Recently we told you that Apple were contacting some users of the iPhone 4S to try and get to the bottom of the issues surrounding problems with the battery life of the device. The problem has also been affecting some owners of other iPhone models since updating to iOS 5. Now we can tell you that the iPhone 4S battery life problem looks to be down to iOS 5, and a possible fix is being offered.
The issue may be caused by a problem with Apple’s location services system in the new operating system. The Guardian are reporting that a number of users have found the Setting Time Zone part feature within the Location Services, has been operating even when users haven’t moved across a different time zone or location.
There is an icon next to the setting that is used to show users if the feature has been used in the last 24 hours, and it seems this has been running constantly even then the feature is not needed. These types of location services can easily drain any smartphone battery, as they use a mixture of the Wi-Fi name where available. It also uses GPS sensor input and mobile mast data to work out the devices position.
The mobile mast data compares the strength of the signal from the nearest three masts, and then triangulating against them. But if this is done quite often the battery will quickly lose power unnecessarily. Oliver Haslam of iDownloadBlog thinks the iOS 5 GM release has introduced a bug that now causes the Setting Time Zone function to keep running. But adds if it is switched off your device may not set its own time zone when travelling.
He said that the feature had been turned off on four different iPhone’s, and found a big improvement in battery life. To find this feature go to Settings and find Location Services, and then scroll down to System Services and Setting Time Zone. Are you still suffering from poor battery life on your iPhone?
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