Filed under: Tips and tricks, iPhone
Guy Kawasaki shares his secrets of long iPhone life
I'll skip the obligatory mini-biography of Guy and cut to the chase: the dude gets a whopping 36 hours of standby time with his iPhone 3G. True, many other phones get better battery life and can go for days without a charge. But anyone banging their iPhone on the wall, wishing the darn thing didn't suck down the juice like a preschooler in the Sahara will appreciate his detailed account of the settings used to eke out lengthy iPhone standby time. Oh, and those other phones? As Guy says, "...it's better to have a cool phone that you have to charge everyday than a sucky phone that you can charge once a week." How do you keep your iPhone alive?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
B. Tucker said 2:22PM on 8-28-2008
Don't you people see it? Guy Kawasaki and the iphone worker in the previous story are one and the same!
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Jonathan Wise said 3:33PM on 8-28-2008
Why's that? Because everyone from a different nationality than you looks the same to you?
Idiot.
Dave said 4:00PM on 8-28-2008
@Jonathan Wise: Idiot meet Straw Man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
PhysicsGuy said 2:29PM on 8-28-2008
This is a story?!? I regularly go two days in a row before charging my iPhone 3G. I have slightly different settings, but geez, guys, come on. If it uses energy - Wifi, 3G, fetch/push, whatever, it'll cut into your battery. It's a no-brainer. (Of course, if you found this story mind-opening, I'm pointing at YOU.) Talk about a slow news day!!!
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Arthur Freydin said 2:29PM on 8-28-2008
So all I have to do is shut off 3G, wifi, location services, push mail, bluetooth, and not use the iPhone as a phone to get better battery life?
And by better battery life, I mean a 3rd of the standby time that my BlackBerry sees with bluetooth, pushmail, and gmail pull on all the time.
Count me in!
(i've had a iPhone 3G and returned it because I had to charge a fully discharged battery twice a day)
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John said 4:49PM on 8-28-2008
That's odd. I charge my phone once every 2 days. I have everything turned on as far as wifi, 3G, bluetooth, push mail, etc. On average I talk for 30-45 minutes a day but play mp3's quite a bit and send/receive several emails.
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Rick said 2:46PM on 8-28-2008
OK, I'm gonna ask a dumb question. What exactly is "Location Services"? Is that the GPS chip? I notice that apps that request my location will still function if Location Services are turned off, so what's the deal?
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steve.fishman said 2:49PM on 8-28-2008
course he gets GREAt battery life...he turned off almost all the services and uses the edge network. That is not what I bought this thing for. No Digg.
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Jonathan said 2:57PM on 8-28-2008
Rick,
I think location services is the control program for the gps chip. For example, Google maps will still work if you search for 'pizza in 20036', but with location services on, you will also see your location on the map.
I just wish location services had an auto-off feature when I closed the program that turned it on.
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DanielM said 2:59PM on 8-28-2008
Not much new that hasn't been part of Apple's instructions about iPhone battery optimizing.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html
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Brandon said 2:59PM on 8-28-2008
It looks to me that this Guy Kawasaki guy doesn't actually need an iPhone. Get him a Jitterbug, by the looks of it that's all he needs.
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Tom said 3:50PM on 8-28-2008
I found out that the one feature that drains battery the most is the push functionality. My iPhone only lasted for one day when I had UMTS, GPS, Push and all the other goodies enabled. Turning of UMTS didn't help, dimming the screen didn't help, usinf the iPod less didn't help. I had to recharge every day when I got home from work. Until I turned Push e-mail off! Now my iPhone lasts for 2-3 days without charging!
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sterling said 3:19PM on 8-28-2008
So all you have to do is use it as if it were a 1st gen. iPhone without wi-fi, and don't take it out of your pocket. Brilliant!
I got my iPhone no full well I was going to be killing the battery. No other phone comes close to the features of the iPhone, so of course they are going to last longer. You aren't using them as much.
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muziq said 3:31PM on 8-28-2008
sure, 36 hours is great...
if you plan on charging it mid-day , every day....
i'll stick with charging it before I goto bed..
instead of re-charging it on my way home..
during work..
during dinner..
and yes, why did I get this phone to have everything shut off?
you may as well shut the ringer off too, since no one will be calling this dude...
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onefish2 said 4:55PM on 8-28-2008
LOL. very funny
tys said 3:50PM on 8-28-2008
I only turn on 3G when I need the internet and I'm out of Wifi range, usually when traveling. At work (where I don't need the phone, don't need to know where I am, and we have Wifi) I put it in Airplane mode with Wifi on. I can easily get 36 hours, but usually charge overnight anyway. I can go two days on the weekends. Much better than my 1st Gen iPhone, but then it's a year old. If I use one of the GPS tracking apps to map out a bike ride, I can suck the battery dry in a few hours! Even less time if I accidently put it back in my bag with the camera on.
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Øivind said 3:48PM on 8-28-2008
36 hours is nothing to brag about. I get at least that with location services and wifi turned on. I got about a week of standby on the old iPhone, and my new 3G is constantly giving me about three days before I have to charge. This is including the charge it gets when it 20 minute syncs once every day.
The trick? Short calls. Talking on the phone for extended periods of time is stupid. Move your ass and talk to people live, that way you don't get fat and you save money on car chargers. Also buy a quality MP3-player, so you don't have to suffer the bad sound quality from the iPhone. And keep you phone in "Flight Mode" at night.
And I don't get why people need to have 3G enabled all the time. There's no point to it. The battery is severely drained when you're in areas with bad 3G coverage. Disable 3G and enable WIFI and you have what you need. If you really need 3G on the go, enable it when you need it.
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heytpn said 5:00PM on 8-28-2008
so, um, what's the point of having an iphone if you turn everything off?
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Josh said 5:10PM on 8-28-2008
Pansy! I regularly get well over 2 days standby with ~5 hours of usage most of which is 3G talk time.
3G talk is by for the most expensive too.
How do I post a screen shot?
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brian said 6:25PM on 8-28-2008
I was curious what the battery life would be like on my first-gen phone so I started keeping a charging log when I bought it. I spend all of my time surrounded by computers (I'm always at home or one of my two jobs) so I leave WiFi off and I don't use it for email. I use my regular (60 GB) iPod in my car so pretty much all I do with my phone is talk (usually less than ~30 min/day) and text, and occasionally use maps and browse over EDGE when I'm out and about. Oh, and since the stupid thing doesn't have profiles (grr...) I turn it off at night. With all of that, I go a solid week between charges.
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