How I Helped My Battery Life (A Lot)

[SolRayz]

What annoys me about location services is that even with it turned off, I still get pop up messages in various programs including maps. If you press the button to find your location the message pops up "Map would like to use your current location" and if you allow it it turns it back on in Settings. Its all counter intuitive if you are trying to save battery power. And the messages are lame and annoying really.

 

[crotalus99]

I thought that PUSH was actually better than fetching your mail every 15 minutes etc.
Isn't that the advantage of RIM devices that they don't run down the battery checking for mail, it is only activated if it is needed?

Anyone know for sure?

 

[elbirth]

What annoys me about location services is that even with it turned off, I still get pop up messages in various programs including maps. If you press the button to find your location the message pops up "Map would like to use your current location" and if you allow it it turns it back on in Settings. Its all counter intuitive if you are trying to save battery power. And the messages are lame and annoying really.

actually it's incredibly intuative.
With location services on, the phone assumes you're granting Google Maps permission to access your location information, so it doesn't ask. When it's turned off, you can still use Google Maps just fine, but if you specifically ask it to find your location, it pops up the request because it's saying "hey, you told me not use location services in settings... do you want me to use them now?"

 

[elbirth]

I thought that PUSH was actually better than fetching your mail every 15 minutes etc.
Isn't that the advantage of RIM devices that they don't run down the battery checking for mail, it is only activated if it is needed?

Anyone know for sure?

yes, in theory Push is better. For the average person that doesn't get much email, Push will save your battery because the phone isn't always doing a scheduled check with the server, which uses up battery. When you get a message, it just sends it to the phone so you are only notified when you get a message, instead of always going to find out.
If you're the kind of person that gets tons and tons of emails in a day, the fetch may be better since you could have it check, say, every hour instead of getting new message alerts every 5 or 10 minutes

 

[SolRayz]

actually it's incredibly intuative.
With location services on, the phone assumes you're granting Google Maps permission to access your location information, so it doesn't ask. When it's turned off, you can still use Google Maps just fine, but if you specifically ask it to find your location, it pops up the request because it's saying "hey, you told me not use location services in settings... do you want me to use them now?"

Ok so now explain this. With location settings turned on in settings now when I go to Camera it asks me the same thing over and over again even when I press OK. And Im sure applies to other apps aswell. Its over redudancy that reminds me of winblows.

 

[2002cbr600f4i]

I've been saying this for the last week....

Unless you're doing something that requires/needs geolocation, turn the Location service OFF! It SUCKS battery power....

According to the SDK, apps are supposed to clean up after themselves when they are disabled/switched out. Unfortunately, it appears that once one of them turns the location service on, it STAYS ON, and KEEPS pulling GPS data even though you might not have any app up that is using that data currently. Even if it's just in a "standby" mode, that chip is powered up and being kept warm and that uses power.

Turn it off unless you're using it and you'll easily get more time out of your iPhone battery...

 

[elbirth]

Ok so now explain this. With location settings turned on in settings now when I go to Camera it asks me the same thing over and over again even when I press OK. And Im sure applies to other apps aswell. Its over redudancy that reminds me of winblows.

Not sure what to tell you about that, I just tried it on my phone with location services on and off, and both ways the camera doesn't ask my permission. on all my installed apps that use location services, they ask me the first time they launch to use my location data, and then they've never asked me again as long as location services is on.
To test this further I just tried loopt. with it on, it works fine without asking me. with it off, it asked me before it inputted my location info. Now I'm not sure why the camera didn't prompt me....

I've had other people say it always asks them like you're saying it does you... for this reason, I think there's a serious bug in the location services part. As long as it's on, it should go on and use your data, and if it's off, it should ask before turning it on. And when the app closes, it should turn it back off since it's not needed anymore. That doesn't seem to be happening.

 

[Bernie-Mac]

actually it's incredibly intuative.
With location services on, the phone assumes you're granting Google Maps permission to access your location information, so it doesn't ask. When it's turned off, you can still use Google Maps just fine, but if you specifically ask it to find your location, it pops up the request because it's saying "hey, you told me not use location services in settings... do you want me to use them now?"

Exactly, with it off when you go into Maps it'll ask you to turn it on again, so you turn it on just for that moment to use the app, then when your don go to settings and just turn it off again

 

[Soreo]

I haven't realized a huge drain in battery life, but I've noticed that it does.. well.. sort of drain.
And I can't believe I never saw the Location Services toggle switch! I wonder what'll happen..

 

[dissdnt]

wait! Save battery life and the NSA can't track me!

Eureka!

Wait is this from "the dark tipper"

 

[Sobe]

Actually that's "Hear! Hear!" as in hear what this man or woman is saying.

Great tip by the way. I will try it now!

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Oyez, Oyez!

 

[dakdag]

I recommend when closing apps that you hold down the home button for 7 seconds so the app actually closes instead of going into a standby state. That way if it is using the locate me services, it will discontinue. I think it probably helps your phone to run more efficiently also. Thanks

 

[gcmexico]

actually it's incredibly intuative.
With location services on, the phone assumes you're granting Google Maps permission to access your location information, so it doesn't ask. When it's turned off, you can still use Google Maps just fine, but if you specifically ask it to find your location, it pops up the request because it's saying "hey, you told me not use location services in settings... do you want me to use them now?"

*
exactly...it does save battery life...great tip!

 

[Bernie-Mac]

Right now my battery life is at maybe 40% with:
Usage: 8h
Standby: 16h 44 minutes

 

[Felix Martinez]

yes, in theory Push is better. For the average person that doesn't get much email, Push will save your battery because the phone isn't always doing a scheduled check with the server, which uses up battery. When you get a message, it just sends it to the phone so you are only notified when you get a message, instead of always going to find out.
If you're the kind of person that gets tons and tons of emails in a day, the fetch may be better since you could have it check, say, every hour instead of getting new message alerts every 5 or 10 minutes

Problem is, at least with software ver. 2.0, when you go to check your push email account, the mail app fetches all the other accounts as well.

That's been my experience anyway. I had been working off my work push-Exchange account all day and I finally went into my AOL account and was surprised that the mailbox had been refreshed (and I have the fetch option on all non-push accounts set to "manual").

IMHO the mail app should only fetch data (when set to "manual") when you enter the account. My $.02, anyway.

And yes, maps turns on location when you ask for triangulation, but doesn't turn it back off.

 

[Sphyrna]

Problem is, at least with software ver. 2.0, when you go to check your push email account, the mail app fetches all the other accounts as well.

I noticed that as well. I have my Gmail set to manual but somehow it's refreshing itself.

 

[hp200lx]

wait! Save battery life and the NSA can't track me!

Eureka!

Wait is this from "the dark tipper"

The Screen Savers FTW!

 

[manhattanmania]

I recommend when closing apps that you hold down the home button for 7 seconds so the app actually closes instead of going into a standby state. That way if it is using the locate me services, it will discontinue. I think it probably helps your phone to run more efficiently also. Thanks

tried that and locate me stayed on after quitting maps...

 

[BulkHedd]

This may apply to the original iPhone as well. I had been noticing a much higher battery drain after I updated to the 2.0 firmware. Today I turned off the Location Services and the battery doesn't seem to be draining as fast.

I agree that if you use an app that checks location it should turn Location Services back off once the app is closed.

 

[Telp]

This is great. I will have to try it and see how well it works. I thought Apple said it only does stuff when you access the GPS through an App or google maps though?

 

[ziggie216]

Thanks for the tips, but its really sad that we have to dumb down our phone just so that it can last long as other phones.

 

[lakaiordie]

Thanks for the tips, but its really sad that we have to dumb down our phone just so that it can last long as other phones.

other phones? you mean regular boring phones that can't do half the things an iphone does.

 

[mpuck972]

So what everyone is saying is that for this phone to be useable, its has to be partially disabled, and everyone is ok with that?

 

[BulkHedd]

So what everyone is saying is that for this phone to be useable, its has to be partially disabled, and everyone is ok with that?

I don't think people are "OK with that", it's just a temporary solution to a problem that will, hopefully, be fixed in the next firmware update.

 

[RetiredInFl]

Welcome to the offPhone.

Thanks for the tips, but its really sad that we have to dumb down our phone just so that it can last long as other phones.