Apple iOS 8 Update: Battery Life Issues & Solutions

Apple iOS 8 Update: Battery Life Issues & Solutions

Although most people have had no issues with iOS 8 just yet, some are experiencing severe battery drain issues. This is rather surprising as it’s just a few days after the public release of iOS 8. It seems most people reporting battery issues have an iPhone 4S, but they aren’t the only people experiencing problems. There are a few solutions though, and hopefully one of these listed will help you.

iOS 8 battery problems & their solutions                      

First things first, check if any of your apps are causing severe drainage. Apple has made this extremely easy to do in the new update. First, go to Settings, then Usage, and then Battery Usage. From there, see the apps that use the most of your battery life and consider removing them. If you cannot or don’t want to remove an app, go into the app’s settings and turn off Background Refresh. This should minimize the drainage.

If you don’t find an app that’s draining your battery, you might want to make sure a few features are off. If you specifically use your device on Wi-Fi, but have cellular data, you may want to consider turning off your data by going into Settings and then Mobile. From there, you can slide Cellular Data.

If neither of these are giving you any assistance, you may want to try doing two different resets on your iPhone. First, try doing a soft reset. A soft reset is done by simply turning your device off as you normally would. If this doesn’t solve anything, attempt a hard reset. A hard reset is done by first going into Settings, then General, then Reset, and then clicking Reset All Settings. This shouldn’t delete everything off your device, but it’s recommended you do a full backup of your device before doing this, just in case. From there, hold your power and home button together until the device turns off, and then let it restart.

From there, make sure your brightness is set down in the middle if possible, if not lower. Your display’s brightness can take up quite a bit of battery life, so this could be a major cause of your iOS 8 issues.

Make sure Bluetooth is turned off, Location Services are turned off, and also check and make sure all your e-mail data fetches aren’t constantly trying to search for new items.

If none of these help your battery life, you may want to try doing a full restore by going into DFU mode. Of course, even a fresh restore doesn’t guarantee getting your battery life back.

We’ll likely see an update come along soon to address this, but until then, try and hold out, or consider purchasing an external battery pack.

Android L Feature Spotlight

Android L Feature Spotlight

Recents

This summer brought us Android L, the latest and greatest update to Google’s mobile operating system. Even though Android L was not made available for the public, Google released Developer Preview builds for both Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013 for testing purposes.

Besides allowing developers to see how their apps look and behave in Android L, the Developer Preview builds also allow us to take an early look at the features that will be introduced by the new Android update. This post aims to show you the changes Android L brings to the Recents screen.

Besides changing the way the navigation buttons look like, Google has also changed the way the Recents screen looks and behaves. The Android L Recents has received a Material Design makeover and brings improved functionality.

The little thumbnails of the last opened apps have been replaced by a cards stacked one over another. In fact, the Recents screen looks a lot like Chromes opened tabs screen. It also brings a, how Google likes to call it, document-centric multitasking, allowing certain apps to show more than one card in the Recents screen. For example, Chrome can show a recents card for each opened tab.

Google failed to reveal when Android L will be released for the public, but, if the latest reports are to be believed, the new update will be rolled out sometime late September or early October.

Project Volta

Google took us by surprise and introduced Android L at their annual I/O conference back in June. Android L is the biggest update made to Google’s mobile operating system since its debut back in 2008, both in terms of design and functionality.

Besides drastically improving the interface with the help of Material Design, besides making notifications more accessible, and besides introducing ART runtime, the new Android L update also aims to address one of the biggest issues of modern smartphones: battery life. The autonomy improvements are centered around Project Volta, Google’s attempt to bring better battery life to Android-powered smartphones and tablets.

How big the battery life improvements will be? For example, a Nexus 5 running Android L Developer Preview can get 30 – 40% more battery life which is an insanely huge improvement. How is this even possible? Well the new job scheduler API is one of the factors. It instructs apps to do more of their unimportant tasks while your phone is charging instead of while running on battery.

Another change brought by Android L is the introduction of Power Saver mode into stock Android. You can have battery saver always on, or you can instruct your device to turn on battery saver as soon as your battery drops to a certain level.

The Battery screen in Settings has also been improved. It now brings a better insight on how your battery has been used, is capable of showing how much time you have left until your phone dies, or how much it will take to fully charge your battery.

We are glad to see that Google is making efforts to improve the battery life of the devices running on their mobile operating system.

Setting App

Google showed us Android L for the first time at I/O in June. Even though the new update wasn’t made available for the public yet we’ve already been able to take a look at the new changes it brings courtesy of the Android L Developer Preview builds that have been made available for Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013.

Besides many other visual and performance changes, Android L also brings improvements to the Settings app. This post aims to bring you an insight on the changes made to the Settings app.

If you had the occasion to play with Android L Developer Preview you probably noticed that the Settings app was completely redesigned and reorganized. The Android L Settings app arrives with a new color scheme, new animations, new toggles and check boxes.

After you update your device to Android L you will be able to use the new search box to easily find that option you were looking for. You will also find a lot of new options integrated in the new Android release. For example, in the Display area, you will now have Adaptive Display and the “Cast Screen” option to mirror your display on a Chromecast device.

There are tons of new features available in Android L, some very important, others just variations of the previous functions.

Material Design

In a surprising move, Google officially introduced Android L earlier this summer at I/O tech conference. They even changed their strategy on how the new update will be released for the public.

As you may know, Google used to introduce two major Android updates a year: one in the summer and the other one mid-to-late fall, but things will be different with Android L. The new Android iteration was officially introduced in the summer, made available for download for testing purposes as Developer Preview, and it will be released for the public this fall, when new Nexus hardware will also see the light of day.

Android L is the most major update Google’s mobile platform has seen since birth and Material Design is a big part of this update. Material Design is a whole new design philosophy and Google talked a lot about it at I/O 2014.

Material Design aims to make Android more intuitive with the help of 3D effects and shadows. The interface is flatter, while the new animations allow you to see where everything came from and where everything goes. Everything slides from somewhere and Google has promised fluid transitions at 60 fps.

The new Android L interface as a while pays more attention to details and it’s more colorful, being the most important change brought to Android in terms of UI. Most native apps have been redesigned and more will follow soon.

Notifications Panel

Google I/O has brought us Android L, the latest and greatest iteration of Google’s mobile operating system. We don’t know yet when Android L will be released for the public or what its final name will be, but we already know what the search engine giant prepared for us in the new update.

As you may know, soon after the I/O announcement, Google released Android L Developer Preview for Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013 for testing purposes. They even issued an update a few weeks ago.

Android L is no doubt the biggest Android update ever. It’s even bigger than the jump from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich, bringing tons of new features and new functionality. This article aims to bring you an insight over the Android L Notifications Panel.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Android L Notifications panel is the new color scheme. Moreover, the panel now has a transparent background so you can still see what’s on your screen. The Notification Panel can be accessed using the classic swipe down move, but you will definitely enjoy the new animation. You will be able to swipe left or right to dismiss notifications or tap to look at the notification.

The Quick Settings button is gone, but the Quick Settings menu is still there. In order to go to Quick Settings you need to swipe down once you bring up the Notifications Panel, then swipe down again. The Quick Settings menu has been redesign now showing toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Mobile Data, Notifications, Airplane Mode, Locations, Cast Screen, and Auto Rotate. Yes, we Google has finally made a toggle for Auto Rotate.

Android L also introduces Heads-up notifications. So, if, for example, you receive a call while doing something full screen like reading or gaming, the call won’t totally take over your screen, allowing you to decide whether to take the call or continue what you were previously doing.

Lock screen

Earlier this summer, during their annual I/O conference, the folks at Google officially introduced Android L. Even though the Mountain View-based giant didn’t reveal the release date of the new Android iteration, they demoed most of its new features at I/O and made it available for download as Developer Preview.

Android L is the biggest update Google’s mobile operating system has seen since its launch back in 2008. It arrives with tons of new features, but this app concentrates on the Lock Screen changes and improvements.

As you may know, in KitKat and previous Android version, the Lock Screen did nothing else except for showing you the time, how many notifications you have, or allow you to secure your smartphone or tablet. Well, the Android L Lock Screen has learned a couple of new tricks.

The new Lock Screen is now capable of displaying your notifications and it even allows you to interact with them. Furthermore, Google has found a clever way to prioritize the notifications based on the frequency you interact with them.

Now, instead of grabbing that small lock and moving it around, you will need to swipe up in order to unlock your screen. Furthermore, you can swipe left to get to the Camera (was previously available in KitKat) or swipe right to get to the Phone app.

The Android L Lock Screen allows you to swipe away notifications to dismiss them, or tap to open a specific notification. You can also swipe down on a notification to see all notifications from the respective app.

iPhone 5 Battery Problems Solved by Free Apple Fix

iPhone 5 Battery Problems Solved by Free Apple Fix

Almost two years after initially releasing the device to the public, Apple is now offering some iPhone 5 owners free battery replacements after the company determined that many units are having battery problems, although it claims that it’s only a “very small percentage.”

Unfortunately, not every iPhone 5 is eligible for the free battery replacement, and Apple says the affected iPhone 5 devices were sold between September 2012 and January 2013, and fall within a limited serial number range. If your iPhone 5 qualifies and you’re experiencing poor battery performance, the Cupertino-based company will replace your iPhone 5 battery free of charge.

You can check to see if your iPhone 5 qualifies by entering the device’s serial number in the text box on Apple’s website. If you’re not sure where to find your iPhone 5′s serial number, it’s stored on your device in iOS. Simply open up the Settings app and navigate to General > About. Scroll down and you’ll see your iPhone 5′s serial number in the list.

You can get your battery serviced at either an Apple Authorized Service Provider or an official Apple Retail Store. You can also send it to Apple through the mail if you don’t live near a physical Apple location.

Of course, before you take your iPhone 5 to Apple to get the battery replaced, you’ll want to back up your data to iTunes or iCloud, that way no data is lost if Apple resets everything, which will likely be the case.

Furthermore, if your iPhone 5 has existing damage, like a cracked screen, that will need to be repaired before you send your device in to get the battery replaced, as Apple will not replace the battery of a damaged iPhone 5.

You can get the battery in your iPhone 5 replaced up until March 1, 2015, but it’s important to note that it doesn’t extend your iPhone 5’s warranty.

This isn’t the first issue that the iPhone 5 has been plagued with in its two years of existence.  Earlier this year, Apple launched a similar program that would replace the sleep/wake button on affected iPhone 5 units. Models manufactured through March 2013 may have been affected and it appears the program is still live, so if you’re having issues with the power button on your iPhone 5, it looks like you still have time to get it fixed.

While you can let Apple handle everything for free, dealing with the company and having to go without your main device for almost a week (if you mail it in) just isn’t in the cards for some users. That’s where DIY (Do It Yourself) comes into play.

Most people probably don’t feel comfortable enough to replace iPhone 5 components themselves, but if you’re feeling up to the task and willing to take a risk, iFixit has guides that show you how to replace various components on the iPhone 5.

Take note that the task is fairly difficult and it’s not as easy as just opening up your iPhone and replacing the power button. You have to disassemble a ton of parts just to get to the power button, mostly because Apple has their hardware locked down and the company makes its products difficult to repair — not because they don’t want people messing with the insides, but because of different design elements and making the phone as thin as possible.

You’ll also need some specialty tools, like a pentalobe screwdriver, some plastic spudgers (which are used to pry open the iPhone 5 assembly), and a suction cup to help carefully take off the touch screen. Of course, iFixit sells a kit that you can buy, so it’s fairly easy to get a hold of all the tools you need (and it will cost you money), but just be aware that it will difficult repair if you’ve never pried open an iPhone before.