News: iOS 4.3 Gobbles Batteries, Ping to Blame

With the iOS 4.3 update, a number of folks have noticed lousy battery life on their iPhones. We’re not talking about a few single-digital percentages lower, but rather a 40%+ drop over a few hours of standby. Although some other sites have pointed this out earlier, including a tread on Apple’s support forums, the bigger concern is how to fix this, at least until 4.3.1 is proven effective at the fix.

Right now, many signs are pointing to Ping, which seems to be constantly connected, which is an obvious battery drain. To turn off Ping, the easiest way is to turn on restrictions by doing the following:

• Open the Settings app
• Go to General > Restrictions
• Enable Restrictions (you may need to enter a password or select one)
• Find Ping and flip the switch to OFF.

Let us know if this seems to fix it—we’re trying that, although it’s very circumstantial.