“The issue took center stage at the big Google Zeitgeist event in London yesterday when Google co-founder Larry Page proclaimed that if your Android phone isn’t giving you 24 hours of usage, there’s something wrong,” Goldman writes. “But instead of taking ownership of the issue, and taking responsibility for a platform that doesn’t adequately power-manage all the software his phones can run, Page committed the cardinal sin of blaming Google’s third party applications developers instead.”
Goldman writes, “It’s their programs, and users running them all the time that suck up all that juice, not our phone.”
“Naturally, with Apple’s support of multi-tasking [in their forthcoming iPhone OS 4 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad], there were instant questions about how this would affect iPhone’s battery life, and Jobs was quick to address it: ‘It’s really easy to implement multitasking in a way that drains battery life. If you don’t do it just right your phone’s going to feel sluggish and your battery life is going to go way down. We’ve figured out how to implement multitasking of third-party apps and avoid those things,’ he said last month,” Goldman writes.
“Hmmmm. And therein lies the difference between Google and Apple when it comes to innovation,” Goldman writes. “Google: The Android battery life is sub-par and we blame you, the developers, our partners out there who are slaving away at trying to expand the platform. Apple: We’ve identified an issue in our platform and we have come up with an innovation to address it, so that we can help you the developers, our partners out there who are slaving away at trying to expand the platform.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Excellent article except for one thing: Goldman makes it sound like multitasking is an “issue” specific to Apple’s platform, but multitaking is an “issue” for every platform; as it has always been in computing, mobile or otherwise. Apple has approached multitasking in pretty much the best possible way for mobile devices, while Google et al. — without having Apple’s implementation to copy — have wrongly applied the desktop OS concept of multitasking to mobile devices that, by design, carry limited battery space (“desktop OS” meaning devices that are plugged into the wall and notebooks with relatively large batteries).
Apple gave the rest of the world the template to create the modern smartphone (really a computer in your pocket). The Googles of the world promptly knocked it off as best they could, based perhaps on what their bespectacled mole could remember before he started recusing himself. In places where Apple didn’t rush to market, but instead worked on the details in order to get them right (cut-copy-paste, multitasking, etc.) the knockoff artists plowed ahead “Microsoft Bob-style” with little or no thought as to how the things they were implementing would negatively impact the user.
Clearly, Apple leads while others, like Microsoft, Google, etc., follow years later. Where Apple takes extra time to get things right (or has patents), the followers strike out wildly and blindly on their own.
Without Apple’s hand to guide them, they are lost.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Robert C.” for the heads up.]
I’ve gone FOUR DAYS of using my iPad without plugging it in at all. All the time playing games, watching movies, surfing the web. Obviously not straight through, but pretty often.. At least six to seven hours of use each day.
I have to agree with ob1spyke. If you aren’t getting the battery life with a particular game, then it is in that games code.
MM
@ ob1spyker: “When I play Plants vs. Zombies (awesome game btw) my battery life is SIGNIFICANTLY diminished, like more than half. Might as well have Flash”
You may very well have infected your iPad with Flash! PopCap is a Flash developer and has a CTO who is ex-Adobe (Frits Haberman). Given that there are about 100 games in the App Store built with Adobe’s now-prohibited Flash Packager, PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies may well be one of them.
Why take a chance? Remove the tumor that’s killing your iPad…
You all DO realize that even when Apple delivers multi-tasking to the iOS platform with iOS 4, the naysayers will STILL be complaining because it’s not the “right KIND” of multi-tasking.
Seriously, I’ve seen those complaints in different forum postings already!
A spec sheet does NOT a platform make. Nor does simply slapping a desktop OS onto a handheld device.
Jobs: “Battery life is important to users”.
Non-Apple-World: “Nah! Nah! Nah! I CAN’T hear you…”
Non-Apple-World: “Oops, my Droid is dead.”
Non-Apple-World: “Battery life is important.”
Don’t you just love when your friends who rib you that Android is passing iPhone both have to borrow your iPhone because their Droid batteries are dead?
R2 doesn’t care. He’s just in hog heaven streaming Pandora, while surfing for porn and going poopee.
@D&D;GLOAT ’til it hurts!!!
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Jeez this site has become a hate fest for anything non-apple. I love my iPhone 3g but the battery blows.
@Diggitydog
When did you get your 3g? I’ve noticed my battery life only got bad after almost having it for a year now.. Which seems to par with the craptastic blackberry curves here at work. But those straight up fail instead of diminish in longevity
@Diggitydog,
“Jeez this site has become a hate fest for anything non-apple. I love my iPhone 3g but the battery blows.”
I have to disagree. Most of the people here do not hate anything non-Apple, they hate it when people make crazy claims for non-Apple items and then blame Apple for …. well everything.
If you battery blows, try using one of the Android phones and run everything multitask. Then let me know if the iPhone battery still blows. PS, even on the iPhone, shutting off things that you do not use, etc will help. Also there are many cheap chargers that can keep the battery life tops while you are not using it. I play music on the way to work and home and arrive with my iPhone fully charged.
Just a thought,
en
@ don & @ob1spyke
Game code could very well be the problem in this instance. I pretty much optimized my settings to get the best out of the battery when I first got it, but still never got that 10+ hours everyone is talking about. I’ll still take it over my laptop’s battery though.
I wonder though if it could have to do with the WiFi glitch I’ve heard about that Apple hasn’t fixed yet. I have had some problems connecting with my iPad while having full strength or sitting next to the router.
@Diggitydog
Turn off bluetooth if you’re not using it, shut off wifi the only push notification should be email so apps like games that do push, MDN’s app and others should be disabled .You can also shut off 3G except for when you’re surfing and control your screen brightness. Email can also be set to manual and shut off location services. All these actions will extend battery life.
I can hear it now. The Google refrain:
“Google blames third-party app developers for Android THIS!”
“Google blames third-party app developers for Android THAT!”
“Google blames third-party app developers for Android THE OTHER THING!”
On and on ad nauseam.
Dumdums wonder why Apple keeps control of their software development tools and require app approval. It never ends. If you don’t get the critical importance of integrating software with hardware, you buy an Android ThingIt. Have lots of fun. Just don’t come running back to us with Apple envy. Live and learn. Choose more wisely next time around.
Apple fanboys…
you guys are idiots. mac n’ toss is just as big as google so saying who the new microsoft is just a waste of time. steve jobs said a while ago that signal loss on iphone is the user’s fault not his a few days later nope my bad its our fault. stop being so loyal to one brand buy what works not the name.
Anonymous cowards say: “Apple fanboys…” & “you guys are idiots”
I say:
Google fanboys: You guys are idiots.
See, I can troll too! Boring.