Dell D620 + Sprint EvDO USB Modem = 15min

A while ago, I reviewed the blazingly fast Sprint EV-DO USB modem on this blog. Since then, I've always used it when I have my laptop connected to external power source. Today, I was trying to put away a little bit of work at the Four Carrots cafe inside the SOHO Bloomingdales (which is very cozy but lacks any visble electrical outlet). I turned off my Wifi and set my screen to less than half the brightness. After I plugged in the USB modem to start answering some emails, within 15 minutes, the computer screen just shut iself down and was completely drained of battery power.

I know my work-issued Dimension D620 is not the best in battery life but even with WiFi turned off and lowly lit screen can normally get me at least 90 minutes of usage. I can't believe how much power it takes to run USB 3G modems. Pretty crazy huh?

iPhone 3G Fast Battery Drain

This morning and only this morning have I observed a bizarre battery drain issue on my iPhone 3G. Before I start, my iPhone 3G is less than one month old and I have the latest firmware 2.2.1 (5H11) and it normally lasts 3 days in between charge since I use it lightly. My settings are: No Push Email, 3G network enabled and allow location tracking. I have a few apps installed (FaceBook, Amazon, Skype, Fring, USAToday, Twitterific, Midomi, eBay, Loopt and Local Picks). In normal days, I would charge my iPhone every 2 to 3 days. My usage is light, check my email 3 times per day and listen to music for an average of 30 minutes per day.

This morning, I didn't even listen to music and did my usual email checking, news reading during my commute to work. I noticed Twitterific app crashed during launch. Thinking of nothing, I powered down the LCD and put it back into my jacket pocket. When I got to work, I noticed my iPhone was a little warm and I was at 75%. 15 minutes later, it showed 50% full. 10 minutes after that it was around 33% full. I'd give it a total of 2 hours since Twitterific app crashed before my iPhone 3G was down to 20% battery warning. Since I've got a full day to go and I knew something wasn't right, I rebooted the iPhone and turned off 3G network. That seemed to have stopped the madness and lasted a full day in red.

Something must have gone wrong when Twitterific failed to launch earlier today. I am not suggesting it was that app that caused the problem but somehow the iPhone was stuck in a mode in which it was running some crazy processing to drain my battery since that moment. While the LCD was turned off, the iPhone itself was busy draining energy. A reboot seemed to have fixed the issue.

The reboot seemed to have done the trick, I recharged my iPhone and now it looks like its normal. An hour after I undocked, it still shows 100% charged. I'll keep an eye on this and keep everyone posted here.

Some online references:
iPhone 3G Fully Charged to Dead in 4 Hours

Improve iPhone 3G Battery Life (firmware 2.0)

iPhone's new firmware 2.0 has stepped up in so many ways empowering users with so much more functionality. Some of these improvement will inevitably become more power hungry. If you need these new functions, its fine, but some people may not need them but don't realize they are by default turned on. So here are some ways to stretch your battery life in between charges:

* 3G iPhones can turn off 3G Data (settings->network)
* Turn off FETCH New Data
(settings->Fetch New Data->Push->OFF )
(settings->Fetch New Data->Fetch->Manually)
* Set your mail account to Manual instead of PUSH or FETCH email
(settings->Fetch New Data->Advanced)
* Lower LCD brightness (settings->brightness)
* Turn off location services (settings->general)
* Turn off WiFi
* Turn off Bluetooth (under settings->general->bluetooth)
* Lower ringing volume
* Turn off vibrate when ringtone is on

How to maximize smartphone battery life?

Lets say you are on a road trip for a couple of days with a freshly charged smartphone and realized you have forgotten the charger at home. If you are not in a position where you have to make a lot of calls; here are ten ways you can stretch the battery life on the go. While some phones may have other settings you can tweak, these generic instructions should help with all smart phones across the board:

1. Lower your LCD brightness - this is the biggest drain, try to set it as low as you can without losing the ability to read the screen. [tip: if you are done with your phone, hit the power button to turn off LCD, down't wait for the 10 seconds to turn itself off... this is a big energy saving tip!]
2. Reduce LCD timer - change the auto LCD dimming from 1 minute to 10 seconds, this is just as important as the LCD brightness.
3. Lower your ring tone volume - any sound made through the loud speaker(s) will drain power, also, avoid using the loud speaker during calls
4. Turn off vibrate when ring tone sound is on - the vibration motor drains the battery
5. Turn off push-email, email sync'ing or drag out the server checking to a longer duration, instead of every 10 minutes, make it every 30minutes or 45minutes (make it manual if you are not expecting anything urgent)
6. For 3G devices, change network setting to GSM mode only. 3G radio drains battery much more than GSM/EDGE network. If you must, turn it on when need to.
7. If necessary and possible, set it to GPRS mode for data only. While GPRS is unbearable to surf the web, it will reserve more battery life, like the last option, turn it back on when necessary
8. Turn off Bluetooth, forget using Bluetooth headsets if you are trying to reserve battery
9. Turn off IrDA(infrared radio) and GPS
10. Minimize using all the bells & whistles: web browsing, camera, media player, photo viewing, etc.

I know these tips pretty much will turn your smartphone into a plain phone and for the most part, its asking you to refrain from using your phone in its full capacity. But, if you want your smartphone battery to last, these tips will hopefully keep your powered for as long as possible.

Tips to the manufacturers: just like sound profiles, it would be cool to have power-setting profiles; have one that incorporates all the tips plus more to maximize battery performance (kind of like many laptops do).

PS - A lot of smartphones can be charged via its USB/Data cable (ie. BlackBerry, Palm Treos, HTC), I always keep an extra USB cable (along with a jumpdrive, ethernet cable) in my business bag while traveling, this has helped me a few times.