iPhone Software 2.0: A love hate relationship
I, like many many others, jumped to update my 1st Gen iPhone on Friday afternoon. Fortunately for me I had no troubles with the process. It did take a little while but it isn’t the end of the world. I was actually pretty excited about some of the apps. The night before I downloaded 4 or 5 that I knew I wanted to try out. Here’s a little recap of my first full day using the updated phone.I suppose the best way to start this is to touch on my typical use of the phone. I always have wifi on, never have bluetooth on and the brightness is typically around the 90% mark. I regularly listen to music on it at work and throughout the day I check certain email accounts on it. It is also common for me to take a call or two throughout the day. I’m not usually one to use YouTube or watch movies on the phone either. My morning alarm is on my phone so it doesn’t charge through the night. However, every morning before I leave for work it gets charged right back up to 100% to start the day off well.
All of this to say that I’ve been impressed with it’s battery life because during days like the average one mentioned above my batter would typically stay above the 50% mark on the indicator.
2.0 Software Usage
As I mentioned I downloaded 4 or 5 applications the night before the release but I also downloaded a few more after installing. In no particular order they included Crash Bandikoot Nitro Racing (I had to test out the accelerometer!), Numba (a number game - yes I’m a nerd), WeatherBug, AIM, Bible (YouVersion), Facebook (with my wife in mind), Remote, and a few silly ones like PhoneSaber, Blip Solitaire, and RotaryDialer. I did not run these apps through the day but I did show a few coworkers what they looked like and how they functioned.
By 7:30 in the evening the battery indicator was red and I received a warning that only 20% of my battery was remaining. I’d never even seen that message before and I’ve gone HOURS listening to music and even watching a full movie in the past (granted I only did that once). I was quite disappointed with this result. Needless to say when I got home I plugged the phone up to charge. By the time I went to bed (needing to take it with me for the alarm) the charge was back up to 100%.
Upon waking this morning a considerable amount of battery was gone (I’d say about 10%) just from sitting next to my bed all night. The usage info (under General Settings) said that it had been in use for 1 hour and 52 minutes since the last full recharge. This makes me question what is considered “use” because apparently having it sit there doing nothing is all it takes.
Worth it?
After these results the question is this: is the firmware update worth the option of 3rd party apps? My answer: yes. Charging a device isn’t the hardest thing in the world and most people who have an iPhone probably have owned an iPod in their past. This (typically) means that they have at least 2 cables that can charge their device. I suppose I can take one to work or use one in the car. While this is not the most convenient solution - it’s such a fun device that I would say it’s worth it. Furthermore, beyond the new 3rd party applications Apple has included some needed security updates in this release.
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Didn’t know where else to put this but I wanted to say congratulations, she’s beautiful.