Comments on: The long and short of the iPhone’s battery

By: steve schmetz

steve schmetz — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:49:49 +0000

The Power Jolt is the only charger(for car) that apple’s store website says is ok for the iphone 3G. The two by kensington do not have apple’s approval and may not work now or after software updates up to know.

By: DocRoss

DocRoss — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:38:05 +0000

I, too, have had the rapid drain on my 1st Gen 8GB phone. It happened just 2 days ago. I wondered if it had something to do with Pandora. I had run Pandora over EDGE for a few minutes to see if I could (I could!!), and then shut it off. Not long after, I noticed that the phone was warm to the touch, and by early afternoon, I was out of juice altogether–necessitating connecting to iTunes to re-activate!

I’m not sure if it’s Pandora, but it’s happened to me just once–after using Pandora.

Cheers.

By: Constable Odo

Constable Odo — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:21:55 +0000

After-market companies are you listening? How about supplying an internal longer life battery for the iPhone. OWC offers longer life batteries for the MacBook Pro. If a third-party company can design a more efficient battery and maybe one that uses up the maximum amount of space (I saw the inside of the iPhone 3G and it doesn’t look like there’s any spare room) even if it comes at a premium price. Please do something to give the iPhone a longer time between charges.

By: Robert1014

Robert1014 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:02:58 +0000

Maybe I’m a weirdo, but I turn my iPhone off at night…I wouldn’t think of leaving it on in sleep mode while I’m asleep myself. For one thing, if I’m near a land line, either at my apartment or at my office, I use those, and others call me on my land lines. For another thing, I wouldn’t expect to be getting messages at night, and if I do, I’ll see them in the morning when I turn the phone on.

I do keep all the extraneous services turned off unless I specifically need them; yes, it would be nice to have a “one touch” command to turn them on or off, but it takes not time to turn on or off the specific services I might need, it’s really no inconvenience at all. With my usage, as well as these habits I’m developing, I don’t have to charge my iPhone 3G more than about every two days.

By: jimothy

jimothy — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:33:01 +0000

there doesn’t seem to be a charger for the 3g iphone. the kensington units are not compatible with the 3g per kensington

After a great experience with Griffin tech support (and a dismal one with Kensington], I purchased the PowerJolt. Their web site doesn’t yet state it as 3G compatible, but their friendly tech support confirmed that it does. I picked up one at Target, and I can also confirm that it works with the 3G.

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powerjoltiphone

Any USB-based charger, for home or the car, presumably will work.

By: Allan

Allan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:09:05 +0000

It would be nice if there were a switch like the “Airplane Mode” switch to turn off 3G, location services and other battery-gobbling functions. I get good battery life out of mine when I turn off all this stuff, but it would make my life easier if I could to it in one fell swoop.

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:25:04 +0000

I think sleep is not not what everyone thinks - in “sleep”, it still has to listen for phone calls, emails, SMS, alarms, etc. I believe the OS and programs are still running. I think all that sleep is is simply blanking the display and turning off the touch screen.

By: Snaab4

Snaab4 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:00:25 +0000

there doesn’t seem to be a charger for the 3g iphone. the kensington units are not compatible with the 3g per kensington

Check this out (I just ordered two):
http://www.richardsolo.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=264

By: Ted Landau

Ted Landau — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:41:46 +0000

I have to agree with James..

Well, it’s certainly possible that it is not unique to the 3G. I haven’t had the problem except on my iPhone 3G, but that could be a lucky coincidence or from the fact that I use the 3G for more things than my other devices.

I too have noticed the business about the iPhone being warmer to the touch when the symptom occurs.

By: Art

Art — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:25:58 +0000

I have to agree with James. There are times when my 8GB V1 iPhone with 2.0 software is not actively used, but the battery drains out within a few hours. I can tell when this is occurring, the iPhone is much warmer than usual, just as if I was using the phone on a long call, or using the web for an extended time.

When I feel the phone getting this warm, I first try holding the home button for several seconds to stop any runaway process, if that fails, I turn the phone completely off, wait 30 seconds and restart. That usually stops the rapid drain.