Author: Matthew Petch
Source: ezinearticles.com

Before I owned an iPod Touch I owned an iPod Photo (and still do) . The first thing I noticed about the Touch was that its battery appears to drain much quicker. Of course it doesn’t really if I only play music as I did with my old iPod. The touch can do so much more, but the price you pay for all the great energy sapping features of the iPod Touch or iPhone is a pretty short battery life. There are a few things you can do to maximise the battery life and I have tried to compile here a comprehensive list of ways in which you can squeeze as much time out of a single charge as possible. Of course the whole point of having an iPod or iPhone is to use and enjoy it but if you find your self in a situation where you wont be able to charge it for some time you may want to consider some of the following.

Keep it sleeping.

Make it sleep quickly.
Obvious, I know but the longer your device is awake the more power it uses. You can help minimise awake time by making sure the Auto-Lock feature is set to put your device to sleep as quickly as possible. Go to Settings – General – Auto Lock and set it to the default 1 Minute. Don’t forget that you can also manually put it to sleep by pressing the sleep button at the top of your device.

Avoid turning it off.
Unless you intend not using your device for quite a long time it is probably best to avoid turning your device off completely. Restarting your iPod or iPhone is likely to use more power than you will save. When not in use for short periods of time just use the sleep mode.

Turn, “iPod touch“, off features you don’t need.

Turn Off WiFi.
If you’re not in range of WiFi or just don’t need to use it you could save a bit of juice by turning it off. Go to Settings – Wi-Fi and switch it to off. Whilst there you could also turn off “Ask to join Networks”

Turn Off EQ.
Having EQ turned on uses more of your devices processor and battery power. Turn off EQ by going to Settings – Music – EQ and selecting Off.

Turn Off Bluetooth.
If this is something you dont use much make sure it is turned off. Go to Settings – General – Bluetooth and turn it off.

Turn off Location Services.
Decide how often you use this feature and if its not very often, turn it off. Go to Settings – General – and flick the switch next to Location Services.

Minimise the number of times your device performs automatic tasks.

Reduce how often your device fetches mail.
Applications such as Mail, fetch data automatically at pre set intervals. You can save a bit of battery life by reducing how often this happens. Go to Settings – Mail, Contacts, Calendars – Fetch New Data and select a longer period of time in the Fetch list. Even better, set it to manually. Whilst here you could also turn off Push. Rather than emails constantly being pushed to your push mail accounts they will simply be received according to your Fetch settings.

Stop your iPhone from searching for a network.
If you know you are in an area where there is a very weak or no mobile network it may be a good idea to turn on Airplane mode. This will stop your iPhone from constantly trying to find a connection. Go to Settings and switch on Airplane mode.

Turn Off 3G
If you don’t require the speed that 3G offers, you may be able to save a bit of energy by just using EDGE. Go to Settings – General – Network and set 3G to Off.

Avoid bright screens.

Turn down the screen brightness.
The display on the iPod Touch & iPhone is a major battery drain. When its bright and busy its using lots of pawer. You can minimise its effect on your battery by keeping the brightness down as low as possible. Go to Settings – Brightness and drag the slider to the left as far as you feel comfortable with. You can also make it even more efficient by switching on Auto-Brightness.

Minimise the use of third party app’s.
Using app’s that keep the screen illuminated such as games will of course drain the battery. The more you can avoid using these the more your battery will thank you. The most efficient entertainment your device can provide is playing music.

Don’t use colourful wallpapers.
If you really want, “iPod touch“, to take this to a silly extreme you could also make sure you don’t use any bright wallpapers. A black background requires little energy.

Avoid excessive processor use.
Minimise the use of complex games.
Its good to be aware that running many of the third party app’s such as games not only cause lots of battery draining screen activity, but also makes the iPods processor work harder. This of course drains the battery.

If all else fails.

Use a mobile charger or battery pack.
If you just enjoy using your iPod or iPhone too much to consider many of the above options, or you just need to play high octane 3D video games on your travels; you could always consider carrying an additional battery pack with you. Some battery packs also come with solar panels so you need never be without your iPod or iPhone again. Freeloader make a good range of solar and battery charging combinations. By far the most versatile and acclaimed is the Freeloader Globe Trotter.

Matt Byron Petch started his career as a product designer before moving into the world of digital design and has been an Apple (and Windows) product user for about 20 years. To get more ideas about how you can use your iPod or iPhone visit http://www.appletap.com.

Are you ready Nook? I hope so, because Amazon is ready to get it on. Amazon announced today that a new firmware update will bring the world’s most popular e-reader (at the moment) a boosted battery life of 85% more. According to Amazon, 85% more battery with 3G on equates to a full week of ON time. Before the update is applied, Kindles only lasted 4 days with 3G on. With 3G off, the Kindle will operate for two weeks.

These e-reader wars are getting interesting. I’m digging this new firmware update. Alas, competition can only make everything better in the long run. I’d say in about 3-4 years, an e-reader would look very attractive given that the price drops to $100 – $150 and the battery can run for weeks or even a month.

Amazon

The reasons to stick with Windows XP just keep pilling up.  Click here to read.

Hi BB Users,

There are some BB Users who have been looking to get an apps that helps save some battery life. You could get some tips some tips how to maximize the battery life from previous tips in this page. To continue above discussion there are some applications that it claim to enhance & optimize the battery thus here are the reviews below :

1. Battery Booster

Boost your battery’s current runtime!

Features:

Benefits: Enhance the current battery runtime.

No new hardware: Software only solution.

No additional hardware needed!

Easy: Just install and save battery.

Convenience: Can run in background.

Minimum Requirements: None Display Dimensions 160×160, 240×160, 240×240, 240×260, 240×320, 320×240, 360×480, 480×320, 480×360

Operating System 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 Non-Touch, 4.7 Touch Screen

Free PC download : Battery Booster

2. Auto Standby

Overview: AutoStandby is a great addition to any BlackBerry. Once it is installed you will have the power to automatically place your device into standby mode once it has sat idle for a determined amount of time. When in standby your device will use less power (similar to being holstered) while still allowing you to receive all of your important correspondence. You will notice a marked improvement in battery life while limiting nuisance actions like pocket dialing and mistaken key presses.

Pros: Having your device set to standby allows for a significant increase in battery life and more battery means more uptime and access to your device. AutoStandby will also help to keep your wasted minutes and data to a minimum.

Cons: The software comes with limited documentation compared to the amount of customizable options. The developers could do a bit better in informing purchasers about the extent of the applications functionality.

AutoStandby Is A Great Standby Solution For BlackBerry Brought to you by Zaventh Ventures, LLC, the AutoStandby application allows you to preserve battery life by placing your device in standby mode with the simple press of a button. Not only does standby mode preserve battery life, but it also eliminates the mistake of dialing someone by accident or inadvertently activating another application by mistake. While AutoStandby is active, you are still able to receive calls and messages on your BlackBerry as you normally would, but placing calls requires turning the AutoStandby application off which, again, only requires the simple press of a button on your phone. AutoStandby also gives you the choice of not just placing your phone on standby, but of also locking it for even further security. BlackBerry System Requirements For AutoStandby AutoStandby is available for BlackBerry devices running operating systems of 4.2 or higher. If you aren’t sure which OS you’re running, simply open a blank email on your BlackBerry, type the word myver and then hit your space key. The numbers that will appear indicate your BlackBerry model number and your operating system. And, as always, we recommend that you back your BlackBerry device up on your pc using your BlackBerry Desktop Manager before adding AutoStandby or any new software to your device. Might AutoStandby Be Right For You? AutoStandby just may be the application needed for busy BlackBerry users who need a standby option as they consistently run short on battery time or who, from time to time, have been known to accidentally dial a number by inadvertently activating a speed-dial key while their BlackBerry is in their purse or pocket. For less than the cost of lunch, AutoStandby can eliminate these issues all in a simple, easy to use and easy to download standby application.

Detailed Software Information:

Developed By: AutoStandby for BlackBerry is developed and released by Zaventh Ventures LLC

Supported BlackBerry Models: AutoStandby for BlackBerry is compatible with all models of BlackBerry running an OS of 4.2 or higher.

Included Features:

• Measurable extension of BlackBerry battery life.
• Your BlackBerry will charge faster than ever before.

• Single click to restore your device.

• Detects navigation software and various media player software for the BlackBerry.

Minimum Requirements: In order to run the AutoStandby for BlackBerry software on your BlackBerry, you need an OS of 4.2 or higher. Ease of download and installation: Installing AutoStandby onto your BlackBerry is quick and easy.

AutoStandby will now be on your BlackBerry and ready to go!

OTA download : OTA Auto standby

3. IQ Empty Battery  ( this apps is only to empty the battery and to compare two batteries to see which one lasts longer)

Version : 1.0

Last Updated: October 3, 2009

If you want to empty your phone’s battery to charge it from zero, or if you want to compare two batteries to see which one lasts longer, you can trust our application to help you with that. IQ Empty Battery vibrates every second and empties your battery, counting in the same time the number of vibrations. You can challenge a friend to demonstrate him you battery has better quality, or you can make a little joke and just empty his battery before he comes back from toilet. Whatever you chose to do, enjoy this little application for your mobile phone.

For PC Download please click to : Empty Battery

At the density a 17 inch Macbook Pro would last around 15 hours!  Awesome.  Click here to read more.

Note: RC stands for “Release Candidate”

Taken from page 3 of Anandtech.com’s article, “Windows 7 Performance Guide”:

Finally, battery life, one of the sore spots with the RC, has finally gotten the kick in the pants we were expecting to see. We’ll get deeper in to this later when we look at benchmarks, but for the time being we’ll note that while the RC offered a battery life similar to Vista, the release version of Windows 7 offers battery life well ahead of Vista in all cases, and depending on the exact hardware used similar to if not better than battery life as compared to XP. It looks like Microsoft and driver authors have finally come through on significantly improving Vista’s lackluster mobile performance.

Yes, yes!  Not that I’m planning on getting a Windows 7 equipped laptop or desktop anytime soon, but one thing that irked me from benchmarks was seeing that battery life under Windows 7 looked pretty much the same as Vista.  Which, in most cases, was significantly lower than XP and Mac OS X.  And this was in the Release Candidate (RC) version of Windows 7, which was supposed to be pretty much… a “finished” version of Windows 7.  So I’m glad to see that they’ve made such a fundamental improvement since the RC.  Anyways, the above excerpt was taken out of page 3 in the 18 page article, so I’m going to have to read on to see how big of an improvement over Vista they’ve made (in terms of battery life).

UPDATE: Well, I finally got to the battery benchmarks and they referred to an older article (benchmarking the RTM or Release to Manufacturing version) that I remember reading before, which when I read it at the time, I didn’t think showed much of an improvement over Vista.  I guess things must have been really bad a couple of months before that when the RC was released.

This electricity science project determines which brand of battery produces electricity for the longest period of time.

Background:

Research information on batteries, electricity, and electrical circuits. Answer the following questions: What is electricity? What are electrical circuits? How do batteries produce electricity?

Hypothesis:

From your research you will predict which battery brand will produce electricity for the longest period of time.

Materials: (Adult supervision of kids is always recommended.)
• Suggested Electricity Kit: Electronic Snap Circuits 300

Scientifics Online: Electronic Snap Circuits 300 – ages 8 and up
• 4 AA batteries of 3 or 4 brands (ex. Duracell, Energizer, Rayovac, Eveready)
• Pencil
• Paper
Procedure:

1. Gather materials needed for your experiment.

2. Follow instructions from your kit to assemble the electric fan model. (Other experiments from this kit may also be used, such as the sucking fan, radio station, high pitch bell, etc.)

3. Choose one of the battery brands to place in your model to activate the fan. (Some experiment models require the use of 2 to 4 batteries. Use the correct number of batteries needed for your experiment.)

4. Follow instructions from your kit on how to insert the batteries.

5. Turn the switch on. Once the fan starts spinning, record the time it takes for the fan to stop working due to low battery power.

6. Repeat steps 4 – 5 for each of the remaining battery brands.

Results:

Compare your results. Graph and chart your data. Which brand of battery lasted the longest? Was this what you expected? Why or why not?

Conclusion:

Summarize what happened in your electricity science project experiment based on your results. Explain patterns in your data. Did your data support your hypothesis? If not, explain why. Evaluate your project and make suggestions for improvements.