The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are displayed after a product announcement at Flint Center in Cupertino, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014.
For the second iPhone release in a row,Apple launched two different models at once, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Though both are larger than any previous iPhone, the iPhone 6 Plus is much more than a phablet-sized iPhone 6. We took a closer look at the specs and features to find the biggest differences.
Bigger Screens
Let's get the most obvious out of the way first: screen size. At 4.7-inches, the iPhone 6 is a significant increase over its 4-inch predecessor, but it's still smaller than many other flagships, including Samsung's Galaxy S5 (5.1"), the HTC One M8 (5"), and the new Moto X (5.2").
But at 5.5-inches, the iPhone 6 Plus falls squarely into phablet territory currently occupied by the 5.7-inch SamsungGalaxy Note 4 and 5.5-inch LG G 3.
While it may not sound like a lot— the difference between the two totals less than an inch— it adds up to a lot of real estate.
While the aforementioned handsets come with styli to help accommodate the bigger screens, the iPhone 6 Plus does not (Steve Jobs famously hated styli.) Instead, Apple has built a solution into iOS itself. The iPhone 6 Plus' home screen will work in landscape mode for the first time ever on an iPhone.
Resolution and Cameras
Aside from the size of the display itself, the new iPhones have slightly differing resolutions—though each one qualifies for Apple's new "Retina HD" moniker.
The iPhone 6 Plus comes in at resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 with a pixel density of 401 ppi (pixels per inch) while the iPhone 6 has a slightly lower 1,334 x 750 resolution with 326 ppi.
Both models feature an upgraded 8 MP rear-facing camera and 2.1 MP front-facing shooter. The iPhone 6 Plus has the extra advantage of optical image stabilization, a significant improvement over the iPhone 6's digital image stabilization.
Battery Life
Battery life on both handsets has also been upgraded though the larger iPhone 6 Plus clocks in with the more impressive numbers with a supposed 16 days of standby, 80 hours of audio playback, 14 hours of video playback and 12 hours of Internet use.
The iPhone 6 claims up to 10 days of standby time, 50 hours of audio playback, 11 hours of video playback and 10 to11 hours of Internet use (depending on the type of connection).
Thickness and Weight
Though the iPhone 6 Plus is significantly larger than the 6, the two are remarkably similar when it comes to their thickness and weight. At .28 inches thick, the larger 6 Plus is just a hair thicker than the .27-inch iPhone 6. The slightly heftier 6 Plus weighs in at 6.07 ounces while the iPhone 6 is 4.55 ounces.
Price
The iPhone 6 follows a similar price structure as previous iPhone releases, with prices beginning at $199 (with a two-year contract) for the 16GB model, though Apple is offering more storage for your money in bigger models. The 64 GB model will run $299 while the biggest 128 GB will cost $399. Similarly, The iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 for the 16GB version and each size up adds an additional $100 to the price tag.
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Sales of outsized smartphones, or phablets, have almost quadrupled in the United States over the past year — thanks mostly to Apple's new larger iPhones.
That's according to numbers from market research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, which found that phablet sales have spiked since the release of the iPhone 6 Plus.
Phablets, typically defined as handsets with 5-in. displays and larger, made up 21% of all smartphone sales in the United States during the first quarter of 2015, says Kantar.
This represents a 15% increase from the first quarter of 2014, when phablets made up just 6% of U.S smartphone sales.
Fueling this growth was Apple's 5.5-in. iPhone 6 Plus, which accounted for 44% of the phablet market, the report says. Together, Apple's flagship smartphones, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, now account for 18% of all iPhones in the U.S.
The numbers highlight just how important screen size has become — "screen size was cited as the main reason for buying a particular phone by both iOS and Android buyers at 43% and 47%, respectively," the report says.
Before Apple launched the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus last fall, earlier reports suggestedthe company needed larger displays in order to stay competitive with rivals like Samsung.
Exactly why users are drawn to larger displays is unclear, but there are likely several factors at work. Adobe principal analyst Tamara Gaffney speculated last fall that the widespread availability of free wifi is driving more users to stream video while on the go — and other activities that are more satisfying on larger screens.
An earlier report from Kantar found Apple's larger phones were also causing changes in the European smartphone market, with more Android users switching to iOS during the first quarter of 2015.
Across Europe, Android's marketshare decreased by 3.1%, the report found, though the operating system still dominated at 68.4%. The report points to Europe's "Big 5" — Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain — as having the biggest increase in iOS users where Apple's marketshare is 20.3%.
For Windows Phone, however, the numbers are much less promising, despite its own flagship phablets in the Lumia line. Both reports note that Microsoft's operating system has "grown little" in the U.S and Europe. That's with the exception of France, where Windows Phone claims just over 14% of the market.
Apple will launch iOS 8 software for theiPhone and iPad on Wednesday, but before you download the upgrade, set some time aside to prevent any glitches that might surface.
The upgrade — which should be available around midday ET on Wednesday, if last year's arrival is any indication — promises a collection of useful new features, including time-lapse capture for video, a smarter Siri, a dedicated health app, a battery usage indicator, interactive notifications and a better keyboard.
iOS 8 is compatible on devices as far back as the iPhone 4S, the iPad 2 and the fifth-generation iPod Touch.
As typical of new upgrades, especially long, extensive ones like iOS, there will probably be kinks in the process, so you'll want to make sure everything is backed up ahead of time. This will cut down on the panic of realizing the upgrade accidentally wiped your pictures, music and other files.
Back up your data in iCloud or to your computer, manually. With the recent news of iCloud vulnerabilities and the celebrity nude photo hack, you may be worried about storing everything there, but Apple recently strengthened its security. Now, if you log into iCloud on a web browser, you'll be prompted to enable two-factor authentication — the digital equivalent of double-locking your doors at night — and an option to remotely sign out of all browsers.
If you're using iOS 5 or a more recent version, Apple backs up the most important data to iCloud automatically, but the feature must be enabled. To set this up, visit Settings > iCloud > Backup & Storage. This will back up your iPhone on a daily basis as long as the device's screen is locked, is connected to a Wi-Fi network and plugged into a power outlet.
To anyone complaining about needing 5+GB to OTA update, you can just backup in iTunes, restore to iOS8, then load your backup.
Before you download iOS 8, we suggest doing a manual backup. To do so, follow the same steps as above (Settings > iCloud > Backup & Storage) and then tap "Back Up Now."
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The hardest part of this process is patience. It takes some time (even an hour or so, in some cases) to complete a full backup. For those who have maxed out storage, Apple may tell you it's unable to complete the backup. In this case, either transfer files (like photos) via an Apple connector to a computer, delete a few apps you haven't used in awhile, or make room elsewhere.
If you don't want to delete anything off of your phone, click here for tips.
Just to be safe, we recommend backing up your iTunes library, too. Connect your device to a computer to sync with iTunes, but note this might be disabled if you have iCloud backup turned on. Right-click the device in iTunes under Devices and select Back Up. You can also back it up by tapping the file menu and select Devices > Back Up.
Keep in mind that updating iCloud Drive via iOS 8 will complicate the process for older devices. Since the new upgrade breaks the way new apps sync, you may not want to update iCloud Drive on iOS unless you plan to upgrade all of your iOS devices to the new software. You can read more about that process here.
The “holy grail” of password managers that 1Password maker AgileBits teased earlier this year has arrived. The app's iOS 8 version touts an extension that allows users to fill in login credentials directly from Safari as well as some third-party apps. 1Password also takes advantage of Apple's Touch ID so users can unlock their password vault with a single tap.
The updated app is completely free with some premium features available for in-app purchase; existing users who paid for the previous version automatically get these when they update.
Sure, the media excitement is concentrated around the impending release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but iOS 8 is something that should enthuse all iPhone and iPad owners.
When I reviewed iOS 7 last year, I described the release as a rebirth of iOS. It was, after all, a significant overhaul — akin to the change from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. For those who remember, Mac OS X 10.0 was a rough release. Sure, the interface was brand new and the promise was there, but there were bugs and some missing features.
It was with the release of Mac OS X 10.1 and Mac OS X 10.2 that the platform really started to take off, both with developers and with users.
The same is true for iOS 8. On the outside, it looks almost identical to iOS 7, but once under the hood, you realize there's something more powerful and useful at your fingertips.
Look and feel
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Visually, iOS 8 is an extension of iOS 7 with a few added additions and adjustments. The fonts, the color schemes — even the wallpaper selections — are all the same. The few visual changes that iOS 8 brings make the OS more useful and easier to use.
One of my favorite new features is the ability to quickly reply to notifications without leaving other apps. Simply pull down on the banner notification and you can reply to a text or iMessage, accept or decline a calendar invite or dismiss an alarm.
This is a feature other mobile operating systems — notably Android — have employed for some time and it really is a handy way to respond to text message alerts.
Another great feature is in Notification Center. The Today screen now has support for third-party widgets. This feature is very similar to the one that will come out in OS X Yosemite later this fall, but the idea is that you can customize the Today screen to display different interactive widgets from other apps.
One of my favorite apps, PCalc, has a widget built-in — access to a simplified version of its calculator. As a result, I can save time doing calculations without having to launch another app.
Another new feature is recent contacts. Double-press the home button and a list of your recent contacts pops up above the multi-tasking app view. This provides one-tap access to people you frequently contact.
Keyboards and typing
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For years, iOS users have wanted better keyboard options. Apple's auto-correct is notoriously bad and the company has responded with a new keyboard designed to make things better.
The answer is QuickType and it works similar to solutions Google, Samsung and others have offered for some time. Start typing words and predictive text for the next word will pop up automatically.
The results are OK, but not especially fast or prescient. Apple says this will improve as you go, but in my tests, I still found it less useful than it could be.
What is useful is support for third-party keyboards from companies such as Swype and SwiftKey. Finally, iOS users can really customize their input options. The only downside with third-party keyboards is that you have to install them separately and they take up an application icon. For safety, Apple also makes sure that those keyboards can't send any data anywhere else.
Messages
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Apple has done a lot of work on the Messages app to make it more comparable to WhatsApp and Snapchat.
You can now share your location, send voice messages with a tap, and quickly record video and selfies. You can also send multiple photos at once.
When it comes to group messaging, Apple has made major strides to make complex conversations less annoying. You can leave a conversation, mute alerts, remove others from a group and share maps with everyone.
You can even view all the media attached to a conversation, which is great for sharing photos with family and friends.
iCloud Drive
One of the biggest new features for iOS 8 — and OS X Yosemite — is the introduction of iCloud Drive.
Putting aside any of the recent security concerns, iCloud Drive finally lets users have the freedom to see everything on their iOS devices from other devices, as well as a Mac or PC.
In addition to viewing the files and documents stored by your apps, you can also use iCloud Drive as more general storage, the same way you can use Microsoft's OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox.
Users still don't have a file manager à la Finder, but the prayers for more functionality have been answered. However, when upgrading to iOS 8, you'll need to make sure you don't need apps to sync data with any Apple device running iOS 7 or OS X 10.9 Mavericks since those earlier OSes are incompatible with iCloud Drive. You'll need everything running iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite to sync properly across devices.
And speaking of iCloud security, two-factor authentication now protects iCloud.com (and iCloud backups) and there are now app-specific passwords for things such as calendars. That's a great start to making users more comfortable with iCloud.
Continuity
Ever wanted to switch devices in the middle of a task? You know, you're writing an email on your phone but have to go to a meeting and the iPad or MacBook is more convenient. iOS 8, along with the upcoming OS X Yosemite, adds a bunch of features to make it easy to move from device to device.
A feature called Handoff lets users switch from apps or websites to other devices running iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite.
You can even make and receive iPhone phone calls on the iPad. This is a great feature that just requires being on the same Wi-Fi network. So if you get a phone call and are in another room — but the iPad is nearby — you can answer the call from your iPad. No need to get up.
For years, iMessage has allowed users to see messages from other iOS or Mac users on all their devices. The people not using Apple devices — those green-bubble peeps — were left out. This was annoying if you wanted to send a message to someone on your iPad, but they weren't on iOS.
But next month, you'll be able to send and receive SMS and MMS messages from an iPad or Mac, thanks to iOS 8's SMS relay support. Now when the green people text you, you don't have to ask to switch apps so you can go to another room with your iPad.
App Extensions
App extensions let app developers build in ways to talk to other apps — or for other apps to talk to them — so that you can do really great things.
For instance, if you want to save an article you are reading to Pocket, you don't have to rely on a bookmarklet anymore. The app will come with its own extension for Safari.
Other apps, including Pinterest, have share extensions too. This means you can share an item to a pin directly from Safari without a lot of muss. Other apps can use these extensions too and I can't wait to see how developers adopt this feature.
The best part? 1Password, my favorite password manager, will now work in other apps — including Safari. For LastPass fans, that app has an extension too. Viva la password management bliss.
Health
Apple is getting into the health game with its new Health app.
The app acts as a dashboard to aggregate your fitness and health data from various apps. Health includes options for diagnostics, fitness, lab results, medications, sleep, vitals and more.
You can even set up an Emergency Card so paramedics can know about any allergies or medical conditions.
On the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8 can even natively show how many steps you take using the M8 motion co-processor.
Siri
The big news with Siri is that it now has Shazam integration built right in so you can use Siri to find out what song is playing.
You can also say "Hey Siri" — Apple's variation on "OK Google" — to get her ready to work. The command will even work when the phone is dormant, but only if you plug it into power.
Users of Google Now will still see Siri as more of a novelty than an actually useful tool, but she's getting better all the time.
Tips and Mail
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Apple has added a Tips app on the home screen of the iPhone and iPad. It's a simple app but shows off some of the new features in iOS 8.
As an example, it shows off how you can easily swipe away messages to archive, mark as read or unread or delete within Mail.
Mail has a new feature that notifies you as soon as you get a reply to a specific message.
Other niceties
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The iPhone's Touch ID fingerprint sensor is now open to developers, which means that you can use it to authenticate more than just your iTunes purchases. Amazon, as an example, has support for Touch ID for making payments or logging in through its official app.
Apple has also added a great new battery usage section that shows you what apps have used the majority of your battery in the last hour. This can be useful in knowing what apps to tinker with, uninstall or hard-quit.
Just the surface
A lot of the real magic with iOS 8 is going to come from third-party developers and with what they do with features such as Continuity, extensions, widgets and third-party keyboards.
As a result, even though iOS 8 is fantastic today, it's bound to get even better tomorrow.
iOS 8 really brings iOS in parity with Android, while keeping it the iOS we know and love. And that's pretty great.
iOS 8
The Good
Tons of new features • Supports third-party keyboards •Extensions ease sharing between apps
The Bad
Siri still feels like a novelty •Maps still don't support transit •iCloud Drive not compatible with older versions of iOS and OS X
The Bottom Line
iOS 8 is the best iOS release to date and it's only going to get better.
On the surface, Apple's new mobile operating system iOS 8 looks strikingly similar to iOS 7, but beneath the surface, it's brimming with new features to vastly improve the mobile experience (iOS 8 is hardly perfect, though; as with any new software, there are certainly kinks).
Here's a look at our favorite features of iOS 8.
1. Interactive Notifications
Interactive notifications is one of the best parts about iOS 8. You can respond to texts, email, calendar invitations, reminders and messages within apps such as Facebook from the notification banners that pops up at the top of the screen. It's a good way to reply to incoming messages without leaving the app you're in or stopping what you're doing all together.
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2. Battery Monitoring
You can find out which apps are sucking away your battery life, thanks to a handy tool that gives a percentage breakdown of what's zapping it most. To identify which apps you should close when not in use, visit General > Usage > Battery Usage. This small step could add a few hours of extra battery life to your day.
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3. Keyboards
For the first time, you're no longer restricted to the keyboard Apple gives you and can pick better options from third-party developers, like Swype. Available for $0.99 in the Apple App Store, there's a reason why Swype is the number one paid app right now: instead of tapping letters, you can swipe your fingers across the keys. There are Here are some other keyboard alternatives to try out with your keyboard on iOS 8, such as SwiftKey and Fleksy, but if you don't want to download an app, Apple made improvements to its own. The built-in keyboard now offers predictive text, giving you word suggestions before you even type anything.
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4. Camera Timer
Selfies are much easier to take with iOS 8. Apple added a timer to its Camera app, allowing you either 3 or 10 seconds to get the shot exactly how you want it. You can also prop up the device before setting the timer, so you don't even need your hands to take a picture.
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5. Landscaped Homescreen
While iOS 7 users could read content in landscape mode, the home screen never changed. Now, iPhone 6 Plus owners can now turn the device 90 degrees and see apps displayed on the home screen in either format.
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6. Key People Shortcut
If you press the Home button twice, you'll not only see the webpages you have open but the faces of people you've recently talked to. This makes it easy to call or text your favorite contacts right away. The down side, however, is that it highlights contacts you might not want others to know about, too. For example, if you've deleted a conversation you recently had with an ex (and you don't want to broadcast this to anyone looking over your shoulder), their name will still display on the top. To remove this feature, visit Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Show in App Switcher and switch it of Off.
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7. Enhanced Photo/Video Sharing
You're now able to send several photos to friends at one time via the Messages apps. It's quicker to send videos. too; film a video directly within a text message conversation, instead of sending an already-shot video from your camera roll.
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8. Swipe to Delete
Instead of hitting the small trash can icon for each email, you can now save time by swiping left to get rid of individual messages. Just be careful when testing this feature; it's so easy to remove emails that sometimes it happens when want to do other tasks. Meanwhile, dragging your finger slowly on a message (displayed in the Mail app) will let you flag or archive it. Swiping to the right will reveal the feature to mark a message as unread.
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9. Contact Info Up Top
iOS 8 pulls the contact information for those you're emailing with and places it at the top of the message. This is helpful when you need to give someone a call and don't want to scroll through lengthy text to find their details within an email signature. It also populates with addresses where you might be meeting up with people, too.
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10. Multitasking Email
At long last, emails are now windows, so you don't have to close one to open another. Users just swipe downward to minimize the email and it's possible to open up a few at once, if you want to look at them in carousel form and pick which one you want accordingly.
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11. Smarter Spotlight
Spotlight — which is still accessed by dragging the top of the screen downward — is a significantly smarter search tool than ever before. In addition for looking for stuff on your own device, it now searches Wikipedia, knows what topics are trending online in real time, shows you restaurants nearby and tells you movie showtimes.
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12. Share Location
If you're planning to meet up with friends, you can now share your exact location with them. iOS 8 lets you set up a window for when you want whereabouts shared, too — for example, if you're be at the beach from noon to 4:00 p.m. ET, you can share your location with a group of friends until you're ready to head home.
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13. Audio Messages
For times when you want to send a quick voice message, but don't really want to get into a conversation over the phone, you can now record and send audio snippets via text message. Use case scenarios: singing Happy Birthday or wishing someone good luck for a big meeting.
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14. Photo Adjustments
There's no need to fret if you haphazardly snap a photo. You can straighten horizons and adjust the angles.
iOS 8 users now have way more control over videos. What typically can cost thousands of dollars in camera equipment to speed up or slow down footage is now available for free within the Camera app, giving you the opportunity to get creative with your clips.
Those of you running the latest iOS 8software on your iPhone or iPad might notice your battery life dwindling faster than usual.
That's because the handful of shiny new features added to the mobile operating system are working harder to make your mobile experience more productive. Of course, ironically, that productivity lasts for less time than before
Users with iOS 8 running on a newiPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus are less likely to feel the effects of this, thanks to a stronger (and newer) battery that lasts longer than previous models. But regardless of the model you have, there are quick and easy ways to preserve battery life and add extra hours to its daily longevity.
Some tips are less obvious than others — and many tips can be used for previous software versions too, like iOS 7 — so let's take a few minutes to explore what can save hours of time:
1. Identify culprits
You can find a list of apps using the most battery resources in the battery usage section of the device's main Settings menu.
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First, you'll want to figure out which apps are sucking away your battery life most. Apple has added a new tool in iOS 8 that gives a percentage breakdown of the biggest drainers. To identify which apps you should close when not in use, visit Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage. You can then close out of these apps or just delete them, if they can be spared.
2. Manage Background App Refresh
Just like with iOS 7, the latest Apple software comes with Background App Refresh set to "on." The feature lets apps run in the background while you multitask and continually refreshes content when running on Wi-Fi or a cellular network. It's handy for constant refreshing, but certainly not worth the battery life it drains along the way.
To disable this feature, visit Settings > General > Background App Refresh. You can pick whether you want to turn off the function in general or via an app by app basis.
3. Cool it with notification widgets
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iOS 8 finally has widgets that you can access from Notification Center — just pull down from the top of the screen and customize your Today view. These widgets can offer up sports scores, weather updates, transit information and more. The only downside is that some of these widgets poll data frequently and that can be taxing on your battery. The good news is you can select which widgets you want to enable (and which ones you want to keep at bay) by tapping the "Edit" menu at the bottom of the Today screen.
4. Shut down parallax
Some people like how Apple's parallax feature makes it seem like the wallpaper can move behind the apps; others think it's dizzying. Either way, it's one of the biggest offenders of battery life for iOS 8. To turn it off, visit Settings > General > Accessibility and switch Reduce Motion to "on."
5. Stop location-tracking apps
Location-tracking apps can be great for when you need GPS directions or even if you want to keep a geo-log of where you take your pictures, but the constant monitoring is eating away precious hours of device life. You can turn off Location Services completely (Settings > Privacy > Location Services) or disable certain apps one by one. We recommend the latter option, so you can still leave on key location-based functions such as Find My iPhone if it's ever lost.
There's more, too. Selecting the System Services option under Location Services will reveal a collection of other app features that are stealing away battery life, including "Popular Near Me" and "Frequent Locations."
6. Turn down the brightness
This may seem obvious, but your display is draining your battery, and there's no need to have it shine any brighter than necessary. Use the Control Center or visit Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness and disable Auto-Brightness and decrease the setting manually.
7. Don't fetch
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We understand the constant need to be connected and not miss emails, but the fetch function — which pushes email notifications to your homescreen — is always looking for new mail and exhausts the battery along the way. Give it a rest and check your email manually via the Mail app instead. To turn off the feature, visit Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data.
Although these little steps may seem like, well, little steps, they'll be able to take your mobile device's daily lifespan a long way.
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