How I fixed a strange battery bug on my iPad
Hi all, just wanted to share something I found out today, and turned out to be not only useful, but also saved me a good few hundred dollars.
Over the last few days, my dear, beloved, iPad had shown a drastic decrease in battery life. I mean DRASTIC. 10 hours of battery? I wish. Try 2 hours. Even when idle, it lost over 60% battery over night.
What did I do? The most pragmatic thing possible – decide to get the new iPad 3! (Sorry, it is actually called “the new iPad“). But, not only the 32 GB (bare minimum for me) is not cheap, also and more importantly – it did not hit Israel yet.
So, like many other iPhone 4S users in last few months, I accepted my fate (or the iPad’s fate), to be paired with its charger as often as possible. But, I thought – maybe it’s a new dammed iOS 5.1 bug. Google Search to the rescue! (how ironic of Google to save my iPad)!.
What I found was Apple’s recommended usage for batteries. In the article, mixed with worthless silly tips like “tuning down screen brightness till you can’t see a bloody thing”, or “disabling WiFi and go into limbo mode” I found one useful pearl:
For proper reporting of the battery’s state of charge, be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).
Basically, this meant to me that my battery is fine and dandy, but the iPad had no clue as to how good it’s (battery) life really is. Well, I let the iPad run GPS navigating to nowhere while playing (funky) music, till it gave out, blacked out, and died its heart out. Then charged it for several hours.
The result? After over an hour’s work / web surfing + 4 idle hours, battery is at a staggering 99%.
It’s a Xmas miracle! (always wanted to say this). Better than snow in July.
So, if you are facing trouble with Apple devices’ batteries – give it a try. The doctors at Apple say it should be done once a month.
And to the dear people who own on iPhone 4S (@Ed Dale i’m looking at you) I shall say this: Even if this tip does not help you, and the iOS 5.1 release didn’t fix your battery bug, at the very least – you will always have Siri.
(Until the battery dies)
If you enjoyed this post and would like to be updated when new posts are published, please Subscribe to Denting My Universe