Six tips for better Apple iPhone 4S battery life

Apple will soon patch those widely-reported iPhone 4S battery life bugs. Meanwhile, here's six tips to help most smartphone owners achieve better battery life from their mobile devices.

Switch off your Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi's great, but only when you're on a network, otherwise that Wi-Fi radio's just sucking out your power every time it looks around for a network. It stands to reason that if you switch Wi-Fi off when you aren't using it you'll get better battery life from your device.

You can switch off Wi-Fi in Settings inside your iPhone. Settings>Wi-Fi>Toggle on-off switch to "off".

While you're at it, you might as well switch off your Bluetooth, too, unless you're using it. You can disable this in Settings>General>Bluetooth.

Reduce screen brightness
A bright screen is a power-hungry screen. If you want to get more battery life from your device then reducing that brightness will inevitably extend battery life. Enter Settings>Brightness. Set the scrollable brightness level to a setting you can handle and disable Auto-Brightness if you want to stop the iPhone automatically adjusting your display brightness.

[ABOVE: If you want a visual guide, try this one.]

Give Push the push
Push Notification is fantastic if you want to be kept up-to-date with incoming messages, but if you're out on the road without the ability to recharge your iPhone, you should switch these notifications off.

To do so, go to Settings>Notifications and set Notifications to Off. Don't worry -- you won't lose any incoming data, you'll just have to launch the relevant application to see it.

If you have a push email account such as Yahoo! or Exchange then you can disable it to preserve battery life. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off.
Know your name, not your location
Location services quietly consume battery life. True, if you are in a new place and need a map and local advice, it helps to have location services switched on. Otherwise, you can disable location services, as follows: Settings > General > Location Services or use location services only when needed.

Take the data diet
When battery life becomes the priority, do you really need to check your mail and other data as frequently? The more often an application fetches data the faster your battery may drain.

To fetch new data manually, from the Home screen choose Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Manually.

To increase the fetch interval, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Hourly.

(These are universal settings which apply to all apps that don't support push services).

[ABOVE: Because sometimes everybody needs an irrelevant but pretty cool dancing robot.]

AirPlane Mode
The sad truth is that mobile coverage is low or non-existent in some areas. If you are in such an area, then your iPhone will continue to attempt to connect to the network, and this demands battery life. If you know you are in such an area, and recognize that calls are unlikely to reach you because of this, then switching your smartphone to AirPlane Mode will reduce battery drain. You can't make or receive calls, but when you need to do so you just switch back to normal mode and hope to find some reception.

To turn on Airplane Mode, go to Settings>Airplane Mode>Off/On.

I hope these tips help you get better battery life from your device. I use these tips when I'm tragically trapped at one of Europe's music festivals. There's one more, of course, one every festival veteran knows about: text, don't call. You use a lot of power making a voice call, but far less using SMS. Of course, many of these tips will work on your iPad, iPod touch or other mobile device.

This post is sponsored by:Dr Mobiles Limited
1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344 and Mob: (021) 264-0000
Web - Map - Email - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flickr
    

Siri Tricks and Tips: Do More with the iPhone 4S Virtual Assistant

APPLE

In a phone with lots of evolutionary qualities, Siri is the iPhone 4S’s most revolutionary feature. Simply by speaking to this virtual assistant, you can set reminders, send text messages, look up information and schedule meetings.

But with a bit of extra effort, Siri can do even more. Here are some tricks and tips for getting the most out of Siri on the iPhone 4S:

Post to Twitter, Facebook or Google+ With Siri

Although Siri doesn’t offer a built-in way to update your Twitter or Facebook status by voice, Siri does send text messages, so all you have to do is set up your phone to send status updates by text and Siri will cooperate. Of course, text messaging rates may apply depending on your plan.

For Facebook, text “Hello” to 32665 in the United States (or the short code for whatever country you’re in), then follow the link in the reply to finish the setup process. Add the short code to your Contacts, and name it “Facebook.” That way, you can tell Siri to “send a text to Facebook saying …”

For Twitter, text “START” to 40404 in the United States (or the short code for other countries), then respond with your username, then your password. Add the short code to your Contacts with the name “Twitter.”

For Google+, visit your settings page and scroll down to “Set delivery preferences.” Add your cell phone number, but be sure to click “don’t notify me” if you don’t want incoming Google+ messages by text. Verify your number with the code you receive by phone, then add the short code “33669″ (in the U.S.) to your contacts as “Google Plus.” Updates are shared with everyone in your circles.

Use Remember the Milk for Siri Reminders

The iPhone 4S includes its own reminders app, but you may prefer Remember the Milk for its advanced features, such as the ability to sync online and share tasks with others. I’ll just copy and paste the instructions directly from the folks at Remember the Milk:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone 4

2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars

3. Tap Add Account…

4. Tap Other

5. Underneath Calendars, tap Add CalDav Account

6. In the ‘Server’ field, enter: www.rememberthemilk.com

7. In the ‘User Name’ and ‘Password’ fields, enter your Remember The Milk details

8. Tap Next

9. You should be returned to Mail, Contacts, Calendars, with the account added. Scroll to the bottom of the screen, and tap Default List

10. Tap Remember The Milk

All your “remind me” commands in Siri should now go through Remember the Milk. Once you do this, you’ll get e-mail reminders from Remember the Milk instead of push notifications from the default Reminders app.

Teach Siri Hard-to-Pronounce Names

If Siri can’t understand your name or the names of your contacts, worry not; you can teach pronunciations to Siri by adding phonetic first or last names for your contacts. You’ll find this option in the Contacts app, toward the bottom of the page for the person you’re trying to reach. If phonetic names don’t work, you can also add a nickname.

Siri Search With Yahoo or Bing

By default, Siri searches the web with Google, but using Bing or Yahoo instead is pretty simple, as Search Engine Land points out. Just say “Search Bing for…” or “Search Yahoo for…” to use those search engines on a one-time basis. If either of those engines are your default, you can say “Search Google for…” to run a one-time Google search.

Siri Dictation Tips

When dictating a text message to Siri, you may want to insert punctuation or other formatting that the system wouldn’t automatically add on its own. Fortunately, Siri understands lots of formatting instructions, including “Caps On,” “No Caps,” “New Line” and “New Paragraph.” You can also add symbols, such as “open quote,” “close quote,” “percent sign” or “dollar sign.”

Over at iSource, Joe Tomasone has written a nice list of Siri commands for formatting and punctuation. Check it out to make the most of your dictation.

Everything Siri Does

Part of the fun with Siri is in testing its limits. But if you prefer to spoil surprises and get down to business, TUAW has a huge list of commands that Siri understands.

Siri Party Tricks

Ask the right questions, and Siri will give you some funny answers—perfect for amusing your friends when they ask to check out your shiny new iPhone 4S. Already, there’s a Tumblr page dedicated to Siri’s weirdest and funniest responses (warning: foul language). Worth keeping in mind when you need a laugh.

This post is sponsored by:Dr Mobiles Limited
1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344 and Mob: (021) 264-0000
Web - Map - Email - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flickr