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Google Employee Claims Google Now App Does Not Cause Significant Battery Impact
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Can the google guy come an explain that to my iPhone 5, Google app installed and location services allowed, battery dies in ~4 hrs from a full overnight charge, with zero use (took it off the charger, and left to stand until it turned itself off, no screen time, no other software run, no calls made)
With google app denied access to location services via iOS privicy and phone left, from a 100% charge to dead ~9hrs
With Google App uninstalled, phone still had 30% charge the following morning after being unplugged and left the day before, and i had to send a few texts and emails during that time period, and checked the news on the BBC news app a couple of times.
Seems to me the google App is draining battery life, or my phones special
With google app denied access to location services via iOS privicy and phone left, from a 100% charge to dead ~9hrs
With Google App uninstalled, phone still had 30% charge the following morning after being unplugged and left the day before, and i had to send a few texts and emails during that time period, and checked the news on the BBC news app a couple of times.
Seems to me the google App is draining battery life, or my phones special
Seems to me the google App is draining battery life, or my phones special
Yup. There are too many of us who can observably test it.
Either the API is as buggy as hell or Google are doing something wrong with it.
(My experience is that Passbook can cause significant drain in some instances, so I suspect the API is as buggy as hell.)
For some reason, Google Now thinks my home is at work!
i haven't really noticed the battery drain on my iPhone 5, although not sure if the location services indicator makes me feel it is draining...
either way, i can't see myself using this much as it hasn't offered me anything apart from local weather, which i can get from notification centre and all of the other weather apps that tell me the sun is shining as i watch the rain fall.
i charge mine everyday anyway, so ..
i haven't really noticed the battery drain on my iPhone 5, although not sure if the location services indicator makes me feel it is draining...
either way, i can't see myself using this much as it hasn't offered me anything apart from local weather, which i can get from notification centre and all of the other weather apps that tell me the sun is shining as i watch the rain fall.
i charge mine everyday anyway, so ..
It is interesting to me the way it states 'Significant' each time they mention battery life. I would imagine there is a different view of 'Significant', would most people notice, maybe not.
I also am of the opinion that Google's view of 'Significant Battery Drain' is probably quite a bit different than Apple's view of 'Significant Battery Drain', hence the whole 'sudo Multitasking' in iOS. I'd be interested to see the ratio between Android Phones & iOS Phones when it comes to Battery Size / Run Time.
I also am of the opinion that Google's view of 'Significant Battery Drain' is probably quite a bit different than Apple's view of 'Significant Battery Drain', hence the whole 'sudo Multitasking' in iOS. I'd be interested to see the ratio between Android Phones & iOS Phones when it comes to Battery Size / Run Time.
This can only happen because Apple left the location multitasking APIs fairly open just for the sake of navigation apps, and Google does not understand it. There should be a mandatory programming filter which ensures that any app that does not need to forward data to the user while closed will be "paused" the way multitasking promised when it was introduced in iOS 4. Everything else makes the app just look like a (geo) data sucking bloatware.
In this case the fault may be Google's, but in general Apple needs to weigh in and ensure that developers cannot decrease the iOS experience just because every app is able to sabotage the multitasking system.
In this case the fault may be Google's, but in general Apple needs to weigh in and ensure that developers cannot decrease the iOS experience just because every app is able to sabotage the multitasking system.
Same here, i think its because i spend 2/3rds of my day at work it just assumes i live here
I suppose the iPhone itself while in standby mode (just able to receive phone calls) must be able to notice when it changes from one cell tower to the next, so that receiving phone calls works properly. And if an app says "I'm running in the background, tell me if I'm moving to another cell tower", that should have close to zero cost. At least overnight unless you are a serious sleep walker.
The possibilities: 1. Apple's API doesn't work as promised and tells the app about changes even when the phone sits still somewhere in your bedroom. 2. Google uses the wrong API, for example one for GPS which draws a lot of power. 3. Apple's API will sometimes be affected by things like WiFi network changes, or switching to a different tower if you are precisely between two towers, or something similar. Which shouldn't happen. That would explain why some people have problems and others don't.
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So that would be every 36 seconds if you are driving at 50 km/h or 30 mph, which would usually be the speed limit where cell towers are that dense.
I totally agree. From my point of view I found enough apps that even keep on using the geo chip after they found out the location, and those were apps where movement does not matter, so it seems to me that many developers are not even asked if the use of location data needs to be permanent or initial, both while active or inactive (multitasking) - which makes them able to exploit battery capacities without even realizing.
Many apps which just deliver lists of results for location queries, and even weather apps (which you do not need to refresh once they got the location since you are unlikely to be Superman who can switch fly over/through cities quickly enough) keep displaying the same list with an active geo chip, so it is a fault every developer can create. Maybe preventing it would be possible if the iOS SDK requires precise definition when accessing certain hardware features such as the geo chip which I believe is the most effective source of battery drain.
This is me being a simple user and wondering how no single iOS Software engineer ever experienced this.
Let's try reversing that order. Could it be the discharge rate of the battery is non-linear to begin with?
(I am not trying to support google on this one as I have none of their crap in my phone. But trying to understand better as an electrical engineer.)
That would be as confusing to the typical iOS user as letting them see the file structure.
Trust Apple. They know better than you what you should be able to know. You can't argue with Billions and Billions in profits.
Totally agree. My iPad will stay near a full charge for a day or so, and then with no change by me it'll go completely dead on the third day. WTF? I don't have Google Now installed, either, it's just something iOS is doing, and there is no method for figuring out *why*. The standard response, "reset and reinstall iOS" is such a Windows-like answer, it's frustrating.
It doesn't have to show a file structure. Just list the apps along side the their battery usage. Similar to app storage in settings (general->usage) that shows how much storage each app consumes.
Putting it under "usage" actually would be a great way to implement that. There's no way we need a fully featured Activity Monitor on iOS, just a list for the apps which create the highest CPU and/or battery usage. Apple could get rid of many problems if users could easily identify bad apps.
Well, good thing it can be turned off. I still like it, and hopefully it will be optimized in the near future.
The more I play with the app, the more my battery drains. It's obviously broken. I blame Samsung
Not a Google hater here. I use their Google Apps for Business, maps, local, voice, ect.
I re installed just to see if anything was different from my first try, and I went to bed last night with an 85% charge. Ive sent 3 texts, checked the weather, checked Twitter a couple times, and I'm already down to 53% from 7hrs ago. Most of that time I was asleep.
Prior to this app with the phone off (me asleep) I would lose about ~5-7% overnight. Just checking a few things and sending a few texts after waking up should not result in a 32% drop from when I went to bed 7hrs ago.
I keep MOST of the location settings off of apps. I had the same thing with passbook until I turned that location setting off. The only other 3 I have on is the system services and Google Maps & Local.
I am quite sure if I leave Google Search/Now on the rest of the day without using the phone the thing would be dead by this evening at this rate. I simply don't need Google Now as the only two cards showing is the weather which I don't need, and a commute time to work. Don't need to use Maps to get there. Might be more useful to other people but the benefit FOR ME isn't worth it.
Just in the time to post this down to 51%, and all I did was check the location services under settings to verify for this post what settings were on. Its been connected to my home wifi all this time, too.
I have stopped using other apps like iHeart Radio because the phone would get extremely hot, and drop battery even worse. Like 1hr of listening while driving, and it would drop by over half. Yes I have a car charger but the phone would get almost too hot to even hold. Now I just listen to podcasts which are stored on the phone and don't use the radio to play. I can listen to music or podcasts using BT to connect to my car, and that doesn't use much battery.
Overall I have to say Im not that impressed with the iphone 5's battery in general, and causes me to not use any battery hogging apps for fear I'll run out of juice before the day is up. I'll gladly take a bit more thickness and weight just for a 30-50% increase in battery life.
I re installed just to see if anything was different from my first try, and I went to bed last night with an 85% charge. Ive sent 3 texts, checked the weather, checked Twitter a couple times, and I'm already down to 53% from 7hrs ago. Most of that time I was asleep.
Prior to this app with the phone off (me asleep) I would lose about ~5-7% overnight. Just checking a few things and sending a few texts after waking up should not result in a 32% drop from when I went to bed 7hrs ago.
I keep MOST of the location settings off of apps. I had the same thing with passbook until I turned that location setting off. The only other 3 I have on is the system services and Google Maps & Local.
I am quite sure if I leave Google Search/Now on the rest of the day without using the phone the thing would be dead by this evening at this rate. I simply don't need Google Now as the only two cards showing is the weather which I don't need, and a commute time to work. Don't need to use Maps to get there. Might be more useful to other people but the benefit FOR ME isn't worth it.
Just in the time to post this down to 51%, and all I did was check the location services under settings to verify for this post what settings were on. Its been connected to my home wifi all this time, too.
I have stopped using other apps like iHeart Radio because the phone would get extremely hot, and drop battery even worse. Like 1hr of listening while driving, and it would drop by over half. Yes I have a car charger but the phone would get almost too hot to even hold. Now I just listen to podcasts which are stored on the phone and don't use the radio to play. I can listen to music or podcasts using BT to connect to my car, and that doesn't use much battery.
Overall I have to say Im not that impressed with the iphone 5's battery in general, and causes me to not use any battery hogging apps for fear I'll run out of juice before the day is up. I'll gladly take a bit more thickness and weight just for a 30-50% increase in battery life.
Perhaps you have a bum battery. Does Apple offer replacements for that situation? I know I've had the same problem on various products (both Apple and other manufacturers).
And?
I hope you meant that sarcastically, or as a joke.
Most android phones are made to be cheap, of course they aren't going to have a better battery life. But most phones that are at the price point of the iPhone 5 do compete rather well with it. A lot of them even have better in certain tasks.
It's ok how I normally have it. I have had the Google Search app for a while, and unless I was doing something else it's been ok. With Google Now added it just drops much faster than it was. I mean go to bed with 85%, check a few things for like 10 minutes, and its at almost half? Can't deal with that. Great if it works for others.
LTE might have something to do with the iphone 5 as well. I had a 3g, 3gs, 4 and now the 5. Might experiment with turning LTE off for a week and see if I notice any change.