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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."

6 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. OMG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    iPhones are dreaming!

    1. Re:OMG by crakbone · · Score: 5, Funny

      But are they dreaming of Androids or Android Sheep?

    2. Re:OMG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Regular Sheep. aka. iPhone users.

      Go on mod me a troll apple-fanboys, I just posted as AC.

  2. Re:Terrible headline by boneglorious · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The summary offers that as an "unsubstatiated guess". The headline made me believe that the summarizer doesn't think it should necessarily be accepted as a true explanation.

    --
    Can I mod something +1 Scary if it's true but I wish it weren't?
  3. Re:Does it explain the sucky battery life? by Ipeunipig · · Score: 5, Informative

    We have about 150 iPhones for corporate use and we have had to return 8 so far because of bad battery life. We have had more reports of deteriorating battery life from approx. 25 more users that doing a full restore to the phone and NOT applying the backup, just rebuilding the phone manually, has resolved their battery life back to original capacity.

    The key is not to restore the backup created immediately before the restore in iTunes. Even though all of the push and antenna settings are set correctly, there is still something in the OS that makes the battery drain.

    The worst one I've seen so far would drain 8% every 5 minutes; you could literally watch the battery percentage count down like a timer. Doing a restore of the OS fixed it.

  4. Re:Terrible headline by ArsonSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    HEY!!! you almost tricked me into taking it off!!! You're one of "THEM" aren't you?

    --
    Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.