Apple iPhone - Who Needs Stinking Battery Life?
June 19th, 2007 by admin
After receiving a lot of great compliments for the iPhone concept while simultaneously getting backhanded compliments for the lack of any real battery life, Apple has updated their specs to state that their iPhone Battery life is now three hours longer in the talk time department.
So now the iPhone is the new Prius.
Like the Prius, which claims a gas mileage level that very few drivers actually get, Apple is offering the iPhone which is described as getting 8 hours of talk time now instead of describing the iPhone as getting 5 hours.
But does their volume knob go up to eleven?
There are very few phone manufacturers that really deliver battery life anywhere near their claims. Zdnet tip toes around this problem in their recent article about the change in description from Apple.
Will Apple’s boost to iPhone’s battery life be enough? by ZDNet’s David Berlind — Apple has answered critics who, even before an iPhone was in their hands, were giving its battery life extremely low marks. Fellow ZDNet blogger Jason O’Grady reports: In a last minute surprise Apple has posted new information about the iPhone battery and touchscreen that is sure to please potential buyers. In a press release […]
Its a well written article about nothing. In fact it is kind of like Seinfeld in that they are reporting on Apple changing their claims of talk time, while talking about how untrustworthy the claims are in the first place.
Jason does provide an interesting aside about the crappy performance of the Q when it comes to battery life. The problem is that when these devices are always on and sometimes multitasking (sending an email while listening to an MP3 file through bluetooth headphones or something). That processor and double radio work, is a power drain.
Intro the device that multi-tasks better than any other!
So the iPhone is supposed to be great at doing so many things that other devices can not do. Terrific, people will use the phone for more tasks and run the battery down in half the time. iPods have never been known for their long battery life, but at least if you listened to your iPod on your way to work, you would still have talk time on your cell phone.
This analogy assumes you were not stupid enough to buy the iRokr, which was a fiasco collaboration and complete failure jointly produced by Motorola and Apple together. If either company had any integrity they would have nixed this product early instead of waisting consumer money with it.
So what good will your iPhone do you if you use all the functionality that is packed into this hot little device?
Hypothetical iPhone Experience
So lets say that your phone wakes you up in the morning after charging all night with an alarm. You get up, and go jogging listening to your iPod.
You come back home, hit the can on your way to the showers and check your email while you are downloading your supper.
You jack it into your computer (its not wireless that way remember) and synch it up to grab some podcasts, the news, and maybe an audio book.
Out of the shower, dressed in the car and on your way to work.
Your jacked into your stereo or using bluetooth functionality to listen to your podcasts, but make sure you have your car charger or you will be using up a valuable hour of talk time. You also read and respond to a few emails and text messages while stopped at a few red lights. No texting while driving!
You get to work and the calls start coming in. You catch up on voice mail . Grab a donut and coffee and head to the conference room for the days meetings.
You go until 1 pm through 4-5 meetings sending and receiving text messages, emails and surfing the internet to check on the news and your stock. Head to lunch, and catch up on your voice mail again. Return some calls, remember to eat and head back to the office.
You do an hour of work at your desk on that old fashioned gadget called a computer (not likely to be an Apple as you are working a corporate gig).
Your work hour is up and you head back to the conference room at 2:30 for the rest of your meetings. Repeat the morning sessions with emails, text messages, internet surfing, maybe share a video with a friend at the meeting to stay awake.
You head out to dinner and by this point in time your battery life is looking a little meager. So drive there and benefit from 20 minutes of car charger!
Waiting to be seated and you go through more voice mail and emails, sit down and order, more emails. You remember to eat again, finish and hit the road. Maybe you catch up with some friends for drinks (after all you are cool enough to own an iPhone so you should have some friends). You hit the bar and start drinking. At first your are drinking texting and emailing, but 4 drinks in and no matter how good the iphone screen is the touch screen just doesn’t work for drunk people.
So you start calling people again. Your blathering on at the mouth because you are getting hammered, and you fail to recognize that the battery is just about toast. Finally, it goes and your drunken friends start making jokes about your $600 iPhone and its dead battery. You hit the clubs, dance a bunch, drink a lot more and pack things in around 2 am, because you have to be at work in 5 hours.
Your friends all made a hook up, working phone helps. You are now flying solo, and you hit the curb of the club. No cabs to be seen and you are toast. You whip out your iPhone to call a cab. No battery juice left!
Crap!, double crap.
Now you are mad, drunk, all alone outside of a club and you have to work in 5 hours. You can’t call a cab and you are too dumb, drunk mad and proud to ask someone to borrow their cell phone.
You find your car, hop in, drive away for home. Halfway there and then you see flashing lights in the rear view mirror.
Next thing you know, you are blowing in a tube, and doing a funny acrobatic trick on the side of the road. You are going to jail, and you don’t even have a working phone to call a friend or a lawyer.
You end up sleeping it off in the drunk tank. Wake up, get bail, phones still dead, flag down a cab to take you to the impound to get your car. Bail your car out, plug your iPhone in to charge it. Five minutes later you have just enough juice to call your boss and let them know that you won’t make it in on time.
Your boss tells you that you are laid off. (Code word for you weren’t here and you are fired with out unemployment.)
All that because your iPhone had crappy battery life????
Thanks but I’ll pass. 