News tagged ‘battery’

Last week, Apple confirmed that some users indeed experienced problems with battery life on their devices with the iOS 5. The company said that the issue was caused by some bugs in the operating system and now Apple is working on update that will solve the problem. The iOS 5.0.1 seems to be in developing testing already and Apples intends to expand its testing, asking customers, who have experienced problems with their devices, to participate in testing.

Apple invites you to participate in a software seeding project. We have selected you, based on a referral from AppleCare for participation in our program, to assist us in testing an upcoming iOS 5 Software Update. Please follow the directions below to complete the invitation process.

Apple also asked retail store staff to recommend customers to wait for “a few weeks” until the update will be released, not offering replacement handsets for battery life issues.

A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. If you are helping one of those customers, follow standard procedure to rule out any hardware issues with the device. If no hardware issues are found, let the customer know that Apple has found a few bugs in iOS 5 affecting battery life and Apple will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.

There has been concerns over the design of iPhone 4S that shares the same stainless steel and glass enclosure with iPhone 4. Because of that, some questioned if iPhone 4 has the same flawed antenna as iPhone 4.

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Asian trade publication DigiTimes reports, citing it sources, that Apple is exploring two alternative backlight design for the rumored Retina Display on iPad 3, as the single LED light bar currently used in the iPad 2 doesn’t provide enough brightness for the display.

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Apple demonstrates interest in improving OLED technology for future iPhone and iPad displays that will provide better battery life for such devices.  Earlier this week AppleInsider revealed a new patent application filled by Apple. The title of the patent is "Power Efficient Organic Light Emitting Diode Display" and describes different ways that could improve battery life, for example, displaying the color white.

OLED displays consume less power than traditional displays. This is possible because OLED technology is light emissive rather than light transmissive. But OLED displays, despite all their advantages, are less efficient that it is used for displaying a screen that is largely the color white, because an OLED panel has to utilize a range of color channels for every pixel on the display. Doing this can be power intensive and make the device inefficient.

For example, certain applications, such as word processing, spreadsheet design and use, database design and use, e-mail, and other business or productivity applications, typically utilize dark or black alphanumeric characters on a white background, such as to simulate writing or printing on a sheet of paper. As a result, these applications may cause the display of large expanses of white background with relatively little area devoted to the non-white alphanumeric characters. Such applications, therefore, may make the use of OLED displays unsuitable or undesirably power intensive for battery powered and/or portable electronic devices, such as handheld devices.

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Digitimes suggests that Apple's next iPad should enter mass production soon with a launch set for March 2012. But this new product won’t be a “real” iPad 3 rather an updated iPad 2. The “real” iPad 3 is expected to be launched no earlier that the third quarter of 2012. Although Digitimes does not provide any distinction as to what qualifies as a "real iPad 3", the site claims that it would be thinner than the iPad 2 and offer longer battery life.

The most obvious difference between the updated iPad 2 and the “real” iPad 3 is an ultra-high resolution Retina display that is rumored to be implemented in the iPad 3. Rumors about Apple’s plans to build in such display in their devices have been circulating for months. But the most recent reports indicate that Apple's suppliers are finding it challenge to produce such high density displays. Anyway Apple could change their plains at any moment.

Apple has just relased iOS 5.0.1 (9A402) to developers. The new update features battery life fixes, multitasking gestures on the original iPad, improves Voice recognition for Australian users, and features other bug and security fixes. The update is about 811MB. Developers can download it from the Developer Center.

iOS 5.0.1 beta also introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations.

Changelog:

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Low battery life is one of the major issues for early iPhone 4S owners who constantly searching answers on Support Communities forum. Thus far Apple has remained silent about the matter. It appears that the problem is also affecting some iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, suggesting that it is rather a software defect than a hardware problem.

iDownloadBlog reports on interesting remedy that helped some users to improve the battery performance. The Setting Time Zone feature in iOS 5 appears to cause excess power consumption as the device repeatedly detect user location to set the time zone. To turn off this functionality, open Settings App, go to Location Services, System Services and disable the Setting Time Zone function.To make your iPhone last more, you may also want to switch off Diagnostics & Usage and Location-Based iAds in this menu.

Apple offers this advice to improve battery life of your iPhone:

“Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down)”.

Macworld’s mentions launching a system diagnostic app in order to pinpoint which unnecessary processes are running in the background and discover the cause of rapid battery drain.

Since the iPhone 4S launch, some users have complained about battery life issues. Apple actually reduced the battery life in a standby mode from 300 hours on previous iPhone model to 200 hours on the iPhone 4S, but battery life in active mode was considered to be the same or even better.

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iLounge has tested the iPhone 4S battery life, comparing it with the iPhone 4, and found out several interesting facts. As Apple claims in the iPhone 4S official specifications, the new smartphone has improved talk time but worse standby time as compared to the iPhone 4.

For tests with 3G Data, Audio Playback, Video Playback, and Video Recording, the iPhone 4S came in under the iPhone 4's battery life. For Wi-Fi and FaceTime testing it to be similar to the iPhone 4, and on Cellular Calls, the iPhone 4S is slightly better. Both media playback and recording were advantage of the iPhone 4S, comparing with the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S is recording much higher resolution video than the iPhone 4.

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As usual, iFixit conducted their standard teardown of Apple's latest gear, this time it was Apple’s next generation iPhone 4S. The device has largely the same design as the iPhone 4, but inside it is different. The new iPhone 4S has a slightly larger battery that improves battery capacity and offers extra hours of talk time, comparing with the iPhone 4.

Other new thing implemented in the iPhone 4S is the A5 chip that improves performance up to seven times, comparing with the iPhone 4. The A5 CPU has a marking of E4E4 with 512MB of RAM.   The teardown also revealed a new Qualcomm MDM6610 baseband chipset that is the slightly modified model of the “worldwide” MDM6600 Qualcomm baseband used in the CDMA iPhone 4 that, as you remember, has both CDMA and GSM modes, but works in only CDMA networks. The iPhone 4S is the true worldwide smartphone, which will allow both GSM and CDMA customers to roam on GSM networks worldwide

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We know that iPhone 4S is better than the iPhone 4, let's take a look at how Apple's latest smartphone compares to Android and Windows phones. Engadget compared iPhone 4S with Samsung Galaxy S II, Motorola Droid Bionic and HTC Titan. The first two are Android based, while the last one is Windows one.

Take a look at the results:

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UBM TechInsights posted their estimates  on price of the major components of the iPhone 4S. They suggest that the value of the components used to make the Apple iPhone 4S comes to $203 for the 32GB model which will be sold for $299 on a subisidized basis.

The most expensive part is the flash memory which costs $38. The second most expensive component   is Retina display wearing a $31 price tag. That is followed by the dual-core A5 processor, which costs $26. Making the new iteration of the iPhone a World Phone added $6 to the cost of a GSM-only unit, while the updated 8MP camera added only $3 to the price of the components.

iPhone’s rival HTC ThunderBolt was valued at $262 according to TechInsights. It includes such components as a LTE chipset, bigger battery, but lower resolution screen, and slightly slower processor, comparing with the iPhone 4S’.

The recently-announced 8GB Apple iPhone 4 indicated that Apple now offers the phone with small margin. Its component cost is $156 and the company is going to sell it for $99 with a signed 2-year contract.

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It's finally happened, today Apple has finally announced new iPhone 4S. Here's our usual comparison table iPhone 4S vs iPhone 4:

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Well, rumors around iPhone 5 are getting bigger and bigger. This one is really big in terms of dollars. WSJ reports that Sprint, the third largest wireless operator in the US, committed to buy 30.5 million new iPhones for $20 billion.

BGR has heard that Sprint will actually get the much rumored iPhone 5, that is said to be a 4G LTE device. AT&T and Verizon would launch the iPhone 4S and get the iPhone 5 some time in the first quarter of 2012 as an LTE device. Globally, the iPhone 5 might be available as a 4G HSPA+ device.

According to BGR's source the iPhone 4S will feature the A5 processor, an 8MP camera with 1080p video recording, a Multiband 3G Qualcomm chipset, NFC support, and a metal or premium plastic back casing.

The Sprint exclusive iPhone 5 is said to feature a faster CPU, 4-inch screen, 1 GB of RAM, slightly larger design (though thinner), larger battery, 32GB of storage, Assistant, and possibly a new home button which integrates activating assistant.

There's too much rumors lately.