You may be strutting around town with a pocket full of iPhone that gives you a head full of inner-geek confidence, but if your Apple device is constantly out of battery, which has been its most commonly reported problem, then you’re basically carrying around a bit of black plastic.
Apple uses a lithium-ion battery to power the iPhone, which has the drawback of losing a bit of power each time it’s recharged.
The official Apple line on this is that after 400 recharge cycles your iPhone’s battery should still retain 80 per cent of its original power. A number of iPhone owners would tend to disagree though and have voiced their opinions on this estimate on a number of forums.
Recently, there have also been reports that handsets using the new iPhone OS 3.0 software has resulted in batteries draining so quickly that some people can’t make it through a workday without going in search of a mains socket.
To make sure that you not only get to whip out your iPhone at the pub for a bit of kudos but also get to use it every now and then, we’ve come up with the top 5 ways to extend the battery life of your handset, so you don’t get caught out on the bus having to listen to other people’s conversations instead of rocking out with Thunder.
1. Change mail autochecking to every hour
The default setting on your iPhone will check your inbox every 15 minutes, which may be handy for work, but is more of a nuisance on weekends and holidays. You can still manually check for new emails if you’re expecting something important to come through from work or your girlfriend. To change this setting:
Go to Settings > Select Mail> Select Auto-Check and increase the interval or turn it off completely
2. Turn off Wi-Fi and Blutooth
If you don’t need a constant connection to either of these functions, turning them off means that you’re saving battery life for when you do actually need them.
To turn off Wi-Fi:
Go to Settings > Select Wi-Fi> Select Off
To turn off Blutooth:
Go to Settings > Select General> Select Blutooth> Select Off
3. Switch off keyboard clicks
Yes, it may make you sound like you’re being efficient, but the power to generate audio keyboard clicks needs to come from somewhere. To tone down your typing:
Go to Settings > Select Sounds> Turn Keyboard Clicks Off
4. Switch off the music equalizer (EQ)
Bryan Adams may not sound quite the same without it, but when you’re on a call to mum, you really don’t need to be concerned about the timbre of her nags. The EQ works by constantly processing sound, which drains a surprising amount from your battery. To switch it off:
Go to Settings > Select iPod> Select EQ> Select Flat
5. Reduce screen brightness or enable Auto-Brightness
Less light means less power consumption. It’s really only going to be in the dead of night that you would require full steam ahead on the brightness of your screen. Take it down a notch and you’ll be surprised at how easily you can still understand your mates’ facebook status updates.
To reduce screen brightness:
Go to Settings > Select Brightness> Drag the slider to dim the brightness
To enable Auto-Brightness:
Go to Settings > Select Brightness> Select Auto-Brightness On