Freak Battery life

[_Refurbished_]

Push email was advertised along with Mobile Me as a way to save battery life since the phone doesn't have to contact the server on a set interval such as every 15 minutes.

This is interesting. I guess I was misinformed. Do you have any sources of information to back this up?

 

[Warbrain]

This is interesting. I guess I was misinformed. Do you have any sources of information to back this up?

The MobileMe claim? Ask him. As for push saving battery - it's the truth. Hence why it's called push. The server pushes data when it needs to.

 

[hexonxonx]

This is interesting. I guess I was misinformed. Do you have any sources of information to back this up?

On the iPhone and iPod touch, Apple has integrated full push messaging support for email, contacts, and calendar events into the new iPhone 2.0 software. The point of push messaging is to conserve the battery life of mobile devices while providing rapid messaging updates. It essentially turns email into something closer to instant messaging or SMS. Rather than having the email program constantly polling for new messages, which would consume a lot of power, a specialized messaging server fires new messages to the device as they appear on the server. Updates made to server side contacts and calendar events are delivered in the same way.

Source: AppleInsider

It states the same thing I've been saying here, it is designed to save battery life since it doesn't have to contact the server.

 

[bigmouth]

Push email was advertised along with Mobile Me as a way to save battery life since the phone doesn't have to contact the server on a set interval such as every 15 minutes.

However it was advertised originaly, that's no longer the reality. Read the rest of the article:

Most users have seen a significant impact on battery life of around 20% after turning on push messaging, although the recent 2.0.1 update seems to have helped a lot in this regard.

This is why APPLE'S OWN WEBSITE advises you to turn push off to conserve battery life.

People don't know how Push actually works. Push works by the server PUSHING data to the device and only opening up a connection WHEN needed. There is NO constant connection.

From the Push-IMAP wiki:

Apple Inc.'s MobileMe email for iPhone uses a server within Apple that maintains a persistent IP connection to each iPhone, which allows push email...

The whole point of push is that your phone sends a periodic signal telling the server you're still connected. From what I understand, it's lower energy than fetching every 15 minutes, but not much.

 

[_Refurbished_]

Source: AppleInsider

It states the same thing I've been saying here, it is designed to save battery life since it doesn't have to contact the server.

Yea, after reading this thread I went to go check out some sources myself. I didn't realize Push was the best method.

 

[hexonxonx]

However it was advertised, that's not the reality. Read the rest of the article:

This is why APPLE'S OWN WEBSITE advises you to turn push off to conserve battery life.

From the Push-IMAP wiki:

The whole point of push is that your phone sends a periodic signal telling the server you're still connected. From what I understand, it's lower energy than fetching every 15 minutes, but not much.

I did read the article.

I do get much better battery life using push. As I stated, I can go two full days using push email. That's all the proof I need. The article was to back up what I said about push email saving battery life and it does.

 

[_Refurbished_]

This is an interesting debate. Apple clearly states to turn Push off, yet other places say the opposite. Not sure who's right hehe.

 

[bigmouth]

I do get much better battery life using push. As I stated, I can go two full days using push email. That's all the proof I need.

What does that prove? Have you done comparisons of battery life when push is off and fetch is set to manual?

The article was to back up what I said about push email saving battery life and it does.

No disrespect, but I believe you're getting confused by a poorly written article. Now that mobileme offers instantaneous push (as opposed to 15 minute updates) push is no longer more battery efficient. That's why your own cited article says:

At the same time however, iPhone users are unlikely to see an advantage in battery life after turning on push messaging because MobileMe enables more updates than were available previously. Push messaging is easier on the battery than checking for email every few seconds, but the iPhone's original software only allowed for automatic email updates every fifteen minutes. With the speed and regularity of new updates comes additional battery consumption.

 

[hexonxonx]

What does that prove? Have you done comparisons of battery life when push is off and fetch is set to manual?

No disrespect, but I believe you're getting confused by a poorly written article. Now that mobileme offers instantaneous push (as opposed to 15 minute updates) push is no longer more battery efficient. That's why your own cited article says:

I know that when I was using fetch email under 1.1.4, I could go about a day using that. Either my improvemnet has come from switching to the 3G iPhone or push email is saving battery power. All that matters is my battery power is amazing using the settings that I am using.

 

[hexonxonx]

This is an interesting debate. Apple clearly states to turn Push off, yet other places say the opposite. Not sure who's right hehe.

Yes turning off push email as in using no email on the phone at all will save battery power, as will turning off 3G and location services.

 

[bigmouth]

I know that when I was using fetch email under 1.1.4, I could go about a day using that. Either my improvemnet has come from switching to the 3G iPhone or push email is saving battery power. All that matters is my battery power is amazing using the settings that I am using.

Do whatever works for you because your battery life is indeed impresive. But keep in mind, it's not the only explanation for your experience. It's also possible you had an exceptionally bad battery before and have an exceptionally good one now. That's the danger of drawing large conclusions from small sample sizes.

This is an interesting debate. Apple clearly states to turn Push off, yet other places say the opposite. Not sure who's right hehe.

Yes, I'm curious to learn more about this, too. I've seen a number of sites reiterate the Apple Insider article's claim. But if you read that article carefully, it's actually consistent with Apple's official advice to turn push off for better battery life.

So, I'm sticking for now with 15 minutes as the point where fetch becomes more of a power drain than push. My hypothesis is, if you set fetch to check no more than once every 30 minutes, you should generally get better battery life than push.

 

[_Refurbished_]

Yes turning off push email as in using no email on the phone at all will save battery power, as will turning off 3G and location services.

You misread their tip.

"Turn off push mail: If you have a push mail account such as Yahoo!, MobileMe or Microsoft Exchange, turn off push mail when you don’t need it. Go to Settings > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off. Messages sent to your push email accounts will now be received on your phone based on the global Fetch setting rather than as they arrive." -Apple Inc.

Notice they say that mail is set to fetch and not manual.

 

[TribalToy]

This is a great topic, Thanks again to those who have written their advice regarding it.

On a side note, I switched where i did my charge, had it fully charged and currently have 7 hours 30 mins usage and 8 hours standby on my phone...

I really think it was just a freak charge.

I'm going to continue to read up on Push vrs Fetch, the information contained within this post is invaluable. Thanks again.

 

[eye.surgeon]

Some people here have serious push/fetch confusion.

 

[hexonxonx]

Hey all...last night before going to bed I gave my Iphone a full charge. Before settling myself in at the butt crack of dawn I unplugged my phone. Waking up I did the usual, check my email only to find...IT WAS DEAD?!

I've got it charging now and check the settings i had it on...
Push checks every 15 mins
3g on
Screen setting to 25%


Any ideas on why my phone took a huge dump over night...I'm giving it another solid charge before I start to even freak out.

One thing to get in the habit of doing with this new 3G iPhone is to make sure all apps are not functioning. The easiest way to do this is to simply turn off the iPhone and then turn it back on or leave it off if you wish. I have noticed that sometimes even when you think everything is off and there are no open apps (yes I know things can't run in the background) but sometimes something still drains the battery very fast.

Good luck!

 

[aphexii]

Some people here have serious push/fetch confusion.

Seriously.

 

[hexonxonx]

Some people here have serious push/fetch confusion.

Please fetch me my slippers.

 

[mciarlo]

I've seen quite a few postings here where otherwise smart people claim that the "Push" mail/etc synchronization used by the iPhone never transmits any data until there is something to send. Here are the facts:

BOTH Fetch and Push ping the server.

Sometimes Push will even ping more often. Fetch always pings at a certain interval that you set. Push's interval is dynamic and changes depending on network TCP/IP connection longevity. It can vary from every few minutes to well over half an hour.

The main difference is in how quickly the server responds.

Fetch = Phone sends request. Server replies immediately. Wait a while. Repeat.

Push = Phone sends request with a timeout. Server replies immediately, OR when mail arrives, OR just before the timeout. Repeat.

I'm confused. Why does Push have to ping at all? Doesn't it just magically send some kind of notification to the phone?

Sorry, no magic in this case. The server must know your IP address to respond to, and the phone must be waiting for that response.

Mobile IP connections are volatile. Your IP address can change. The connection will be dropped by the carrier if they don't see traffic. The connection can be dropped if a firewall along the network path has a smaller timeout. If you're on EDGE and you answer a phone call, the data connection stops working as well.

Anything that interrupts the connection, means the server can't respond with a notification.

So the Push agent on the phone creates a connection and then pings over it as often as need to keep the connection alive. Push figures out the correct ping interval by whether or not it hears from the server within the last timeout period that it used.

To use an analogy: Fetch is like calling a friend every 15 minutes to see if there's any news. Push is like calling your friend, then putting them on speakerphone and waiting for them to speak. (That way, you get the news immediately.) But if they never reply, the connection automatically drops. So every once in a while you call out "Are you still there?"

From here.