Getting claims that my game is draining an iphone power?

grobm1 · January 29, 2009, 7:59pm

I am getting claims that my iphone game can drain a player’s iphone in 2 minutes?

What could be causing this issue? I have not seen it with the testing we have done on a ipod touch or G3 iphones (brand new ones).

Comments?

Any thing I should be looking for in our code that could possibly cause this?

bliprob · January 29, 2009, 9:08pm

Full to empty in 2 minutes? Sounds like the phone’s already got a bad battery. Unity games will suck the juice, to be sure, but 2 min. is not normal.

grobm1 · January 29, 2009, 9:13pm

Thanks for the feedback bliprod. Is it possible that the person may have had just a iphone or ipod touch that is need of Applecare (battery replacement)?

jonaphin · January 30, 2009, 1:32am

If this problem is an issue with a single user:
Tell him it’s a problem he will have to entertain Apple about.

After all, not all applications are accepted by Apple and if he is playing your game it is because it has met Apple’s requirements for publication.

Moreover, if he is the only person complaining about this problem and you’ve sold quite a few it isolates the problem to this one guy and he should inquire Apple about the “unique” feature of his iPhone all the more.

Now it seems you said you were “getting claims”, which may point to multiple users having the same issue, in which case I would question Apple’s publishing requirements and start working on a fix ASAP, if I were in your position.

grobm1 · January 30, 2009, 2:01am

We have only one reported issue, but we are trying to be proactive.

As it stands right, signs point to a old battery in need of replacement.

anon_84977991 · January 30, 2009, 8:21am

I had an LG chocolate that went from working completely normal one day, to draining from a full charge within hours. Turns out it was caused from using a background image that was stored on the memory card.

Draining a battery in 2 minutes however. That seems a bit extreme to me. Either this person is exaggerating, or there is something fundamentally wrong with their iPhone.

anon_21932526 · January 31, 2009, 7:08am

A full battery couldn’t discharge in 2 minutes. The maximum continuous discharge I’ve ever seen for a 3.7V li-p battery is 20A. That would give the 1400mAh battery 4.2 minutes. Mind you, the person’s hand would have 2nd-3rd degree burns if they managed to hold onto an iPhone that had that battery. No, the maximum regulated discharge of the iPhone battery is around 2.8A, which gives about 30 minutes IF you could keep it pulling at full power. Given it can run all components on it at the same time it would be pretty impressive. The microphone is the most consumptive of parts outside of the 3G transmitter. Yet, with the microphone and transmitter running it takes 2 hours to drain the battery.

So, the battery isn’t charging anywhere near to maximum if it is discharged in 2 minutes. It has nothing to do with your game or with Unity.