Battery life suddenly terrible on iPhone 4

I've been having my iPhone 4 for about a year and a half now and never had any issues with the battery life. But yesterday, the battery life suddenly decreased exponentially. I typically do a "hard reset" on my phone every few days because it tends to get slow or buggy after a while.
So yesterday after a hard reset, my battery went from 100% to just over 80% in about 15 minutes of music playback on the iPod/Music app — no streaming from the Web and no other apps open. The battery percentage continued tanking throughout the day even though I was only occasionally sending texts and never really using any data. I pulled it from my pocket to check the time and noticed it was dead, only about four hours after I'd completely charged it to 100%.
The battery life has never been close to this bad, and the only thing I think could have had any effect on it was the hard reset I did yesterday afternoon. I haven't recently updated the software or installed any new apps. The strange thing is that the battery life seems to go by even faster when the phone's idle. Looking through Facebook posts or playing games don't drain it as much it just sitting on my desk. Any idea what might work? Thanks.

I've encountered the exact same. I now keep the phone plugged/tethered to the computer all day to conserve battery live. My usage is the same but I'm wondering if the notifications are to blame for the shortened life. Withoout plugging the phone in the battery may not make the entire day.

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Battery life suddenly terrible on iPhone 4

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