Apple engineers working with iPhone 4S users to fix battery woes
Responding to complaints of battery life issues with the iPhone 4S, engineers from Apple are said to have contacted customers directly in an effort to solve any issues.
One user who spoke with the Guardian said that he was contacted by Apple, and was asked to install a monitoring program on his phone. Apple's engineers hope to be able to use the diagnostics to determine what is causing shorter battery life for some users, though the report said the problems are thus far "unexplained."
The person said they were contacted by a senior engineer at Apple who read a post they made online, and indicated that the company was contacting users to resolve the problem. The Apple representative also allegedly admitted that the company isn't "close to finding a fix."
"(He) asked lots of questions about my usage and then asked if he could install the file... and that he would call back the day after to retrieve the info," the person wrote. "I extracted the file from my Mac after a sync and mailed it to him. He was incredibly helpful and apologetic in the typical Apple way!"
Experiences of reduced battery life are supported by a growing thread on the Apple Support Communities website, where numerous users have found they experience significantly less uptime with the iPhone 4S. As of Friday afternoon, the thread as nearly 100,000 views and 1,300 replies.
"Glad to see people are talking about this," user 'telarium' wrote. "My 4S battery life is terrible... even worse than my 3GS, even though all the settings are the same."
Another user, 'Frenzi,' said they found some success by turning off many of the features on the phone, and only gradually re-enabling them as needed. Among the features disabled included sending of diagnostic data to Apple, automatically searching for Wi-Fi connections, automatic date and time, iTunes Ping, and even the Siri "raise to speak" feature. "The improvement has been nothing short of miraculous," they wrote.
Still another user on the Apple Support Communities website, "Snowwolfwarrior," said they spoke with an Apple technician who also gave them special software to install on their iPhone 4S. The software logs all of the usage from the handset over a 24-hour period, after which the user obtains the data and sends it back to the Apple technician.
When it was unveiled earlier this month, Apple claimed that the iPhone 4S had an increased battery talk time of eight hours. But standby battery time, when compared to the previous-generation iPhone 4, is advertised at 100 hours less.
In spite of this, the iPhone 4S does have a slightly larger battery than the iPhone 4, and includes an extra .05WHrs when compared to its predecessor. Apple also limited the amount of RAM in the iPhone 4S to 512MB, in an effort to conserve battery life.
The iPhone 4S includes the same A5 processor found earlier this year in the iPad 2. It is a dual-core chip that runs up to twice as fast as the A4, and includes graphics processing up to seven times faster with the SGX 543MP2 GPU.
One user who spoke with the Guardian said that he was contacted by Apple, and was asked to install a monitoring program on his phone. Apple's engineers hope to be able to use the diagnostics to determine what is causing shorter battery life for some users, though the report said the problems are thus far "unexplained."
The person said they were contacted by a senior engineer at Apple who read a post they made online, and indicated that the company was contacting users to resolve the problem. The Apple representative also allegedly admitted that the company isn't "close to finding a fix."
"(He) asked lots of questions about my usage and then asked if he could install the file... and that he would call back the day after to retrieve the info," the person wrote. "I extracted the file from my Mac after a sync and mailed it to him. He was incredibly helpful and apologetic in the typical Apple way!"
Experiences of reduced battery life are supported by a growing thread on the Apple Support Communities website, where numerous users have found they experience significantly less uptime with the iPhone 4S. As of Friday afternoon, the thread as nearly 100,000 views and 1,300 replies.
"Glad to see people are talking about this," user 'telarium' wrote. "My 4S battery life is terrible... even worse than my 3GS, even though all the settings are the same."
Another user, 'Frenzi,' said they found some success by turning off many of the features on the phone, and only gradually re-enabling them as needed. Among the features disabled included sending of diagnostic data to Apple, automatically searching for Wi-Fi connections, automatic date and time, iTunes Ping, and even the Siri "raise to speak" feature. "The improvement has been nothing short of miraculous," they wrote.
Still another user on the Apple Support Communities website, "Snowwolfwarrior," said they spoke with an Apple technician who also gave them special software to install on their iPhone 4S. The software logs all of the usage from the handset over a 24-hour period, after which the user obtains the data and sends it back to the Apple technician.
When it was unveiled earlier this month, Apple claimed that the iPhone 4S had an increased battery talk time of eight hours. But standby battery time, when compared to the previous-generation iPhone 4, is advertised at 100 hours less.
In spite of this, the iPhone 4S does have a slightly larger battery than the iPhone 4, and includes an extra .05WHrs when compared to its predecessor. Apple also limited the amount of RAM in the iPhone 4S to 512MB, in an effort to conserve battery life.
The iPhone 4S includes the same A5 processor found earlier this year in the iPad 2. It is a dual-core chip that runs up to twice as fast as the A4, and includes graphics processing up to seven times faster with the SGX 543MP2 GPU.
Comments
Will Apple ever make a phone that lives up to the "it just works" slogan?
The original iPhone was crippled by its lack of 3G data. The next two suffered from cases that would randomly crack and screens that would ingress dust. The next couldn't make calls if you held it in your hand and now we have a new one that runs out of juice over a normal day of use.
Will Apple ever make a phone that lives up to the "it just works" slogan?
I thought we would have gotten a few posts in before someone started with the "Apple sucks" trolling.
cases that would randomly crack and screens that would ingress dust.
My son's 3GS case cracked. My 3GS got dust under the screen. We waited until a few days prior to the warranty running out, and we both got brand-new (refurb) iPhones at he Apple Store.
I guess I am one of the lucky ones after reading a lot of these issues.
Best,
Al
I found that a LOT of battery sucking features are enabled by default, and I took the opportunity to go through and disable notifications and location for 90% of my apps (apps, btw, that I didn't WANT broadcasting my location), and that along with a couple of 0% drains seem to have pretty much dealt with the issue. My battery life seems quite good now.
Still, I'll watch this space for more developments. Better can never hurt.
The original iPhone was crippled by its lack of 3G data. The next two suffered from cases that would randomly crack and screens that would ingress dust. The next couldn't make calls if you held it in your hand and now we have a new one that runs out of juice over a normal day of use.
Will Apple ever make a phone that lives up to the "it just works" slogan?
I've got not-great battery life, but this is my first iPhone, so I don't have much to compare to... My girlfriend's seems to be worse than mine. Neither of us can comfortably make it through a day. I usually hit ~10% by EOD, and she has to stop using it in the evenings to make it to bedtime, or plugs it in when she gets home... I'm at ~50% at the moment. Charged it overnight last night. Maybe I should get on that Apple forum. I'd be happy to install something that would help them fix the problem.
It's possible you have a bad battery or there is something wonky with iOS 5.0, but it could also be the way you are using the device compared to previous dumb and smartphones. You may not even realize that you're using your iPhone a lot more frequently than any previous device which is draining the battery faster.
Otherwise, people need to stop doing restores and do "setup as new phone"
6 hours since last full charge i am at 77% left with occassionally email etc.
Overnight, lost about 8% charge.
All great to me.
No Flash- so what gives? Every iPhone I've ever had only keeps a charge for one day- no different here. Move on.
Your trolling is weak. Please, try harder.
On my iPhone 3G I only turned it on when I needed to surf the web and I wasn't in a wifi hotspot - then turned it off when I finished.
Shouldn't be too difficult...
Give us the option to turn-off 3G. This will make a big difference to battery life.
On my iPhone 3G I only turned it on when I needed to surf the web and I wasn't in a wifi hotspot - then turned it off when I finished.
Shouldn't be too difficult...
You really need to take the 3G out to the pasture and shoot it.