A daily digest of IT news, curated from blogs, forums and news sites around the web each morning. We highlight the key commentary and demystify the real story.
How's your iPhone 4S battery life? How does it compare vs. the iPhone 4? Here's a roundup of advice to fix the (ahem) batterygate bug, or at least to work around it. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) still isn't saying much, so in IT Blogwatch, it's up to bloggers to advise users.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Build an emergency battery extender in 5 minutes...
Gregg Keizer reports:
Apple's new iPhone 4S is running through its battery at a prodigious rate. ... Although the bulk of the battery complaints pertain to the iPhone 4S, some users have also reported [problems with] older devices...after updating to iOS 5.
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According to Apple, the iPhone 4S's battery should be good for...six hours of Internet usage and 200 hours in standby mode. As a comparison, the iPhone 4 was rated at...six hours on the Internet and 300 hours in standby. ... Apple did not reply to a request for comment.
Ian Paul adds:
Calls to several Apple Stores for help...were directed to an AppleCare hotline with a constant busy signal. ... Critics and users impatient for an official statement from Apple...are trying to solve the battery drain problem on their own.
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It's hard to know for sure if any of these solutions can be traced to an actual problem. ... [W]ithout an official statement from Apple, the battery drain guessing game continues.
Turn off Location Services...General > Location Services. ... Then head to System Services and disable "Location-Based iAds" and "Setting Time Zone."
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Don't use location-based Reminders.
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Disable Siri's 'Raise to Speak'...General > Siri.
But Hayley Tsukayama notes that this may not be enough:
Not all the solutions are working for all people, however, and some users...are reporting that theyve been told to bring their phones in for an exchange.
Meanwhile, Zack Whittaker says we should prepare for the inevitable:
iOS 5.0.1? looms as an all-but inevitable...update to...iOS 5.
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Or, having said that, it may just appease the mass hysteria conjured up by journalists, bloggers and frantic customers and issue a sugar-pill-like patch.
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How the company will handle the situation will be interesting, as the first controversy for the company to encounter in the post-Jobs era.