I recently posted some great iPhone battery tips from Ed Shepard. This prompted New Orleans attorney Duris Holmes to write me with another suggestion for saving power on your iPhone: turn it off. Okay, that sounds like a joke, but Duris learned the hard way that it may be best to turn the entire iPhone off -- instead of just turning off the antennas -- when you won't use it for a while. He explained:
I haven't seen this anywhere else, but if you are going somewhere and will not be using your iPhone for a few days, I would suggest turning it off. I went to Canada last week and turned off roaming, 3G, etc. while I was there so as not to download expensive data. I was impressed that my iPhone appeared to still be half-charged. Something went haywire, however, as it would no longer hold any charge when I returned to the US, even though I was charging three times a day. The Apple Store ran diagnostics that showed that the phone was in use for almost as long as it was on, just as if I had talked on it the whole time.
Fortunately for Duris, the Apple Store replaced his iPhone and he says that the replacement process was "pretty painless and free." Indeed, I think that one of the reasons that Apple gets such great customer service ratings is that if an iPhone or iPod isn't working right, Apple Stores are really good about just replacing the unit without giving you any hassle. Nevertheless, it would have been better for Duris if this had never happened in the first place, and I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has had similar experiences.
This is a good time to mention that I always enjoy hearing from iPhone J.D. readers, especially if you have tips to offer others. My e-mail address is on the left, as is my Twitter account if you want to limit yourself to 140 characters.
