Fixing the Battery Problem Caused by Apple's iOS 4.3 Upgrade
Q: I upgraded my iPhone to Apple's new firmware, 4.3, and now my battery doesn't last nearly as long. Why is that? And, more importantly, how can I fix it and return my battery's performance level to where it was before?
A: Ever since Apple released the latest upgrade for iOS, 4.3, in early March, there have been reports of performance problems, the most ubiquitous being reduced battery life. We've seen issues before with Apple firmware; an earlier upgrade slowed 3G iPhones to a crawl, leaving customers wondering how they could default back to factory settings.But it's a tradeoff that many are always willing to make. Personal hotspot for iPhone 4 users; iTunes home sharing; improvements to the Safari browser, airplay and more; password checking for in-app purchases -- these were just some of the benefits of upgrading to iOS 4.3 touted by Apple. The negatives, as reported by iPodRepublic? Graphics issues and slow performance on the iPod Touch; slowness, SMS ringtone issues, problems with video playback and more on the iPhone.
We'll save the other issues for separate toolkit entries -- if we can figure out how to fix them. It's time to tackle the biggest problem: poor battery performance. "There are ... plenty of reports of battery draining faster from what looks like notification system, so might be worth going through all notifications and switching off those that are not necessary," iPodRepublic reported. That always helps, but a bit more sleuthing found that Ping, Apple's social music network used to share your preferences with friends, is the main culprit here. Turning off Ping, which you're probably not using most of the time, will get your battery life back to normal.
Here's how to turn off Ping on your iOS 4.3 device: Visit the 'Settings' page from your iPhone or iPod Touch. From there, click 'General' followed by 'Restrction.' If you don't have any restrictions already in place, you'll have to tap 'Enable Restrictions' and create a four-digit password to access this page in the future. Once you've done that, a list of possible restrictions will pop up. From here, disable Ping by sliding the switch to the off position.
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