New iPhone User Questions

[gtmac]

After waffling between the HTC Incredible 2 and the iPhone 4 for two weeks I put my money down for the iPhone 4. This is my first smartphone and I've had it less than a week. I have a few basic questions.

1) I read the recent thread on battery life. Good stuff there. Is it a good idea to completely deplete the battery every once in a while?
2) Is it possible to overcharge the phone? In other words, is it okay to leave the phone plugged into the charger overnight?
3) Is it a good idea to turn the iPhone 4 off every so often? I have weak signal at my house (in the country) and normally get 1 bar but could get 0 or 2 and rarely 3. So, my habit with my LG Dare was to turn the phone off when I get home from work so the phone won't continually look for a signal and drain the battery.
4) I've been unable to connect my iPhone 4 to my Lenovo Thinkpad W510 (64 bit Windows 7) via Bluetooth. I believe the Thinkpad is okay since I recently transferred my photos from the LG Dare to the Thinkpad with Bluetooth. The Thinkpad is set to allow itself to be found and it can find the iPhone 4. However, when I turn on the iPhone 4's Bluetooth, it sits there, searching and does not find the Thinkpad. When I tested my iPhone with a friend's hands free Bluetooth device in his car, the phone found the device. So, I think Bluetooth is working okay on the iPhone and I'm not sure what's going on here. A colleague at work told me the iPhone 4 was not designed to connect to "anything with a hard drive" using Bluetooth. That doesn't sound right to me. Any ideas?

I've already learned quite a bit by reading the threads on this site. Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[bab2010]

1) I read the recent thread on battery life. Good stuff there. Is it a good idea to completely deplete the battery every once in a while?

Yes it's a good idea.

2) Is it possible to overcharge the phone? In other words, is it okay to leave the phone plugged into the charger overnight?

Yes it's possible and doesn't have any bad effect on the battery.

3) Is it a good idea to turn the iPhone 4 off every so often? I have weak signal at my house (in the country) and normally get 1 bar but could get 0 or 2 and rarely 3. So, my habit with my LG Dare was to turn the phone off when I get home from work so the phone won't continually look for a signal and drain the battery.

You can put the phone in airplane mode instead of turning it off completely, if you have wifi at home, you will be able to use your wifi even if the phone is in airplane mode, but yes bad signal reception decrease the battery life and if you are not planing to use your phone on wifi or... you can off it, or put it in air plane mode and use wifi.

4) I've been unable to connect my iPhone 4 to my Lenovo Thinkpad W510 (64 bit Windows 7) via Bluetooth. I believe the Thinkpad is okay since I recently transferred my photos from the LG Dare to the Thinkpad with Bluetooth. The Thinkpad is set to allow itself to be found and it can find the iPhone 4. However, when I turn on the iPhone 4's Bluetooth, it sits there, searching and does not find the Thinkpad. When I tested my iPhone with a friend's hands free Bluetooth device in his car, the phone found the device. So, I think Bluetooth is working okay on the iPhone and I'm not sure what's going on here. A colleague at work told me the iPhone 4 was not designed to connect to "anything with a hard drive" using Bluetooth. That doesn't sound right to me. Any ideas?

iPhone doesn't connect to anything capable of exchanging files. Can't connect to other phones, computer, etc... but can connect to headphones, car set, anything which are not capable to exchange files with the iPhone.

 

[jannydisuza]

well, I don't bother charging it overnight and then plug it in at work the next day. Basically, only charge it once in a 24 hour period. It doesn't have any bad effect on the battery.

 

[iJeff]

It's best to let it run down as far as you can and them re-charge it. I found out the less you charge it the longer the battery life you get. Maybe charge it every 2 days if you can or depending on how often you use it.

 

[gtmac]

Thanks for help, everyone. I never thought of using Airplane Mode at home. Since this is my first smartphone, I never had a reason before.

iPhone doesn't connect to anything capable of exchanging files. Can't connect to other phones, computer, etc... but can connect to headphones, car set, anything which are not capable to exchange files with the iPhone.

I guess my colleague was right after all. That is different. With my past two phones I could transfer photos to my laptop with Bluetooth.