How to Save Battery Life on iOS 7 ( Complete Guide )

[Skull One]

He was being very sure of the iOS stuff. As long as he hasn't invented it, he doesn't know everything for sure, neither do I.

Klevis, IT Engineering, Tirana, AL

Actually I do know for sure. And now I am going to take a few minutes to explain why things work the way the do. You might want to re-read this several times. Because if you are going to school for IT Engineering, you are going to actually need to know and be able to explain this before you graduate. Well if your university is any good that is.

TCP/IP is the networking protocol used by iOS and Android. They chose this standard because that is how the Internet has been running since the early 1980s. At present iOS has to default to IPv4 because all cellular networks are currently still on that technology. So with that out of the way, lets look at how things work.

There are two ways to implement Push Notifications properly. There is a third way but it is too idiotic and battery intensive to spend time typing it up.

1) Run a piece of software 24/7 that monitors one or more IP addresses and wait for a connection request from another IP address.

2) Run a piece of software 24/7 that connects to another IP address and keeps one or more port open to that server.

Now you can't use UDP packets to handle this because UDP is a lossy protocol. IE you can drop one or more UDP packets and not be required to retransmit them. Well if one of those packets was a notification, then you just missed it. And ICMP, the third major protocol used on TCP/IP connection, is all about error status or checking status, so that rules that out. So with that in mind we can logically deduce that the connection must be TCP.

Now under scenario one the CPU would have to be in a non-sleep state for the software to work. Simply put this would waste a ton of battery life. Since Apple only uses sub 1500 mHa batteries to power iPhones, they have to be really careful about battery usage. The great news to this is, that means iPads get a boost in power conversation because of it to help power the screen.

So that leaves us with scenario two. And that happens to be the one Apple chose to implement because of its battery saving nature. So iOS (and Android) has a notification daemon that makes one or more TCP/IP connections to one or more IP addresses and opens one or more TCP ports to those servers. This then allows the software to set a hardware interrupt on either the WiFi or Cellular radio to awaken the application when the device gets an incoming TCP packet to one of the TCP ports the programming is monitoring. Simple and very battery efficient.

That means whether there are one or one billion applications set up with notifications, the same amount of power is required to maintain the Push Notification system.


Now if you really want to save battery life, when it comes to Notifications, you only have to make ONE ITTY BITTY change to the notifications system. Simply turn off Notifications from showing on the lock screen. Because THAT is what can eat the battery life if you get a lot of notifications. Because every time you get a notification it turns the display on for 15 seconds, well unless you have a magnetic cover and have the lock screen feature set to use it.

So now you know how things work and WHY they work the way they do. And as a side note, you can actually RESEARCH EVERYTHING I have typed here to verify it for yourself.

Good luck with your career path if you decide to stay in IT Engineering. It isn't an easy one because it requires you to learn a lot of information.

 

[Skull One]

I turned it on already, and it's 100% but the charging lightning symbol still on! It doesn't show the plug symbol like the older iOS version is it?

No it doesn't.

And sadly TheSagittarius doesn't know this fact, which is why he is giving you bad advice to try.

iOS 7 now shows that you are connected to a power source. It doesn't differentiate between fully charged and partially charged like iOS 6 and earlier. But I plan to use a power meter very soon to actually test what is going on. IE is the battery percentage display now setup to only show 100% charge when the battery is in Stage 3 of the charging specification.

 

[Skull One]

Ok I have a power monitor now running on my iPhone 5S and I am monitoring the actual wattage being used to charge the phone. I am comparing the data I am seeing right now against my video I did back in May 2012 on an iPhone 4S (iPhone Mythbusting! Let's separate the facts from the fiction.). Hopefully I will have an answer in the next 30 minutes.

 

[Skull One]

Bad news. My iPhone 5S hit 100% battery percentage and it is still in the tail end phase of Stage 2 charging based on the wattage being drawn right now. Which means it will need about another 10 to 15 minutes to reach Stage 3 (or monitor stage) for the charging circuit to shut down. Looks like I will need to do another video sadly.

 

[Skull One]

Charging circuit has turned off. Took about 12 minutes after hitting 100%. Ok, NOW I dislike iOS 7's charging status change over iOS 6.

 

[king0081]

Charging circuit has turned off. Took about 12 minutes after hitting 100%. Ok, NOW I dislike iOS 7's charging status change over iOS 6.

Than what should I do? How can I know if it's fully charged or not?

 

[Skull One]

Than what should I do? How can I know if it's fully charged or not?

If you weren't watching the phone when it hit 100%, then all you can do is wait 15 minutes after you check it to be absolutely sure.

Hopefully this oversight in iOS 7 will be corrected and made to work like iOS 6 and earlier.

 

[giradman]

Charging circuit has turned off. Took about 12 minutes after hitting 100%. Ok, NOW I dislike iOS 7's charging status change over iOS 6.

Than what should I do? How can I know if it's fully charged or not?

Hi Skull One - I've been enjoying your posts on this topic; just curious in lieu of the lower quote above, I have two 'Battery Apps' (Battery+HD & Battery Boost) which report the charged % of the iPad's battery - but I'm assuming that each obtains its information from the monitoring technology w/i the battery; SO, if this is behaving as you reported, I would assume that these apps would 'report' similarly? I'm waiting to update my iPads to iOS 7 - will see what Apple does in the near future? Thanks again for your discussions - Dave

 

[Skull One]

Hi Skull One - I've been enjoying your posts on this topic; just curious in lieu of the lower quote above, I have two 'Battery Apps' (Battery+HD & Battery Boost) which report the charged % of the iPad's battery - but I'm assuming that each obtains its information from the monitoring technology w/i the battery; SO, if this is behaving as you reported, I would assume that these apps would 'report' similarly? I'm waiting to update my iPads to iOS 7 - will see what Apple does in the near future? Thanks again for your discussions - Dave

As far as I know, those apps can only pull the 5% battery report not the 1% battery report that Apple has access to. You can verify this by having the battery at 98% and then check those apps. They will show either 95% (most likely) or 100% if memory serves.

Now if they actually show 98%, PLEASE TELL ME which app does it, because I would love to have another tool to work with for testing that isn't writing by Apple.

 

[giradman]

As far as I know, those apps can only pull the 5% battery report not the 1% battery report that Apple has access to. You can verify this by having the battery at 98% and then check those apps. They will show either 95% (most likely) or 100% if memory serves.

Now if they actually show 98%, PLEASE TELL ME which app does it, because I would love to have another tool to work with for testing that isn't writing by Apple.

Well not sure if this data will help, but my iPad 2 (w/ iOS 6.1.3) is now at 78% - Battery HD+ is showing 78%, while Battery Boost Magic is reporting 75%; the latter app can be updated to a 'Pro' version for a buck and claims to show charge in 1% intervals. Dave

 

[Skull One]

Well not sure if this data will help, but my iPad 2 (w/ iOS 6.1.3) is now at 78% - Battery HD+ is showing 78%, while Battery Boost Magic is reporting 75%; the latter app can be updated to a 'Pro' version for a buck and claims to show charge in 1% intervals. Dave

EXCELLENT! They have changed the rules or the SDK since I last read them in mid 2011.

Now there was a SDK feature introduced back in iOS 4, if memory serves, that allowed an app to show a notification when the device is full charged. The question now is, does the app trigger at 100% on display or when Stage 2 charging has ended? If it notifies on the end of Stage 2, then we have a temporary tool until Apple puts the proper behavior back into iOS 7.

 

[TheSagittarius]

Actually I do know for sure. And now I am going to take a few minutes to explain why things work the way the do. You might want to re-read this several times. Because if you are going to school for IT Engineering, you are going to actually need to know and be able to explain this before you graduate. Well if your university is any good that is. TCP/IP is the networking protocol used by iOS and Android. They chose this standard because that is how the Internet has been running since the early 1980s. At present iOS has to default to IPv4 because all cellular networks are currently still on that technology. So with that out of the way, lets look at how things work. There are two ways to implement Push Notifications properly. There is a third way but it is too idiotic and battery intensive to spend time typing it up. 1) Run a piece of software 24/7 that monitors one or more IP addresses and wait for a connection request from another IP address. 2) Run a piece of software 24/7 that connects to another IP address and keeps one or more port open to that server. Now you can't use UDP packets to handle this because UDP is a lossy protocol. IE you can drop one or more UDP packets and not be required to retransmit them. Well if one of those packets was a notification, then you just missed it. And ICMP, the third major protocol used on TCP/IP connection, is all about error status or checking status, so that rules that out. So with that in mind we can logically deduce that the connection must be TCP. Now under scenario one the CPU would have to be in a non-sleep state for the software to work. Simply put this would waste a ton of battery life. Since Apple only uses sub 1500 mHa batteries to power iPhones, they have to be really careful about battery usage. The great news to this is, that means iPads get a boost in power conversation because of it to help power the screen. So that leaves us with scenario two. And that happens to be the one Apple chose to implement because of its battery saving nature. So iOS (and Android) has a notification daemon that makes one or more TCP/IP connections to one or more IP addresses and opens one or more TCP ports to those servers. This then allows the software to set a hardware interrupt on either the WiFi or Cellular radio to awaken the application when the device gets an incoming TCP packet to one of the TCP ports the programming is monitoring. Simple and very battery efficient. That means whether there are one or one billion applications set up with notifications, the same amount of power is required to maintain the Push Notification system. Now if you really want to save battery life, when it comes to Notifications, you only have to make ONE ITTY BITTY change to the notifications system. Simply turn off Notifications from showing on the lock screen. Because THAT is what can eat the battery life if you get a lot of notifications. Because every time you get a notification it turns the display on for 15 seconds, well unless you have a magnetic cover and have the lock screen feature set to use it. So now you know how things work and WHY they work the way they do. And as a side note, you can actually RESEARCH EVERYTHING I have typed here to verify it for yourself. Good luck with your career path if you decide to stay in IT Engineering. It isn't an easy one because it requires you to learn a lot of information.

Thank you for spending some minutes c/p stuff from the internet !!
How about my University, you don't have to worry about it . I left my home country to study in that university which is in another country .
Good luck on your future posts! . Try and be calm.

Klevis, IT Engineering, Tirana, AL

 

[Skull One]

Thank you for spending some minutes c/p stuff from the internet !!
How about my University, you don't have to worry about it . I left my home country to study in that university which is in another country .
Good luck on your future posts! . Try and be calm.

Klevis, IT Engineering, Tirana, AL

The only reason that took a few minutes to type is because I typed it from memory. I didn't have to reference the internet. After 28 years of TCP/IP based work, you learn a few things along the way. BTW the USAF also trained me as a electronics technician back in the mid 80s. And I have spent the last 30 years as a professional programming in over two dozen languages across multiple CPU architectures.

And I am pretty sure I have children older than you.

So I recommend you knock off the kids games with me and either accept the fact that you are telling people incorrect information or simply stop posting period. Because I will not allow you to spread bad information as fact. Just isn't going to happen.

 

[Gabriel1]

Thank you for spending some minutes c/p stuff from the internet !! How about my University, you don't have to worry about it . I left my home country to study in that university which is in another country . Good luck on your future posts! . Try and be calm. Klevis, IT Engineering, Tirana, AL

The only reason that took a few minutes to type is because I typed it from memory. I didn't have to reference the internet. After 28 years of TCP/IP based work, you learn a few things along the way. BTW the USAF also trained me as a electronics technician back in the mid 80s. And I have spent the last 30 years as a professional programming in over two dozen languages across multiple CPU architectures. And I am pretty sure I have children older than you. So I recommend you knock off the kids games with me and either accept the fact that you are telling people incorrect information or simply stop posting period. Because I will not allow you to spread bad information as fact. Just isn't going to happen.

Now that we have established credentials lets all re-read the title of the thread and make sure that future posts are on topic without the side comments.

FWIW, this is, as always, a really interesting topic which goes way over my head(!) but for now, let's breathe before pressing the send button.

A forum administrator has already asked for everyone to move on......and we won't be asking again.

The Archangel

 

[TheSagittarius]

The only reason that took a few minutes to type is because I typed it from memory. I didn't have to reference the internet. After 28 years of TCP/IP based work, you learn a few things along the way. BTW the USAF also trained me as a electronics technician back in the mid 80s. And I have spent the last 30 years as a professional programming in over two dozen languages across multiple CPU architectures. And I am pretty sure I have children older than you. So I recommend you knock off the kids games with me and either accept the fact that you are telling people incorrect information or simply stop posting period. Because I will not allow you to spread bad information as fact. Just isn't going to happen.

First of all you're no-one to stop me! Because you are not my father or mother!
2nd, if you have a child older than 38 you can say that phrase. IT Engineering is my second university so do the calculations by yourself, SIR! And I am not doing childish games with you!
Someone asked for a guide how to save battery and I posted it ( the link ). So let's stop commenting about other things when we are in an iOS forum.
Thank you.

Klevis, IT Engineering, Tirana, AL