How Wi-Fi Drains Your Cell Phone

[bunglebooz]

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/25651/

[keltex]

This must be phone dependent. I have my Blackberry 8900 on wifi all day and it maybe goes down by 20% in 24 hours. I'm currently in Mexico so I leave the GSM radio off and it seems that the battery lasts longer this way.

[technomancy → keltex]

I there a way to turn GSM off on Android/CM? That would be great for situations where I do actually have wifi coverage.

[Osiris → technomancy]

I believe when Wi-Fi is running that GSM data is automatically disabled. When you turn off Wi-Fi you'll see it takes a few seconds to re-establish the GSM data connection. I know you can turn off the roaming data. You may need a rooted Android ROM to completely disable GSM. Some people on XDA Developers have talked about that.

[technomancy → Osiris]

> I believe when Wi-Fi is running that GSM data is automatically disabled.

Right; I use SIP, so I want GSM disabled entirely, not just for data. Will take a look.

[lutorm → Osiris]

On the Nexus One you can enter a test settings screen where I'm pretty sure you can turn off the GSM radio completely.

[cheald → lutorm]

I use the "Secret Settings" app, which gives me access to all the test screens without having to remember the test codes. I can switch all that stuff in there, IIRC.