Power drain --- a cause and a cure

[Jebel]

I recently switched mobile provider and noticed that my Centro would no longer get its time from the network, so I fiddled with the settings, which is how I discovered this: when my phone is set to automatically obtain date, time and location from the network (Prefs->Date & time) the battery would last less than one day (used to last 5 days). Investigation showed that the phone no longer entered "sleep". Changing date, time, and location setting to manual (and turning the phone on and off to update the change) restored battery longevity. The phone now spends the majority of its time in sleep according to Power Hero. Typically, a few mA is consumed during sleep, whereas being in REM sleep uses 160mA, and being awake uses a further bit more.
I haven't investigated fully yet whether the power drain only occurs when network updating of location is not available (so the phone constantly tries?), or whether it is the specific setting to automatically update date, time, and location that drains the battery, but I'm posting this in the hope that is helps disabuse people of the opinion that the Centro battery life is rubbish.

[reb1]

If you sync with palm desktop you can add a program like TimeSyncXT that will sync the time from your computer every time you hotsync.

[jigwashere]

You should also be able to get the time updated using an option in NVBackup.