Battery

What Batterygate? The new iPad lasts 25+ hours when hotspotting

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 26, 2012

When used as a personal hotspot only over Verizon's 4G cellular connection, the new iPad gets more than 25 hours of run time, AnandTech found out in their battery life testing published this morning. This is better than your average MiFi device by at least a factor of five. Matter of fact, it gets exactly an hour less in hotspotting tests compared to WiFi benchmarks, which falls in line with Apple's official specs.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime beats Apple's third-generation tablet when hotspotting in Normal, Balanced and Power Saving profiles. With that in mind, the ability to use your iPad as a personal Verizon hotspot for more than 25 hours is certainly welcome news in a string of negative reports alleging issues with the tablet's much-improved 42.5Wh battery.

“Busted” iOS battery algorithm behind shorter iPad run time affects all iOS devices?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

As we told you last week, unplugging your brand spanking new iPad as soon as the battery gauge hits the 100 percent mark entails missing out as much as ten percent of additional run time, or about 1.2 hours. This has been attributed to the iOS battery algorithm, which kinda brings back old memories of a bug in reporting cellular signal levels on the iPhone 4, later fixed with a software update.

According to new findings, this is actually a system-wide behavior in Apple's mobile operating system - thus affecting older iPads, as well as your iPhone and iPod touch. In fact, all iOS devices are affected by what's been called "busted" battery algorithm, it's just more pronounced on the new iPad due to its 70 percent more capacious battery.

What exactly is going on here, you ask...

Don’t stop charging your iPad when it says 100%

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

With all the hoopla around the new iPad getting a little bit toastier than its predecessor, Dr. Raymond Soneira is in high demand these days. Yesterday, he explained how the demanding Retina display and brightness levels affect the iPad's run time. Today, he's back at it, warning the device keeps charging even when it claims to have been filled.

Is this an iOS software flaw akin to a "bug" in cellular signal levels on the iPhone 4 (later fixed with a software update)? Hard to tell. All we know is it keeps charging for as much as an hour after the battery gauge hits the 100 percent mark. This, too, might explain why some people experience shorter run times with the new iPad versus its predecessor...

Shocker: Running new iPad at full brightness kills run time by 20 percent

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 22, 2012

The interest surrounding the iPad overheating meme isn't vaning. Quite the contrary, folks are eager to get to the bottom of this thing. As we hold our breath for today's definite findings of "a battery of tests" conducted by Consumer Reports, a display expert sheds more light on how an improved LED backlighting system on the iPad's Retina display contributes to Heatgate and, specifically, the tablet's run time.

You've already seen heat maps which prove that the new A5X chip with its jumbo-sized quad-core GPU is the biggest heater in the new iPad. That said, its souped up LED backlighting is actually the No. 1 factor leading up to a faster battery drain and is partly to blame for the gizmo's five-degree Celsius temperature increase...

The new iPad review

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 20, 2012

The new iPad. Two generations from the somewhat enigmatic, yet overwhelmingly successful debut, Apple’s latest tablet is firing on all cylinders.

No longer is there a question as to whether such a device has a place in people’s day to day lives, it’s now a question of how many such devices are necessary to have for one household.

Indeed, the iPad is about as mainstream as mainstream gets, only a few years removed from many pundits, including myself, questioning its viability.

The truth is that maybe only a handful of people knew how insanely successful Apple’s tablet would be, but now everyone but the most blinded of opposers is a believer. Even if you don’t own an Apple device, you’re compelled to give credit where credit is due...

New iPad takes “several hours” to charge due to bigger battery

Cody Lee ∙ March 15, 2012

For those of you wondering how Apple managed to keep the iPad's legendary 10 hour battery life despite the addition of a Retina display and LTE technology, we've come across a good explanation: the battery is a lot bigger than its predecessors. Surprise!

How much is a lot? Well according to the recent iFixit teardown, and other reports, the new iPad's battery has roughly 70% more capacity than the one used to power the iPad 2. But unfortunately this also means that it takes a lot longer to charge...

iOS 5.1 brings back the “Enable 3G” switch for some

Oliver Haslam ∙ March 9, 2012

When Apple removed the "Enable 3G" switch in iOS 5, the decision was universally met with confusion, even anger by those of us that used it to save battery life in areas where 3G was flaky. By removing the option to disable it, Apple caused us all a headache we could do without.

Now, with iOS 5.1, Apple has reinstated the option quietly, once again giving us iPhone owners a little control over the speed at which our handsets connect to the internet. It may not seem like much, but this little switch is a big deal to many.

It's perhaps fitting that Apple has brought a power saving feature back in a release of iOS which is meant to increase battery life in the power-hungry iPhone 4S, too...

The new iPad has 10-hour battery, will run on LTE for 9 hours

Cody Lee ∙ March 7, 2012

Something the iPad has always been able to claim is great battery life. Both the first and second generations of the tablet have had a 10 hour battery — meaning you could practically use the thing for 10 hours straight before it died.

But with the new iPad's upgraded hardware, a lot of folks have wondered if it would be able to hold around that 10 hour mark. I mean, between a new Retina display, quad-core processor and 4G LTE, it can't possibly maintain great battery life. Can it?

‘LowPowerBanner’ removes obtrusive low battery alerts in favor of banner notifications

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 24, 2012

I can't be the only one that thinks it's weird that Apple's still using those focus stealing low battery alerts, can I? I mean, doesn't it seem like Apple would have preferred to use iOS 5's new banner notifications instead?

Well, apparently I'm not the only one who feels that way, because a new tweak has been released in Cydia named LowPowerBanner, and it does just that...

Apple Patent Suggests New Thinner Batteries on the Way

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 20, 2012

A new Apple patent application to be released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office suggest that our future MacBooks, iPhones, iPods and iPads could get even thinner thanks to improved batteries.

When building a portable device one of the most important parts is the battery. Too small and your device will not have enough power to last a reasonable length of time. Too big and you risk making the device too large as well as making it unnecessarily heavy.

This new patent application shows that Apple is well aware of the need for improved battery technology, and it seems it might be on to something...

iOS Battery Update: iOS 5.1 Beta 3

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 16, 2012

A week after the release of iOS 5.1 beta 3 the biggest question that seems to be getting asked repeatedly is one that we have become accustomed to ever since the release of iOS 5, back in October. Yes, you guessed it – is the battery life any better yet?

We have been talking about battery life in iOS quite a bit since the issue first reared its ugly head, and we've discovered that it isn't just an iPhone 4S issue, but rather something Apple changed in iOS 5. Since then the company has issued a full update in iOS 5.0.1 and a series of iOS 5.1 betas, but has the latest improved things any? Can we expect to get back to iOS 4.x-levels of battery life?

Well, no, not really...

A Gallon of Gas Can Charge an iPhone Once a Day For 20 Years

Oliver Haslam ∙ December 23, 2011

It may seem something of a departure from the usual iDB content, but just bare with us for a second.

According to Bill Colton, a VP at ExxonMobil, just one gallon of the company's gas has the power to charge an iPhone once per day for a whopping twenty years. That's a lot of charges.

While it is highly unlikely that Apple's next iPhone charger will come with a tank instead of a plug, Colton's point is well received – there's a fair bit of power in that thar gasoline...