iPhone 4S Battery Life

I had assumed that with the advent of owning such a powerful computing device that there would be drawbacks.  Battery life seems to be the clear winner.  It takes some juice to run this little gem. 

Although Apple has released an update to iOS that may address some of the issues, I wondered if I couldn’t also help out my good friend the iPhone by doing some basic housekeeping.

I’ve been in and around mobile development going on eleven years now (yipe!) and there are some common reoccurring memes with respect to getting the most out of mobile device battery life.  Mostly they center around making your device do fewer things.  Simple enough.

Turn Off WiFi

Unless you are cruising at some well-known available network it’s best to turn WiFi off.  Your device will be looking for networks to join, generally sniffing around, all with convenience in mind for its owner.  Turning WiFi off when you’re not in range of a well-known network (e.g. home, work, Boingo) should conserve energy.

This behavior is similar to the no_wireless_signal battery drain issue of years past.  Essentially, when consumers entered a building where the wireless carrier signal was lost, the mobile device would continuously scan for a connection.  The result either being a carrier signal was found or the battery was drained to empty. 

More often than not it was the latter.

Shut Down Background Apps

The iPhone is good at multitasking quite a few apps by allowing them to run in the background.  The question I had for myself though was; how many of these apps are actually still running and do they really need to be?

Fortunately there is a facility that allows you to check to see what’s running and more importantly stop an app when you aren’t using it.

Double click on the home button.  Doing this will present a taskbar which contains all running apps.  This is a cool facility for switching between running apps (just tap the app you want to switch to).  Swipe left or right on the taskbar to see more apps – trust me there will be more.  

Now what?  Look for apps that you aren’t using regularly and shut them down.

To shut down running apps, touch and hold one of the app icons and you’ll see a red circle with a minus sign appear.  If you tap an icon the app will be stopped.  Neat.

Manage Push Notifications

This is a useful feature when managed conservatively. 

However, it seems that every app has something to say.  All this chatter makes your mobile device perform network related activity and will be, of course, yet another source of battery drain. 

Turn off unnecessary notifications.

Location, Location, Location

Location based activity makes your device perform a lot of work - your iPhone has to carry on an intense data conversation with cell towers or GPS satellites (in the case of turn by turn directions the location requests are constantly happening).  Limit the frequency with which you perform location based activity.  Be especially mindful of those apps that perform regular location updates to / from the network.

Feed The Need

If you just can’t stop doing what you are doing then maybe you need to get some extra juice to help out until you can get next to a power outlet.

I’ve been using a combination case protector / external rechargeable battery from mophie.  So far it’s been working quite well.  It’s smart enough to either use it’s own power first before using the iPhone’s or can be used to charge the iPhone’s battery.

iGrumble

The Reveal

The long awaited announcement from Apple about its next generation iPhone happened today.  Prior to this morning’s conference at the Cupertino offices, pundits and fanboys alike had been whipping the mobile population into a froth with the feature speculations, design assumptions and capabilities wish lists.  It was almost impossible not to hear or read about ‘the latest iPhone rumor’.

In short, the run up to the day of reveal was exhausting.

Unfortunately it is rare when the dream matches up to reality.  So it seems there is a lot of grumbling and unhappy mobile customers riffing about the shortfalls of the launch.

I don’t understand why – there are some fantastic features that I have to say I’m pretty satisfied with.

What am I excited about?

WORLD PHONE!

I have been holding on to my dear old BlackBerry Tour 9630 because it is a world phone.  How great it is to have both a GSM and a CDMA radio inside.  Since I’m a Verizon customer I can roam seamlessly on Vodafone when I’m outside the U.S.  The new iPhone is also a world phone and this multi network roaming capability removes the last of my ties to BlackBerry.

Sweet. 

SIRI

I have been working with ML technologies similar to those that power SIRI and am really happy to see AI making it into mainstream products.  I think SIRI has a lot of promise and I’m looking forward to seeing it mature.

New Camera

8-megapixel camera that supports HD (1080p) video recording, up to 30 frames per second with audio.  

I find that there are so many spontaneous situations in which I want to use my phone’s camera; having 8-megapixels will provide me just that much more richness of detail.  Who needs a digtial camera anymore?

1080p HD video.  What else is there to say?  

iMessage

I use BlackBerry Messenger everyday.  It’s a fantastic tool for communicating and sharing.  Well, now I have the equivalent functionality and more with iMessage.  I can see who’s reading the messages I have sent, do group chat, send pictures and videos.  Everything I loved about BBM is now present with iMessage. 

The comments about ‘what happened to iPhone 5’ will surely continue to bounce and tweet over the coming days.  Guess that means there will be less of a preorder queue for me.  :)

The End of the BlackBerry Prayer

7 of 9

It’s amazing to me still how much my BlackBerry device has become my indirect taskmaster.  How you ask?  I have ‘cleverly’ connected it to both my work and personal email accounts.  I’ve installed applications like Foursquare, Twitter, Skype and LinkedIn.  I have a few folks on the BlackBerry IM service as well.  I regularly use the mobile web.  My mobile device is my portable office – even when I’m in my office. 

I am completely connected to everything and everyone.

More often than not I have the device set to vibrate.  With the variety of chirps, beeps and pleasing chimes going off I certainly wouldn’t want it to disturb anyone. 

It’s a real time saver since everything I need is right there in the palm of my hands.  When it summons me I respond almost immediately.  I find that I’m often staring down at it, holding it with both hands, practicing the BlackBerry Prayer.  

This past weekend I was happily tweeting, checking in, responding to emails when, in an instant, my device was given a lobotomy:  The track ball would no longer scroll down.

I Am But A Pinball

I like to think I’m a planner.  I have good intentions each morning for the new day ahead.  I subscribe to the GTD philosophy and employ many of the techniques for productivity.  Indeed I get a lot done but my good friend the mobile phone always seems to be interrupting my rhythm. 

The phone’s notifications can really get me bouncing around as I try to keep up with all of the real time events streaming in that cry out for attention.  As such, I’ve become expert at managing the random flow of notifications and data.  Things do get done.

But by days end my circuits are fried.

 

At the end of the day, I need to unplug from the grid and reconnect with the world around me.  Family and my four-legged friend take precedence now.

This was my daily routine up until the track ball stopped scrolling.  No longer could I update statuses; I couldn’t select Skype conversations.  I couldn’t navigate to my apps and fire them up.  I couldn’t surf the web.  Through some clever keyboarding I was able to get to priority email but my phone basically became just that – a phone. 

The Horror.

print “Hello World!”

It seems I have gotten something back since this device malfunction.  At least for a while I can’t be interrupted or distracted because, well, I can’t do anything about it.  I have to wait to respond.  I am ‘disconnected’ in a sense – free.

This situation could be a boon for what becomes a priority and what is not.  It may well be a cure for my self inflicted A.D.D. 

The iPhone Event Horizon

I have read blog posts where folks write about ‘managing your inbox’ and how email can keep you from getting any work done.  I’d argue that it’s not just your inbox, but the sum of all event notifications that you sensibly have to negotiate on a daily basis – SMS included. 

Now, my BlackBerry replacement plan has been to purchase the iPhone 5 iPhone 4S.  Of course that plan started early in the year, so I have been patiently waiting.  It seems I won’t have to wait too much longer. 

I do envisage myself exercising this new skill of moderation and prioritization when the iPhone finally arrives – Angry Birds be damned.

Photo credits: © 2011 Eric Wilson