A must-read tip

October 31, 2007

Filed under: General News — Iphoner @ 11:42 am

Monday, October 29, 2007 — 2:27 p.m. — at my desk

I mentioned in a recent entry that my battery life (on the iPhone, not me) wasn’t up to my usual standards. I do believe it is a bug that came with the 1.1.1 package.

But yesterday I found a quick fix that I have up until now overlooked.

I turned off Bluetooth.

Apple says to turn of Wi-Fi when you don’t need it because even when you are connected to EDGE, your iPhone will be searching for a Wi-Fi signal. Makes no sense.

With Bluetooth, unless you are using a wireless headset, the same type of thing is happening. The reason is unclear — why is the iPhone searching for devices constantly? Even my old Bluetooth phone allowed me to determine when to search for devices.

So I did a little experiment: I turned it off completely. And now my battery life is back to what I remember. After about 36 hours, I barely made a dent in the full charge. It hasn’t worked like this in a long time, so I know Bluetooth is what did it.

I knew that I was using a power source by having it on, but I had no idea how quickly it was truly draining the battery.

So, if you aren’t using Bluetooth, don’t let it use you.

Thanks for calling.