Sign in with the connection currently using WiFi instead of GPRS/3G, and it will keep the WiFi hardware on, which is what kills it. There is no way for a normal user to know that they need to open new, persistent connections over a connection type that uses the cellular modem instead of the WiFi. And Android defaults to using WiFi for new connections if the WiFi hardware is powered on and connected to a network.
The best way to save battery on an Android phone is to turn off WiFi unless you need it at some point during the day. iPhone will stop attempting to do push notifications and the background Apple apps will disconnect if the only available connection is WiFi.
I'd also like to point out that "I bet the app was poorly written" is exactly the situation Apple is currently avoiding until they are confident they have a reasonable technical solution to it.
I was signed in using WiFi, and I normally have WiFi enabled all the time and get over 24 hours of battery life. Maybe some wireless chipsets suck too much power, but it doesn't appear to be a problem on the N1.
Maybe we're doing something different, but I cannot get my Nexus One to stay alive for longer than 5 hours with an active net connection. It if it's a low-traffic connection (calm IRC channels, occasional email polling) it will last a day (same with my G1) but streaming radio, etc will leave it dead in a long afternoon.
Ah.. Streaming radio. By active net connection I thought you meant email polling, IM, etc.
Playing streaming video will kill the battery pretty decently, but IMHO that seems fair. Your keeping the radio pretty busy, the audio hardware, the cpu, etc.
I'd actually like to hear from an iPhone user whether they can run Pandora or Last.fm for 5 hours straight without killing their battery either.
I'm an iPhone user as well, and it also kills the iPhone. the point was that on iPhone, 3rd party apps are not given the opportunity to do this without the user being aware (because it's in the foreground.) i've had a runaway android app kill my phone after it screwed up and started devouring resources in the background while it was in my pocket.
The user would have to be aware of streaming audio. Also, as stated elsewhere in this thread, apps don't normally run in the background on Android either. I'm curious what app you believe killed your battery life in the background? That sounds... unusual.
Apps normally run in the background all the time in Android. I know which app it was (meebo) because I can view the stats afterwards. Also, to help alleviate some of your confusion, we are talking about background processes, not just streaming audio.
Apps only run in the background if they specifically register a background service. Usually this is when you click a button in the apps preferences like "update in background", etc.
The best way to save battery on an Android phone is to turn off WiFi unless you need it at some point during the day. iPhone will stop attempting to do push notifications and the background Apple apps will disconnect if the only available connection is WiFi.
I'd also like to point out that "I bet the app was poorly written" is exactly the situation Apple is currently avoiding until they are confident they have a reasonable technical solution to it.