Wired Magazine: iPhone Is Almost Perfect

DisasterManager wrote:
> Steven Levy, another satisfied adopter of Apple's smart phone
> Wired Magazine
> http://www.wired.com/gadgets/gadgetr.../16-10/ts_levy
>
> Steven Levy: Why the iPhone Is Almost Perfect
> By Steven Levy 09.22.08
>
> My first full day with the iPhone 3G turned out to be too full. At
> least as far as the iPhone was concerned. It was just two in the
> afternoon when the screen displayed the most unwelcome dialog box in
> mobile computing: LOW BATTERY: 20% OF BATTERY REMAINING. In my
> experience, that message's real meaning is make your last call NOW,
> because the lights are going out soon. Though it didn't happen
> instantly, within a few minutes that gorgeous screen looked like the
> closing shot of the The Sopranos finale.
>
> I had been enjoying the iPhone 3G. The out-of-the-box price was right
> — as low as $200, with a two-year contract — if you qualify for the
> subsidy from AT&T. It was slimmer and sleeker than its predecessor. It
> had real GPS. And, addressing my biggest problem with the original
> iPhone, data loaded much faster when a 3G network was available. Most
> of all, I was itching to try out loads of the intriguing applications
> from the iTunes App Store, about a dozen of which I'd already
> downloaded. But there's no joy in a juiceless phone.
> How bad is the problem? No way around it — 3G cellular chips eat
> energy. But Apple's Bob Borchers contends that the iPhone team
> succeeded in extending battery life to an acceptable level. There's
> evidence to back this up: The iPhone does best its 3G rivals when it
> comes to run time.
>
> Nonetheless, battery life is more of a challenge for the iPhone than
> for its competitors, because Apple's multitouch darling entices you to
> actually do the things that burn through your charge like a Roman
> candle. It's so easy to surf the Web, play graphics-intensive games,
> and geolocate your buddies that the iPhone is less likely to hang out
> in your pocket in standby mode, waiting for a silly phone call.
>
> The Bottom Line? Battery issues hinder an otherwise stellar mobile
> computer.
> "iPhone apps are a game changer," says Tim Westergren, founder of
> Internet radio company Pandora, whose music app — an early favorite of
> iPhone downloaders — perfectly illustrates the power problem. When you
> listen to audio stored on the iPhone, you can indulge in 24 hours of
> tunes without a recharge. But streaming Pandora will run the battery
> down in maybe five or six. According to Westergren, Pandora's growth
> rate doubled after the launch of the new iPhone — a phenomenon
> undoubtedly mirrored on thousands of battery meters.
>
> Part of what's happening is that we have unrealistic expectations from
> tech in general. We're so used to technomagic that we routinely expect
> some chemist or physicist — or clever geek at Apple — to come up with
> solutions to our problems. But while computing power and storage make
> advances in logarithmic scale, batteries seem to follow Not Much
> More's law. It's a problem for not just phones but everything from
> electric cars to hearing aids.
> That said, power consumption is not a dealbreaker for the iPhone 3G.
> Think of it as a chronic condition that requires monitoring and
> treatment. All over the blogosphere you'll find the Apple fanboy
> version of Hints From Heloise: iPhone 3G battery-extension tips.
> Apple's own Web page on the subject instructs users to dive into the
> Settings menu to turn off power-draining features. (The last
> suggestion is "Turn off 3G," an odd request for a product whose name
> includes "3G.")
>
> But the best advice is to put expectations into perspective. "This is
> as much a computer as a phone," says Matt Murphy, who heads Kleiner-
> Perkins' iFund, a $100 million initiative that seeds iPhone apps. "You
> don't expect a computer to last for 24 hours on one charge."
> Since that first meltdown, by taking battery- extending measures like
> switching off push mail, data fetch, and sometimes (sniff) 3G, I have
> only occasionally had a day where I needed to break out the charger
> before bedtime. One day we'll get that quantum leap in battery tech
> that will obviate the annoying trade-off between functionality and
> juice. Until then, it's so many apps to play with, so little time
> between charges.
>
In my limited experience (I have a Touch, not an iPhone), this author is
being way too liberal with the battery issue. Opposed to his position, I
believe it to be a "deal breaker".

The iPhone (Touch) is expected to do way too much than its thin profile and
thus limited battery can provide. I find I can almost watch the battery
thermometer go down as I scroll through just a few web pages. There is
actually psychological pressure to NOT use the thing for those purposes.

Now, if the battery were user-changeable, that might make for a different
conclusion. But it's not. And please don't tell me about battery-extending
devices. I bought and own a Lenmar PowerPort. While IT is an incredible
device that seems to meet its expectations, it's not my dream system to walk
around with TWO iPhone-sized devices attached to each other via a wire. It
screams GEEK too loudly for me and is cumbersome even if my geek-esteem
issues were better.