What does persistent wi-fi mean?

[jpetticrew]

The new features slide in yesterday's announcement said something about persistent wi-fi. What does that mean, versus what the wi-fi connection in iPhone already was?

 

[maflynn]

Currently when you lock the iPhone, the wifi connection is terminated (I'm not sure if the wifi transmitter is turned off as well) and it will reestablish the connection once you unlock the phone.

 

[tac22]

ooh i was curious about this too...

On my ipod touch when i lock the screen many a times it will lose wifi connecting until i wake i up and reconnect (I presumed to save battery, though was a pain in the ass for sms apps)

maybe it keeps its wifi connection even when locked

Or maybe its something else

 

[goobot]

im glad for the ipad. i had 3g on my phone so it didnt matter to me on that but on the ipad.

 

[retroneo]

I believe it's for the iPod touch and iPad WiFi, so they can receive push notifications instantly while asleep. Currently they only check every 15 minutes while asleep.

Unfortunately, it will hurt battery life. It's unnecessary on the iPhone and iPad 3G as push notifications run over cellular so the WiFi can stay powered down to save battery.

 

[pooryou]

Would this not be something you could disable in preferences?

 

[WilliamG]

FWIW, the persistent wifi is not available for iPhone. Only iPod touch.

 

[DomC]

Since I'm using mostly wifi for data and have 3G data turned off, is there a way to make a profile of some kind to have persistent wifi on my phone?

 

[itsmemuffins]

FWIW, the persistent wifi is not available for iPhone. Only iPod touch.

Works on iP4.

Since I'm using mostly wifi for data and have 3G data turned off, is there a way to make a profile of some kind to have persistent wifi on my phone?

You don't need to do anything but have wifi on.

At home I have data of and wifi on I still get push.

 

[DomC]

The problem is, it's not working as it should. I have a 2G iPod and it's got the persistent thing down. The 3G iPhone is not persistent.

 

[terps2005]

My iPhone 4 doesn't stay connected to wifi either

 

[moussekateer]

Persistant wifi isn't available on iPhones, even the iPhone 4. It doesn't make sense considering you have a network connection.

 

[bripab007]

The persistent wi-fi feature is for iPod Touch only, not any iPhones. iPhones have been able to have persistent wi-fi since 3.x.x, if the app is coded for it, for some time. This new feature is just so that iPod Touch can have persistent wi-fi as a global feature, not dependent upon an app.

 

[LSUtigers03]

I can lock my iPhone 4 with all cell data off and Sirius or Pandora streaming keeps going and I can still SSH. So I've had no problems locking my phone and still using wifi.

 

[kas23]

If I'm in the middle of a downloading a file on iCab, for an example, and I hit the home button on my iP4 and then lock it, it will disrupt this download. I don't believe this is supposed to happen with persisent WiFi.

 

[itsmemuffins]

Persistent wifi doesn't work on the iPhone 3G it does on the iP4.

 

[ocelo]

Persistent wifi doesn't work on the iPhone 3G it does on the iP4.

That is correct, my iP4 is always connected via wifi so i get push notification at home but my dads 3gs with the same OS version lose the connection after the screen is locked.

 

[itsmemuffins]

That is correct, my iP4 is always connected via wifi so i get push notification at home but my dads 3gs with the same OS version lose the connection after the screen is locked.

Yep. It's because of the extra battery power of the iP4.