Apple Mistake: Turning off Wi-Fi

Originally posted 2010-07-06 08:06:58

Everytime my 16 year-old son sees the screen of my iPhone 3GS, he mocks me as if I were carrying a dog turd. He claims that the jagged pixelation tears his retinas, and he hurriedly scurries to the rounded curves of his iPhone 4. Youth have no respect.

Apple, too, has no respect for those of us who live in the intersection of \”always in a hurry\” and \”need to prolong battery life.\” Like a vampire athirst for blood, we rush from power outlet to power outlet, cursing the anemia of our 3GS’s battery and urging it to suck energy up quickly. We read and obey every blog post that promises tips to prolong iPhone battery life, and it’s never enough.

One of the first things we do, of course, is turn off wi-fi whenever we can. The process to do so rivals filling out an IRS form in both complexity and irritation, and nothing short of digging into Setting’s bowels shows you if your wi-fi is on, pitching forth its beacon and sucking your battery life, and simply not connected. Only those who live in the gray area of jailbreaking escape the wi-fi setting tyranny.

I understand that Apple adores user interface consistency, and controlling wi-fi through Settings rings harmonious–both for turning on and off and connecting to a network. The user interface for connecting to a network, though, offers an alternative: when you try to access the Internet, your wi-fi is on, it’s not connected, and a wi-fi network lies within range, you see a dialog box that allows you to connect via wi-fi, as below:

This dialog box usually reminds me that I’ve left wi-fi on. I rarely choose this opportunity to connect to a random wi-fi hotspot. Rather, I make a mental note to turn off wi-fi as soon as a tap \”Cancel\” and finish what I’m doing, but by the time I finish what I’m doing, I forget to heed my mental note and my wi-fi beacon keeps draining my battery. This is Apple’s mistake: it has recognized that I want to take action, but it has guessed poorly about what I want to do. The remedy? Include a button on that dialog to turn off wi-fi.

Apple, please do it. My battery and frustration level will thank you.