Roger Fingas
Better battery life is an Apple priority for iOS 9, and to that end the company has adopted extreme attention to detail, implementing things like face-down power restrictions, a Low Power mode, and a dedicated menu in the Settings app with more granular detail.
iOS 9 devices use light and proximity sensors to determine whether it's laying face-down, and stop the screen from turning on even when notifications come in. Displays are typically the most power-hungry component of any mobile device.
The Low Power mode can reduce consumption even further, mainly by limiting network activity. Email, for instance, is no longer fetched automatically, and background downloads and app refreshes are halted completely. Other measures include scaling back animations and screen brightness.
Apple is in fact promising that simply installing iOS 9 should give an iPhone 6 an extra hour of battery life. Turning on Low Power should add another three hours.
Partly because of that feature, the new Settings app moves battery options out from under a Usage submenu into a top-level section. The app can also track sources of battery usage on a narrower timeframe, recording since last wake, instead of just the past 24 hours or seven days.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
55 Comments
Just like the lessons from iPhone were brought back to improve the Mac, the lessons from Watch are now going to improve iOS. It's a nice cycle.
It would be nice if GPS/location based apps could all be restricted to "When Using". Too many apps are still all or nothing. There is no reason a traffic app (for example) needs to spin in the background using up battery when I'm at home or work.
No mention of GPS location sharing? I've long wanted my iPhone to me able to share my location with my iPad and MacBook. A simple Bluetooth protocol should be all it takes.
My phone is on do not disturb mode most of the time, I have my mail set to check for new mail when I open the app. I hope the battery saving mode has some really cool features that I don't know about, otherwise I don't think I'll notice much of a difference from the way I currently use my phone.
No mention of GPS location sharing? I've long wanted my iPhone to me able to share my location with my iPad and MacBook. A simple Bluetooth protocol should be all it takes.
It is very much possible to use GPS over bluetooth. It used to be (still might be) possible using a jailbroken iphone or regular android device.