News tagged ‘battery’

Rumors about “iPhone 5” have been still circulating, even despite the fact that Apple launched last month updated iPhone 4S. The next-generation iPhone is expected to be released next year and will be redesigned significantly. Business Insider now reports that it has received information from the source who have had access to an iPhone 5 prototype, providing the following details on the device:

We've been told this by an industry source who has been right about future Apple products in the past. We have not been able to verify what he told us with a second source. So we're still treating these details as rumors. You should probably still read this post with a nice fat dose of salt.

The source confirmed that Apple planned to launch the iPhone 5 this year but was forced to change its plans. The source mentioned the following details of the next-generation iPhone:

• 4-inch screen
• Aluminum back
• Capacitive home button
• "Flatter" form factor
• Much faster than current hardware, but poor battery life
• 10-megapixel rear camera
• Siri prototype known as "Assistant", which had been the rumored name for the feature until its introduction

Apple reported that the battery in the first-generation iPod nano may overheat and pose a safety risk. Although, Apple had previously said that less than 0.001 percent of first-generation iPod nanos experienced the overheating issue, Apple has recently initiated a replacement program for the first-generation iPod nano. The company recommended users of the first-generation iPod nano to stop using the device and replace it for free.

The defect was firstly traced in 2008, when several customers experienced overheating on their first-generation iPod nano. South Korea, Japan and Europe international government agencies even initiated a special investigation and as a result the trade ministry in Japan ordered Apple to publicize the replacement offer on its Japanese website in 2010. Now Apple is notifying purchasers of the first-generation iPod nano about the replacement program, sending out emails.

"Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk. Affected iPod nanos were sold between September 2005 and December 2006," the company wrote. "This issue has been traced to a single battery supplier that produced batteries with a manufacturing defect. While the possibility of an incident is rare, the likelihood increases as the battery ages."

Apple has recently released iOS 5.0.1. It is still tethered jailbreakable. However if you want untethered jailbreak or unlock - you should stay away from 5.0.1

Earlier this week pod2g reported that a code signing bug found in iOS 5.0 will make it easier for hackers to develop a full jailbreak for iOS 5 firmware version. That bug might have been closed in iOS 5.0.1. UPDATE: According to pod2g the bug is still present, but harder to exploit because another exploit found by Charlie Miller is fixed in iOS 5.0.1.

Also, MuscleNerd via twitter has warned iOS users that there is no downgrade from iOS 5.0.1 to iOS 5.0 yet and he recommends to wait until downgrade mechanism is available.

Jailbreakers and unlockers should avoid today's 5.0.1 until a flow for downgrading to 5.0 is developed.

Downgrade flow needs to be modified for AP "nonce" http://is.gd/b3G0io ... saved SHSH blobs are not enough to downgrade to 5.0

Yesterday Apple released the promised update of the iOS 5.0. The iOS 5.0.1 should fix battery life issues found on devices upgraded to the iOS 5, as well as on new iPhone 4S. Apple publicly said the battery life bugs affected a small number of users. In addition to addressing battery life issues, the update also brings new multi-touch gestures for the first-generation iPad.

This update contains improvements and other bug fixes including:

• Fixes bugs affecting battery life
• Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad
• Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
• Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation

The update also includes security improvements, as well as a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on a device even in low storage situations.

iOS 5.0.1 is available for iPhone (4S, 4, and 3GS), iPod touch (third- and fourth-generation), and all iPad models. The update is now available to all users through iTunes, and will be soon available as an over-the-air update.

Direct links for downloads:

• iPhone: 4S, 4 GSM, 4 CDMA, 3GS
• iPad: 2 Wi-Fi, 2 GSM, 2 CDMA, Original
• iPod touch: 4th Generation, 3rd Generation

MacBook Air ships with either a moderately fast SSD from Toshiba or a significantly faster drive with an updated controller from Samsung. But some people want to have even faster drives. And SSD from OWC called Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G can provide them with faster speeds.

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Vooma announced a new case for iPhone that includes a backup battery and a slot for SIM-card. The case can work with the app on jailbroken iPhone that emulates the native phone app to make calls via the external SIM card.

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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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