Battery life

[cyberface]

Quick update - check out the other thread re: auto network selection - it has made a very significant difference on my phone.

I will still be eagerly awaiting the extended battery, but I may yet be able to get a day's use out of this...

[cwerlin]

Problem is the other network thread only seems to help users with the unlocked version.  I have the Cingular version and I can't find this manual option anywhere.  If anyone has done this on the Cingular 680, please post a how-to.

[krets]

cwerlin: I disabled the beam feature as mentioned above today and that has seemed to make a difference for me. You might try that. As for the network issue, I think that with a locked Treo you are locked into Cingular's network so there really is no automatic feature.

[mariobac]

I'll vouch for turning off the beam feature.  I turned mine off early today and the battery is holding its power much better. Right now it is at 91%, way above what it was before.

I have also turned down the brightness level to around 1/3 power.  The screen is still plenty bright and this has also helped with the battery life....

[eugarps]

You may want to disconnect from the GPRS network after you've finished an emai or web session.  Of course you can't do this if you are automatically downloading your mail w/ Chatterbox or Snapper.  I have no reason to use a 15 minute auto-download, so this works for me YMMV.

Best,

[Mickey]

The battery life is really bad.  This I agree.

Seems like it is not network or country related.

How do we turn off the IR beam?

[skifellows]

Preferences/Power/Beam Receive/Off. I am doing the same, at least until the new batteries are out...

[krets]

After disabling the IR beam I have to say that I am much more satisfied with the battery usage. I pulled my 680 off the power supply at 6:30 AM yesterday and it actually lasted all day until 9:30 and wasn't in the red yet. That was with Chattermail running all day (on the most power-saving settings though).

I wonder if that's a software glitch to have the IR search use so much juice?

[jaytee]

After disabling the IR beam I have to say that I am much more satisfied with the battery usage. I pulled my 680 off the power supply at 6:30 AM yesterday and it actually lasted all day until 9:30 and wasn't in the red yet. That was with Chattermail running all day (on the most power-saving settings though).

I wonder if that's a software glitch to have the IR search use so much juice?

No glitch.  Palms/Visors/Treos have always been that way.  It's one of the first things I do on a new device.

[ehw]

I could begin by saying "me too".  However, I wonder, on top of everything else, if there is something wrong with the battery .  My 680 was around 90% charged at 1am.  Everything off except bluetooth until 5 am.  I checked the weather and read a few emails and the battery was DEAD.  It took about an hour to return to 80% charged. 
(I got a replacement for my 650 with a bad battery, but it would discharge in a matter of just a few minutes.)

Or, is this another example of how bad the battery situation really is?

ehw

[eugarps]

JT,

I always turn of IR as well.  I'm used to iPAQs which historically have smaller batteries and I alway turn off the IR.  I just have to remember to turn it back on when I do beam some bit of data or want to use my IR keyboard.  With the 1,200mAh battery on the 680 it's about like the 1,200mAh on my iPAQ hw6945.  On that one, I have to keep it plugged in as much as possible when I'm using all 5 radios at one time.... rarely..... most times the WiFi is off.  It's common for me to use the GSM/GPRS, BT, and GPS at the same time though.  I don't care how big the battery is.  That would fry most.

[Euroclie]

As for the network issue, I think that with a locked Treo you are locked into Cingular's network so there really is no automatic feature.

Yeah, I'd be curious to know if the Cingular-locked version does indeed connect only to the Cingular network (in which case it would more or less be equivalent to setting the network manually to Cingular on an unlocked device) or if it does poll regularly for other networks (in case you travel abroad with your Cingular SIM card, to connect to other operators with which Cingular has signed a roaming agreement). I suspect that it's the latter, if only because of the short battery life mentioned by Cingular users...

If a Cingular user on the move in a foreign country could check that issue, it might let us know if there's any room for battery life improvement by somehow forcing network selection on the Cingular devices. Not that it is technically possible, mind you, but maybe there's a chance that the Cingular version's user interface just got rid of the network selection mode control, and that you can somehow manually force it to stick to Cingular's network.

Before the question gets asked, even if someone could perform the above trick, there's zero chance that one could apply the opposite trick to let a Cingular-locked connect to another operator's network using a non-Cingular SIM card...

[mistercoffee1]

Yeah, I'd be curious to know if the Cingular-locked version does indeed connect only to the Cingular network (in which case it would more or less be equivalent to setting the network manually to Cingular on an unlocked device) or if it does poll regularly for other networks (in case you travel abroad with your Cingular SIM card, to connect to other operators with which Cingular has signed a roaming agreement). I suspect that it's the latter, if only because of the short battery life mentioned by Cingular users...

If a Cingular user on the move in a foreign country could check that issue, it might let us know if there's any room for battery life improvement by somehow forcing network selection on the Cingular devices. Not that it is technically possible, mind you, but maybe there's a chance that the Cingular version's user interface just got rid of the network selection mode control, and that you can somehow manually force it to stick to Cingular's network.

Before the question gets asked, even if someone could perform the above trick, there's zero chance that one could apply the opposite trick to let a Cingular-locked connect to another operator's network using a non-Cingular SIM card...

Cingular phones do NOT just lock onto Cingular network, they will switch (even though you don't see network selection as an available option).  On your call log, you can tell by whenever a call is listed as "roaming".  It will switch between CNG, ATTWS, T-MOB, but usually favoring CNG.  There is a person on TC that is working on the "Enable Network Selection" as we had for the 650, but considering that the phone menu is SO different then the 650, it will take some time for him to figure this out (also, he does not intend to purchase a 680 so it may take even longer).
We had the same issue on the 650 until some guys figured out how to get the Enable Network Selection menu available when using Cingular SIMs.

[ehw]

I don't want to be the voice of paranoia but if Cingular doesn't permit switching and/or we can't change from one network to another, does this mean that unlocking the 680 is meaningless?
It may be I'm just looking for excuses to  go back to my 650. (I'm still within my 30 day grace period)

[mistercoffee1]

It's still good to unlock it if you intend to use a non-Cingular SIM.

The way it would work on the 650 was that if you used a Cingular SIM, the phone would not show the "Select Network" option (at least on Cingular Branded phones).  I believe this has been the case on the later 32k sims and the current 64k sims.  Once you popped in a non-Cingular SIM, the "Select Network" option would then show up.

Question for any Cingular 680 owners who have had their phones unlocked, and are using T-mob or other non-CNG SIMs:  Do you have the capability to do Network selection?