I put my iPhone through its paces on the nearby Guadalupe River Trail yesterday, using pretty much every feature built into it. With iTunes running in the background, I walked for about two hours, snapped and uploaded 40 low-resolution pictures and sent three Twitter messages (walking while tweeting: not advised). When I walked in the door I got the “battery down to its last 20 percent” message.
Apple and other geeky types advise how to get the most mileage from the iPhone battery, which basically means you have to turn off all the cool gee-wiz features that inspired you to buy it to begin with. Such as:
- Turn off 3G networking.
- Turn off location features (the GPS capability).
- Turn off “push” mail, which scans your e-mail account for new messages.
- Don’t run iTunes in the background.
Thing is, as these devices get more and more like laptops, they have the same laptop-battery issues. It’s a mini-computer and drinks up battery power just like the big guys. Folks who need their laptops turned on for long stretches buy external battery packs (one of our photographers at the Merc has one duct-taped to his Apple Powerbook), and there are similar options for iPhone 3G users (though make sure yours is compatible with the 3G; the configuration’s a bit different from the first-gen iPhone).
Here’s a discussion of battery packs some people are using. A company called Morphie makes a cool charger/case combo but it won’t be in stores till the fall.
I suspect if you buy a car charger, though, the iPhone can come in very handy when bopping around town if your car doesn’t have one of those snazzy GPS units.
Incidentally, I did manage to get a signal from Sunol Wilderness from atop Flag Hill on Sunday. Made my very first cell phone call from the trail up there.
Previously: iPhone 3G: Any good in the outdoors?
I was wondering if you had heard about these:
Solar powered case for iPhone G3
I fully expect you to get one and test it out for us.
I carry an ipod and solio solae charger when backpacking. The solio has a battery that can be charged from the sun or a wall outlet.
With all the open hiking (not under a tree canopy) in the bay area a solio could help extend your iphone use.
Longer review of solio charger here.
http://cheflovesbeer.blogspot.com/2008/01/my-solio-review-i-bought-solio-solar.html
It’s not just the iPhone. I’ve had a iPod touch for almost a year now, and the battery worked great .. until I downloaded the V2.0 software. Now the battery lasts half as long as it used to, even after turning off all the spiffy extras. V2.1 didn’t fix it either.
Did you hear the rumors about GPS coming to the next-gen iPods in Sept? Also I notice that Apple explicitly allow “turn by turn navigation” application in the apps store. I suspect that come September they’ll be adding navigation software that runs on both iPhones and iPods. Hopefully the software will also allow caching of google maps (terrain, hopefully) so we can navigate with GPS in the wilderness & with offline iPods.
How did the GPS tracking feature work when you were on the trail? Was it possible to switch to satellite view and actually see the expose areas of the trail you were hiking on?
Carl: I couldn’t get it to map my specific location on the trail, but I didn’t try too hard; it’s probably possible, but since I was also trying to get some exercise I didn’t want to stop long enough to figure it out. I used a photo app to upload my pics to Flickr that did include the location coordinates, so I know the capability is in there. But I’m less sure about real-time mapping. I didn’t try it in the wilderness outside the 3G network, however.
Tom: good tip; I wonder if it can be bought in the U.S.?
Stuart: didn’t hear about the GPS on the next Ipods, but it would be a good combination. If you’re having battery issues after the software upgrade, chances are others are too. Hopefully there will be a firmware upgrade soon.