back to article As iPhone 4S battery suckage spreads, fixes appear

Ever since the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 were released earlier this month, early adopters have flooded the web with complaints about reduced battery life and overheating handsets. But now a few solutions have emerged from multiple sources – but not from Apple, unfortunately. "So... is this going to be considered 'Battery-gate' or ' …

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  1. otan
    Flame

    tut

    you would have thought that by now they could least have worked out the simple bugs!

    flame on appletards

    1. Mike Judge
      Stop

      iPhone4s launch

      was scheduled to coincide with Job's death (to give the lacklustre product the launch hype it needed), rather than when it was actually finished...

      in true Microsoft style, launch it when the marketing people tell you it's ready, rather than when the engineers tell you it's ready.

  2. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    iPhone GPS sucks...

    ...power like there's no tomorrow.

    I once used my iPhone as an automotive GPS (all maps preloaded, no roaming data) to navigate from London to Portsmouth, UK. Starting fresh, the battery threatened to be fully drained about halfway along, a bit more than an hour. This is using continuous GPS on my iPhone 3GS. I had to start using it in an intermittent manner to complete the journey.

    (Yes, I know. Next time bring a cigarette socket lead. Yes, thanks...)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well I have been using mine when I go running (usually 3/4 times a week) for approx 1.5 hours a time. Using RunKeeper and listening to music/podcasts I usually drop at most 20%.

      It has kept me sane(?) while running two marathons too.

      *Your* iPhone sucks power...etc... Mine actually doesn't.

      1. Danny 14
        Thumb Up

        possibly

        Maybe it has something to do with cell roaming AGPS? I imagine whilst running your AGPS is pretty much idling after a lock, with driving in a car AGPS will be running overtime on a longer journey.

    2. The Bit Wrangler

      To be fair this is true of any phone-based GPS - it was true on the N95 (yeah, sorry Apple, iPhone wasn't anywhere near cutting-edge here, surprise!) and it's true on all the Android handsets. Keeping track of live GPS tracking and routing information just takes a lot of processing power and that takes battery. I installed a N95 charger when I used that, now I have a Desire dock in my car to make it usable.

      Most GPS units have MUCH bigger batteries than phones (and the vast majority are cabled-in to the charger too).

    3. Tom 38

      On the iphone 3G/3GS the GPS is provided by a separate Infineon chip, on the iphone 4 it is provided by a much more efficient Broadcom chip.

      My iphone 3G would slaughter the battery if it couldn't find a 3G signal, my iphone 4 does not - similar deal, on the iphone 3G, the 3G radio was a separate chip to the 2G.

    4. Peter 48

      not unusual

      to be fair to Apple, I think you will find this happening to every smart phone on the market. In fact I think you would have problems finding a dedicated GPS unit that could run of batteries for more than a few hours. The combination of GPS and continuous screen usage will drain any device out there PDQ.

    5. Seanie Ryan
      Megaphone

      power usage

      in case any of ye havent cottoned on to the common item here, its NOT the GPS that sucks the power, its when you have the SCREEN on permanently.

      Thats why runkeeper etc doesnt suck battery.

      No matter what you are doing, if you have screen on all the time, your battery will drop like a stone.

      Reduce the brightness can have an amazing effect on battery life.

    6. durandal
      WTF?

      Navigating from London to Portsmouth?

      A3, point south. If you've got issues going south of the river, down to the bottom of the M25 and point south.

      This didn't need a satnav, it barely needed a post-it!

  3. David 45

    "The battery's flat."..." What shape should it be?"

    Well - don't use it that way! Or, preferably, don't use it at all, then you won't get any problems.

  4. BiGBuX
    FAIL

    No response from apple. No surprise Steve took the reality distortion idevice with him.

    Shame really, his antics made interesting reading.

    1. Grease Monkey Silver badge

      I liked to play whose craziest between Balmer, Jobs and Scmidt. The worrying thing was that Balmer usually came last.

      1. slooth

        You forgot to invite Larry Ellison

        1. andreas koch
          Pint

          @slooth

          I think he ran outside the normal competition; no wondering there...

  5. bazza Silver badge

    Sounds like it's a lemon

    It's incredible how Apple get away with such crap software. We've all come to expect that the first iteration of an iSomething will be rubbish, and some how the market thinks that's alright.

    But Blackberry has their first outage in years lasting a couple of days and people are reaching for their lawyers.

    Either Apple customers are complete mugs who care not about service reliability and a Blackberry outage is such a rare event that it warrants extraordinary attention. Or no one takes iAnything seriously so long as it's shiny but otherwise rely upon Blackberry's services like their lives/businesses depend on it.

    In short, what gives?

    1. oddie
      Happy

      people buy BB because they want hardened security and reliability. people buy apple because they want braging rights and shiny factor.

      the day an apple product stops looking pretty for 2 days is the day you will hear the fanboys howl :)

      PS. I used to be a BB boy, now I drink the android juice :D

      1. Shakje
        Happy

        I bought an iPhone

        because Nokia pissed me off, WM7 looked limited and clunky, and Android didn't support NTLM auth at the time. And I liked the phone after playing with a colleague's for half an hour. Each to their own I guess.

      2. bazza Silver badge

        Switch to Android

        And indeed you are not alone. Many have switched, and there is certainly more app development activity in the Android space.

        Personally speaking I find Android's terrible update mechanism (in fact, what update mechanism?) very off putting. Coupling that with the continual stream of reports of flaws and security mistakes in Android plus a not very good web browser makes it a non-option as far as I'm concerned.

        Being a self confessed techno geek I like the architecture of QNX. It's much better than shoe-horning unix in to a mobile as Apple and Google have done. I don't think that MS have done anything particularly revolutionary in their kernel either. It will be interesting to see if RIM can build on QNX's cleverness to deliver an obviously better product (better battery usage, smoother app experience, etc). For example the playbook, whilst currently somewhat flawed, does a fantastic job of web browsing and multitasking. RIM will certainly be hoping so, but I fear that Apple and Google have shown that mere technical superiority is not a market factor.

    2. pdogguk

      Because not everything on an iPhone runs through Apple's datacenter.

      I have my Gmail account and my work Exchange account set up on my iPhone. If one goes down, it could be Gmail or could be Exchange.

      RIM have *most* services running through their servers, so there's a single point of failure. It's the way it was designed, sure, but if their datacenter goes down, everybody loses out.

      If people want some reimbursement for the service outage, so be it.

      For the record, a BlackBerry outage is most certainly not a rare occurrence.

    3. ThomH

      It's confirmation bias

      The iPhone is, by a wide margin, the single best-selling individual handset. So the threshold for reporting faults is quit low — each fault, even if extremely minor, will affect a large number of people. Apple compound the problem with their holier-than-thou approach to product launches and to marketing; that would increase the newsworthiness of faults even if nobody was buying the products.

      Conversely, each individual variety of Android handset and each model of BlackBerry phone has a relatively small audience. So a fault has to be pretty critical for it to be worth reporting.

      That's why in the last few weeks, similar prominence has been afforded to the stories that (i) large swathes of BlackBerry users are provably cut off from being able to text, surf or email; and (ii) some subset of 4S buyers anecdotally report that the battery life feels a little short.

      If you already hold the conclusion that Apple's software is crap then stories like this look like confirmation. However the reality is that flaws like this on the iPhone are newsworthy whereas flaws like this on, say, a specific Motorola handset wouldn't be.

      Every single relevant consumer satisfaction and/or device durability survey that has been published since the iPhone came out puts the iPhone amongst the top tier of handsets, at least equal with the top-rated devices from Samsung, Motorola, BlackBerry and anyone else you want to compare to.

      I'd therefore suggest that the overwhelming weight of evidence is either that Apple's software isn't crap or that all handset software is equally crap.

    4. ryanp

      what percentage does it affect?

      I personally have an Android and do not agree with Apple on a lot of their stances, but even I feel that this is not a big deal.

      Lets compare this to the Blackberry outage. Every single Blackberry customer was affected for days, and working in IT saw many users affected by this. This affected all of their 70 million or so subscribers. This Apple battery issue on the other hand has 1200 posts right now. lets say that only 1% of people have posted something so the real number is 120K people. That means that roughly 58,000% more people were affected by the Blackberry outage (of course these are just guess numbers and maybe we should say you can be +-20,000%).

      Basically Blackberry's issue affected their entire userbase, while right now this battery problem seems to be affecting a small percentage of the iPhone userbase. Battery issues like this are rampant throuhgout the smartphone community no matter who the manufacturer is. It seems something like this jumps out for Apple because they do such a good job in providing a good experience. They purposefully dont use cutting edge technology in a lot of areas, because they dont want to compromise in areas like battery.

      What world wide outages has Apple experienced relating to their mobile business?

      I will agree that I do not like Apple's policy to stick their head in the sand and pretending that nothing is happening. Even when their is an issue, it seems like it takes a nuclear bomb to get them to acknowledge something. I think that this is pretty poor.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One Two....

    "You're using it wrong..."

    "We don't comment on rumor or speculation...."

    "We already have a patent on 'using a mobile device as a hand-warmer' and 'method of rapidly draining electric charge from a mobile battery' and our lawyers will be contacting you shortly."

    /AC due to the people that don't see the humor in this. Yes, I see you.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My iPhone 3GS running iOS5 is fine

    oh well, good job I've no need to upgrade/switch yet.

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Yup - ditto.

      Although it nuked Stanza, about which I *extremely* pissed off because there is no chance it will ever get upgraded now.

      1. Tim Bergel
        Unhappy

        Yeah, sad about Stanza

        I wanted to upgrade my iPod touch to iOS5, but I can't unless I'm willing to kiss goodby to the 200+ books I've accumulated in Stanza.

        1. NorthernMonkey
          Go

          Are they ePubs? Bang them into a Dropbox and download (free) BlueFire from the App Store. Open them from Dropbox into BlueFire (admittedly one at a time, which is a palaver) and you won't need iTunes. Worked ok for me when I found out Stanza was borked; which in fairness is Amazon's fault for buying it out and then letting it die so it didn't compete with Kindle.

          Not sure what other formats BlueFire supports, so YMMV.

    2. Peter 66

      Me to

      My 3GS has been fantastic ever since I got it - about 2 years ago, runs iOS 5 nicely so why upgrade? Her indoors HTC Desire, despite being half the age doesn't have any 'official' updates, sure there are people porting later versions of Android over but an non techy person is not going to know about this or indeed do it.

      Can we admit that Apple have supported their products longer then any other manufacturer have supported an Android phone?

      1. Philip Lewis
        Megaphone

        No need to speculate - it is very well documented

        http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/27/unlike_apples_ios_android_phones_not_getting_updates.html

      2. bazza Silver badge

        @Peter 66, Apple Long Term Support

        "Can we admit that Apple have supported their products longer then any other manufacturer have supported an Android phone?"

        Absolutely! Though of course there are tales of Apple withholding new features from older phones "because they're not powerful enough". Shame for Apple that the hackers generally get them going on older phones anyway. And then there's the things that most Apple upgrades seem to break...

        So Apple are definitely along the right road when it comes to updates; updates yes, but still trying to force people to buy new handsets.

        Android is terrible for updates and, if any kind of common sense prevails, will end up costing Google dearly.

        MS and RIM seem to have updates well under control. In the case of MS it could become a significant reason to give a Win Phone a go. It might not be perfect (though initial reactions seem positive), but a couple of meaningful upgrades in the handsets' lifetimes seems a real possibility. Service packs and updates have kept Win XP viable for ages; why not the same in the mobile market?

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Oh look, an offical Desire upgrade to Gingerbread...

        Just because it wasn't offered Over The Air, doesn't mean it does not exist:

        http://htcdev.com/devcenter/downloads

        Dead easy to do, so long as you know what a USB cable is and sync your contacts with Google or do a backup first. Probably easier than some of the iPhone upgrades I have heard of.

        I am sure some of the later upgrades for Apple products have already run in to legacy issues - mainly because a software update will not add extra hardware (eg memory) to an existing product. Plus it is easier to maintain what is basically one product when you are the only supplier and have a strangle hold on it.

        Android is by its nature cross platform, and the handset manufacturers will always want to develop new handsets as Android (and the technology it runs on) develops. This helps push things forward and encourage innovation over patent trolling.

        In the case of the original Desire, HTC had to trim their "pre-installed" applications in order to make Gingerbread fit into the ROM. They trimmed applications that were available from the market (and of a newer version), and supplied the others with the upgrade as seperate files should you need them. That is quite a bit of effort for what is technically an obsolete product.

        I think we are all lucky that we all get the updates that we do - for example, I didn't complain to Vauxhall when they brought out the new model Astra, just because I have one of the older ones. I am sure a dealer would change the badge on the boot for me it I asked him to, but I very much doubt he would put a new engine in it for me.

        Oh yes - the clocks go back on Sunday morning - the excuse of the iPhone users getting in to work late on Monday because their alarm clocks didn't go off is getting a bit old. An iPhone isn't the answer to everything.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      iPhone 4 / iOS 5 - no problem

      But then I don't have iCloud enabled, and I don't send diags to Apple (I may own an iPhone, but that doesn't mean I'm an iFan). I did turn on the wifi sync just recently, but no issues so far.

  8. Markl2011
    Joke

    Patent infringement

    Poor battery life? They'd better be careful or Google will sue them for infringing their patent!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re: Patent infringement

      As a first gen HTC Desire user who has to use Juicedefender to get a full day out of a charge with quite low use, I LOLed, bravo sir.

    2. JaitcH
      Mushroom

      Android batteries don't ...

      catch fire inexplicably. Apple has the exclusive on that.

  9. NoneSuch Silver badge

    Guess you should have waited for the iPhone 5 huh?

    Actually, given their flawed release history, best wait for the iPhone 27. Just to play it safe and make sure the bugs are worked out.

  10. James O'Brien
    Mushroom

    Huh?

    "And should Apple ever get back in touch with us, we'll update this article – but don't hold your breath."

    Why would they? They dont make mistakes.....

    Nuke for obvious reasons

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Simple

    I simply downgraded to IOS pre4.2.1 using this simple tool coded for the job, then for more certainty I bought this battery from this manufacturer I trust, popped the battery cover and replaced it, and in the meantime those devs contributing their free time are taking a look at the source so maybe they'll come up with some original solution until Steve makes a video apology - then I proceeded to eating some sushi and making important decisions for the world below... see, it's a wonderful world!

    1. Graham Dawson Silver badge
      Coffee/keyboard

      All I can say to that is...

      ... I want sushi. At least that part of this fantasy is achievable.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pint

        LSD helps to think different...

        This guilty pleasure is a very well kept secret...

        -Use a well known command to enable the debug menu for the appstore

        -In the debug menu, select the "Android" server and beg Apple devs for the server URL

        -Search for the "Iplan2BAdroid" app and install it

        -Put your Iphone4S in DFU mode

        -Draw a capital "A" on the screen using 2 fingers in a symmetrical way from bottom to top and from center outwards for the horizontal bar...

        If you succeed, you will be blessed by a Steve Jobs video where he explains that when nobody was peeking at his phone, he was using a custom Android version on it with a boss key to revert to IOS's top menu in case someone looked, and that he apologizes for such a sin. Then a menu will appear where you can trigger the phone's backplate motorized opening/closing if you want to change the battery and also enable Android ICS - the device will reboot to Android... in that mode, drawing an "X" on the screen will have it display a static IOS top menu so that you can avoid violent excommunication from the sect members! Add sushi and voila!

  12. g e
    FAIL

    I do hereby move

    That Fanbois should be renamed FailBois

    Cos every Apple update so far seems to have contained a fuckup-101 which, considering they have total control of the hardware should never happen.

    Fail. Boys. (or 'Still Amateurs', your choice)

    /nuff

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Isn't it amazing..

      .. just him many jealous people exist?

      Every time something is wrong with a groundbreaking device, you get all the groundless lala from people who don't have one. Well, smuggie, enjoy your privacy breaking Android. You do know that (according to what Google said to the Canadian privacy commissioner) it replaces the Streetview WiFi sniffers? And why exactly do you think it needs your Gargle account details before any of the stuff works?

      Oh, and if you use Windows mobile, I don't even *need* to continue..

      (from someone who has both Android and iOS devices)

      /rant

      1. HP Cynic

        Please stop working from the assumption that iPhones are better; only a "fanboi" would think an iPhone was something to be jealous of.

        People have Androids because not just because they are cheaper (some are now the same price or more) but in many cases absolutey better bits of kit, especially if you want something with a larger screen.

        Many people commenting will actually have neither.

        The iPhone is massively overpriced, personally I'd expect better from a company making 60%+ margin on each handset.

        Declaration: I just cancelled my iPhone 4S order, I was going to "see for myself" but the price is unjustifiable so I'd rather not waste anyone's time.

        I'm getting a 2nd-hand 3GS instead. I have high hopes for the 5 next year but probably best avoided while they work out the extra bugs inherent in such a total redesign (rumours of course).

        That or next year I'll get whatever Android 4.0 phones have risen near the top.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Ground Breaking!?!?!

        I really do like my iPhone 4, but groundbreaking it certainly is not!

        You really need to stop stroking it, it's damaging your eyesight (and mental facalties).

      3. hplasm
        Gimp

        Groundbreaking device?

        You can use it as a pickaxe? Might as well...

        1. ElReg!comments!Pierre
          Thumb Up

          You kill the troll

          you have a little trouble lifting H- a pick-axe.

      4. Jedit Silver badge
        FAIL

        You're right, I'm so jealous...

        I'd really love to pay £150 over the odds for a phone with shitty battery life and specs that were outdated at launch.

        As has been commented on these illustrious pages before: the reason for the design of the Apple logo is obvious - one bite is enough to tell when an apple is rotten.

      5. George 24

        Ground breaking

        What is ground breaking in iPhone 4s? Obviously the ability to contribute a bit more to global warming....

  13. g e
    FAIL

    On second thoughts...

    YOU'RE USING THE BATTERY THE WRONG WAY

    Still FAIL though

  14. Darling Petunia

    No problem with 4S battery. Probably because I'm not using iCloud, and watch the data usage like a hawk.

  15. Chris 211

    The battery

    ...and the battery is the most moaned about aspect of smartphones. Something nokia did do very well. I'd pay for a Symbian Nokia rather then get a free iPhone.

    1. Steve Evans

      @Chris 211

      I would agree right up the the N95. Although it eventually turned out to be a reliable phone, the initial few issues of firmware were buggy as hell, and the GPS was best not even used unless you had 5 minutes to stand still for it to lock.

      That should have been a warning that things were heading the wrong way... But it took me to buy an N97 to realise Nokia had been caught with their pants down, raped and left traumatised and shaking when they should have been designing (and supporting) new phones. A phone that was released at least 12 months before it was ready, and abandoned before I'd got halfway through the 24 month contract I'd stupidly signed into. Prompting me to outright buy a replacement phone, just so I didn't need to use the N97 any more. The N97 ended its days with a Hegazy firmware on it, which is a little better, but it still suffers from serious hardware issues - GPS again for starters. It's now used simless as my MP3 player, thanks to its 32gig of storage MicroSD and Nokia headphones with the built in remote buttons.

      Symbian was/is a fine mobile OS. Very lightweight and seriously battery friendly. It could have been a contender, but not when it was managed and owned by a company that had all the manoeuvrability of an oil tanker.

      1. ThomH

        @Steve Evans

        One of the handsets I've tried in the last year or so (having a professional interest) was the Nokia N8. The GPS was possibly a little slow but the battery life was excellent and I don't recall having a problem with any of the other hardware features. So I essentially disagree with you on the suggestion that Nokia's rudderless drifting had led to a general deterioration in hardware quality. But then again I never used an N97.

        1. Steve Evans

          @ThomH

          The N8 may indeed be a fine phone, and for those that have bought them, I hope it is, but it was too late to retain me as a customer.

          Come to think of it, after the N97, I don't think anything would have retained me as a customer. The whole experience just revealed what can only be described as utter contempt for the end user. Abandoning support for a phone with outstanding bugs that many users are still paying for on excessively long contracts is just disgusting.

  16. Jan 0 Silver badge

    Never mind the boll^H^H^Hattery

    What's the alarm going to do on the 31st of October?

    Thank goodness it's not a Monday. Missing the Archers/Pub opening is ok.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Symbian is dead and buried

      I just changed my workday alarm on my N8. It responded with a notification that said that 'Alarm goes off at 07:30am after daylight saving transition'.

      You see, with functionality like that, it's obvious why the plug is being pulled on it and everyone's moving to brand new shiny mobile operating systems like iOS which have problems deciding what the time is (if the battery hasn't run out).

  17. MooseNC
    Mushroom

    ???!?!!!!

    It's the spirit of Steve Jobs harnessing all the energy he can so he can return to Earth!!!! Quickly!!! Shut off you iDevices before you unleash the reborn Jobs!!! He'll have lasers from his eyes and be ill-tempered!! (More than before)!!!

  18. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    ... holding it...

    ... the wrong way?

    Hmm, without the genius of the jobs reality distortion field, they'll just have to admit "it's a bug"

    1. hplasm
      Gimp

      Cold Hands?

      There's an app for that- and it just works!

  19. Doogs
    Trollface

    Bloody rubbish iOS - can't even crash properly. Where's the proper BSOD, huh?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not a problem.

    Just carry a spare battery and swap it when the other one gets too low.

    Ooops sorry I forgot you aren't allowed to.

  21. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    May I tank you for the word "copacetic"?

    I had to look it up - brilliant. Or copacetic..

    :)

    1. andreas koch
      Pint

      @ Rik Myslewski & Fred Flintstone

      I second that, let's buy Rik a pint!

      1. Z80
        Thumb Up

        Thirded

        Would the adverb be acceptable I wonder? If not, let's make it acceptable through usage.

        e.g.

        Q. How's it going?

        A. Copacetically thanks!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ..way overreacting..

    A shiny iphone4 is a shiny fashion accessory, even with a dead battery. Move along now..

  23. Ben Rosenthal
    Gimp

    "you should probably know what to expect by now-gate"?

  24. Bassey

    Sounds like

    Sounds like Apple are just starting to experience the same problems that other OSs have had for a while. The more complex and capable they become the more problems they will have. I've had my Android phone about a year and 3, maybe 4 times over that year I've put it down nearly fully charged and a couple of hours later it has pinged to say the battery is low. When I've picked it up it has been warm to touch. A quick reboot sorts it out. Plenty of other Android users have reported similar problems and it used to happen all the time on Windows Mobile.

    With maturity and complexity come problems. Apple tried to avoid this by keeping the iPhone simple but the market has pushed it towards greater complexity so random problems will occur. And, because of the vast numbers sold and the huge hype, every little problem will be magnified a thousand times.

    He who lives by the hyperbole.....

  25. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    99¢?

    You have to pay for a system activity monitor? Is this some sort of joke?

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "crash report, dataaccessed, contacts, location and cloud syncing."

    Why do I have the sneaking suspicions the iPhone4 is trying to pass on data a bit enthusiastically and is falling over it's own security?

    I would be most bemused if it turned out the batteries were being sucked dry by phones spying on their owners.

    http://www.theonion.com/video/cias-facebook-program-dramatically-cut-agencys-cos,19753/

  27. Piro Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    No big deal

    You're just using it wrong

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just get a new phone

    not a big deal....

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bwahaha

    iFan status: TOLD.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Imagine the outcry if Android phones had poor battery life

    ... oh wait a minute.

    http://www.bnet.com/blog/businesstips/the-dirty-android-secret-no-ones-talking-about/11199?tag=mncol;txt

    1. Marcelo Rodrigues

      Speak for yourself

      I have a Xperia Arc, and it sure eats his battery.

      BUT

      I have on permanent sync 4 email accounts. 3G is always on, sometimes 802.11 too.

      Facebook, Tweeter, WhatsApp and Viber are always on too. And it is used as MP3 player - with bluetooth.

      I set the apps to syncronyze at anytime. Usually my battery goes until night. 15% at about 21:00.

      If I turn most of it off, his battery life grows to something like 60 hours.

      Not a lot, but I do hammer it pretty hard. And I have a friend whoose IPhone lives on the charger...

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just stick an Nuclear military battery in it

    Job done!

  32. Nick Ryan Silver badge

    Common enough software problem

    Common enough software problem - when the dev (or a later code editor) doesn't think very hard about handling errors and preventing a cascading error loop. i.e. an error in the error handler causes an error that triggers another error in the error handler.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Still better than the battery life on every Android phone

    Isn’t it horrible when a company designs a device that allows its users to think of poor battery life as a fault rather than an inevitability?

    1. MrCheese
      FAIL

      Yeah right

      Worst case scenario my Galaxy S2 gives me a day and a half, usually more like 2 and a half, far better than any iPhone I've seen to date

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        My iPhone lasts two days minimum with heavy use. Android reality distortion field at work?

        http://www.bnet.com/blog/businesstips/the-dirty-android-secret-no-ones-talking-about/11199

        Just out of curiosity, are you running the device stock or have you rooted it?

        If you have to root it, they've failed, end of story.

        Or maybe not. Maybe it's okay. This diversity should be encouraged, even if it results in sloppy devices. It's all part of being 'open', after all. Sort of.

        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/24/google_will_not_open_source_android_honeycomb_on_release_of_first_devices/

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        There really IS an Android reality distortion field

        As it turns out, according to AnandTech, the S2 has great battery life compared to an iPhone. That is, provided you're only using it to make phone calls and create Wi-fi hotspots. Amazing, why did I ever doubt you?

        http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/18

        Good luck with your software updates, too. And I mean that with no sarcasm at all. I am actually wishing you luck, because yesterday I saw this:

        http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support

        1. defiler

          Android battery life

          I've got a SE Experia Play. Today is day 3 on the battery since I last plugged it in. I'm in a basement here, so the signal's pretty weak - poor wee phone has to work to keep it up. Yesterday I had to use it as a torch whilst fixing a phone system in a room with blown lights. I regularly use it as a web browser and email client (have my gmail synced).

          Right now the battery is sitting on 26%. This is Tuesday, and it was unplugged from the mains on Sunday morning.

          Sucks to have such a shitty battery. If only it could last until Christmas...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            I'm happy for you

            It's so touching to see a phone with a single-core processor and last-year's quaint graphics hardware, a phone that's both bigger and heavier than the 4S, get such great battery life.

            Now here's a link I hope will put a stop to all the stupid:

            http://www.anandtech.com/show/4971/apple-iphone-4s-review-att-verizon/15

  34. ImOldGregg
    Pirate

    Lucky I....

    Decided to upgdade from iphone 3gs to a Galaxy S2 instead of a 4S. Cant believe the difference in quality and speed. Battery lasts for at least 2 days with heavy usage. GPS doesnt destroy my battery. Plus I can buy a new one for about £8 and change it myself- I actually feel stupid for not changing to Samsung earlier. Dont get me wrong I love my Imac but the Iphone is all about status and shiny shiny with no substance.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You can't believe how much faster the S2 is compared to a 2+ year old phone?

      1. MrCheese
        Mushroom

        I can't believe...

        ...How much faster the S2 is compared to a 2+ WEEK old phone

      2. ImOldGregg

        Acutally I tried both in the shop, the S2 nailed the 4S to the wall.

    2. Chemist
      Joke

      "Cant believe the difference in quality and speed"

      Do you mean you can talk much faster ?

  35. Tigra 07
    Holmes

    Pardon me but...

    "The Reg has contacted Apple for clarification, comments, or help, but has not heard back from them."

    I've never seen an article where you did hear back from them.

    Maybe it's time to stop trying?

    1. Oninoshiko
      Holmes

      No, in the sake of fairness you always give them the chance to respond. It lets you take the high ground.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow, a few bugs... in the first release of a new version of an operating system? SURELY NOT?!

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Exchange issues

    I found issues in the notification centre in IOS 5 where it was showing MS exchange notifications that were old but kept trying to display, which was eating 20%+ an hour of battery. removing the exchange accounts and reloading fixed the issue. Might help someone...

  38. ElNumbre
    Trollface

    There's a fix coming...

    There's a fix coming, and its called the iPhone 5.

    They see me trolling, they hating.

  39. the-it-slayer
    Alert

    A Nokia 3310 would solve everyones phone battery problems.

    Oh wait...

  40. Alien8n
    Alien

    Fanbois of another colour

    Amazing how the hatred and bile fills up with some people.

    Okay, the last 4 phones I've owned, current one at the top with reasons for changing:

    Currently using an iPhone4. Phone calls? Check. Texts? Check. Browser? Check. Email? Check. Decent camera? Check. Music? Check. Reliable? Check. Ticks all the boxes I require and also has angry birds on it for when I'm bored.

    Previous phone, SE Xperia X10i. Phone calls? Check. Texts? Check. Browser? Check. Email? Check. Decent camera? Check. Music? Check. Reliable? Heck no. Constant freezing, issue with charging (now has to be charged using an external battery charger), and lasts about half a day with full charge.

    iPhone 3G. Phone calls? Check. Texts? Check. Browser? Check. Email? Check. Decent camera? Nope, worst camera of all the phones I've had. Music? Check. Reliable? Check. Actually upgraded to the Xperia because of the camera.

    SE K800i. Phone calls? Check. Texts? Check. Browser? Nope. Email? Nope. Decent camera? Check. Music? Limited. Reliable? Check. Actually of all the phones I've owned this is the one I miss most. Couldn't browse the internet or check my work email on it but the camera has to be one of the best cameras on any phone I've ever owned. Even better than the higher res camera on the Xperia.

    Might try Samsung next, but to be brutally honest the iPhone 4S pretty much has everything I require already covered. And I've never had an issue with running the iPhone, whereas I've had lots of issues with Android on the Xperia (even having the phone brick itself while trying to accept a call once, had to remove the battery to reset it)

    At the end of the day, I don't care who makes it, I just want my phone to work and to have at least a semblance of build quality (seriously SE, plugging in the charger should NOT break the phone. It's a known fault, so make the bloody socket more robust instead of blaming the user)

    1. kevjs

      k 800i browser

      It certainly did have a browser, although it was a bit rubbish! I used opera mini for the life of that phone, worked well, as did the email - not as Nicely as my x10 though (but at least the battery would last a day!)

  41. Briggsy
    WTF?

    Is life so empty?

    I've never really posted on any of the Reg's article discussions, but reading all the bickering and general mobile phone pissing contest, I've decided to ask a few questions.

    When did mobile phones become the centre of everyone's life?

    Why do people become so attached to these things and queue hours on end just to get a new one?

    Do people use these new smart phones to actually fooking call another person?

    Do I have to hate everyone else who doesn't have the same phone as me?

    The biggest question of all - Would they make my beer taste better? If not then I couldn't give a flying rats arse about all this boring nonsense. It adds nothing to life. If yours is so empty that you need a phone to fill it, go home and have a w@nk, you'll feel better... until the guilt feeling kicks in.

    1. James O'Brien
      Joke

      @Briggsy Re: Answers

      When did mobile phones become the centre of everyone's life?

      Since the switch from landlines to cell sbeing the most popular type of phone.

      Why do people become so attached to these things and queue hours on end just to get a new one?

      Can't really answer this one since I don't bother "queuing" as you call it, personally I think people who cant wait a few days are morons. But that is just my opinion.

      Do people use these new smart phones to actually fooking call another person?

      I do, can't speak for the rest.

      Do I have to hate everyone else who doesn't have the same phone as me?

      Yes. Its pretty much obligatory now to hate those who don't have exactly the same shiney new device you do or those who prefer another one over yours. In fact if you want to be at the top of the field for hating you need to just follow these simple steps:

      1: Buy an iPhone

      2: Claim how great it is and proclaim undying devotion to the cult of Jobs.

      3: Never post unsavory posts about it. ANYWHERE. Because its just that good.

      4: Goto the homes of all your friends who have something other than an iPhone and steal their babys lollipop. On the chance they dont have one find a random baby and steal theirs instead.

      5: Preorder the next model of the iPhone 6 months ahead of time and bitch when you don't have it in your greedy little hands EXACTLY on the day of launch.

      6: Post on El Reg as anonymous blasting others with a different viewpoint from yours about how shite their phone is versus yours. (Actually this one goes both ways hence why I tend to post in the clear to show I am not skeert)

      The biggest question of all - Would they make my beer taste better?

      Yes. But only if it is endorsed by Richard Stallman and it is free.

      Hope that answered all your questions. I am just wondering if I missed alienating any of the groups out there? I stand with the Android crowd but I tend to hate everyone equally.

  42. Atilla the Hun (No relation)
    Trollface

    Copacetic?

    <looks it up>.. Oh, I see, a merkin word. You're excused (from the correct side of the Pond).

  43. My backside

    Why should they?

    "The Reg has contacted Apple for clarification, comments, or help, but has not heard back from them."

    And with all the Apple-hate dispensed on this site, why the fuck should they?

    1. Darryl

      Apple only responds to sites that lavish constant praise on their gifts to humanity?

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Real Explanation (TM)

    All the extra energy is being directed to a secret iApp called iRise. When a sufficiently large number of 4S's have been activated and critical mass achieved, the iRise app will cause The Jobs to arise from his temporary resting place. The whole world will then be bathed in the pure black light of His Jobbiiness. All will praise His Jobliness.

  45. O RLY
    Headmaster

    The use of "-gate" as a suffix to describe scandals

    continues to limp along, despite the Watergate burglary being nearly 40 years ago. In addition to being dated, it's also never been used correctly. Watergate wasn't a scandal about water, so why did "-gate" come to append scandals, real and imagined, that have come since?

    I know English is an amalgamation of "donor" languages that constantly evolves (or bastardises, depending on your perspective), but it would be nice if this idosyncracy would cease.

    1. Darryl
      Devil

      I know... It's like idiosyncrasy-gate, isn't it?

    2. Piro Silver badge

      But..

      Watergate would now no longer be just watergate, it would be watergategate.

      OK, so I stole this from Mitchell & Webb:(

  46. John 137

    the Apple fix

    So, a software update that will make the battery meter display at no less than 50%, right up to the point where it runs out of juice?

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Welcome to the world of Android!

  48. Jean-Paul

    I must be lucky

    Mine easily lasts the day if not longer, must be one of the lucky ones. Then again the battery meter is as unreliable as the petrol gauge in a car, so I don't pay attention to any of that and just use it. I wouldn't be surprised if the fix is regarding the battery meter display.

  49. BasevaInc
    Facepalm

    No issues with mine...

  50. Steve Evans

    Too hot?

    You must be holding it wrong, try just making contact with the edge of case with your finger tips... That should prevent burning... Oh hang on...

  51. Semaj
    Trollface

    Sounds to me as though there are a whole load of errors occurring for different reasons and the exceptions are just being eaten rather than being handled properly. That's what happens when you hide stuff from the users to trick them into thinking that "it just works".

  52. DB2k
    Big Brother

    I turned the GPS time zone thing off. that helped it not go so hot but the battery was still not performing well.Then I found a tip on another forum, to deleted all my email accounts and reboot and re-add.

    Did this, and it fixed it bizarrely. So I assume one of my email accounts was constantly interneting something even though push was off. After that I re-enabled the GPS timezone check and its been behaving fine. Better than my iPhone 4 was actually.

  53. Ant Evans
    Boffin

    Fix available from Nokia...

    who make a grown-up smartphone. My battery lasts a week.

    Hmm, that may be because I have no friends. You can't have everything.

This topic is closed for new posts.

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