This is exactly what I meant. I'm having to manually disconnect the wifi to save my battery so I can last the entire day without the charger. I have my connection set to auto connect using any means but search interval to never so only when I need to use the internet my phone looks for wifi/3g and connects without asking me if it should connect but doesn't disconnect when I'm dont thus wasting battery when I don't need it connected.

Actually, if discard some bugs, there is no sense in disconnection 3G. it was designed for low-powered devices in mind and it doesn't consume real energy while not transmitting. Moreover, IPv4 infrastructure for 3G was also redesigned a little to prevent some excessive packets.

It is an application activity which consumes a battery but cutting it off is your deliberate decision. Besides browser there are many applications in full-powered Linux which talks to world. If you think about battery it has sense to consider minimization of that activity.

WiFi is a little different, it has some excessive traffic from router (depends from network) and that stuff is absolutely useless. Moreover, there is bug related with it then wifi chip or driver doesn't recognize some chip feature then periodic beacon signal can be handled by chipset. That forces a periodic wifi rescan and reconnection and it consumes a lot of energy.

But it is a bug and can be fixed.

Thanks egoshin for that explanation. I also would like to have an "always connected" device but I also want a device that will last me the entire day. Hopefully these bugs can be worked out so I don't have to monitor my network activities throughout the day.

Upon searching I did find this brainstorm... and also several references to a "2g/3g switch toggle" app that should already be out there.

I think that there should be an option for the user to set so that the phone can be "always connected" or "connected while using web browser" Functionality like this could both be helpfull for users who are battery consupmtion nazis, and for people who simply dont want to always be connected, lets face it, even though it has the advantages of being "always on/connected" not everyone utilizes the device to that extent. Thats just IMO though =D

I added a desktop app that shows your ip, its a simple way to let you know you are disconnected if there is no ip addresses. And manually selecting network connection before doing any online stuff.

The thread "Why N900 doesn't automatically disconnect when I'm done?" with seventeen posts has been merged into this thread.

What apps are they?

Since I stopped routinely leaving Skype, SIP and YahooIM accounts active throughout the whole day whilst using a 3G connection, my battery life has improved significantly.

The weather widget and email account - it seems pointless having an always connected device when the battery can't cope unless it's plug into the charger - I assume this is why Nokia are aleady releasing a new version with a bigger battery?

My Nokia 5800 will check the internet at reguler intervals and then disconnect automatically but as far better battery life anyway.

I can get 3-4 day battery life when using 2g/3g switcher and wifi-switcher on/off.'

So stop this ******** talk and just code disconnect automatically applet and make me really happy. Could be done very easily maybe in one day.