14 DAY TRIAL // iOS 4 is starting to look more and more like an update that Apple designed specifically for the iPhone 4, as owners of older-generation devices seem to be experiencing numerous issues after installing the new software. Softpedia has spotted a thread on Apple’s Discussions forums, which indicates there is a serious problem with preserving battery life on the iPod touch, after applying iOS 4.
A user identified as “Tim's Tree” claims that his second-generation iPod touch is having a hard time staying alive through the night, even with its owner leaving it fully charged when going to bed. According to his post, the iPod touch is “completely drained and non-responsive” in the morning.
“My iPod Touch (2nd gen) is completely charged when I go to bed, but when I wake up in the morning it is completely drained and non-responsive,” the user writes. “This never happened under pre-iOS 4 releases. It's really unfortunate because otherwise I prefer the new OS.”
“DrWig” chimes in with a similar story, saying “Absolutely the same with my 3rd gen iPod. Go to sleep with nearly full battery, wake up with a nearly empty one. This update has crippled my iPod,” the disappointed Apple customer writes. “I really hope the restore feature works to get mr [sic] back to os3..... My iPod clearly isn't going into standby like it used to.”
Poster “james1231” tags along with a more instructive post, saying “Wifi, bluetooth, location services, push notifications, and even very high screen brightness will run down the battery.” He advises fellow Apple Discussions users to “Just use airplane mode when you are not using your ipod for a longer period of time. It will turn off wifi,bluetooth,location services,” he explains.
Another frustrated iPod touch (3G) owner, “tBone97”, reveals that he “used to get about 12 hours straight music play, with […] wifi on. Now I'm lucky to get 8, even after closing all apps,” he claims. “Turning off wifi seems to help a bit, but there seems to something else in the background that is draining the battery”, the forum user believes.
An additional 12 pages containing over 170 similar posts and replies can be found in the thread entitled “Low battery life on iPod touch after installing iOS 4”.
As usual, Softpedia is eager to know how many folks are experiencing these problems, in what circumstances, on which device models etc. Readers are encouraged to share their iOS 4 experience with us in the comments. With enough answers from you, we’ll be able to post a follow-up report trying to better understand what is going on with Apple’s latest iOS software update. After all, the company did say iPod touch 2G and 3G were supported.
UPDATE: the readers have spoken. See a number of highlighted comments HERE