been using Click2Plugin solely since disabling AdBlock and now Safari runs noticeably more efficiently. With AdBlock, upon start up, both processes would jump to roughly 140 & 100MB of RAM (this is with only "top sites" open). Now I start Safari and I'm starting at 40-70MB a piece. Yes, eventually ramping up to roughly 140 & 100MB with a few tabs open (which is normal), however....Safari no longer jumps up to 500 & 300MB respectively for the Safari Web Content and Safari processes in Activity monitor, ramping even higher as time passes. Now its stable.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for everyone. Safari is a known memory hog going back to 10.4. But for many it's a particular extension that is leading to the memory leakage. I'm certainly glad I found mine.
 
I really don't understand how people are posting 6+ hours of battery life when I can just barely show above 4 hours after full charge. I have click to plugin installed. THe ClicktoFlash one didn't work so I installed it's counterpart which is supposed to work with newer safari version; in any case it blocks flash. Even as I type this the Flash banner on top of the page is greyed out with the little "Flash" icon showing.

Usage wise my computer sits at my desk all the time. I have the default Apple power saving profile for the battery and I keep the screen at 50% when it's not plugged in (I find that the most comfortable for reading).

As I write this I only have MS Word, Mail, iCal, iTunes (no music playing), GraphPad Prism 5.0, EndNote and MS Excel open (and obviously Safari as I'm writing this). Safari only has the ClickTo plugin and Turnoffthelights plugin installed and running.

My battery icon shows 4:33 minutes. If I go onto Facebook it drops to 4:12 minutes.

I was under the impression that there was a 7hr tested battery life. Even if it isn't' actually 7hrs that's fine, 5hrs maybe? I shouldn't have to alter the way I use my computer to have the barebones running just to get what is advertised.

I realize Apple's tests were using a computer with considerably less strain but then say that, or at least post a value that is representative of what the average person is going to be using!
 
Have you ever actually timed how long it takes your Air to go from a full charge down to so low, your Air cuts off? The timer in the menu bar is an estimate and isn't always accurate.

There's also a procedure to help calibrate the timer.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1490
 
rayjay86 said:
I really don't understand how people are posting 6+ hours of battery life when I can just barely show above 4 hours after full charge. I have click to plugin installed. THe ClicktoFlash one didn't work so I installed it's counterpart which is supposed to work with newer safari version; in any case it blocks flash. Even as I type this the Flash banner on top of the page is greyed out with the little "Flash" icon showing.

Usage wise my computer sits at my desk all the time. I have the default Apple power saving profile for the battery and I keep the screen at 50% when it's not plugged in (I find that the most comfortable for reading).

As I write this I only have MS Word, Mail, iCal, iTunes (no music playing), GraphPad Prism 5.0, EndNote and MS Excel open (and obviously Safari as I'm writing this). Safari only has the ClickTo plugin and Turnoffthelights plugin installed and running.

My battery icon shows 4:33 minutes. If I go onto Facebook it drops to 4:12 minutes.

I was under the impression that there was a 7hr tested battery life. Even if it isn't' actually 7hrs that's fine, 5hrs maybe? I shouldn't have to alter the way I use my computer to have the barebones running just to get what is advertised.

I realize Apple's tests were using a computer with considerably less strain but then say that, or at least post a value that is representative of what the average person is going to be using!
Click to expand...

Well maybe you have a worse than average battery. If everyone else is reporting 7 hours then you might have a bad one. Its certainly possible.
 
Not installing Flash is useless, so many websites use flash; most restaurant websites require flash and a lot of sports websites need it too for live game casting (although I'm usually plugged in when I'm looking at that). I like the Click2 option because I can enable it if I have to.

I've never measured how long I get on a single charge; it seems really cumbersome to have a stopwatch starting and stopping whenever I open my air or when I leave it open and the battery saver kicks in an turns it off.

I did the Calibration step when I first bought it, that was a few weeks ago.

I guess it is possible I have a faulty battery, I'll give it another week or so and make a conscious effort to monitor it before I take it in.
 
With my MBA 13" Ultimate 2010 I get around 5 hours with Brightness to minimum. That's with Wifi and Bluetooth ON, surfing the net, reading email, chatting on Skype, etc.

There is NO WAY I could possibly squeeze 7 hours while doing any sort of use.
 
I get 5 hours on my MBA 11" which brightness about 1/2, keyboard backlight just a tiny bit and running flash.

Do you have the backlight keyboard turned up more than half? This can be a battery drainer.
 
With Bluetooth on, brightness set to 50% and surfing the web while sitting on couch I get about 7-8 hours. And yes I am not kidding. I have Mail, Safari, Adium running. Sometimes the battery even tells me I get up to 8-9 hours. Still 7 hours was minimum for me. I also have the keyboard backlight and brightness actually set to automatic.
 
rayjay86 said:
I really don't understand how people are posting 6+ hours of battery life when I can just barely show above 4 hours after full charge. I have click to plugin installed. THe ClicktoFlash one didn't work so I installed it's counterpart which is supposed to work with newer safari version; in any case it blocks flash. Even as I type this the Flash banner on top of the page is greyed out with the little "Flash" icon showing.

Usage wise my computer sits at my desk all the time. I have the default Apple power saving profile for the battery and I keep the screen at 50% when it's not plugged in (I find that the most comfortable for reading).

As I write this I only have MS Word, Mail, iCal, iTunes (no music playing), GraphPad Prism 5.0, EndNote and MS Excel open (and obviously Safari as I'm writing this). Safari only has the ClickTo plugin and Turnoffthelights plugin installed and running.

My battery icon shows 4:33 minutes. If I go onto Facebook it drops to 4:12 minutes.

I was under the impression that there was a 7hr tested battery life. Even if it isn't' actually 7hrs that's fine, 5hrs maybe? I shouldn't have to alter the way I use my computer to have the barebones running just to get what is advertised.

I realize Apple's tests were using a computer with considerably less strain but then say that, or at least post a value that is representative of what the average person is going to be using!
Click to expand...

Footnote number 4 at the bottom of Apple's tech spec page for the Air:

"Testing conducted by Apple in July 2011 using preproduction 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Air units and preproduction 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 11-inch MacBook Air units. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 50%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network, to enter deep sleep mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information."

If your complaint is that your Air only gets ~4:30 with 8 applications open, at least some of them being pretty CPU-intensive, then you clearly never read the excerpt above.

But, if you have read the excerpt, and your complaint is that Apple's test should be more intense than just wireless browsing because it's your belief that the 'average user' consistently uses the same applications that you do simultaneously, then I would argue that that belief is ill-founded and doesn't coincide with reality (though my perception of the matter may be as speculative as yours).

Finally, it's well-known that Flash eats CPU cycles like crazy, which is a huge source of battery drain. That's not Apple's fault. It's Adobe's.
 
sbehr said:
Finally, it's well-known that Flash eats CPU cycles like crazy, which is a huge source of battery drain. That's not Apple's fault. It's Adobe's.
Click to expand...

May I add that Skype reduces battery life by a huge amount as well...

I have not installed Flash and Skype on my 11" MBA i7 on purpose, since I use it for things that don't need Flash, and I can connect to Skype through my iPhone if necessary. My experience is about 5+ hours on a charge, with brightness between 30-50%, low keyboard backlight and earphones. WiFi on but Bluetooth off.

Even my 2009 17" MBP dropped from just over 10 hours with a fresh install of Lion to around 7 hours with Flash and Skype installed and running.
 
I have it set to one notch above 50%.


I've seen that there is a chrome equivalent to ClicktoFlash called Flashblock. I do like Chrome a lot. I used with when I was PC-ing. It's just such a light and fast browser. I found the gestures weren't as smooth with Chrome in Lion so I used Safari but I'd like to go back to Chrome.

I can't get the Flashblock plugin enabled. When I go to sites I know have Flash (ESPNsoccernet) on Safari the little greyed out Flash box appears. When I do the same on Chrome with Flashblock enabled I see the little red flash icon in the status bar but some (not all) of the banners are showing.

ALL are greyed out in Safari, only SOME in Chrome.

Any suggestions?

PS. C2F has really increased battery performance for me. I guess I was just browsing very flash intensive websites before...
 
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