Direct Push Drains Battery

[Jerry Raia]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=3548' target='_blank'>http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=3548</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Just a quick follow-up to my recent post about using DirectPush on i-mate SP5m. I finally understand why Microsoft has made it so easy to turn the feature on and off by placing a button in the communication manager – it consumes a lot of battery power! Having the EDGE radio activate several times per hour (if you’re receiving email at that rate) causes a large amount of battery drain."</i><br /><br />Does this surprise anyone? I found the same to be true without having push. Using EDGE frequently will drain the battery faster. If it's happening automatically and frequently there will of course be a bigger drain. Personally I have no use for push. Doesn't the phone already command enough of our attention without buzzing now every time someone wants to sell us Viagra?

[edgar]

From the new World of DUH comes "if you use the device it drains the battery". Reminds me of the big Government grants that after three years and $2M report things like "Salmon require water to spawn".

This is where Blackberry actually does an amazing job. From the old 954 pager unit running 4 weeks on a AA battery to the units today that are converged. They really do have a great capability of delivering pushed email and still providing enough battery power to actually use it as a phone.

Makes you wonder why they can't get better power from the SP's and PPC's than they do. This is a problem that MS/Manufacturers will have to address if they expect this to take over Blackberry. In addition, Blackberry has some darn good security and management tools for the remote device. In an enterprise that's important - something else for MS to address.

-Edgar

[Foxbat121]

This battery drain issue actually was discussed in another early AKU2 review. Basically, the regular heart beat message the phone requires to send to Exchange Server is what causes this drain even if you never receive any emails. You can, however, configure the heart beat interval (from once every 30 minutes to once every 2 hours, for example) to minimize this impact.

[Jerry Raia]

This battery drain issue actually was discussed in another early AKU2 review. Basically, the regular heart beat message the phone requires to send to Exchange Server is what causes this drain even if you never receive any emails. You can, however, configure the heart beat interval (from once every 30 minutes to once every 2 hours, for example) to minimize this impact.

Excellent point but isn't the phone waiting for an SMS type message anyway and then it goes and collects the email? Or do I have that wrong?

[jtheun]

Excellent point but isn't the phone waiting for an SMS type message anyway and then it goes and collects the email? Or do I have that wrong?

With the AKU2 update, the direct push does not use SMS to notify of a new message. The device stays connected and has an open http request in to the server to request updates. The mail server responds with an http response when a new item arrives or an item is updated on the server (like a message being read or deleted from the server through desktop mail). The SMS mechanism was used before the AKU2 update.

[cmorris]

Excellent point but isn't the phone waiting for an SMS type message anyway and then it goes and collects the email? Or do I have that wrong?

No, SMS was the pre-MSFP always up to date solution. MSFP replaces that mechanism with the HTTP heartbeat.

[Jerry Raia]

Excellent point but isn't the phone waiting for an SMS type message anyway and then it goes and collects the email? Or do I have that wrong?

No, SMS was the pre-MSFP always up to date solution. MSFP replaces that mechanism with the HTTP heartbeat.

Ah so now it is just like the desktop version of Outlook in a way.

[HalM]

FWIW, I heavily use my SP5 and SP5m (partner's phone actually). My battery use does not seem to have changed at all since I went with AKU2.0. As a matter of fact, it may be a bit better.

[Mike Temporale]

FWIW, I heavily use my SP5 and SP5m (partner's phone actually). My battery use does not seem to have changed at all since I went with AKU2.0. As a matter of fact, it may be a bit better.

Interesting to hear that. I know that Brandon over at Pocket Now is using 4Smartphone.net - I wonder if they haven't set things up correctly on their servers? :?