Battery drains using gps tracking even when plugged into car charger

Question

Battery drains using gps tracking even when plugged into car charger

Okay, I have a strange one. With my iPhone fully charged, I put it into my car, plugged it into my new AutoPilot from Griffin (which provides control, charge, and line out for aux... sweet!), started playing some tunes from the iPhone, turned on the gps tracking, and off I went. A half hour later, I got to my destination and noticed I had lost 1/8th of my battery's charge! Thinking the charger might be bad, I used another charger (this one from XtremeMac which worked very well with my older iPhone), and the same thing happened. HOWEVER, if I don't use the GPS tracking, it seems to charge just fine. Could it be that the gps tracking simply drinks too much power? After all, I was downloading Google maps continuously, using the gps locator, and listening to music all at once. Or... might something be wrong? Anyone else try this?

Thanks.

Alex

iPhone 3G, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 12, 2008 7:15 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 12, 2008 8:08 PM in response to Alex Bottinelli

YES!!! I had the same problem. My charger charges as long as I am not using gps it seems. I have belkin charger that holds my phone in place. Haven't tried my other in car charger yet with gps tracking. My battery was totally drained when I got home,, I was thinking I was going to have a full charge. Weird bug for sure... Was one of the main points for me to upgrade and not by a navigation system for my car.

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Answer 2

Jul 12, 2008 8:18 PM in response to Harrison W

Well, at least I know it's not just me! Hopefully this is a software issue and Apple will fix it in 2.0.1. 🙂

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Answer 3

InkFreq

Level 1

45 points

Jul 12, 2008 10:52 PM in response to Alex Bottinelli

There is no doubt that if you leave your Google Maps on, and drive so that it is constantly refreshing the maps, constantly using the GPS, and constantly using 3G/EDGE, you will murder your battery faster than normal use.

However, I have to point out that at this time there is no car charger which Apple has certified to work with the iPhone 3G.

Now, it uses a standard iPod dock (30-pin) for it's charging system, but that doesn't mean a whole lot. You will notice the charging plug on the 3G is different in size, shape, and design than the original iPhone or any iPod.

I can't say that it charges the same way from a 3rd party adapter. And while that may seem unlikely, look at the number of people who had video systems for the iPods, and suddenly their new iPod Classic wouldn't out video to it. I happen to be one of them who had a portable DVD player with an iPod dock, and my 160GB iPod Classic won't play on it.

Apple included a special chip that needs to read a tiny chip inside the Apple iPod cables in order to export video. It was designed to reduce repair costs from 3rd party accessories screwing up iPods.

Did they do something similar with the 3G iPhone? Right now, only Apple knows for sure. But one thing we all know, there is no car charger approved by Apple for the 3G iPhone, so it may be that even with it plugged into your car, it's not getting all the juice it needs to keep up with the load you put on it.

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