nerdhook

I came across a behavior in the iPhone OS I had not noticed previously which seems incorrect. I noticed this behavior in an attempt to prolong my phone’s battery life. I’ve been actively turning off Wi-Fi when leaving the house. Lately I’ve also at times needed to turn the cellular radio off as well to avoid any calls coming through. As you are probably aware, in order to turn the cellular radio off, you need to put the phone in Airplane mode.

I was surprised to find after taking the phone out of Airplane mode that my Wi-Fi was turned back on.

To see for yourself, here are the steps you can take:

1. Flip the Wi-Fi switch to OFF
2. Flip the Airplane mode switch to ON
3. Flip the Airplane switch back to OFF

You will notice the Wi-Fi radio gets turned back on, instead of retaining the user’s pre-Airplane mode selection.

I don’t know if this is a conscious design decision or an oversight; either way I don’t believe it’s the proper way of handling the mode changes. The Wi-Fi radio shouldn’t be blindly turned on simply because Airplane mode has been turned off.

For this setting to warrant its own switch in the settings pane, its value needs to be respected. As it currently operates, the iPhone is turning my Wi-Fi radio on without me ever directing it do so.