It’s been discovered that a bug within Apple’s iOS 5 software could be responsible for the poor battery life that some users are experiencing on their iPhone 4S smartphones. The bug is thought to be in the Location Services of iOS 5 which causes the iPhone to poll the mobile mast data more frequently than necessary which then causes the battery life of the iPhone to drop.
The issue seems to occur when the “Setting Time Zone” element of the Systems Services within the broader Location Services product is running even when there is no chance that the user would have moved to a different location or time zone.
There is also an icon beside the setting which indicates whether it has been used in the past 24 hours and suggests that the service could be running repeatedly to position the phone even when there is no need to do so.
On iDownloadBlog, Oliver Haslam reports:
“it appears that iOS 5′s GM release introduced a bug that causes the Setting Time Zone function to keep the location tracking circuitry running constantly, draining battery power considerably. Switching it off may mean that your iPhone will no longer set its own time zone when you travel, but that’s a small price to pay for having your iPhone last more than 12 hours on a full charge… We have tested this method on 4 different iPhone 4s handsets, including an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS. All have reported drastically improved battery life after switching ‘Setting Time Zone’ off.”
Unfortunately there are no results at the moment from the ongoing tests which conclude disabling the setting it will stop your battery from depleting. But as soon as any more information comes to light will let you know.
However if you are suffering from battery degradation on your iPhone 4S then you can give it a go by accessing the feature in Settings -> Location Services -> scroll to bottom to “System Services” -> Setting Time Zone. Also have a look at our article on the difference between the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.
Apple has now announced the iPhone 5, have a look at our article on the difference between the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 to see all about the new iPhone 5.
Source: Guardian
Filed Under: Apple, Apple iPhone, Technology News