One of the things I had never thought to try on my iPhone (well, not consistently anyway) was to turn off wi-fi when there were no networks available. This really came down to two things: 1) when I first picked up my iPhone 2G I remember having read somewhere that wi-fi didn’t use up very much power while active and 2) I hated having to go to my first iPhone home screen, tap on settings, tap on wi-fi, and then toggle the radio off. It’s a little tedious, and until today I didn’t think it was worth the trouble.
The thing is, now that I’m enjoying the magical sliding magnificence of SBSettings, that wi-fi toggle is only one status bar swipe away at any point in time, and from within any app. That’s more like it! As a test, I decided to try and turn 3G and wi-fi off for the entire time I was at work. I was away from a charger for about nine hours and got home with my around 70% charge, as opposed to the 45-50% I was used to seeing with wi-fi on all day. I think this is pretty impressive battery life, for two reasons:
1) I’m running some jailbreak apps in the background.
I’ve got Elert, mQuickDo, SBSettings, and the grossly underestimated Notifier app at all times. I’ve taken a pretty cautious approach to all of this jailbreak goodness, but I’m impressed I was able to get some kickass battery life while still running some useful apps.
2) I’m running push Gmail with Google Sync
Instead of having to check for e-mails every 15 minutes, messages appear on my iPhone when the web server receives them. I’m not trying to explain push Gmail to you — I’m just really pleasantly surprised that I was running this on EDGE for nine hours and only lost 30% of my iPhone’s charge!
There might be a couple of other things I could tone down (turning off location services or lowering brightness — as per recent Lifehacker advice via @aliciabankhofer), but I think the wi-fi radio is the factor that makes the biggest difference. I already run around with 3G off most of the time, but now that SBSettings makes toggling radios on and off so convenient, I think wi-fi will likely stay off as well.
How about your iPhones? Are those figures — 45-50% after nine hours of standby with light usage on EDGE alone — consistent with your own iPhone 3GS experience?
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds like a great app as I definitely recognize what you are saying here. Sometimes you are not into going through all those menus just to tip off one of the functions.
I couldn't find Notifer – neither with Google nor with Yahoo! and I haven't installed Cydia yet. Could you tell me the developer or the link to a review? This would be very nice!
Really, you'll need to look in Cydia for (a little) more detail. The app's author is listed as Spektro and is hosted on the Big Boss source. I used Google with Spektro and notifier and found at least a couple of iPhone forum threads on the app. That may be as much as you'll get.
Your SBS settings theme is quite nice. May I ask which one that is?
Whoops, never mind, I found the theme. But thanks for the great tip on turning off wi fi!
Uhhh… how do I get sbsettings? Its not in the app store. Do I need to jailbreak first? It
Yes you do – it's a jailbreak app and you'll find it in the Cydia jailbreak apps store.
Great post Thomas!! To me, SBSettings is my second favorite jailbreak application! I've said it on here several times that I am a huge advocate of streamlining my iPhone using experience. The quicker I can get things done the better. Like u I found it such a pain dealing with the amount of taps
it took to turn off wifi and 3g, so my
battery life suffered. But after SB, I find myself turning things on only when they're needed, including things like SSH and safari download manager. Anything we can do to squeeze a little more life out of that battery right??!!
that's just wrong, Shobizz! You call SBSettings your 2nd fave app but ya didn't tell us your first
cheers
I know…it was intentional to see if anyone would actually ask! Lol and u did! So #1 goes to…….Winterboard! Custom themeing, oh Yes!!
It's called status notifier
and on edge you should get better battery life. 3G really sucks a battery dry
Man I wish SBSettings was allowed in the App Store. Oh well Blackra1n for me then.
You'll find Notifier under the name of "Reminder"
Thank you for the answers. I found "Status Notifier" but I think that this is not the same as "Notifier". However, as soon as I have "committed" the Jailbreak, I'll finde out.
hi can you tell me where can i find that reminder app on the screen shot? thanks
it's called Notifier and it's in Cydia. It's what the comments above were asking about.
it's called Notifier and it's in Cydia. It's what the comments above were asking about.
unless you meant SBSettings, which is also in Cydia. Both are free but you have to be jailbroken. If you don't know how to do that, look up blackra1n on this blog or Google.
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