Recently, the new Apple iPhone 4S faced a snag with its battery problems. A lot of theories have been formed as to the actual reason of the shortened life span of iPhone battery. Because of this, Apple moved in to resolve the issue. A battery fix has been created and Apple announced that it will be available very soon for iPhone 4S users and those who upgraded to iOS 5 using the previous iPhone model.
Only last week, news came in that Apple had started a beta version of its iOS 5.0.1 and seeded it to developers. A report later on came out that the Cupertino firm seems to be making headway and the iOS 5.0.1 is now being seeded to a few selected end users for independent testing. If this is true, iPhone users will be glad to know that a solution for battery issues is near and if developers will succeed, a final and permanent solution can be reached. App Developers testing the iOS 5 update are sure that it does improve the battery life significantly by diminishing the amount of time iPhone utilizes the location sensing feature.
A number of people who have already tested the iOS 5 beta update noticed a significant improvement in battery life once the update is installed. At present, the beta update is only available to Apple’s registered developers but a public version will be made available soon within the next few weeks. Also, there will be no need for computer based installation because the beta update will be available over the air as Apple puts it.
With the beta update, another location service used for traffic has been enhanced. On its release version, once you turned the location service for traffic on and then go to Maps, browse the Traffic and quit Maps, the purple arrow will remain in the status bar. But with beta update, this is no longer the case because Maps will stop using your location once you close the application. In essence, the battery problem has been traced on the phone’s location services system. What it does is try to survey nearby phone masts, GPS location chips, and Wi-Fi networks and has become a default on system which results to rapid draining of the battery. The always – on system of the location services constantly try to monitor variations in signal strength from various sources that would signify movement. Although none would admit it, it seems that the location services become a tracking device for the phone.
Before the beta update has been seeded, users who first reported battery issues on iPhone suspected that the location services could be the reason why the battery life of iPhone 4s is affected. They were not wrong and developers are now trying to correct that mistake and hopefully, the beta update release will be made publicly available in the coming weeks. The beta update will also include better support for coordinating documents for services like Instapaper.
