[psmith2.0]

1. Does it make any difference at all - in battery life and 3G data usage - if I don't close an app (return to the main home screen) before putting the phone to sleep? Sometimes I'll be checking e-mail and I'll put the phone back to sleep with Mail still the "open", active app. Does that pull on any resources more than if I'd hit the home button to close it and return to the basic home screen?

I wouldn't think it would - a sleeping iPhone is a sleeping iPhone, and nothing is working - but there's obviously some "life" there because it's capable of doing notifications and alerting me to various things coming in, even while sleeping. Lately I've made it to point to close out (not outright quit...I don't ever do that) whatever app I'm in before putting the phone back to sleep (seeing the homepage as the last thing before the screen goes dark, vs. a running app). But I was just curious if this made any sort of a difference in battery and data usage.

2. Can I "overcharge" this thing? Am I doing more damage/creating worse battery performance by sticking this into its charging cable on my nightstand and letting it be that way all night? Or, once it hits 100% charge, should I pull the charging cable out? On a related note, how far down should I let this thing get before I do charge it up? Does it matter? Or is there a certain point that it's better to let it drop down to (and then do a long, full charge-up vs. smaller "topping offs" throughout a day or week)?

I ask these because I'm seeing some very noticeable battery performance drops in recent months. While I still think iOS 5 is largely the cause, are there things I'm doing on my end to worsen the problem?

Prior to iOS 5, I could go two solid days - surfing, emailing, Scrabble/Boggle games, some YouTube viewing, music/podcasts, etc. - and still be well above 20-30%. These days (and it's getting more this way), at the end of one day, with no excessive, extra-than-usual usage I'll find myself in the red 10-20% levels. It's a two-year-old phone, so I know there's some natural, expected degradation in battery performance to be expected. But it sure does seem to be gaining steam the past 2-3 months!

I'm trying to do all I can to keep this thing in good, tip-top shape (because I will be looking to sell it in a few months).

[gsxrboy]

No & No

[Bryson]

Yep, neither of those things matter. It's just old-fashioned "battery getting old" problems.