New iPhone 4S faces battery complaints

The introduction of a new iPhone wouldn't be complete without at least one baffling technical problem ticking off customers. The iPhone 4S hasn't disappointed in that regard.

The discussions forums on Apple's Web site are ablaze with comments from iPhone 4S customers about the poor battery life of the new Apple phone. Many of the people complaining say the battery on the iPhone 4S seems to drain quickly even when they're not using the device much and even after they have shut down some of the power-hungry features that can affect battery performance.

For now, Apple isn't saying anything about the issue - a spokeswoman didn't respond to multiple requests for comment - in what has become a typical pattern of silence for the company after customers begin complaining about a technical problem with a new iPhone. Often Apple waits to speak out on issues like this after several days of investigating the matter.

In the meantime, iPhone customers are left troubleshooting the problem themselves, coming up with workarounds that may or may not alleviate the problem. The Guardian reported that some iPhone customers had seen improved battery life by shutting off a feature called "Setting Time Zone" buried within the location services menu of iPhone settings.

That feature automatically adjusts the time zone settings of an iPhone when a user travels. Turning it off means the clock on users' phones won't adjust unless they manually change it. Some people on Apple's discussion forums still report poor battery life even after making the change.

Battery complaints about new iPhones aren't new, but they have generally failed to grow into controversies as big as the mother of all iPhone blow-ups, known as Antennagate. In that case, the iPhone 4 introduction last year was met with a wave of bad publicity and customer complaints about dropped phone calls and weak wireless signals. Apple eventually conceded that the problems were caused by the design of the iPhone 4's antenna and offered customers free protective cases to remedy the problem.

Apple also said at the time that the antenna problems had been overblown and that only a small portion of its customers complained about them. The company appeared to be vindicated after the gangbuster iPhone 4 sales that followed.