Posts Tagged ‘IOS 5’

Apple Resolves the Issue Plaguing the Battery Life of Their iPhones . . . . Maybe

Friday, November 11th, 2011

Shortly after the release of the iPhone 4S and the iOS 5 software update many users began experiencing major problems with the life of their iPhone batteries. In our last blog post we addressed these issues and even provided some tips for conserving your iPhone’s battery. In the article we discussed how Apple had announced that their iOS 5 update was at fault and that they were working hard to bring an update to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

full iPhone battery

Image of the iPhones Full Battery Icon

Yesterday, Apple released the new iOS 5.0.1 software update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, the update is supposed to fix the battery problems that a number of users have reported with iOS 5 over the last few weeks. Along with a fix for the bugs that were affecting the battery life, the latest update also added multitasking gestures for the original iPad, resolved bugs with documents in the cloud, and improved voice recognition for Australian users using the dictation feature.

The update is now available in iTunes or also available with the over-the-air function for existing iOS 5 users. Users with the previous iOS 5 can update by going into Settings>General>Software Update to update their device over-the-air. Using the update OTA provides a much faster experience due to the smaller size of the update file. For users who are not operating on iOS 5 they can update their operating system the traditional way by plugging in their device into iTunes.

iOS 5.0.1 update

Image of iOS 5.0.1 update

Although the update has only just been released it has been reported at PCWorld that some users are still experiencing a slightly faster battery depletion rate. One user posted on a forum that they had “Updated about 1.5 hours ago, the battery has drained 20% since then with no usage! This is awful”. Another forum commenter stated that they have “Lost 15% in 45 minutes and I didn’t even use the phone. What happened?”. Others have even started saying that the battery life was better before the update took place.

Although there have been a lot of complaints that the update hasn’t resolved the issue there have been other users that say that the update has worked fine for them. Did it work for you, or are you still suffering from a fast draining battery?

If the problem still persists for you, others have suggested being patient and that possibly resetting your phone to its original factory settings may help the battery update to take effect. However if you find that this doesn’t work then try some of the tips to save your iPhone battery that we offered last week until resolved. Hopefully Apple will hear the new complaints and implement another update shortly.

Have a Great Day!

Dustin

ComputerFitness.com

Providing Tech Support for Businesses in Maryland

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Tips for conserving your iPhone’s Battery life

Friday, November 4th, 2011

A couple weeks ago Apple released the iPhone 4S which is their latest mobile device. Along with the 4S, Apple also released their latest mobile operating system upgrade. The iOS 5 comes standard on the iPhone 4S but is also available as a free download to all compatible iPhone users. Since the release, a small but significant number of users have reported a drastically shortened battery life.

iPhone's Low Battery Display - Tips for conserving your iPhone’s Battery life

iPhone’s Low Battery Display

According to The Loop’s Jim Dairymple on Wednesday November 2, 2011 Apple confirmed that the battery issues were due to a bug in the iOS 5 software update. According to the article Apple reassured users that they have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and will release a software update to address them in a few weeks to help conserve your iPhone’s battery life.

In light of the recent problems surrounding the iPhone’s battery we thought it would be beneficial to discuss some methods for conserving your phones battery life. Although this particular problem was a result of a bug in the software we feel that these tips will still be tremendously useful because iPhones already have a natural short battery life due to its powerful performance and crisp display. The suggestions below for saving your phones battery are applicable to all iPhone models and are designed to ensure that you have the juice when you need it the most.

  • Close Background and Inactive Applications – Double tap the home button to access the list of running applications. Similar to how you would move the apps hold your finger down on the application for a couple seconds and then select close when the app begins to shake.
  • Use the Auto Brightness Feature – Access the settings folder, select brightness, and make sure the Auto-Brightness feature is selected.
  • Decrease the Brightness – Within the same menu you can increase and decrease the default screen brightness. The lower the brightness the less battery your phone will consume.
  • Turn off Your Bluetooth – Transmitting wireless data requires the battery and leaving Bluetooth on when you are not using it takes up more of your phones battery life.

Settings > General > Blue Tooth > Move the slider to the off position

  • Keep Wi-Fi off When Not Using It – Unless you are in a Wi-Fi hotspot there is really no need to have this feature on. Keeping it on at all times will cause it to continuously look for a network to connect to and wastes its battery life in the process.

Settings > Wi-Fi > Slide switch to off position OR

Settings > General > Network > Wi-Fi > Slide switch to off position

  • Turn off 3G – If you don’t need to be on 3G or you are using a Wi-Fi hotspot turn off your 3G network. Connecting using 3G for faster data speeds and higher-quality calls requires more battery life.

Settings > General > Network > Move 3G switch to the off position

  • Turn off Location Services – The GPS is a great feature because it lets apps know where you are and become more interactive but at the same time it is a huge energy drain. When you’re not using an app that utilizes your location turn it off.

Settings > Location Services > Slide to Off (After iOS 5 updates)

Settings > General >Location Services > Slide to Off (Before iOS update)

  • Turn data push off and Fetch less – Turning this off reduces the number of times your phone connects to the network and will extend your battery’s life. Push is when your phone automatically connects to the network to download new information like email and app updates. When Push is off you can fetch data every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, hourly, or manually. Choosing manually or hourly will use the least amount of battery.

Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > Fetch New Data > Slide Push to off and select the fetch frequency

  • When Your Battery is low, avoid extraneous activities – Avoid playing games, watching movies, or listening to music while the battery level is low.
  • Turn off Music Equalizers – The iPods music equalizers may make your music sound better but can also cause an unnecessary drain in your battery life.

Settings > Music > Select off from the equalizer selection list (After iOS 5 update)

Settings > iPod >Equalizer >Off (Before iOS 5 update)

  • Adjust the Auto-Lock Function – Enable your phone to Auto-Lock sooner to save energy when not using it.

Settings > General > Auto-Lock > Select Lowest amount of time from time selection list

  • Turn off Siri’s raise to speakfunction – Because Siri is activated when lifted to the user’s ear it can accidently drain the battery if you’re not actually using it.

Settings >General > Siri >Slide “Raise to Speak” to the “Off” position.

  • Use iPhone regularly – For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).

  • Sleep and wake less – Avoid waking your iPhone only to lock it again without using it.

These are just the basics there are plenty of other ways that you can conserve the life of your iPhone’s battery. For more information check out Apple’s iPhone Battery life Page.

Have a Great Day!

Dustin

ComputerFitness.com

Providing Tech Support for Businesses in Maryland

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Apple Introduces IOS 5 and All the New Features

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

This week major companies have taken to the stage to introduce their new and future products. Having the E3 Expo and the Worldwide Developers Conference scheduled for the same week certainly provided a week full of exciting news and entertainment for customers. At E3 companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all provided insight into their latest developments that included PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Wii U. Apple was the first to publicly display their future software products at the Worldwide Developers Conference that took place on June 6, 2011.

Apple iOS5

from http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/, June 2011

There had been a lot of talk leading up to Apple’s announcements, even more so than usual since this year they went so far as to provide an outline of key topics prior to the conference. Among the announcements made by Apple was the new iCloud, OS X Lion, and IOS 5. We have been hearing rumors for some time now about Apple’s new iCloud product which for the most part have all been confirmed. To learn more about iCloud you can visit our “Apple iCloud Rumors to Be Addressed at the 2011 WWDC” blog post and to learn more about OS X Lion check out 9 Things to Know about Apples latest OS. Bringing us back to IOS 5, like OS X Lion this software version introduces a ton of new features. Here is a round-up of some of the key features that IOS 5 will have to offer when it becomes available later this year.

IOS 5 will offer over 200 new features and is expected to be available in fall 2011 for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 1, iPad 2, and the iPod touch. The following is some of the most prominent changes of IOS 5 from its previous versions.

  • Over the Air Updates

Users will no longer have to connect to a PC in order to activate and set up their device. Automatic updates will now download directly to the device. When combined with iCloud, file sharing, transfer, backup, and restore will also be expanded upon.

  • Incorporating Twitter

The new Twitter integration enables users to sign in, store their information, capture, and Share instantly from any application on your device. . Once the account information is saved, users will have the ability to Tweet from non-Twitter applications such as Maps, Safari, and YouTube.

  • Notification Center

No more in app disruptions, notifications will now appear quickly at the top of the screen and can be accessed in the new notification center. The notification center collects and categorizes all notifications until the user addresses them.

  • Safari Browsing

IOS 5 now offers tabbed browsing on the iPad and also adds a reading list for both the iPad and iPhone. The reading list saves article for later reading and with the use of iCloud the saved pages can be transferred across devices. The Safari Reader feature gives users the option to unclutter web pages. This option removes the unnecessary portions of the page and provides users with a cleaner reading experience.

  • iMessage

The iMessage feature is built into the messaging app and lets users send free unlimited text, videos, and pictures to other IOS 5 users. This feature also lets users know when someone is typing a response to their message and also enables them to switch devices while continuing the same conversation thread.

  • Location Aware Reminder

Reminders work the same as in previous versions but now they allow users to assign a location which activates the reminder. For example if you schedule a reminder to “pick up dinner on the way home from work” if you forget, when you are passing the restaurants address your phone will alert you.

  • New Mail

The mail app now offers rich text formatting (bold, indentation, underline), message flagging, draggable addresses, and improved security. Like most of the new features, email can also be synced over IOS 5 devices using iCloud.

  • Camera Shortcut

On IOS 5 the camera is also located on the lock screen making taking pictures easier than ever. No more missed photo opportunities because it took too long to type in your password. Camera options also enable users to take the picture using the volume up button, pinch to zoom, and perform simple editing like crop, rotate, redeye reduction, and simple click enhancement.

These are only some of the many new features that IOS 5 has to offer. Other features include split screen keyboard thumb typing for the iPad, a more social game center, newsstand, WiFi sync, multi-tasking hand gestures for the iPad, and Air-Play for the iPad 2. IOS 5 is expected sometime around September, until then you can learn more visit Apple IOS 5 Features.

Thanks for Reading and Have a Great Day!

Dustin

ComputerFitness.com

Providing Tech Support for Businesses in Maryland

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