Jay, you aren't the only one trying to eke out battery life:
Guy Kawasaki shares his secrets of long iPhone life - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

You note that he barely uses his iPhone as a PHONE.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

Yeah, I saw that.

Here's another post about it:
Wanted: An iPhone power miser app - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

That idea sounds awfully familiar!

Time to ask Bruce over at PocketMax when he's going to develop phoneAlarm for the iPhone.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

eech.. uyou're brining back nightmares of grad school Statistics... I think your going to need to run ANOVA... analysis of variance to make sense of this since you have multiple varibles that are all linked... eesh does anybody remember this stuff.. all I can remember is what I've forgotten

Man this reminds me of the utility that was made for the kyo7135 that turned the phone off if it lost the signal for a certain period of time.. then it would wake the phone up after a pre-determined period to see if there was a signal...if not it went back to sleep. 'Cause if the signal got low it would kick into analog mode and the battery would be sucked dry in 20min! Yeah some kind of utility that turned off the battery draining features in response to there usage and battery level..
Mark

__________________
Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.

Ironically, I was just telling equus that I was never very good at statistics in school. Guess that's why I ended up in law school rather than the getting a masters in science or math.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

8:57 a.m.--Okay, it's the last time to return the iPhones and to cancel the AT&T contract without paying an ETF. As of last night, I was all set to keep the iPhones and port my numbers. However, around 8:30 this morning I had a disturbing reception issue on the iPhone. I was driving to work and was on 16th Street between Northern and Morton. While talking to my dad, all the sudden his voice became garbled and then I couldn't hear him. This lasted for about two to three blocks while I continued to drive, then it cleared up. I don't think he had any idea that I could understand/hear him. Remember, this was on EDGE, not 3G. I'm hoping the problem was because some towers are down as a result of a huge storm that ripped through Phoenix last night (marble size hail and wind gusts of 100 mph).

The good news is that I have now gone 2 full days (48+) hours without a charge. Stats are:

• Usage since last full charge 5 hours, 19 minutes
• Standby 2 days, 1 hour
• Current period call time 2 hours, 12 minutes
• Lifetime call time 7 hours, 4 minute
• Data sent 712KB
• Data received 2.7MB

The 20% low battery warning has not gone off yet, but I suspect it will do so shortly (the icon looks like only 20% remaining).

Assuming I keep the iPhones, I think my next test will be to see just how long of call time I can actually get on EDGE. What I would do is just use the iPhone to call a landline (or even my i760) and just leave the call connected until the battery on the iPhone dies (or until I get the 10% warning). That might let us know whether the 10 hour EDGE talk time advertised by Apple is really true. Like I said, though, I can only do that test if I keep the iPhone.

10:09--My wife had a question about her iPhone. I'll spare you the long version. Short version is that I rebooted mine just to see how the startup screen looked. When it rebooted, I immediately received the 20% low batter warning. Stats now are all messed up due to the reboot. There are no standby or usage stats. Others are:

• Current period call time 2 hours, 12 minutes
• Lifetime 7 hours, 4 minues
• Sent data 739KB
• Received data 2.8MB

10:45 a.m.--I just called Sean, a salesman at the Scottsdale Road and Camelback AT&T store. He's the guy that helped me a couple of weeks ago when I bought the Jawbone 2, the car charger, and the case combo for $150. I wanted to tell Sean about some of the problems I have been having with coverage and get his thoughts on whether I should stick with the iPhone. Let me put it succintly: Sean ROCKS!!!! The short version is that he spoke with his manager, who extended by trial period for one more week to give my wife and me some additional time to make a decision. (Once again, AT&T's customer service is awesome.) The slightly longer version is that Sean told me two things. First, he confirmed that, as a result of the storm last night (it was a doozy), AT&T has 10 "severely degraded" towers in the Phoenix area and 10 "degraded" towers. They're working on getting things back to normal, but it might take a couple of days due to the number of towers with problems. Second, he said that someone in Scottsdale had put up a repeater that was causing interference from Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and Scottsdale Road all the way to the 101 and Cave Creek. This is a huge area and could have impacted reception at my house and my kids' school. Apparently, the person did turn the repeater off at one point but has turned it back on. AT&T is working with the guy to try to resolve the problem, which has been going on for a couple of weeks. So, here's hoping that AT&T can bring the problem towers back online quickly, that the guy turns off his repeater, and that Apple releases 2.1, all with in the next 7 days. That's not too much to ask for, is it?

3:45 p.m.--I call my wife on her iPhone. As it turns out, she's at our house. One minute into the call, it drops on her end. I call her back and it drops again.

4:10 p.m.--I call my wife on her iPhone. She's still home. Once again, the call drops on her end. I call her back on our house landline and all is good--other than 3G in our area just plain SUCKS!!!! (Remember, I've still got her iPhone, with the 2.0.2 update installed, set for 3G on.)

4:41 p.m.--I'm in Best Buy at Paradise Valley Mall killing time waiting for
my wife and kids to get to the Toys R Us next door. Little do I know it but my wife is actually calling me. My iPhone doesn't ring on my end. I know that i didn't miss the call because it doesn't even show up on my Recent calls list.

4:56 p.m. (appx.)--I'm checking out at Best Buy and peek at my iPhone. Low and behold, I have a voice mail message. It's from my wife's call about 15 minutes ago. Why didn't my iPhone ring when she called? Why didn't I get an audible alert to notify me that she had left me a voice mail message? The iPhone really needs repeating alarms. I'm amazing that neither Microsoft nor Apple have seen fit to make repeating notifications (particularly for missed calls and voice mails) available with the OS on PDA phones, especially for the iPhone. I call my wife back on her iPhone. She tells me she's at Toys R Us now; I tell her I'll be right over to Toys R Us.

6:00 p.m. (appx.)--The family is having dinner at California Pizza Kitchen at Desert Ridge Marketplace. I look at my iPhone; I'm getting a good 3 bars on EDGE. I look at my wife's iPhone; she's only getting one bar on 3G. I turn 3G off on her iPhone; she's now getting 3 bars with EDGE. So, looks like I'll have her stick with EDGE for awhile longer (I am SOOO waiting for the 2.1 update). Here's the good news, while I'm talking to my youngest child, my wife starts surfing the net on her iPhone with my oldest child. When I ask, she tells me the surfing is a little slow (she's using EDGE), but it's working for her.

9:10 p.m.--I had to use my car charger on my trip to Best Buy and my trip home to ensure I had a little juice. Thus, my stats at this point are totally messed up in that they will not reflect usage since last full charge. Therefore, I'm not going to record them now. What I am going to do is put the iPhone in my new Griffin dual iPhone/iPod charger and let it sit there overnight for a good charge. If I have a chance tomorrow, I'm going to try the call time test.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

Make sure you do that during off-peak hours!!!

Darn, I wonder if I mentioned this earlier or not, OR maybe you knew this already.........IF you keep a GSM phone in close proximity to an automobile radio while that car radio is ON you WILL have a slight degradation of signal, unfortunately this is just a result of how GSM frequencies operate and NOT the iPhone issue NOR is it at&t's fault. Remember, you hear a faint buzzing, clicking or static thru your car radio's speakers while the GSM phone is switching towers, or while you just recv a phone call, or right after you dial a number and just before the ring on the other parties phone starts. CDMA devices DONOT exhibit this phenomenon as that is on an entirely different frequency and does NOT affect any AM radio operation.
NOW, IF the vehicles radio is of a good quality then that vehicle manufacturer would have shielded their speakers pretty good and install shielded wires to prevent this from even showing up. BUT, still in the background it WILL affect the devices capability of having a clear sound conversation, some phones will just drop calls which is by design of THAT phone manufacturer cause they DONOT want to increase signal strength and create more static issues and or reduce their battery life. SO, Jay welcome to the world of GSM electronics and so far have I messed up your brain? IF I did then I cannot be a salesman , IF I did not then you had NO CLUE on the jargon I wrote J/K

__________________
Funny it worked.....the last time!!Now I am not sure what was working before they put a hole in my head!!!!

Oh most definitely. The plan would be to do the test on a weekend, probably a day when I come into my office and am trying to get some work done when it's quiet. Just let the two phones "talk" to each other. All I have to do is worry about the feedback.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

Now you tell me all that! I was unaware that GSM interfered with car radios and vice versa, but I suppose I should have thought of that considering just yesterday I bought a Sony clock radio specifically approved for use with clock radios. A colleague was with me and I was explaining to him that the iPhone interferes with some radios. Of course, I never thought of the car radio.

Hmm. This morning, I had my OEM car radio on, but it was set to satellite. I don't have a satellite radio receiver; instead, I have a hardwired iPod adapter that is connected to the satellite input on the radio receiver. The iPod was paused but the car radio was on. Because the input on the radio was set the satellite input, I would think that radio interference was NOT my problem this morning.

Man, this stuff really is black magic, isn't it?

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

Are there 2 different types of 3G speed? I saw a real difference between the iPhone 3G loading a website on AT&T vs. Sprint's 3G. I think someone might have addressed this earlier, GMS 3G being slower than Sprints CDMA 3G, but my experience shows there to be about a 50% difference.

I was in the AT&T store yesterday using the store demo iPhone, it said 3G in the upper left corner and it had all 5 bars on the reception. I loaded my real estate website....it took about 25 seconds. Then I took out my Sprint PPC 6700 and loaded the same web page and it took only about 10 sec. And it loaded the picture that the iPhone couldn't display. The speed difference was noticeable on other websites too.

I really wish the iPhone worked better, as it is clearly the better user interface......and the display is without compare. And it seems to have a more robust OS, as I never saw it crash or lock up when I had it for 4 days.

I really need to get a new phone and I keep being drawn back to the iPhone.

Check out the update I just posted to my Day 31 report (10:45 a.m. update). Depending upon where you were in Phoenix, the slowdown might have been caused by someone's repeater.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

From what I know, it's not just GSM but specifically GSM in the 850Mhz band, CDMA only operates in the 1800-1900Mhz band which doesn't tend to interfere with audio amps, but GSM and now UMTS can also operate in the 1800-1900mhz band.

AT&T runs both bands so it depends on which one your on, but AT&T has said they would like to move to the 850Mhz band as much as possible because it travels farther and penetrates structures better than 1900. Everyone remember 700Mhz auction? This is why it was coveted because lower freqs travel better and penetrate better.

This is also the difference in the iPhone compatible speaker docks, they have added the proper shielding against 850Mhz interference.

10:00 a.m.--The i760 and my iPhone are fully charged. I unplug both form their charges (the iPhone is unplugged first and, thus, has maybe a 30 second headstart on the i760). I then use the i760 and call the iPhone. I'm going to leave the call connected until either the call drops or a battery dies, whichever occurs first. My iPhone is on EDGE; Wi Fi, Location, 3G, Vibrate, and Push are all turned off Both devices have Bluetooth turned on, but neither is connected to a BT headset (all my headsets are off). My i760 has Wi Fi turned off. Interestingly, the i760 made the call on the 1x network, not EVDO. So, this should be a really good comparison. I've turned off the screen on the i760. --Oops, I just accidentally disconnected the call so I immediately replace the call on the iPhone (it's 10:07 a.m.). Everything is still the same (1x on the i760 still). At 10:09, both screens are now off. So, let's see what the real talk time of the iPhone on EDGE is.

11:02 a.m.--Drat!!! I just realized I forgot to reset the stats on the iPhone after I unplugged. This means that my Current call time and my data stats will all be higher than they should be. So, I'll have to manually keep track of my call time.

4:59 p.m.--I'm home after being out for the past 6 hours, spending time with the family. When we left the house, I brought both the i760 and iPhone with me and "talking" to each other (echo annoyed everyone during the car ride ). First, we headed to lunch. I left the i760 in the car and brought the iPhone inside with me (probably not the wisest thing to do when it was in the 90s outside, but oh well . . . .). At some point, I looked down at the iPhone and discovered the call had ended; I have no idea which phone dropped the call. The iPhone seemed to be getting a strong EDGE signal (4 bars, I believe). The call log from my i760 indicates the call ended at 11:40 a.m. When I realized what happened, I went to my car, grabbed the i760 and re-initiated a call, this time at 11:49 a.m. This call lasted 17 minutes, until 12:06 p.m. (again, times based on i760 call history). I didn't realize what had happened until 12:39 p.m., which is when I initiated a new call to the iPhone. This call only lasted 23 seconds (probably human error, but I'm not sure). I initiated another call at 12:39, this one lasted 27 minutes, 52 seconds (approximately 1:06 p.m.). By this time we were done with lunch and on our way to indoor miniature golf. At 1:12 p.m., I realized the call had disconnected so I once again initiated a new call to the iPhone. This call lasts a whopping 1 hour and 30 minutes. Now, this is the only call that I know exactly why it failed--the i760's battery konked out, I mean dead. The i760 had--at some point unbeknownst to me--shut off its Bluetooth and then, later, shut off the phone radio too. I checked the iPhone--it still seemed to have 50% battery remaining (maybe 40-45%).

So, based on my i760's Call History log, I got a total of 3 hours, 54 minutes and 55 seconds of talk (call) time on the i760. I don't know whether it makes a difference, but all the calls were made from the i760 to the iPhone. Also, the iPhone had a good 8+ hour charge; I had just topped off the i760 for 2-3 hours this morning (though the i760 definitely showed 100% charge). Also, most, but not all, of the call time on the i760 was on 1x, not EVDO. In comparison, all of the call time on the iPhone was EDGE. Also, the iPhone (and its battery) are only 1-2 weeks old whereas my i760 and its battery (btw, I'm using the OEM extended battery in the i760) is roughly 10 months old.

At 5:20 p.m., my iPhone shows roughly 40% battery remaining. I've now plugged the i760 into a charger and am going to call the iPhone again. The call connected at 5:21 p.m. Let's see how long the iPhone lasts.

I will say this much: Despite the iPhone on EDGE seemingly having a longer battery life than the i760, I am concerned at all the disconnected calls today. I can't blame the iPhone because I don't know for certain which phone dropped the call (one of the hazards of making a cell-to-cell call). However, given my past experience, most likely the iPhone, not the i760, was what dropped the calls.

9:21 p.m.--The i760 and iPhone have been talking to each other for more than 4 hours now (keep in mind the i760 is plugged into the charger; the iPhone is not). That means I've already gotten 8+ hours of talk time out of the iPhone (on EDGE) today. Go iPhone, go iPhone!

10:33 p.m.--I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but the call finally disconnected. I check my iPhone. It is dead, kaput, gone. According to the call history on my i760, the call lasted 4 hours, 51 minutes, and 21 seconds. That means I got roughly 8 hours and 46 minutes of talk time on the iPhone today--with Bluetooth on!!! That's more than double what I got from the i760!!!!!! Both the iPhone and the i760 are now comfortably charging for the night. I'm thinking about upgrading my iPhone to 2.0.2 tomorrow.

Right now, my wife's iPhone has roughly 20-25% battery remaining (she has not gotten the 20% low battery remaining yet). Her usage stats don't show current usage since last full charge or standby since last full charge. We must have either rebooted her iPhone or gave it a partial charge. She only has 31 minutes of call time. I'll top her iPhone off tonight too.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

Minor details, Dr.Watson

__________________
Funny it worked.....the last time!!Now I am not sure what was working before they put a hole in my head!!!!

9:30 a.m.--My iPhone, my wife's iPhone, and my i760 have all been charging overnight and are fully charged. I unplug all of them and reset the usage stats on the two iPhones. I turned 3G on for my iPhone (it's off on my wife's) and I reboot my iPhone. This way, I can test 3G talk time, albeit using the 2.0.0 firmware. Because the reboot will reset my Usage and Standby times, I need to pop the iPhone back into the charger for a minute or so to top it off. At 9:37, I reset the usage stats on my iPhone and unplug it from the charger. I'm off to my office now. When I get there, I'll see how much talk time I get with 3G (assuming it keeps the call).

10:55 a.m.--A few minutes ago, I completed an 18 minute call on 3G. Very good news is that the call held the entire drive from my house to my office parking spot. I wonder whether my chances of dropping a call were lower because it's a Sunday morning and, I suspect, not as many people are using AT&T's 3G network right now.

10:58 a.m.--I just called the iPhone from the i760. The iPhone is connected on 3G. I don't know why, but the i760 is on 1x, not EVDO. It's very strange because normally I get EVDO coverage throughout Phoenix. Oh well. I'm going to get working and we'll see how long both phones last today.

1:27 p.m.--I'm taking a quick break from my work to eat lunch and then it's back to work for me. Quick peek at the i760 shows the call has been connected now for 3 hours and 30 minutes. The i760 is still on 1x and per phoneAlarm's battery meter has 60% remaining. Drat!!! I forgot to turn Bluetooth back on on the i760 so this might not be a fair test because BT is on on the iPhone. Oh well. iPhone still on 3G and has maybe 45% battery left. So here's the funny (maybe not) thing. I'm going to see the Dbacks/Dodgers game (nationally televised on ESPN or ESPN2 tonight) in 3 1/2 hours. My family is supposed to pick me up in 2 hours. With my luck, both phones will die right as my family is scheduled to pick me up so I'll have no phone at the game.

2:57 p.m.-- I just took a quick peek at the iPhone. It's showing hte 10% low battery warning and Bluetooth has shut down. It's now been connected to the i760 for 4 hours and 0 minutes (still on 3G). I also had that 18 minute conversation my drive to the office. Thus, it looks as though 4 1/2 hours of talk time on 3G is possible with the 3G iPhone and Bluetooth on. I'm guessing 5 hours is possible if Bluetooth is off, but I don't know whether I'll test that or not. The i760 shows 45% battery remaining. So, today the i760 is outlasting the iPhone. I wonder how much of that has to do with Bluetooth having been off on the i760 this entire time. Well, pretty soon I'm going to have to plug the iPhone into the charger so I have some juice in it for the game.

3:39 p.m.--My iPhone gave out just a few minutes ago. According to the i760's Call History, the total talk time for that call was a whopping 4 hours, 39 minutes and 37 seconds. That means I got a total of 4 hours and 57 (maybe 5 minutes out of the iPhone on 3G!!!! Pretty darn good, I'd say. Moreover, the i760 just gave me a low battey warning and phoneAlarm indicates I only have 15% battery remaining on the i760. Considering the iPhone had Bluetooth on whereas the i760 did not, I'm quite impressed with the iPhone's battery life compared to the i760. A couple of other notes: The i760 has the OEM extended battery. The iPhone's battery is only a couple of weeks old but the i760's battery is roughly 10 months old.

The iPhone and the i760 are now in their charges. My wife and kids will be by to pick me up in about 5-10 minutes. I'll try to finish this report later tonight.

10:12 p.m.--I'm home from the game (Dbacks lost big time ) and the kids are in bed. Something is definitely screwy with the way the iPhone tracks usage. Currently, my stats read:

• Usage since last full charge 6 hours, 19 minutes
• Standby time since last full charge 12 hours, 21 minutes
• Current Period Call Time 18 minutes
• Lifetime call time 11 hours, 33 minutes
• Data sent 145 KB
• Data received 399 KB

The reason I say the stats are messed up is due the Current Period Call Time. It seems to be reflecting the outgoing call I made to my father this morning, but not the 4+ hour call I made from the i760 to the iPhone. This is not the first time I've noticed anomolies with the iPhone's usage stats. I wonder whether the iPhone Current Period Call Time has always been ignoring incoming calls. If so, that might explain why previously I was thinking I was getting lower than expected call (talk) time. I also wonder whether Apple knows about this issue and, if so, whether it has been fixed with either the 2.0.1 firmware or the 2.0.2 firmware. I'll probably install 2.0.2 tomorrow as I see no point in trying out 2.0.1. (If someone out there wants me to try 2.0.1, please say something ASAP.)

A final note on my stats. I did charge the iPhone a little on my way to the ballpark (about 20 minutes) and on my way home (another 20 minutes). However, I have not talked on the iPhone since it cut out after the marathon call with the i760. I did download a little data and turn BT on after the game too. Thus the Usage since last charge and Standby since last charge are a little on the high side compared to what they were since the iPhone died, but not much.

10:25 p.m.--Both the iPhone and i760 are connected to their respective chargers for the night. Sleep tight, my i-devices.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

I have a Sprint Mogul that gets solid EV-DO coverage all the time where i live (CT) and it ALWAYS makes a call using 1X. I guess the quality benefit isnt worth the more battery needed to use 3G.

I know Apple is planning on fixing, or seriously trying to fix its weak radio problems especially with 3G, but for me personally, having to turn 3G off and on when i want to use data services is totally unacceptable.. i really dont know how you put up with it. Turning it off all the time to get better call reception kinda defeats the purpose of having 3G in the first place right?

I guess whatever is more important to you.. interface or, for now reliability (in the hopes that Apple will fix all of the issues in 2.1 or later.)

I recall reading that if your BT is on but there is no BT device for it to connect to it can cause greater battery drain. This seems to true with my i760.. so I make sure to turn off the BT if I don't have my headset with me... I don't know if that same issue would affect the iPhone and your tests... just a thought.
Mark

__________________
Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.

I don't surf the net on my iPhone that much and am not upgrading from the original iPhone. Thus, the lack of 3G won't impact me that much. Don't get me wrong; I sure wish I had better 3G coverage, but until Sling releases Sling Mobile for iPhone, I can live without 3G. What concerns me most still is whether the EDGE coverage is sufficient to meet my needs and (more importantly) my wife's needs.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)