I turned off the iPhone 3G’s assisted GPS feature (Location Services) for the past two days and noticed a huge battery life improvement. My 3G’s battery life was not too bad to begin with. It seemed to last all day even with GPS turned on. But, with GPS turned off, battery life looks much better.
My first T-Mobile Dash battery went bad after about a year of use. This was around last March or April (2007). I bought a new replacement battery through T-Mobile around that time. Today, I noticed that my battery was at 2% charge after turning it on. I had fully charged the battery the night before and turned off the phone after the battery was charged. I fully charged the battery after noticing this and then used it like I normally do. The battery was down to about 50% at the end of the day (night). Normally, the battery is between 70 and 80% capacity after a 14 hour or so period.
This sudden drop in charge capacity is very similar to what I saw in the original battery when it started to go bad. However, this time the second battery went bad in less than 7 months of use. That seems awfully short to me. I’m not going to buy a third battery, however. My T-Mobile G1 (Google Android) phone should arrive sometime next week. So, I’ll either switch to a different phone or muddle along with awful battery life for another 10 days or so.