I am quite shocked to see that my battery is at 100% after having it unplugged for an hour and a half. I have already received 15 emails and yak is running in the background.

I loaded the latest cingular os .71 yesterday.

I hope this isn't a glitch.....

checked it via

alt e-a-c-e

I upgraded to the new OS as well and have also noticed a difference in battery life. It seems a lot better.

Is it available to everyone yet or just Cingular folks?

you just load the software on your pc and delete the vendor.xml file located in...

c:\program files\common files\research in motion\apploader

then turn on desktop manager and it should prompt you to upgrade.

Pulled mine out of the charger 3 hours ago - still at 100%. Light usage so far in the day but looks good!

yea this new os upgrade I think is working really well for me..I am happy :-D

i was also told that aim no longer pings ever 15 seconds... or at all anymore. This has also made battery life better with yak running.

Is the new OS only for Pearl? I have a 7130c with Cingular.

yes this new OS is only for 8100 (Pearl)

where do you find the new os to download to pc?
Thanks.

thanks man.

My Pearl is on .69. I have had several calls and answered 15 emails, been unplugged from the charger at 4am and at 11:11am has 95% showing.

The OS update wouldn't work for non-Cingular/AT&T users right?

It will work for any 8100 user. You will just have to delete the Vendor.xml file

look at the third post of this thread (gah, can't post links yet..but the thread is called this): blackberry-handheld-software-v4-2-0-88-multilang

and if you want all the themes, just keep reading it to the end to see how to get them.

I fail to see technically how a software update could make the battery last longer unless it changes how long the backlight stays on or what rings with messages. I mean the same hardware's still in there. I guess they could make the meter operate differently as an illusion. There's no scientific way to tell whether the meter is accurate or not.

5.5 hours and it is at 95% for me. Yes I did notice improved battery performance on it. that is on 2 of them.

seriously??????

have you ever used a program that was written lousy?

how about the term memory heap?

how about the amount of processes running on the processor. Do they need to run at certain intervals? can they be delayed?

this all affects battery life.

if a process runs once every second.... and you change that process to run once every minute.... do you think there will be a difference in battery life?

or if rim fixes a memory heap or a sub routine to do something more effienctly.

Although the above user explains exactly why an update to the OS software can affect battery life, usually the changes are in milliseconds, but the outcome is still the same. The most battery intensive operations in a blackberry or smart device are related to the processor, the antenna, and the back light.

If you were to tighten up code to run any process using these power hogs, you could significantly reduce battery usage.