Apple have consistently refused to add battery-draining enhancements, such as Flash Player, with the best interests of the user at heart (I believe). But Siri encourages location searches (that is, if Siri recognised anywhere in the UK) and more and more people will be tempted to use more power.
I read on the OmniFocus blog, that the new location services on iOS 5 does not drain the battery as rapidly as in the past.
The folks that are concerned by this are usually worried that their battery will be drained more quickly, and in previous versions of iOS, that would have been the case. In iOS 5, though, you shouldn’t have to worry as much. Behind the scenes, iOS 5 is handling things. We can’t know the exact details of how it works, but Apple’s stated goal was to be reasonably accurate while minimizing battery drain. The location monitoring indicator is mainly to help you manage your privacy; avoiding battery drain was a useful side-effect. But in iOS 5, the device is better able to conserve the battery.
Active apps such as TomTom have always been battery guzzlers and are really only usable when the phone is connected to a power supply.
Given that Siri doesn’t yet know where I am, I shall try turning off global location services. The snag is that “Turning off Location Services will no longer enable me to locate my iPhone with ‘Find My Phone’”—as I am reminded when I toggle the switch in Settings. I might try selective vasectomies of various services, but I’m not sure how much battery drain is worsened even by Find My Phone alone.
If any readers have tips on conserving battery power without a global retreat from Location Services, I am all ears.
________________
¹ As I finish writing this item at 15.59 I see I’ve lost a further 25 percent of battery capacity. I’m now down to a miserable 14 percent and need to find a power socket soon. With my old iPhone 4 I seldom saw the red zone, even after a day’s use.
I bet your Nokia doesn't have location services, voice activation, web browser, music and video downloads. Can't have everything, I suppose.
er…………. my 4 year old Nokia, with its original battery still, works fine for at least a week before I need to think about recharging it…….
That's also my experience, as I said in the story. Have you tried Don McAllister's restore option? I haven't done it yet because I've spent too much time this last three days fiddling with the iPhone. I need a rest. I'm feeling glad that I bought a Mophi external battery (from the Apple Store) which gives me two full charges. I carry it with me during the day and it's good for a quick boost while I'm having a coffee. But this shouldn't be necessary. I wouldn't mind betting there's some update soon from Apple. In the meantime, I've switched off location services and will see if that helps.
M
Hello.
I left home at 8.30 am this morning, with my iPhone 4S at 100% charge. It is now 12.30pm, and I am down to 62%. All I did today was check my messages on facebook once, accept one phone call, played a few games of hanging with friends, answered some message on an app called Placetag, and that's it.
I am dissappointed in how quickly this battery drains. My 2.5 year old 3GS was holding a charge twice as long (which I am selling soon) as my 3 day young 4S.