Just upgraded to the 2.1 firmware this morning.

Battery life appears significantly improved. 3G reception and 3G/Edge switching look better, but I'll need more time to evaluate that part of the upgrade.

birdstrike- did you previously have problems w/ Apps crashing (or not loading)?

I had a few apps that would crash, but updates to the apps solved that. Prior to my upgrade to 2.1 my phone was already pretty stable.

Installed 2.1 when I woke up this morning. Finally turned 3G back on and have not had any problems so far, including making calls from places where I used to always have dropped calls with 3G on. I have also noticed that it sped up the loading of my contacts and there is no long the initial lag as I would try to scroll through.

^ for 2.1

Typing is way snappier and the lag is gone (thank God).

Can't comment on the connectivity issues because I wasn't really experiencing much of that prior. Battery life seems to be better, but I won't know for sure until my next trip in a couple weeks.

ALSO- for all of us flying geeks...

X-Plane 9 is now available in the app store!!!

Its getting great reviews so far!!!

QuickPwn for the 2.1 firmware has now been released in a Windows version as well. All devices except the Touch 2G are supported with 2.1. Jailbreak away...

Starting this week in HK -8 gb ~US$700, 16 gb ~ US$800
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...gin_oct_3.html

The Apple website has the following information about iPhone battery life and charge cycles:

The question I have is what counts as a charge cycle? For example, (taking to extreme for discussion purposes) if I run my iPhone battery from fully charged all the way down to 0% and then fully charge it back to 100%, I am assuming that this is considered as one full charge and discharge cycle.

Basically, does every time I plug in my iPhone count as a charge cycle and so should I always run my iPhone battery down as low as possible before charging it back up? I guess I am thinking about the old battery memory issues that use to plague rechargeable devices. If each time I plug in the iPhone counts as a charge cycle, should I wait until it is completely run down before charging it?

I did a search on this thread and read the 5 pages of results, but none of the replies really addressed my question.

Thanks,

Onedog

I don't know the answer for sure, but I always thought that you should let the battery fully drain the first two or 3 times. After that you can do what you want. That is what I have done with my 2G iPhone that I bought at about 15 months ago. I'm pretty sure that I have plugged it in for a charge way more than 400 times and the battery still works great.

My understanding (and I'm too lazy to find authoritative sources, so you'll just have to take my word ) is that a small top-off charge doesn't count as a full cycle. So, if you only let your phone get down to ~50% before you recharge, each recharge is only a half-cycle.

I also think that in general, the more often you keep the battery topped off, the better off you are with LiIon/LiPoly cells. I let my battery run down to 10% maybe once a month, and the rest of the time, I never let it get much below 40% before I top it off.

Yeah, someone in my office told me that every time you plug in your iPhone counts as a recharge cycle. Something to the effect that Apple (and AT&T) have built in a certain number of allowed battery charges into the iPhone software that you are "forced" to upgrade to a new phone ---> "well, if it is going to cost me $79 to replace the battery, I might as well just get a brand new latest bells & whistles one for $199." And of course AT&T is only too happy to oblidge with a new 2 yr service agreement. Sounds like they may be reading too many conspiracy books.

Maybe we have a battery engineer on FT who can give us the authoritative lowdown on LiIon batteries.

Onedog

From apple: http://www.apple.com/batteries/

There are links from that page for battery life optimization for each type of Apple product/battery.

Anyone considering an iPhone this weekend? Best Buy is selling the 8GB for $149 to Reward Zone members (must have been a member on or before 2/21/2009) or to Silver Reward Zone members for $99. 16 GB is $249 and $199 respectively.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....&type=category

Edited to add: Deal ends 2/28/2009

I agree 100%. Current batteries don't suffer from "memory effect". I always fully drain them the 2 or 3 times too. Then I charge them whenever I need to no matter what their remaining charge is.

I bought one under this deal, $99.00 for the 8GB model. I currently did not use a cell phone and this is only the second cell phone I've ever owned, the first "smartphone" I've ever owned.