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Attention all who carry iPhones while backpacking: critical info RE iPhone 5


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Home Forums Gear Forums Gear (General) Attention all who carry iPhones while backpacking: critical info RE iPhone 5

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Viewing 6 posts - 51 through 56 (of 56 total)
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  • #2176856
    Randy Martin
    BPL Member

    @randalmartin

    Locale: Colorado

    You can't remove the battery from an iPhone. Android may be an option depending on the phone.

    #2176859
    Mitchell Ebbott
    Spectator

    @mebbott-2

    Locale: SoCal

    >What I want to know is why don't you just take the battery OUT??? The you would have a battery drain of a few % per year. Only insert battery when you need rescue.

    One of the few questions ever asked on BPL with a clear and simple answer! The batter on nearly all modern smartphones is built-in. A very small number of phones have a removable battery, but that comes with significant compromises in either bulk or battery life. Engineers like to be able to fill up every last empty nook and cranny, and you can't do that with a simple rectangular removable battery pack.

    On the other hand, one COULD turn the phone off. When it's actually turned off (not on standby), battery drain is next to nothing. The reason people don't do that is simple: we use our phones for more than just rescues. It's the ultimate multi-purpose item. My phone is my camera, emergency communication, e-book reader (including as many reference books as I want—plants, birds, first aid, Italian renaissance art, etc—for no weight penalty whatsoever), GPS (for emergencies or to mark interesting waypoints for future reference), and so on.

    #2176894
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    "Being an ultra-techie, I don't own an iPhone or an Android or anything like that."

    If you don't own one, you must surely rent one. A man of letters must have communications so that his fans can reach him.

    –B.G.–

    #2176895
    David Thomas
    BPL Member

    @davidinkenai

    Locale: North Woods. Far North.

    >"What I want to know is why don't you just take the battery OUT???"

    Roger, I think you have a sense of my technical expertise: significantly below yours, but above 99.83% of the population.

    I have removed the battery from my iPhone repeatedly (due to having fried the charging circuit in an unfortunate hot-tub incident) in order to charge it off a similar lithium battery mostly to extract the data from the phone.

    This is not something you or I would want to do on the trail. Sure, the special screwdriver isn't very heavy, but you remove and replace VERY small screws, disconnect an electrical fitting that was meant to used once during assembly (not repeatedly by users) and while I got away with doing it 5 times on my inside, well-lit desk top, I wouldn't want to do multiple times on the trail.

    It would be lovely if there was a hard on-off switch that isolated the battery from any circuitry. There is not. So you are limited to using multiple tweaks on the Settings menu to dial down the apps' use of power and then turning the phone to "off" which isn't really off because it's still looking at the soft switch to be turned "on".

    I could carry the battery and phone in a zip-lock bag and then, as the bear circles the tree I am in, or as I bleed out through a femoral artery after a nasty fall, I could simply open up the iPhone again with the special screwdriver to remove the tiny teeny screws, get the connection oriented correctly (without my usual review of a youtube video), button up the phone, turn it on and hope for a signal.

    Or I could leave the phone at home and bring a sat messager or PLB.

    For short trips, I power the phone off as much as I can, and put in it a dry bag.

    #2176907
    Roger Caffin
    BPL Member

    @rcaffin

    Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

    Ah yes, now you remind me, I do remember something about that. Red face.

    Yes, I do have a very simple cheap mobile phone. We bought it so we could call for road service if we ever get stuck when driving 'out back'. Sort of insurance against car problems, you know?

    Actually, it is probably capable of doing other things than phone and SMS, but we have never experimented. No interest in walking into lamp posts with my nose inches from the tiny screen. No time for that either… And I favour a large screen for CAD work.

    BUT – the battery is fully removable, and it lives OUTSIDE the phone except when we are travelling by car. Even then it is switched off. Yes, we do keep the battery charged – every month it is recharged.

    OK, I'm a dinosaur? But a happy dinosaur.

    Cheers

    #2176917
    Rick M
    BPL Member

    @yamaguy

    del

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