Saturday, December 4, 2010

Improve Your iPad's Battery Life

Summary: New page: [[Image:IPadVideoKillDVD.jpg|thumb|630px|left|Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired]] Part of the iPad's appeal is its long battery life -- Apple claims the wi-fi-only version will last ten hours, a...


[[Image:IPadVideoKillDVD.jpg|thumb|630px|left|Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired]]


Part of the iPad's appeal is its long battery life -- Apple claims the wi-fi-only version will last ten hours, and the 3G iPad will last nine hours before needing a charge. Both of those stats are pretty impressive.

Of course, what happens in the real world is considerably different than what happens in Apple's laboratory stress tests. Watch movies continuously at full brightness with push e-mail notifications for a dozen accounts going in the background and you aren't likely to get six or seven hours out of the iPad.

In our experience, it is possible to get close to Apple's claims, provided you're willing to turn off a few features and dim your screen a bit. Here's our guide to making your iPad battery last as long as possible.

''This article is part of a wiki anyone can edit. If you have extra advice, corrections, or tips for keeping your iPad alive longer, please log in and contribute. There's a section at the bottom for additional tips that don't fit into the two main sections.''


===The obvious===

* '''Lock your iPad''' when you aren't using it. Sure, it will auto-lock after a set period of time, but why leave it sitting there wasting battery when it's so simple to lock? While you're at it, shorten the auto-lock settings; head to '''Settings''' > '''General''' > '''Auto-Lock''' and set the interval to a shorter time -- a minute at the most.


* '''Dim the screen.''' This is probably the biggest single thing you can do to save battery life. By default, the iPad has its Auto-Brightness feature turned on. This means the screen adjusts to the ambient lighting around you. That's convenient, but in low light situations, the screen is running at battery-draining level of brightness for no reason. Head to '''Settings''' > '''Brightness & Wallpaper''' and notch the brightness down a bit.


* '''Ditch the case.''' Some cases can cause the iPad to become quite warm. The rechargeable Lithium-based battery in the iPad is sensitive to heat, and it lasts longer when it's cooled. Taking the iPad out of its case will keep it from retaining heat, giving you more battery life. Not much, but every bit counts sometimes. Apple says 72� F (or 22� C) is the ideal working temperature. Also, taking your iPad out of its case while charging it will help, since it generates extra heat while charging.


* '''Completely drain your battery.''' Every so often (Apple says once per month) it's a good idea to charge your iPad all the way up, then use it until the battery completely drains and the device shuts itself off. This lets the device know where the lower limit of the battery is, as that mark can change over time.


* '''Keep the iPad up to date.''' Make sure you're always running the most recent version of iOS. Software updates usually fix bugs and odd behaviors, and running the most current OS usually benefits battery life.

<br />

===Features worth disabling===

'''Learn to love Airplane Mode.''' All of the wireless networking services in the iPad -- wi-fi, bluetooth and 3G -- will cause stress on your battery, even if you're not surfing the web or streaming lots of data. The easiest way to temporarily disable all forms of networking at once is to switch into Airplane Mode when you don't need to connect to anyone or anything -- say, when you're watching a movie, working on a document, or reading an e-book.

If you'd like to keep some services running, stay out of Airplane mode and only disable whatever you need to.

* '''Turn off 3G.''' Whenever you're on wi-fi, turn off the 3G network radio if your iPad supports 3G. Go to '''Settings''' then '''Cellular Data''' and flip the switch to off.


* '''Turn off wi-fi.''' Although it severely limits the usefulness of your iPad, if you're just watching a movie or reading a book anyway, turn off the wi-fi and make the battery last a bit longer. Go to '''Settings''' > '''Wi-Fi.'''


* '''Disable Bluetooth.''' Like the other forms of wireless networking, Bluetooth drains the battery. Assuming you aren't using any peripherals that need it, turn it off.


* '''Watch your apps.''' There are two types of apps that are particularly hard on your iPad's batteries -- games that never let the screen dim and social location-based services that constantly check your geo-whereabouts. Make sure you shut down such apps when you're not using them.


* '''Disable push notifications.''' The built-in Mail app, as well as dozens of social apps you may download, poll servers in the background look for new tweets, mail and messages, all of which costs your precious battery life. Open '''Settings''' and tap '''Mail, Contacts, Calendars'''. Then find the '''Fetch New Data''' settings and turn off '''Push'''.


* '''Delay data fetching.''' If you've turned off push notifications, go a step further and make Mail and other apps check-in with the server less frequently. To increase the fetch interval, go to '''Settings''' and select '''Mail, Contacts, Calendars'''. Then select '''Fetch New Data''' and tap '''Hourly'''. You won't get mail or calendar invitations immediately unless you manually fetch that stuff, but your iPad will still check once per hour. Note that this is a global setting and applies to all apps. It's also worth noting that setting '''Fetch New Data''' to hourly means you can't find your iPad using the MobileMe '''Find My iPad''' tools.


===Additional tips and tricks===

If you have additional tips for saving your iPad's battery life, put them here.


===Other iOS How-Tos===

* [[Activate Find My iPhone for iOS 4]]
* [[Use iPad Webapps on Your Desktop]]
* [[Get Rid of Your CDs and DVDs]]
* [[Encode Videos for Your iPad With HandBrake]]


[[Category:IPod and IPhone]]
[[Category:IPad]]


Source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/howtowiki/~3/mH6NWBYHR3E/Improve_Your_iPad%27s_Battery_Life

MICROSOFT MILLICOM INTL. CELLULAR MOBILE TELESYSTEMS NANYA TECHNOLOGY

No comments:

Post a Comment