David Lim's Auckland, Aotearoa Blog, Apple iPhone iPad Repair

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Skating King of Pakistan (road, user, danger, stunts, stupid, skill, riding, motorbike, cycler, people, weird, traffic, road, safety)

Apple iPhone 4S: 4 Fastest Ways To Drain Battery (iOS, 5.0.1, jailbreak, power, user, tips, news, faults, solution, charging, repair, Unlock, Auckland)

Recently, Apple admitted that perhaps iOS 5.0.1 didn't resolve the battery life issues as intended. In fact, many iPhone users took to Apple's support forums to vent about how the software update actually made things worse. The comments are quite colorful--and not exactly positive.

"The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices. We continue to investigate a few remaining issues," said the company in a statement provided to AllThingsD.

Based on the pages upon pages of complaints published on Apple's support web site, one might disagree with Apple's claim that there are "a few" problems still in the code. While we wait on Apple to figure things out, these are four things that will suck the life out of your iPhone's battery.

1. Dastardly Display: The display is the one component on any phone that uses the most power. With iOS 5.0.1, you have plenty of control over the display and fine-tuning the settings can help extend--or destroy--the battery. You want to kill your iPhone fast? Set the display to the maximum brightness setting, and set the autolock feature to "never." This ensures that your iPhone's display will shine as bright as possible, always remain on, and kill your battery ASAP.

[ What are your must-have iPad apps? Check out our choices: 10 Epic iPad Apps. ]

2. Nettlesome Notifications: One of iOS 5.0.1's best features is the new notification center. It delivers notifications to the home screen in a less-obtrusive way than before. It can also wreck your battery. Here's how. In the Notifications' setting menu, turn Notifications to "On" for every single app on your phone. Second, for those that allow it, set the "View on Lock Screen" setting to on. This ensures that every time a notification arrives, it will turn on the iPhone's display. Third, set the "Repeat Notification" tool to 10 times. This means the iPhone will turn the display on to remind you of this same alert 10 times.

3. Ridiculous Radios: Aside from the display, the wireless radios in any cell phone rank second in terms of draining the battery. Want to ensure minimum battery life? Turn on the 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth radios, and be sure to set Location Services (a.k.a., GPS) to on. Then go into all the apps that support location services and make sure they are switched to on. This ensures that all of your location apps will be pinging away at 3G, Wi-Fi, and GPS networks to determine location--and thus draining the battery as quickly as possible. (Want to score some bonus points? Go out into the middle of nowhere with all the radios on and watch the iPhone desperately try to find something with which to connect.)

4. Irksome iCloud: Another key feature in iOS 5.0.1 is Apple's new iCloud service. It is used to backup the device's data and settings to Apple's servers and cross-populate that data across iOS and other Apple devices. In order to do that, it has to talk to the network and upload/download data. Make sure iCloud is turned on to boost your device's time spent talking to the network. Second, load up as many separate email accounts on the phone as possible. Have Gmail? Turn it on and set it to "Push."

Have a crusty Yahoo account from back in the day? Why not check it out, too. What, you have ancient Hotmail and AOL email accounts from the 90s, too? What the hell, turn 'em all on and see how large your spam folder is. Don't forget to turn on PhotoStream on, too, so that every picture you take with your iPhone is automatically uploaded to the cloud.

On the Flip Side: Of course, if you need your iPhone to actually last through an entire day, we recommend you do the exact opposite of all the above suggestions. However, if you have some time to kill and don't mind having a little bit of fun, go ahead and try everything above and see how fast your iPhone dies.

This post sponsored by:
Dr Mobiles Limited
1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344 and Mob: (021) 264-0000
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Do You Know Why iPhones Are Made in China? (technology, 2012, news, update, report, insight, leaked, news, Apple, iOS, unlock, Auckland, network)

In a recent report from the New York Times, the newspaper gives us great detail about why Apple outsources iPhone manufacturing to China, and how Steve Jobs changed the iPhone 2G weeks before the release.

The report features many short stories from Apple employees who give first-hand accounts of why Apple decided to move their manufacturing overseas. The article also gives a very interesting look of President Obama’s Silicon Valley Dinner back in February of last year . At the dinner, many Silicon Valley executives attended, including Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

Many executives were able to ask President Obama questions. While Steve Jobs was talking, President Obama interrupted him and asked him “what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?” Steve Jobs simply replied with “Those jobs aren’t coming back”.

The article also goes in depth about how weeks before the iPhone 2G was supposed to release, Steve Jobs had the screen changed from plastic to glass:

In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.

Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.

People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said. People also carry their keys in their pocket. “I won’t sell a product that gets scratched,” he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. “I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks.”
Most of us probably already know why Apple outsources their manufacturing. Money. Not only is it cheaper to outsource to China, you can also hire workers much more faster than in the US. Jennifer Rigoni, Apple’s former Worlwide Supply Demand Manager said “They could hire 3,000 people overnight. What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”.

“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”

The article overall gives a good look at why Apple decides to manufacture their products in China. You can check the full 7-page report over at the NY Times.

Troubleshooting a battery-sucking iPhone 4S (forum, help, desk, repair, unlock, fix, solution, repair, Auckland, Dr Mobiles Limited)

If your iPhone is likewise power hungry and you’re looking forward to a tidy denouement at the end of this missive, I may disappoint. While the phone is now behaving itself thanks to some spying, resetting, and fiddling, there remain a number of suspects. My hope is that not only can I describe how I went about troubleshooting the problem, but call upon others who have experienced poor battery performance to comment here so that we may be better able to pinpoint common issues. My story goes like this:

I was on the road when I received my iPhone. Understanding that I would be, I planned ahead by setting up an iCloud account complete with synced mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, bookmarks, and notes before I left for my trip. I also packed my MacBook Pro with this data and made sure that Photo Stream was active in iPhoto as well as on my iOS devices.

When I received the phone I set it up so that it would use all the goodies—Siri, location services, notifications, iCloud, reminders, and the various sync services for my several email accounts. The next day I took the phone to the beach to test the camera, try it over the local 3G network, and sit in the pocket of my discarded shorts while I explored the area’s underwater environs.

After a long outing I returned to shore and pulled out the phone. It was noticeably hot. It had been in the shade and the outside temperature was perhaps 80° so this was not heat from without but rather within. I woke the phone and noticed that its battery charge had dropped 10 points. I held it and watched as its battery percentage display dropped a point every couple of minutes. I’ve never had an iPhone do that before.

I returned to my digs and the phone remained hot. I tweeted about it a few times to see what was up and received several replies from followers who claimed their iPhone 4S was likewise pulling power at an alarming rate. Several theories were offered—Siri, location, iCloud, Find My Friends—but there was no consensus on what the issue might be. A couple of people suggested that a restore would fix the problem so I gave it a go and went to bed.

In the morning the phone seemed to better behave itself, but it was using a Wi-Fi connection rather than 3G. When I returned to the sandy scene of the crime later that day, the phone acted up again. Could it be something to do with 3G? Unsure.

I flew home the next day, got off the plane, and in the 30 minutes I used the phone to check email and Twitter, the battery dropped 10 points and the phone was warm. Again, a 3G connection. More Twitter carping brought more theories but no answers.

It was time to get serious. And the first two steps to doing that was to dig into the data provided by the phone. I tapped my way to Settings > General > About > Diagnostic & Usage > Diagnostic & Usage Data. When you tap this last entry you’re taken to a Data page where you see a series of entries. These are log files that detail untoward issues your device has had. Mine was full of CrashReport entries. I scanned through them and—as far as I could tell from all the gibberish in these reports—there was a problem syncing my iCloud contacts.

I then downloaded Recession Apps’ 99-cent System Activity Monitor. (Note that this app has crashed a time or two itself.) This is a utility similar to the Mac’s Activity Monitor that details the processes your iOS device is using as well as indicates, in real time, how hard the processor is being pushed. (No, the oft-recommended and worthwhile iStat app doesn’t do this.) When I launched System Activity Monitor and tapped the Processes button at the bottom of the screen I found the processor graph jumping into the 60-percent range every few seconds. This activity was reflected in two entries competing for the top spot—dataaccessd and CrashReport. The iPhone appeared to be in a crashing loop—where dataaccessd attempted to do something, blew up, tried again, blew up, and on and on. And this was killing the battery.

System Activity Monitor

Based on the information I now had, I switched off contact syncing in iCloud. I returned to System Activity Monitor and everything settled down. The iPhone wasn’t completely inactive, nor should it have been. But the user processor percentage was now running under 3-percent most of the time.

In the hope that I could confirm the issue (and the suggestion fromDaring Fireball’s John Gruber that a corrupt contact could be part of the problem), I traveled to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Contents and Settings. This wiped the phone.

On restart I chose to set it up as a new phone rather than pulling a backup from my Mac or iCloud. I also made sure that it didn’t sync any data with iCloud until I was ready. When the time came, I switched on contact syncing within the iCloud screen and fired up System Activity Monitor. There was a lot of activity for the first several minutes as the iPhone grabbed my contacts from the cloud, but then it settled down. There was no crashing loop apparent. I then proceeded to switch on calendar syncing and checked System Activity Monitor. Again, no problem. And so it went, switching on one iCloud syncing option, checking System Activity Monitor, and moving to the next one. At the end, everything was hunky dory.

Another account perhaps? I configured a Gmail account using Exchange rather than the usual Gmail option. No problem. A regular Gmail account. Nope. Yet another Gmail account used by my ISP? Nuh uh. Maybe this long-dormant Yahoo account. No. A standard POP account? Nix.

Huh.

Which is where I largely leave it to you. What I know is this: The combination of crash reports provided by the iPhone and System Activity Monitor helped me determine that I had an issue with contact syncing that caused my iPhone to drain with alarming rapidity. But wiping the phone and syncing via iCloud solved the problem. Yet it did so the second time rather than the first. Why? I haven’t a clue.

But perhaps, with your help, we all might gain that clue. If your iPhone is draining not just a bit more quickly than other iPhones you’ve owned, but in a “what the…” kind of way, consider aiding the cause by troubleshooting it in the way I’ve described (or any other way where you can make real observations).