How iOS 5 causes iPhone problems

November 6, 2011

The iPhone 4S has been released and marketed as having an outstanding battery.  However, customers have reported that their  batteries are draining in just a few hours.  Users of the latest operating system – the iOS 5 – have been complaining in growing numbers that they’re needing to charge their iPhone far more frequently than they did when they were using iOS 4.

When the new iPhone 4S was released in October we were told that it exceeded previous iPhone models’ talk time by one hour and battery life would be extended too. Apple had promised that the 4S would deliver eight hours of talk time on 3G, 14 hours of talk time on AT&T’s EDGE network, six hours of 3G browsing, nine hours of wi-fi, ten hours of video, and forty hours of listening to music. But UK owner’s of the new Apple 4S say their fully charged phones are running out of  juice during the course of the day even with minimal usage. Initially purchasers of the latest iPhone 4S felt angry and frustrated until it became apparent that the new iPhone 4S is blameless. It would seem that owners of iPhone 4 and 3GS who had uploaded the latest free operating system iOS 5 were also experiencing some battery draining problems.

The glitch appears to be inherent in the iOS 5 and Apple has confirmed that they have found a ‘few bugs that are affecting battery life‘ and they hope to release a software update to address these concerns in a few weeks. Apple engineers have suggested that the battery glitch was linked to the system location services on iPhone 4S using too much battery.

One developer told the Guardian that the “Setting Time Zone” preference was the culprit. In the iOS 5.0  turning it on would instantly bring up a purple arrow in the phone’s menu bar, indicating it was using your location – and unfortunately, this would stay on permanently- draining the battery.”

Earlier this week The Guardian explained the use of the location services system –’ it tries to poll nearby mobile phone masts, Wi-Fi networks and even the GPS location chip in your phone  and this can drain the battery rapidly because they become an ‘always-on system’ constantly trying to check for any change in signal strength from the sources which would indicate movement. GPS in particular requires lots of processing power because GPS signals are below the level of thermal noise in most environments and require special amplification systems to determine the signal.’

Apple developers are now testing an updated operating system that solves the glitches – iOS5.0.1 beta and although this is not available yet, Apple have promised availability in ‘the next few weeks‘. The update will be accessed “over the air” and will not require a computer link for installation.

Apple is not offering any advice on what customers should do until the software update is released so perhaps users of iOS 5 should keep their chargers close at hand.

A review of the iPhone 4S is available on our website under ‘Guides’ – the iPhone 4S is still considered to be the classiest and smartest mobile phone in the market.

 

 

Comments

Got something to say?