Blackberry Bold 9900--looking for OS 7.1 to solve battery problems

[leosowner]

The review are all over the net on how the Bold 9900's battery is shockingly terrible when compared to what you expect from a Blackberry--AND what Blackberry had spec'd out for this phone on their web site.

I'm trying to remain patient but i'm curious to know what AT&T thinks about this and when they will release a 7.1 update. The 7.1 update has already been released by carrier in other parts of the world so I'm curious to know why AT&T is slow on the draw.

[bb_sbg]

This is very important.  The current battery life is so poor to make the device unusable.  There seems to be no acknowledgment of this by RIM or ATT or the fact that their advertised battery life claims are grossly misleading.  I wonder what it will take to get their intention and fix this problem. 

[snhrph]

7.1 does provide better battery life. Try visiting forums like blackberryforums.com or crackberry.con for links and instructions on installing the update.

[leosowner]

what's frustrating is that i guess i'm one of few MAC owners who own a blackberry and the desktop manager for mac doesn't enable me to select or update with a 7.1 version. it's still on an older version. 

does anyone know of a way around this other than having a PC?

[beartraprr]

I am patiently waiting for it on the Torch 9810.  They are really dropping th eball on this one, SPRINT and VERIZION have released it.....COME ON ATT  GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER

[snhrph]

Leosowner, OS updates are exe files which will not run on a Mac. But official OS releases from your carrier will work.

[leosowner]

thank you for the reply.

yes,snhrph: i know that i cannot update on the mac os so i'm patiently waiting for AT&T to get the update out. i cannot understand why, with all of the negative comments around the 'net about the battery problems, why they hesitate to publish the update. it's not even a leak anymore! it's official at blackberry.com!!!

[snhrph]

Every SP needs to test to software to their specs and install the bloatware before releasing it. Since you are a MAC person, you have to be patient...

[leosowner]

Still nothing from AT&T!

I wish in my business I could be this lax....

[Stephen_TX]

Like you, I'm awaiting the 7.1 upgrade too.  However, I was "pushed" the 7.0.2392 bundle and .576 platform upgrade the other day on my BB 9900, either from AT&T or my BES administrator.  I was originally on 7.0.1950.  It upgraded flawlessly, and may have slightly improved battery life.  I also saw the WSJ article yesterday attributing at least part of the battery life issues to 4G.

[leosowner]

stephen TX,

thanks for bringing the 4G article to our attention. i hadn't seen that. both interesting and obvious.

there's a large thread in the blackberry community forums about theories and solutions. 7.1 does seem to be better but a recent suggestion was to delete the social feeds app. i did that and also deleted some other apps i'd never use like yahoo messenger and windows messenger. now i'm getting 18 hours with 25% left whereas before i was having to charge after 12 hours.

other tricks are turning off 4G when you're just making calls and emailing, dimming the screen to 10, not having wifi enabled when you're not in a wifi zone.

good luck. hopefully we'll still get 7.1 soon.

yours,

leosowner

[jeffh322]

Yep...get VMware Fusion and load Windows as a VM.  Then install the real Desktop Manager and use that, plus any other utilities like JL_Cmdr, BlackBerry Swiss Army Knife (BBSAK), or others that run under Windows.  The upgrade process via a VM of Windows is very much a possibility.