12 Ways To Conserve Your iPhone Battery Power
As much as I love the iPhone 2.0 release on both my 1st Generation iPhone and my new iPhone 3G, it has problems.
The biggest problem I have with 2.0 is how fast it can chug down a full battery.
While some of the new features that consume all this power are absolutely great, to be honest most of the time you don’t really need them running. So why not learn how to quickly turn them on and off to get all that battery time back.
1. Pause Push
The push feature is great, I’ve figured out that I get email on my phone faster than it hits my inbox on my computer. But do you really need to get it instantly, are emails from facebook really that critical? You might think so, but honestly think about how often you look at your email on your phone. If you’re like me you can afford to turn Push off on your personal mail. Here’s how:
By default, this turns the “Fetch” feature to “Every 15 Minutes”. This is the default for how the previous releases of the iPhone managed it. If you want to conserve even more power consider increasing that to 30 minutes, an Hour, or even manage it Manually. I personally have it set to “Every 15 Minutes.”
2. Wi-Fi, Why?
With Wi-Fi turned on, your iPhone will search for access points at all times. If it finds an access point that it has connected to before in the past, it will automatically connect to it, even if you don’t plan on using internet features in that area. All this searching and constant connecting and disconnecting drains power.
So turn it off when you aren’t using it and then when you take your phone out to really surf the internet, flip it back on. Here’s how to turn it off if you don’t know how:
If however, you’d prefer to have your Wi-Fi feature turned on, you can still conserve a bit of energy. All you have to do is turn the “Ask to Join Networks” feature off. This way when the phone is not connected to a Wi-Fi access point, it won’t be trying to get you to connect to networks you don’t know.
This will also prevent those annoying popups that happen when you are driving around and it finds networks.
3. How Bright You Are.
Don’t you love that great, bright screen of the iPhone? Sometimes it’s so bright you should wear sunglasses, right? Well, why not turn the brightness down? It’s saves power and you don’t need to wear sunglasses at night any longer. Here’s How:
4. Gee 3G.
This last one is for iPhone 3G users only. Like Wi-Fi, the 3G feature is a constant data connection to the internet. But you aren’t constantly on the internet, so why have it on all the time. Just turn it off when you aren’t using it. Here’s How:
Not every cell tower in an area is 3G enabled in any given area. The iPhone was programmed to first look for a 3G tower and then any tower if a 3G one doesn’t exist in that area. This means that you could literally be standing next to a tower that isn’t 3G enabled and it still won’t connect to it, cause it wants the 3G one first.
5. The Last Resorts
There are two options, that are guaranteed to conserve your battery power when you are in a dire situation and you need to make sure that you can make calls and sends messages.
The iPhone is a great device. It’s really the new crackberry. The only problem with the release of iPhone software 2.0, it won’t even last till the end of the day on a single charge. Apple clearly has some work to do, to get it back to where it was. In the mean time it, with the 5 tips above, your iPhone will last a lot longer. Try them out and let me know how much longer your iPhone lasts in the comments below.
BTW: If you know of another tip on how to save power on your iPhone, let us know in the comments below.
6. Boot Bluetooth
By default this feature is off. However, if you are one of those extremely cool users who always wear a Bluetooth Headset…you might want to trade back down to a pair of wired earbuds.
Or, maybe you tried to be one of those people, but didn’t make the grade, and you did use the Bluetooth feature at one point in time. Don’t worry I hear white earbuds are just as cool as a blue blinking headset in one ear. Here’s how to turn it off:
1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “General.”
3. Select “Bluetooth.”
4. Flip the “Bluetooth” switch from “Off” to “On”
7. Put your iPhone on Ambien.
As beautiful and energetic your iPhone’s touch screen is, it can use a little help in falling asleep sometimes. Why not help it out and prescribe it a does of Ambien? Or if you are having a hard time getting a doctor to give you a prescription for your phone, why not just set the Auto-Lock feature to a shorter time?
1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “General.”
3. Select “Auto-Lock.”
4. Make sure “1 MInute” has a check mark next to it. If not select it.
8. Turn a deaf ear.
That great Kayne West ring tone that you just downloaded is great and all, but the person the next block over doesn’t need to hear it. Turn it down.
1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “Sounds”
3. Move the slider to the left under the “Ring” section.
9. I’m Getting This Vibe.
Yes, when your phone is in your pocket vibrating away, you want people to call you again and again….the problem is that, that little vibrating engine that could is a pretty good consumer of juice. In silent mode, vibration is necessary, I’ll give you that. When the standard ringtone is on though….I’m not buying it. Turn that thing off and let Kayne sing without kicking you.
1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “Sounds.”
3. Flip the “Vibrate” switch from “On” to “Off” under the “Ring” section.
10. Create a Rollover Email Account.
You know those 13 email inboxes you are watching on your iPhone? Do you really need all of them? Having your phone connect to and check multiple emails, takes a lot of energy. Why not set up a rollover email account and then have all your other email accounts automatically forward their incoming emails to the one rollover account?
1. Determine which account is your Rollover Email Account.
2. Go to all the other emails accounts and set up auto-forwarding to your Rollover Account.
(For instructions on how to forward contact your email provider.)
3. Open “Settings.”
4. Select “Mail, Contacts, Calendars.”
5. Select the email account that you no longer require.
6. You don’t need to delete it, just flip the “Mail” switch from “On” to “Off.”
11. A Level Playing Field
Turn your iPod App’s Equalizer Setting off. Next time you are blasting Britney bast your middle ear and deep into your Cochlea, why not let Brit-Brit’s original altered vocals shine through without letting your iPhone alter them yet again.
1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “iPod.”
3. Select “EQ.”
4. Select “Off.”
12. Ditch Big Brother
Turn the “Locate Me” feature off. It’s clearly always telling the man where you are and the direction you are going. In fact, I hear that your boss was supplied an application that will allow him/her to instantly find your location. Okay that last bit may or may not be true, but are you willing to chance it? At the very least it will save you some juice. On an iPhone 3G, this essentially turns GPS off.
1. Open “Settings.”
2. Select “General.”
3. Flip the “Location Services” switch from “On” to “Off.”
credit: w3source.com