Review iPhone 4S battery life problems: bug in location services suspected

A flaw in Apple's location services system in its new iOS 5 software is increasingly suspected of being the cause of rapid battery drain for some owners of the iPhone 4S.

A growing number of people have found that the "Setting Time Zone" element of the Systems Services within the broader Location Services product seems to be operating even when there is no chance that the user would have moved to a different location or time zone. An icon beside the setting, which indicates whether it has been used in the past 24 hours, suggests that it is running repeatedly to access the phone's location even when there is no apparent reason to do so.

Location services can prompt large drains on any smartphone's battery: they use a combination of the Wi-Fi network name, where available, plus mobile mast data and GPS sensor input, to calculate the phone's position. The mobile mast data, for example, is usually calculated by comparing the strength of signals from the three nearest phone masts and triangulating against them. However if such a calculation is made too often, by polling the masts, it will begin to use battery power unnecessarily.

On iDownloadBlog, Oliver Haslam suggests: "it appears that iOS 5′s GM release introduced a bug that causes the Setting Time Zone function to keep the location tracking circuitry running constantly, draining battery power considerably. Switching it off may mean that your iPhone will no longer set its own time zone when you travel, but that's a small price to pay for having your iPhone last more than 12 hours on a full charge… We have tested this method on 4 different iPhone 4s handsets, including an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS. All have reported drastically improved battery life after switching 'Setting Time Zone' off."
Some commenters have suggested they see little difference, but the purple icon beside the setting indicates that it is active - and for many people will have been active during the past 24 hours.

Apple's use of location services is deeply integrated into the iPhone 4S and iOS, but others have suggested that it is consuming too much battery power. "Two years working with dedicated GPS units taught me to be extremely careful with GPS settings: [it] kills battery very fast," David Hamilton, a web and Java consultant, remarked on Twitter.

Discussions on Apple's support boards are still raging over what specifically could be draining the battery so much more rapidly. Apple has not so far made any comment, but the Guardian reported on Friday that its engineers have begun contacting some people who have been reporting exceptionally rapid use.

The Guardian's own latest tests on an iPhone 4S found that it achieved 36 hours of battery life with a mixture of Wi-Fi, mobile data, and combined use, including 6 hours' using apps, phones, browsing and some location services. The majority of that included having the "Setting Time Zone" tab activated. There is no data yet from the ongoing tests about what effect disabling it has had.

Apple Review: Will Apple's TV Set Be Powered by Siri?

As soon as Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs hit the streets, buzz about a possible Apple television set has hit a fever pitched. The idea was renewed based on comments Jobs made that he had finally "cracked" the interface for such a device. Now a new report suggests that we may have already met that interface: Siri.

It's been less than a month since the new digital voice assistant on the iPhone 4S debuted to the public, but Apple may already have plans for it to feature as the controller of a connected TV. Nick Bilton, writing for the Times' Bits blog, says Apple engineers tried one thing after another in their search to simplify or do away with the remote control. After floating ideas like a wireless keyboard or iPhone control, they eventually had their eureka moment: just talk to it.

Although the report cites anonymous sources who say Apple has a television in the works, it's not clear if the information about Siri as a controller comes from them or is Bilton's speculation. It does seem like a logical move for Apple to include Siri in future products ipad Accessories iPad Cases , particularly any TVs it may be working on. However, it remains to be seen if consumers fully embrace it as a control mechanism or see it as a barely useful extra. In addition, integrating Siri would require a level of electronics that most TVs don't have, pushing the price up.

Apple executives have been planning a dedicated TV product since 2007, the report says, ever since the original Apple TV set-top box came on the scene. Of course, that product flopped, Apple itself started calling it a "hobby," and basically let it languish until late last year, when the stripped-down model was released and became something of a hit, thanks mainly to the $99 price.

Getting into the TV business isn't without its challenges, but Apple appears set on bringing its tremendously influential brand, along with iTunes, to the living room in a big way. The numbers certainly make it look attractive: Earlier this week UBS said an Apple TV could potentially ad $100 billion to Apple's value as a company, if it's a success.

When will the real Apple TV arrive? The Times predicts an announcement in 2012 with a product release in 2013, but that sounds absolutely nothing like Apple, which almost always launches products as soon as it unveils them. Credit Suisse put out a report earlier this week that said an Apple TV is still two or three years out, mainly because Apple still needed time to work out content deals.

The discussion of Apple TV had definitely moved from "if" to "when," though. Now all Apple has to do is deliver on a groundbreaking product that will shake up a broken industry and execute on a production and marketing strategy in a category it has no experience in. Again.

The Android Lifesaver: Best Android Home Security Camera WIIA 2.1

“Make no mistakes, home burglary is not something to be complacent about," says Carl Robinson, a home security kit expert . Home burglary murders are done because the person who accidentally interrupts a burglary in progress often causes the burglar to panic, leaving the burglar little choice other than to kill the eyewitness or go to prison.

The following are excerpts from the confession of triple home burglar murderer Matthew Hoffman given to Knox county Ohio police investigators on November 19, 2010:

“I parked my car in Howard and walked from there to the house. I got to the woods across the street from the house a little after midnight. I slept across the street from the house that night in a sleeping bag. I woke up at daylight. There were two vehicles parked at the house during the night, and I saw that the gray car had left. I went back to sleep until around nine on Wednesday morning. I stayed there until a woman left in a pickup truck. This meant there were no vehicles at the house. I walked across the street and tried to enter the front door, but it was locked. I then went in through the garage door. The garage door was not closed all the way so I slid under it into the garage. I kicked the door into the house from the garage. By this time it was approximately 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.



"I looked around the house to make sure no one was there. Even if I did not take anything, there was a certain amount of excitement in being in someone else's home without them being there. I was looking for anything of value that could be carried out easily, i.e. money, jewelry, etc. I did not find anything of any real value. I was getting ready to leave as I had been there approximately an hour, but someone pulled into the driveway. I was back in the bedrooms when she entered the house and was unable to exit without breaking a window and trying to jump out. I had brought my knife for a certain amount of intimidation in case I ran into someone and needed to make an escape.

"When she made her way back into the bedrooms I confronted her and made her get onto the bed lying face down. I believe that we were in her bedroom. I had a blackjack, I was going to try to knock her out. I hit her a couple of times in the head, but this would not knock her out. It was not doing the job, and I started panicking. The next thing that I knew her friend came into the bedroom. I have no idea when she got there, what she was doing there, and how she gained access. The other woman yelled at me, there were now two to deal with and I did not know what to do.

"I grabbed the knife that I had put down on the nightstand and stabbed the woman on the bed, through her back, twice. I chased the other woman down (Stephanie) and stabbed her a couple times in the chest. Instead of running out of the house, she had run into another bedroom. I believe this bedroom was for a girl due to the contents of the room. I then went back to the other bedroom where the first woman was located and stabbed her a couple more times. I could tell that both women were now dead.

"At this time I was in a total state of shock. I wandered around the house slowly coming to the realization of what I had done and how bad it was. During this time I killed the dog because it would not stop barking. After a while I came to the conclusion that I was going to dispose of the bodies and burn the house down.”
Robinson says, “Android Home Security Camera WIIA 2.1 is a 100% cellular covert surveillance camera system that keeps you out ahead of any home burglary or intruder occurrence. It detects a burglar by built in motion sensor and sends pictures instantly and directly to your personal cell phone when you are away from home and there is a break-in. Several of these Hoffman type murders happen every day, 365 days a year to the horrible surprise of home owners and apartment dwellers all across America. If you don’t think a Hoffman type murder can take place at your home – think again – and think in the real world. At a minimum a home burglary happens somewhere every 8.5 seconds.

“The Hoffman triple burglary murder, kidnap and rape took place in Knox county Ohio, on November 10, 2010. Before that day was over, Hoffman, a 30-year-old unemployed ex-con, had killed Herrmann, her 11-year-old son, Kody Maynard, and Herrmann's best friend and neighbor, 41-year-old Stephanie Sprang," says Robinson. “He also had kidnapped a 13-year-old girl, sexually assaulted her and held her hostage until authorities, after days of old-fashioned police work, raided Hoffman's home near downtown Mount Vernon, Ohio about 8 a.m. the following Sunday morning and rescued her.”

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Design simplicity is the key for Windows 8 popular Windows feature: the task manager

Design simplicity is the key for Windows 8, and Microsoft recently discussed on its blog yet another popular Windows feature getting streamlined in Windows 8: the task manager. The new task manager echoes the design simplicity Microsoft was showing off earlier with the new copy file dialog.

Microsoft says three goals guided development of the new task manager, which is intended to appeal to non-techies and power users alike. The company says it wants to create a task manager that is optimized for common tasks (killing apps and processes), using a modern and functional interface, but without cutting out the favorite functions of power users.

For most users, the result is that Windows 8 won't inundate you with a long list of unfriendly-looking processes like the task managers in Vista and Windows 7. Instead, the new OS shows a simplified list of programs that you can expand if you need to go beyond simply killing an app.

A Simpler Task Manager

After studying user habits in Windows 7, Microsoft found that 85 percent of all task manager usage centers around the Applications and Processes tabs. This discovery isn't that surprising since most people use the task manager to simply kill off an application or process that isn't responding.

 

Force Quit Dialog in OS X 10.5, Leopard. Source: Macworld

 

So instead of seeing a long list of information you don't need, all you'll see when you open the Windows 8 task manager for the first time is a simple list of apps. You'll see no tabs, no menu bar, no statistics -- just apps. If a program is having a problem, a "Not Responding" note will appear next to the application name. This approach is similar to Apple's interface for killing applications in OS X.

Microsoft has simplified the basic task manager so much that you won't get a double prompt asking you if you're certain you want to kill a process. If you select the "End Task" button in Windows 8, the operating system will kill the process and the program will be told to shut down. Microsoft warns you to be careful with the new task manager, because Windows 8 won't prompt you ( toshiba PA3534U-1BAS battery   toshiba PA3536U-1BRS battery  ) to save your work before shutting something down.

Details, Details

Power users looking for a more information on what's going on in their system can still get it by clicking the "More details" button. This will open up a more familiar tabbed view for the task manager, but Microsoft has also made some important tweaks to this view as well.

First, all processes are grouped by type, such as which application they belong to, all background processes, or operating system processes. As with other Windows groupings, you can click on the left side of each app or process to expand the list and drill deeper into what your system is running. This will let you see, for example, how many Outlook windows are open or how many processes a specific service is running in the background.

Microsoft is also highlighting right at the top of the detail view percentages for CPU, memory, disk, and network usage. The top indicator for each category shows your overall usage, and then breaks it down by groups.

A heat map is also supplied to help you identify which applications are sucking up your system resources. The more CPU or memory an app uses, for example, the darker its statistics appear in the detail view.

Process names are also friendlier, by using common names for processes instead of cryptic terms such as "splwow64.exe." Did you know that means "Printer driver host for applications"? I sure didn't, but I will in Windows 8.

If adding friendlier names still doesn't help you understand why your printer driver host is causing problems, Microsoft is adding a "Search the Web" option when you right-click on a process. Clicking the search option will open your default browser to a search results page with information about the mystery process.

Microsoft has made some nice-looking improvements to the task manager and simplified its view for those who don't need it. But here's another interesting change: in the process of simplifying the task manager, Microsoft adds an extra tab in the detail view compared to Windows 7. How's that for simplification? more info at: http://www.top-shoppingmall.com/spy-cameras-1.htm

'Spy cameras' documentary premiered in Birmingham

A documentary about the removal of more than 200 "spy-cameras" in Birmingham earlier in the year had its world premiere on Wednesday.

The cameras were paid for with £3m of government funds earmarked for tackling terrorism.

But members of the community were angry with the Project Champion scheme in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook areas.

Defeat of the Champion premiered at the West Midlands Human Rights Film Festival at Birmingham Library Theatre.

Civil liberties

Coventry University media lecturer Ken Fero helped create the 25-minute-long documentary, co-directing the film with Tariq Mehmood, with a number of students also involved.

Mr Fero said the film fitted in well with the remit of the festival, which has been organised by the Birmingham International Film Society.

"The documentary has been tagged by the festival organisers as a highlight of the festival because at the time, the cameras caused a great deal of controversy in two districts of Birmingham," he said.

"The ring of steel that was placed around a largely Muslim area was cancelled after civil liberties campaigners complained.

"But there was outrage once it emerged that the project was being paid for from a national counter-terrorism grant."

An independent report was highly critical of the Project Champion scheme and West Midlands Police (WMP) over the cameras' installation, some of which were hidden.

'Deeply sorry'

Chief Constable Chris Sims, from WMP, has previously apologised.

Last September Mr Sims said: "I am sorry that we got such an important issue so wrong and deeply sorry that it has had such a negative impact on our communities.

"No cameras associated with the project have ever been used." More info at: http://www.top-shoppingmall.com/