Sleeping iPhones Send Phantom Data

Stoobalou writes with a story that got started earlier this month when iPhone users in the US and the UK noticed that their phones seemed to be sending large data bursts via 3G overnight. (Providers are ending unlimited contracts, so iPhone users are paying more attention to how much data they are using.) The discussions began on MacOSRumors and an Apple discussion forum. Thinq.co.uk makes this guess as to what is going on, but doesn't offer much in the way of substantiation: "The simple fact of the matter is — as far as we can tell — that the iPhone's push notifications and other small transfers of data are totted up throughout the day and the total for all of those notifications is added up after dark and sent to your airtime provider while your phone is sleeping. If these tiny amounts of data were individually listed your bill would probably be the size of a telephone directory. The reason it is using the 3G network rather than Wi-Fi is that all iPhones up to and including the 3Gs turn off Wi-Fi push functionality while the phone is in sleep mode, in order to preserve battery life. The iPhone 4, incidentally, has better power management so will not need to do this."

Comments

Re:Here I go blowing some more points

[recoiledsnake]

Voices of sanity are being drowned here on Slashdot due to the Apple fanboy moderators winning out against the regular folks.

Speak up against Apple and be modded Troll or Flamebait. Happened to me yesterday when I questioned Apple's practices. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1689760&cid=32604544

Got 4 +1 insightful, 3 -1 Flamebait and 2 -1 Troll for that post.

So all the railing against DRM, Palladium and Trusted Computing in the years past was just anti-MS fluff. When Apple does it, it's not only okay but the best thing ever and any comments pointing out the flaws must be beaten down and taught a less. Not just that, but Apple can do nothing wrong, People write long justifications even when it's banning competition like Admob. Sad to see Slashdot descend into a Apple fanboy site.

Re:Here I go blowing some more points

[jollyreaper]

I know I'll get downmodded for saying this* but do not fall afoul of the mac crowd. You will be downmodded for it.

*Will this inoculate me against downmodding?