Users charge Apple over iPhone 4S battery issues

Oct 31, 2011, 21:05 GMT

San Francisco - Apple's last iPhone was plagued by reception problems that were later coined Antennagate. Now the smartphone giant could be facing 'Batterygate' as increasing numbers of users of its newly released iPhone 4S complain about rapidly-depleting charge from their phone's batteries.

Technology websites and Apple discussion boards have been filled with users complaining about their battery drain, which according to the British newspaper The Guardian has prompted Apple engineers to contact some iPhone 4S owners to ask them to install special monitoring software to get details about device usage.

The Washington Post reported that some Apple owners have been told to bring in their devices for an exchange, but most owners have to suffice with DIY fixes such as reinstalling user data and disabling some apps such as auto-time zone settings, location-based services and iCloud.

On the main Apple discussion board there were some 2,500 postings Monday by iPhone 4S users complaining about their poor battery life.

'My iPhone 4s battery seems terrible!' wrote a user called Scarface from New Jersey, while fdean from Delaware complained, 'I have now had my phone on for 4 hours. It has 50 per cent left. I have not used the phone that much and have turned almost everything off. Wow this is horrible.'

The Apple 4S launched earlier this month, just days after the death of Apple co-founder and long-time chief executive Steve Jobs and was an instant success selling a record 4 million units in its first three days on sale.