Technology news and Jobs 
Fuzzy Logic Apple recharges iPhone hype to the battery max
Fuzzy Logic Apple recharges iPhone hype to the battery max | Apple recharges iPhone hype to the battery max |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Tuesday, 19 June 2007 | |
Related storiesNow, talk time is rated at ‘up to’ 8 hours, a full three hours longer than in January, when Jobs’ initial claim of 5 hours took many by surprise as potentially being far too short for a device that would theoretically be extensively used as an audio player when not used as a phone. Interestingly, Apple has also decided to give firm estimates of battery life for other iPhone uses: 6 hours for web surfing, 7 hours for video playback and 24 hours for audio playback, while the iPhone will also offer a solid 250 hours of standby time, or more than 10 days before needing a recharge. Clearly, if you just use the iPhone as a phone, you could easily get by without charging it for a couple of days if your use of the iPhone as a telephone didn’t stretch for more than three full hours each day. If that’s the case, the battery life is much better than that offered by most other competing smartphones, many of which offer only four to five hours of talk time before going flat, with plenty of other very small 3G phones only offering around 3 hours of talk time before needing a recharge. Of course, 3G needs more battery power than 2G phones, so the iPhone does have the advantage of only being a 2G device. Still, if the next iPhone is a 3G model, we can expect battery life will be shorter, unless, of course, Steve Jobs is able to manage another battery life miracle by the time the iPhone 2.0 hits the market. Questions naturally remain over the true battery life of the iPhone. It’s very well known that the multiple digital functions of today’s smartphones can and will, when used heavily or when more than one function is used at the same time, drain battery life faster than only light usage, but this is true of any device that runs on batteries. What is the true battery life of the iPhone if you use it to listen to lots of music, while surfing the web and taking lots of phone calls during the day? Will the iPhone last for 5 continuous hours with heavy use? Will it be more, will it be less? We’ll have to wait until June 29 – and then a few days after that as consumers start hammering the iPhone’s many and varied features to see what the true battery life really is. Still, if the iPhone’s battery truly can last 5 hours with heavy use of all features, this will outdo many competing smartphones by at least a couple of hours, from Nokia’s N95 onwards, many of which will need recharging if heavy use of many features is made over a two to three hour period, and sometimes less, depending on just how heavily the different features are used. Apple have also upgraded the iPhone’s screen from a planned plastic model to an optical-quality glass screen that is said to be much hardier and much more scratch-resistant. This is clearly ultra-important, especially after the fiasco that was the screen on the 1st-generation iPod nano. Apple really can’t afford to have ‘problems’ with the iPhone, inevitable though this would seem to be given Apple’s track record in releasing virtually any product, a small percentage of which always seems to have some users up in arms. Well, whatever the truth of Apple’s battery claims turns out to be, one thing is for sure: the market for an external and rechargeable iPhone battery pack that recharges the iPhone’s internal battery through the iPod dock will likely be extremely popular, as iPhone users seek to ensure they always have additional power to hand. After all, a flat iPhone does no-one any good – no calls, no music, no video, no email, no SMS and no Internet. Keeping the iPhone juiced up with power will undoubtedly bring many profits and great smiles to the battery manufacturers of the world, alongside those of all those new iPhone owners, Apple staff and Steve Jobs himself. As for the news of the Bluetooth iPhone headset, there's still no word on whether or not the iPhone is A2DP compatible, which would allow users to buy stereo Bluetooth wireless headsets. It's yet another detail we'll have to wait until June 29 to find out for sure - but here's hoping that A2DP iPhone support is yet another welcome surprise, just as improved battery life and a better glass screen are today. {moscomment}
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