What does your cell phone do when it's supposed to be sleeping?

[Beamin]

I have been spying on my iPhone by monitoring its power usage by plugging it into a lab power supply letting it charge to 100% and seeing what does what like turning on wifi and blue tooth sending texts etc. What's curious is every few minutes it's using the same amps as a text message when left alone. What is it doing is there a way to find out? This one runs on CDMA and 4g I think.


On a related note has any one used the latest ios it keeps pestering me to download and I have learned from experience that you can't revert back once you do it. I also like how apple will just delete old features and change things assuming that you want them. My phone has to be 100% reliable with my medical condition and can't risk installing some stupid useless features and it not working. Normally I would have an android phone but if my phone gets a virus or something stupid it could have real life consequences. New phone is no longer an option because you don't get discounts for renewing your contract. No way in hell I'm paying over $500 for a cell phone that I only call and text on that will be obsolete in 18 months. I already own a computer and tablet I don't need to use my phone with its little screen.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

The radio is pinging the cell tower saying "Hey, I'm still here, ready and listening".

[Rerouter]

https://www.quora.com/How-often-does-a-cell-phone-ping-the-towers

It could be the registration messages to a tower depending in how the provider has it set up.

[ebastler]

My phone has to be 100% reliable ...
can't risk installing some stupid useless features and it not working. ...
if my phone gets a virus or something stupid it could have real life consequences. ...
No way in hell I'm paying over $500 for a cell phone ...
I only call and text ...
I already own a computer and tablet ...
I don't need to use my phone with its little screen. ...

Sounds like any old non-smart phone would be perfect for you. Get a used Nokia or whatever; plenty of them around essentially for free. Chose one where you can still get a replacement battery.

[Terry01]

I have been spying on my iPhone by monitoring its power usage by plugging it into a lab power supply letting it charge to 100% and seeing what does what like turning on wifi and blue tooth sending texts etc. What's curious is every few minutes it's using the same amps as a text message when left alone. What is it doing is there a way to find out? This one runs on CDMA and 4g I think.


On a related note has any one used the latest ios it keeps pestering me to download and I have learned from experience that you can't revert back once you do it. I also like how apple will just delete old features and change things assuming that you want them. My phone has to be 100% reliable with my medical condition and can't risk installing some stupid useless features and it not working. Normally I would have an android phone but if my phone gets a virus or something stupid it could have real life consequences. New phone is no longer an option because you don't get discounts for renewing your contract. No way in hell I'm paying over $500 for a cell phone that I only call and text on that will be obsolete in 18 months. I already own a computer and tablet I don't need to use my phone with its little screen.

What iphone do you own and what features do you need to be 100%?

I own the "7" and my Mrs has the "8" and we both have ios 11.4 both upgraded a couple weeks ago. As far as I know there are no bugs in the new ios that we have noticed. I don't really use much on mine apart from the normal basic stuff but Mrs T uses the Apple fitness & health app  and iTunes and TV and this and that and yada yada yada....and neither of us have noticed any difference since upgrading a couple weeks ago. That being said we may not use the one you need so much so maybe no real use or help to you at all. 

[Beamin]

My phone has to be 100% reliable ...
can't risk installing some stupid useless features and it not working. ...
if my phone gets a virus or something stupid it could have real life consequences. ...
No way in hell I'm paying over $500 for a cell phone ...
I only call and text ...
I already own a computer and tablet ...
I don't need to use my phone with its little screen. ...

Sounds like any old non-smart phone would be perfect for you. Get a used Nokia or whatever; plenty of them around essentially for free. Chose one where you can still get a replacement battery.

I would but I found the hotspot function useful and google maps and the browser as a phone book. Its too bad they don't make limited data plans. I was actually quite pissed when they basically forced people to add 50$ a month to their phone bills. I think a generation ago people had more say over quasi utilities like the phone and internet. I use the internet for six hours a day so if I lost it I would have to deal with real life. I used to use it to make money.

[mtdoc]

I have been spying on my iPhone by monitoring its power usage by plugging it into a lab power supply letting it charge to 100% and seeing what does what like turning on wifi and blue tooth sending texts etc. What's curious is every few minutes it's using the same amps as a text message when left alone. What is it doing is there a way to find out?

Bunny Huang’s Introspection Engine does that.

[NiHaoMike]

Its too bad they don't make limited data plans.

Have you looked at prepaid plans?

[ebastler]

Bunny Huang’s Introspection Engine does that.

That article is lacking an abstract!  I found it unbearably wordy. Once I had reached the three pages of text it took them to explain why you should not keep your phone in a Faraday cage at all times, I couldn't take it any longer... Those guys seem rather full of themselves, and inventing cool names like "Introspection Engine" and "Silent Phone" seems more important than conveying information.

From skimming the rest of the text, it seems that their device can detect avtivity of the various radio modules, but cannot monitor the contents of the transmissions. Their conclusion is that this is not too useful for their purpose, and that you really want a phone where individual radio modules can actually be selectively disabled.

[TerraHertz]

Speaking of cell phones...
This seems like as good a place as any to stick this.

Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace (and cell phones being a drug.)

The radio is pinging the cell tower saying "Hey, I'm still here, ready and listening".

To be more specific: The cell phone does a tower ping regularly. When it gets heard by more than one tower, the network measures the signal power at each of the towers receiving, and will (probably) hand over support of your phone to the tower with best reception. The network has to keep a real-time database containing the routing information to the relevant tower, for each cell phone online, so calls to that phone can be switched through the network to the right tower.
Also, so the phone company can respond to police demands for tracking information for specific phones (which happens all the time.)

The phone also adapts its transmit power to tower range. So if you are somewhere out of range and you leave your phone on, the battery will go flat quite rapidly since the phone is 'shouting' to try and contact the network.

My current phone (a fairly dumb Alcatel onetouch) was free, because my previous one was 2G. Before Optus shut down their 2G network last year, apparently out of the goodness of their hearts they (were legally obliged to?) give remaining 2G customers free 3G phones.  Same thing recently with my 88yo mum's Huwai phone that had a 2G Vodaphone sim. Vodaphone are shutting down their 2G network on the 30th June, so I took her phone to a phone shop and was given a free 3G sim.

Beamin, aren't you blurring your actual need for a cell phone, with your like of maps and apps? Do you *really* need a data plan at all? My prepaid has no data plan, and I like it that way. No social media, and I prefer physical printed maps anyway.

[rdl]

Its too bad they don't make limited data plans.

Have you looked at prepaid plans?

I agree.

I use AT&T Gophone prepaid. The phone is a plain old phone and about as unsmart as you can get these days. It cost me $20 at the AT&T store, but I think Walmart sold it for $15. It's almost 4 years old now. I pay $25 plus tax and stuff for 3 months of service and I always have money left when time runs out.

[ebastler]

Sounds like any old non-smart phone would be perfect for you.

I would but I found the hotspot function useful and google maps and the browser as a phone book.

You mentioned that you have a tablet too. So couldn't you use that for internet access when you really need/want it, and use a dumb phone (with a looong battery life, no software updates, no malware risk...) as your low maintenance, high reliability communications lifeline?

[Terry01]

I forgot to put in my last post that you have things like analytics and stuff that your phone sends out every so often and location services and who knows what else. Even apple try to collect stuff from you then advertising things from certain apps too, the list goes on and on!! Your phone does all this while allegedly "sleeping" LOL 

[firehopper]

about the only thing sleeping when you press the power button on your phone is the screen and gpu. thats it. everything else is active to some degree.

[MT]

The radio is pinging the cell tower saying "Hey, I'm still here, ready and listening"

and being ready to stream camera and audio data to CIA/NSA/FBI for storage at Forth Meade.

[Stray Electron]

Sounds like any old non-smart phone would be perfect for you. Get a used Nokia or whatever; plenty of them around essentially for free. Chose one where you can still get a replacement battery.

   The problem is that the replacement batteries will usually be NOS (New  OLD Stock). Emphasis on OLD here. That means that most of the batteries will be worn out even though they were never used.  I still us an old LG Rumor2 phone and about 1/2 the replacement batteries that I've bought don't hold any charge at all and the remainder of them only last a few months.  I suppose I should take a pack apart and see if I can replace the individual cells.

   Other than the poor batteries I'm completely satisfied with this phone.  When I got it it came with a fixed price plan so the phone co can't raise my rate unless I switch to another phone.  Needless to say, they're dying to "upgrade" to switch me to a smart phone so that they can triple my phone charge.

[edy]

My iPhone apparently got PREGNANT when it was sleeping.    This just happened last night! Warning, be sure to keep your iPhone away from other phones! Those promiscuous little bastards! You never know what it might do when you are not looking! 

NOTE: This happened when it was *NOT* plugged in and charging, it was just sitting by itself... perhaps when the voltage gets too low it can react this way too. I can only imagine if it was plugged in when it decided to fail, it could have exploded! The pressure caused the back of the iPhone case to pry open like a Pistachio nut!



 

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

Sorry to say but, unfortunately, li-ion batteries are like that. Now imagine pumping kilowatts into 7500 of these sitting in your garage while you sleep. That has been happening ever since the first laptops came with li-ions, and then with mobiles.

[LewisNi]

Sorry to say but, unfortunately, li-ion batteries are like that. Now imagine the best weight loss pills for men and pumping kilowatts into 7500 of these sitting in your garage while you sleep. That has been happening ever since the first laptops came with li-ions, and then with mobiles.

That sucks, Edy. Same thing happened to a friend of mine. Lucky for both of you the phones weren't in your pockets when this happened. lol

[edy]

That sucks, Edy. Same thing happened to a friend of mine. Lucky for both of you the phones weren't in your pockets when this happened. lol

Yes tell me about it. I was a bit stunned to see the phone in that shape when I pulled it out my bag. I was thinking, did one of my kids grab this thing and drop it on the floor, and then stick it back in my bag? Did I bump my bag or do something without knowing? This phone (iPhone 4s) was being used as a back-up just to connect to WiFi and get Podcasts and News and eMail. I would charge it maybe once a week, it was just something I could glance at or give my kids if they wanted to play a game. There was no SIM card in there.

A few years ago, the port on the bottom (those long 30-pin types) got messed up and the phone refused to charge. I tried different cables, nothing worked. I thought it was the battery (I did not realize the port was the problem) and ended up ordering the replacement battery first with the screwdriver kit for $8. In any case I needed the tools to get in (this was before I got my fancy precision screwdriver set). I kept the ORIGINAL Apple battery just in case.



Then after I replaced the Apple battery with the OEM one that came with the toolkit (like shown above) and it still didn't charge, I looked with a microscope at the 30-pin connector and noticed a couple leads missing copper. So then I went back on eBay again and ordered the 30-pin dock connector for the 4s for maybe $2. It was cheap, looks like this:




After replacing the dock connector, put back the OEM battery since I figured I may as well use it ANYWAYS as I already bought it (nothing wrong with the original Apple battery as far as I knew), I was able to charge up fine and the phone worked great and lasted for days on a single charge (with my light use) and had no problems at all.

Fast forward a year or two and all was going fine until this incident I noticed yesterday. It could have busted open over the past few weeks, I don't even know as I didn't play with the phone for that long. There is absolutely no physical sign of any damage otherwise whatsoever, it all happened from inside the case. Something happened to make the battery vent gas and swell up.... Remember it was not being charged at all, in fact the charge was probably very low but enough to power the screen enough to show me the iPhone needed to be charged... as you see in the first part of my video... the grossly swollen battery was actually still functioning!

Remember I didn't throw out my original Apple battery, it was just laying around discharging slowly over the past 1-2 years, that's what I used as a replacement in the video. It works great, and hopefully the original Apple battery is built to better standards and won't do the same thing! Although now Apple did some software updates because it knows there are some problems with the older batteries and changes the speed of the phone or discharge rate or something. This phone is on an old iOS version that is not going to get updates ever again (it's on iOS 9.3.5 and it says it's up to date when I check so looks to be abandoned by Apple).

Spontaneous reaction? Strange... Scary. How can you ever know you are buying a "legit" battery now unless you get it from the original company, and even then some of the older models they don't even have stuff for anymore and they send you to some 3rd party OEM "fake" manufacturer.