iPhone Battery

With well over 4 million iPhone 4S units sold over the first week of release, some owners are reporting that battery life is inexplicably short with normal usage. Even compared to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, for some reason the new design is sometimes experiencing power drain for no apparent reason. According to the Guardian, Apple engineers have begun to respond to iPhone 4S owner complaints and many have installed diagnostic software to help track down the issue.

One of the unannounced iPhone 4S surprises was a shortening of the standby time on the device to 200 hours down from the iPhone 4 spec of 300 hours. There was no wave of concern over this number, until the iPhone 4S started losing battery power at a much faster clip in some cases. Initial reports of shorter than expected battery life have evolved over time into serious battery drain problems in some cases.

When it comes to battery life, Apple's official iPhone 4S specs are a little bit dodgy. According to Apple, the iPhone 4S has one-hour of extra 3G talk time than its predecessor, but the same battery life as the iPhone 4 when it comes to basically every other feature. iLounge decided to investigate how the iPhone 4S improves upon the iPhone 4 in some categories, and how it falls short in others. The tech site put the devices through an extensive battery test and discovered the iPhone 4 actually has a slight edge over the 4S when it comes to battery usage.

In a 3G Data test the iPhone 4S failed to outlast the iPhone 4 in Audio Playback, Video Playback, and Video Recording. The iPhones were pretty even for FaceTime and Wi-Fi with the iPhone 4S clocking in slightly better for Cellular Calls. The chart above shows some of the comparisons for AT&T.

Remember how long you had to wait for a white iPhone? Well a transparent iPhone is probably many, many years away, if even possible, but one researcher has gotten a step closer by creating a lithium-ion battery that seems invisible.

The transparent battery features overlapped electrodes that make the battery invisible to the naked eye. Developers Yi Cui and Yuan Yang created the battery at Stanford and say they would like to talk to Steve Jobs about creating a transparent iPhone some day.

VitaminWater has figured out a way to make your daily commute better by turning bus shelters into charging ports.

iPhones have made waiting for the bus a little more tolerable, and now you can charge your device at bus stations in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. The ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky invented the "Alternative Energy Source" -- an ad campaign to promote the VitaminWater Energy drink by offering USB ports for charging mobile devices at bus stations. Now there are two reasons to walk a few extra blocks to find a bus shelter, to stay out of the rain and to charge your iPhone.

If you're one of the millions of iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS owners who have updated to iOS 4.3, you may have found the battery on your device drains noticeably faster that it did before. This isn't the first time Apple firmware updates have changed battery consumption, but luckily there seems to be an easy way to improve the situation.

Ping has been cited by Pocket-lint as a possible culprit on the iPad, iPod touch and iPhones running iOS 4.3. The software runs Apple's iTunes-based social networking service, which makes it possible to connect with friends and get related music recommendations. For those who use the service this battery fix won't help, but if you don't find Ping useful then you can turn it off.