Ok. here's some data and a graph which shows the problem here:

My setup ist pretty standard,

Diablo w/update
8GB external sd-card, formatted w vfat and ext3
statusbar w/ LoadApplet, AdvancedBacklight
No Applets at all on the home screen

Applications running during this test:
emacs
battery-status -d2 in xterm
all automatic checks for email etc. are off.

I started after reboot, logged in via ssh/WLAN and scp'd the battery data from yesterday's test (battery drained during the night). After that I disconnected from WLAN. There were occasional checks of the battery status via emacs. The ps output is attached. Please note that modest is already up and running although I did start from a reboot. As far as I figured out this is because of connectiong to WLAN.

After 400 mins I started modest and went to check my email (imap and pop3). 5 min later I switched off modest and WLAN and left the N810 sitting on the bench. There were occasional checks of the battery status via emacs.

I guess the graph speaks for itself the slope of the remaining battery is significantly steeper after calling modest.

So far all of my tests showed that I can do almost anything w/o problems. Just when I run modest to check my emails (and maybe close it afterwards) there's significatly higher power consumption.

And, secondly, this problem has not been present before the feature upgrade, and I did not change settings after that.

Maybe someone has a suggestion for further investigation or how to partially revert the upgrade without reflashing.

Thanks