CM Booster, Real Android Battery Saver

One of the persistent problems with mobiles is low battery. You can not do anything specially when you are out and do not have any chance or any way  to charge your phone. In this situation, conserving the battery for emergency use is just the only option available. And even without using the phone, normally the battery  is still trickling and discharging it's power like a timer counting down without the possibility of slowing down. But thankfully, there is a way of  retarding the discharge of  power with this "unexpected" free app.

The CM Speed Booster.

I used the word "unexpected" because conserving the battery is not it's major task. It is actually a booster to speed up the phone by releasing resources, deleting unwanted cache and tweaking the RAM. It's new feature, "the app standby", automatically lists apps that are wearing down the battery specially when the power percentage is in critical level and puts the phone into low bat mode. Although it does this  automatically, it still needs your input to "hibernate" these apps into standby mode by forcefully quitting them.

After hitting the launch button of  "hibernate idle apps" (1) and force quits all automatically chosen apps(2),

the application managed to keep the battery percentage to 12% for 8 hours(3). The figures are just impressive and for the first time I am seeing the effective conservation of battery without switching off the phone. Screenshot 4 shows the "plateau" state after the hibernate mode for idle apps is activated. Notice the steep drop when the phone is used.

Download CM Booster

CM booster can be downloaded from google play store by clicking here. This is a lightweight application compared to other similar programs and at the time of writing, it is advertisement free, meaning it will never use any of your internet connection, thus contributing to energy efficiency and saving data tariff, if you use mobile data to access the internet.

Why the iPhone 5 is Discharging Fast and Can Not Connect to Mobile Internet

My wife's iPhone 5 is almost two years old. I could say it is still in top condition and could deliver it's service the way as it was when it was new. But yesterday, it was a different story. My wife found out that she could not use the internet when at work and the battery is almost flat dead after her 12 hours duty despite being fully charged  when she started work.

Knowing her, I suspected  a user's fault rather than a hardware's fault. And here's what I found out.

Can't connect to data mobile whilst at work.

It is not unusual that there are dead spots inside a building. Initially I suspect that this is causing her internet problem.  Or she might over looked that the mobile data button is not activated.

Fortunately her mobile data and 4G network buttons are on, and  the settings are correct. So no issue with non-active data connection. Testing it from home provides positive conclusion that there's no conflict with the configuration and network's availability.  If she can not access internet from  work then  her location when she is accessing it is the culprit.

I was about to believe this but when she insisted that she can't access the internet anywhere from the hospital, I became suspicious to a non-obvious reason why she can not connect, an open wi-fi connection! At work, there are open connections but need to be authenticated  before it gives you internet access. Although the phone says it is connected, it does not log you in without the proper credentials. But even when you are not logged on,  it somehow locks your wi-fi and tricks your phone into being connected to an internet access. This means the data connection is disabled as wi-fi supersedes mobile connections when available.

The solution is simple for this, just disable the wi-fi button!

Battery discharges quickly.

The problem above is also a clue why the battery is not performing very well. The desperation on getting online might made her press buttons and activate functions that does not need to be active.

Turn off wi-fi and personal hotspot when not in use.

Obvious cause is the wi-fi being on, and investigating further, the personal hotspot button(settings>Personal hotspot) is also on! Turning them off when not in use saves battery. The personal hotspot has nothing to do with going online unless you want your device to become a gateway for other devices to access the internet. Using this could rake up mobile data bills specially when tethering is not included with your contract or you have a limited band width.

Turn off background App Refresh

Another culprit which is usually overlooked is the background app refreshing their contents. once they are connected to any internet access, either wi-fi or data.  Specially those applications that tracks the user's location like Facebook, Maps (see screenshot with arrows) and other's identified by the active location logo.  The best way to control this is to just turn the slider to the left(off).

Mind the FB videos.

By default, video feeds playback from facebook is set to automatic. It may appear harmless, but this  really drains the battery specially when your friends has too much videos to share. Automatic playing does not only shortens battery power but also your data bundle. To turn this feature off, open facebook, tap more at the bottom right corner, account settings, videos and photos, then slide smart auto-play to the left. This make the device not to play  video contents automatically.

Last Words.

These are not just the factors in having problems with mobile connectivity and short battery life. This are the problems I discovered in my wife's phone. Screen brightness could be blamed by majority of users, but for me, it is crucial to have enough clarity and I value this more than conserving the battery as it can be saved by other sensible measures.

The Note 3 and the Riddle of the 'Always On' Wi-Fi

My note 3  smartphone has been giving me a slight problem. It's Wi-Fi is always on! Even when I switch off the Wi-Fi button. The Wi-Fi button is off as it shows in this screen shot but I still see it active when I take a glimpse of what's using the battery power ( access it at settings>general>battery>then tap battery graph(1)). Note that the Wi-Fi entry remained active as shown by the continuous blue line(2).

• ALWAYS ON WI-FI

Although there is no issue regarding the performance of the device itself, it could be obvious that it plays a part in shortening the battery life. So this must stop.

I tried many things to stop this like restarting the device, deleting and disabling applications and widgets that I thought could have caused the Wi-Fi button active. I thought of this because when the device was new, this problem has not presented itself yet. Major culprits are the widgets displaying weather, temperature etc., and everything that refreshes itself by using the internet. But unfortunately, it failed. At this point, I was already being tempted to put the device into factory setting, which is the last resort I could think of.

• THE WI-FI SETTING

But before doing the final long way, I tried once more in scouring the setting I have not touched, the Wi-Fi button itself.

Embedded deep inside it, is a setting I have ignored or I have not explored before. Or it could be an additional function and has been added after the updates.

You can access this with the following taps; settings>connections>then tap Wi-Fi (3, not the Wi-Fi button). At this point it seems that there is no more options rather than choosing which SSID to connect. But tapping the left most soft key (4) reveals additional options, tap advanced.

• DISABLING WI-FI BUTTON EFFECTIVELY

The next window has given a clue why it is on all the time.  A menu of 'keeping the Wi-Fi button on even when the device sleeps' is set to 'always'(6). Tapping the > symbol let's you choose option to never or only when 'plugged in'. I think the second option (7) is better and could do no harm to the battery as it only does it when plugged in(8).

Going back to the battery after turning off Wi-Fi button for 45 minutes reveals a good sign, the Wi-Fi strip meter did not spend a single drop(9) of power.

• LAST WORDS.

I always thought that the Wi-Fi button is off when turned off from the simple toggle switch at the settings connections window.  But deep inside the Wi-Fi menu still has a sub-menu that overrides this. It is easy to  overlook this and could remain uncovered unless users notice this 'flaw' under what's using the battery power!

This problem could present itself on other android devices and if so, the solution could be the same.

Smart Way to Extend Battery Power

Running out of battery is still the most annoying and cause of disappointment when it comes to having a smartphone. Though they are smarter than we ever think, they are not smart enough to make their power lasts. In this department, the smart gadget needs it's owner  to solve this problem, and  in a way makes us 'smart' too!

Before we can implement a solution, we need to know where the problem is coming from, and in my experience, I have listed the 3 most common causes of low battery problem.

1. Screen.

Android devices has a way of telling what phone component contributes the most battery drain. After pressing setting>general>battery, it shows the top 9 battery drainers. The first two happened to be a component that the phone needs to operate. Third is the screen. 

• Adjust the brightness correctly.

Turning the brightness down to a comfortable level is OK, any more than that is an overkill as you may end up turning on and off the screen to adjust it as you can not possibly read what's at the screen because of too much dim or too much glare. Adjusting the correct brightness is a key here. To do this, go to the brightest place where you think you will be accessing your phone and adjust the screen brightness in there. In that way, you will know the correct level that is best for you. If you are always out in the field, then adjust it under the sun!  

• Use a dark or black background.

Colours, specially lighter colours need more light to appear correctly. More light also means more energy to use. Using black background reduces the need for light and therefore helps in conserving battery. This is advisable when your screen needs to be adjusted to its near full or full brightness at all time.

2. Energy hungry applications.

These are the programs that are always on like phone survey apps that monitors the way you use your phone, or could be an antivirus application that protects the device from internet traffic threats and other free apps that drive advertisements to your device.  I myself have downloaded these apps and if I am not being watchful could render my mobile without power when I needed it most.

• Keep application to minimum.

If you do not need it, do not download it. Make this your mobile apps rule. You are not only limiting the apps that simultaneously run and zapping all your battery power but you are also helping your device to run faster.

• Terminate application properly.

Closing an application is not just to tap the back button until it's window dis appears. Sometimes you need to go to the application manager's menu to see the applications running in real time and quit from there.

• Play games offline.

If you have game apps that are always showing advertisements, play it off line. Turn off your internet connectivity, wi-fi and data, when you activate it. In this way, dynamic ads does not appear. You are not only saving battery but saving data traffic as well when you are away from a free wi-fi.

3. Unattended connectivity buttons.

Most updates happen when you are in a wi-fi zone and smartphones happen to remember and save wi-fi settings the first time you connect. Update files are usually large and can sip all mobile power without you noticing it.

• Turn off wi-fi and data button.

Before you lock your phone in your locker, be sure to turn off connectivity button. This prevents unintentional data download from auto updates. It is also good for the phones processor as it prevents the wi-fi and data radio buttons in finding a better signal specially when the phone is locked up. The additional strain in constantly sniffing for available connections makes the processor work harder and in the process needs more power.

The same with bluetooth and NFC connectivities, they should be checked if they are off when not in use.

Last Words.

Sometimes doing these ways of keeping the battery top up is not enough. I do forget things and  there are situations that I need to keep the connectivity on or my screen to its brightest. Keeping a backup battery is sensible although in my case, I tend to misplace it when I swap and charge using my mobile. So the best for me is a small universal battery pack that can charge almost any device because of the supplied cable and a bonus led flashlight!

See More

Charge Your Mobile In 30 Seconds

Admit it, in the modern world, we are dependent to our digital gadget to live. Our mobile device helps  us juggle everything from waking up in the morning, reminding us to go to work or reminding us that we just forgot it's the rest day for the week. It can make us an 'expert' in everything, say like an instant chef by providing breakfast menu and instructions on how or what to make with the existing food items inside the fridge, this of course with the aid of the sous chef, google search.

Many amazing things to be thankful with this device, it has the ability to solve our problems. It is just a matter of a few touches to download apps that is affordably cheap or free and surprisingly  effective, that was unthinkably possible many years back. The only thing that it is struggling to overcome is , well, it's own problem. Yes it does have a problem in it's 'eating habits' like it's human owners.

 It voraciously feed on every drop of energy that can be thrown on it. But not like it's human counterpart that can store and save for future use, it doesn't think of that but let you do the solving of how and where to quickly get to the mains!  As everything halts whilst waiting and asking  how long will it take until it is fully charged or at least to get to in a working state?

Storedot's Nanodot. 

Well, the bothering situation of finding cables and sockets and hours of waiting time to charge may one day be a thing of the past, as one company playing with nano technology has discovered that they can also amaze our mobiles with 30 seconds charging time, that's from completely flat to fully charge. This amazes owners too, as we can be fully charged, geared up to battle in less than a minute.

This is a good news for everybody from the Israeli based makers. The technology is called  storedot which utilizes a bio-organic peptide molecules called nanodots, that are environment friendly unlike the present technology using toxic chemicals. When used in batteries, it cuts the amount of time to charge from hours to just a mere 30 seconds. Although it doesn't help in extending battery capacity, the fast charging time will be sufficient to attract mobile owners to buy the product sometime in late 2016 to 2017.

Watch video below.

See how the NanoDot powere'd battery charges this Samsung mobile in 30 seconds.

Watch here.

What To Do When Mobile Phone Battery Is Drained

I bet everybody feels not complete without a mobile phone specially when going out! You can leave the wallet behind but not the phone. Being connected and knowing we can shout help at anytime give us a sense of security when we are out and about. But they can also leave us insecure and desperate when these things happens!

Drained battery!

Here's the situation I hate most. A phone that do not work because I forgot to plug in the socket overnight. An overlooked 30 second chore, plugging in the charger, could ruin the day with worries. The solution is just simple, plug it in! But when you are out and about, that's the problem. Specially when you do not have the necessary gear to do just that. Here are some tips you can do to recharge your phone.

Where to possibly recharge?

If you are in a mall or high street the best way to charge your phone is to get to a mobile phone or electrical products store with live phone displays. Most of the time the live phone displays are connected to a charger. You can use these chargers for your device, specially if you have a micro USB charger like android. I myself experienced charging my Note 3 with a normal micro USB (1) charger in store. This fits at the further right portion(2) of the Note 3 charge slot. Although descretion is always necessary!

If you happen to carry a USB charger cable, there are many laptop displays that you can use. Just pretend trying  the laptop's feature to avoid suspicion. It is also recommended to turn off your phone to maximize charging time.

In the unfortunate event that you do not have any access to this, then it is best to stop everything like Wi-Fi, Data, vibration mode etc. with your celphone expect the call function. If you are using android, it helps to end applications by going to active apps (3) by going to the active apps(4) menu then end all(5).  End background processess  by clearing the RAM (6) by pressing the clear memory(7) repeatedly until it says 0 applications closed(8).  And do not forget to dim your screen. This will let you stretch the remaining power until you get to the mains.

How to avoid this in the future?

Extra Battery

Invest in an extra battery pack and keep it charged as a back up. The best place to look for cheaper version is at eBay or Amazon. For as low as £3, you can have an extra peace of mind when going out. Or you can get those with extra capacity that can boost the uptime of your mobile for longer periods.

Power Pack Case

This product does two things. It protects and charges your device  at the same time. This is an alternative choice if you are put off in carrying extra battery or external power pack. It has a separate power supply and needs to recharge it before use.

Solar Battery Pack

If you like nature trips and will be away from the mains for sometime, then a solar back pack could save the day for you. It does not only give you clean and free power, but also to stash away your things. You will not need to worry about having no power and being away from the grid as it makes electricity until the sun sets.

There is a product that can be attached to an existing backpack or a backback with built in solar charger.

Solar Battery Pack Charger and Backpack Solar Charger

My Note 3 Is Draining Battery Very Fast

It's my oncall day and expects to be called anytime. So I need my phone is charged at 100% battery at the start of the day.  During lunch time, the battery just went down to 68%! Although the WiFi and data connections are off! After checking the battery apps, I find it strange that  it is saying that the WiFi is on and the phone has been awake all the time. This is not new to me and I have experienced this kind of problem before with applications downloaded from google play.

Investigating further, the application that is giving the problem is the least app that I thought can bring this problem. It is the Boots app thatis causing it. It is one of the high street retailers that specializes in beauty and pharmaceutical products. Knowing the reputation of the company, it is far that I suspect this to happen. But here is what I found out why it is causing this.

Boots application causing trouble.

This screen shot tells the tale of the application spending at least 22% (1) of the total battery power (settings>general>scroll down to battery). It is more than any other processess including the screen, which is usually the first offender and specially the brigthness setting I usually set.

To check what's going on, tap the battery time usage (2) to bring you to the battery history. This shows the WiFi is active(3), although it was not on all evening(4), and the phone has been awake all the time(3)!

This made me suspicious about the Boots application. It can be a bug or it might have crashed.

 How to solve the problem?

As the problematic application is obvious, the application needs to stop running. You can do this by pressing it (1) from the battery application. Press Force Stop(5) to end the program from running. You will know that it stopped when the force stop button will no longer be clickable and the gray button colour becomes lighter.

Investigating further by tapping the App Info(6), it says that the application does prevent the phone from sleeping(7). This is the reason why the phone is always awake!

As the application is already ended, I am hoping that the battery will last further. I also expect that the phone sleeps and the awake indicator is kept to minimum.

6 Reasons Why My iPhone 5 Won't Last A day

Smartphones are getting smarter. This makes us use the phone more, other than for voice calls. It's obvious edge in convenience over other devices makes it a top choice to carry anywhere and anytime. In my case, always. The only thing that stops us from using it is when the battery is drained! But we can stretch the battery life by understanding this practical list.

1. Do not push but fetch messages or better, manually receive it.

The iPhone's message setting is by default set to push. This means when a message is available from the message center, it pushes the message straight  to your phone. This event wakes up the processor on your phone and the message application to receive the message. This event will in turn uses energy from the battery. Depending on how many messages are pushed and how many emails are active, and how many other applications are set to push determines how much battery is used.

To lessen this event, you can set up the phone to fetch the message up to every 45 minutes or so to limit this event. You can choose to individually set applications depending on your need. If you are serious in saving battery, setting everything to manual is best. You can set this by going to settings, Mail Contacts Calendar, Fetch New Data, tap your message centre(2) then choose fetch or manual(3). You can turn everything to manual when you  slide the Push button(1) to the left.

2.Turn off radio buttons whilst not using it.

Most often we leave the wi-fi button on when we go out. We are not bothered to turn it off. When we do this, the wi-fi button continuously searches for an active and visible connection. It does the search until it finds one. This is a real waste of battery specially when you do not have the intention of using the wi-fi or constraint to using it because you do not have the correct credentials.

The same is true with the bluetooth button. iPhone's bluetooth services doesn't have that much of use other than input devices and audio peripherals. If you do not use any of these, thenit is best to permanently turn it off.

Make sure that the GPS button is also turned off. If it is on, the receiving and transmitting of information to pinpoint your location as you move is constantly on.

3. Avoid the heat

Heat reduces significantly the battery's performance. So avoid leaving it inside the car under the sun. Some over all cases make the iPhone warm when charging. When this happens, remove it's case or better, change it.

4. Set apps not to run on data

We commonly exceed mobile data usage without being aware of it. Specially when you are with a limited tariff, and use the internet for videos or music. Other application that are downloaded are by default set to run on data. So just an accidental tap to a VOIP application or you forgot to close it properly will cause the program to connect when you are in data coverage.  To avoid unnecessary data spending, you can choose application not to run on data(4) by tapping the button to the left, or turn off data button whilst you are not using the internet. This will not only save data but battery as well

5. Use Facetime Audio Instead of Video

If you can not avoid to call a contact through face time when you are away from wi-fi coverage, you can save data and battery by switching to FaceTimeAudio mode. To launch it, tap Facetime or Contacts, choose a contact and look for the phone icon(5) in the FaceTime section. Tap it to FaceTime audio call. This is also applicable to other VOIP applications. It is obvious that using just the microphone uses less energy that using both microphone and camera.

6. Turn the Screen Dim

The iPhone uses a back light to illuminate the screen. The higher it's setting, obviously, the higher the illumination and the brighter the image. This also means the more battery is used.  Dimming it to a comfortable level will stretch the battery life. Setting it to automatic is also good, but remember that this uses a sensor to adjust the light automatically in relation to it's surroundings, which uses power as well.

There are many factors to consider why the phone discharges quickly. Knowing how these components consume power will let us anticipate how to lessen it and improve the battery life.

5 Practical Points to Extend Smartphone's Battery

Have you been charging your smartphone more often recently? A friend of mine says her phone has been fully charged at the start of the day but need to charge it again in the afternoon. It seems that the phone just can't get enough of the mains supply and seems like her charger and phone are inseparable. I admit that I have frustrations as well in terms of power specially when I am on call. What worries me is that I might be getting called back to the lab when the phone is just dead! This makes me thinking of buying another battery perhaps. But what if the phone in question has its embedded battery? Maybe buying another unit is the answer. But before I spend anything, here are my observations why my phone battery is draining fast.

1. Low network signal.

I always get this when I am inside my workplace, and this gets worse when I move into inner corridors. Low signal (zero to one bar) strains the phone to continue looking for a better network signal and in the process draining the battery. Putting away my phone inside my locker whilst on also worsens the problem.

My simple solution to this is to put it into flight mode. This is simply because I am not expecting any personal calls during work and do not usually surf the web. However, if I am expecting a call, I usually divert it to my work phone's number and put the trigger as "when it is not available".

To do this, if you are on android, tap phone(1), then the left hand soft key button, call settings(2), call forwarding(3), voice call(4), forward when unreachable(5), then type in the phone number(6). Be sure to enable (7) before you exit.

For iPhone, go to settings, phone, call forwarding(tap on), then type your chosen phone number. 

iPhone users need to remember to turn off forwarding as there is not much option to choose from not like android that it can receive calls again when flight mode is off.

2. Mind the screen brightness and time out

According to the battery use application in my phone, the screen drinks the most power juice(1) , so most  self helps recommend turning the screen down or putting it into auto mode. But for myself, I find this very frustrating, as I can not see anything in a bright room or when outdoors. And also the fact that my vision needs a better lighting to understand what I am looking at. Outdoors is worst when you are at auto mode, you can not see a thing.

What I recommend is to set the screen setting to a comfortable level according to the user. To know what is comfortable level at every occasion is to set the screen brightness whilst outdoors! In fact when I do this, the maximum setting(2) is my comfortable level! 

Another self help tip is to limit the screen time out into the minimum, perhaps 15 seconds. With this setting, I am also frustrated.  Before I can read a line, the screen becomes black! I am more comfortable in setting it the longest and have set it up to 10 minutes, which is enough for me to read a mile long article without being frustrated.

To compensate for the lavish settings, my simple solution is to mind the power button. I just turn the screen off manually by a simple short touch (not too long that shuts down the phone) at the power button! Like driving a car, auto cars tend to use more gas than manual.

3. Mind your voice calls

This happened to me on several occasion. I called my home number but forgot to end the call. The difference in calling a landline is the call does not terminate automatically when the landline end ends the call. This means, the mobile phone is still connected. It is not only that the battery is being drained, but your calling allowance as well. So be sure to always press the end button when calling a landline. 

There's no problem in calling mobiles as the call is terminated automatically when the other end ends the call.

4. Mind connectivity buttons

These are the major culprits that most of the time I overlook. The wifi, bluetooth, and data buttons. Be sure to manually turn them off when you are out of coverage and not using the internet. Because just like low network signals, the radio buttons of these connectivity interfaces are more active in trying to scan and connect to an available network when there is low to no signal is detected. 

Practical rule for this is, if you are not using it (GPS included) or NOT able to use it (when at off coverage area), turn it off. Being on whilst not using them is pointless. 

5. Mind your browsing habits

I notice this to friends who has battery problems. They are most of the time online. This means the screen is on most of the time plus the phone's processor and ram to run the program. If you are like them and can't help being online, then you need to be aware that loading a page, listening to music, streaming you tube movies and looking at FB pictures use power. Battery power might be easily depleted according to how much you are doing online. So if you are a heavy user, turning the screen brigthness down might extend the battery life.

As much as possible, open only one window or tab at a time, and avoid multi tasking. You can also set your social network(1) and other applications like emails(2) that updates it's contents over the internet into manual mode. This means disabling the sync button. Do this by going into settings, then accounts, and tap the application (4) to change the settings . Live widgets (3)are cool but sometimes it is better to avoid using them when battery is the worry.

So is it just our smartphone habits that are keeping our phones to the charger? Or it might be time to buy a new battery or perhaps a new unit? 

Self Powered Emergency Equipment

The freezing temperature in spring time is very odd. Is it the effect of global warming that makes the ice caps  melting and with the aid of the blustery wind, it sends down the temperature readings to below zero degrees celsius? Whatever the reason, it is disturbing the nation or the world by halting transportation, necessities like heating and power, and creating chaos not just like here but all over the world.

Emergency equipment is so essential specially at times like this, as in case of being isolated due to bad weather or lost somewhere else, it is comforting to have battery juice on our radio and cellular phones to hear from the "outside world" what's going on or to tell relatives not to worry we're doing fine. Or battery powered light could be the last thread between life and death in an emergency. But like any powered equipment that rely on battery, the power source could run dry that renders the best smartphone and radio useless. It is therefore worth thinking about the worst case scenario, where mains power is out for a week or more, and invest in something that could be a life saver, a self powered generating station.

Dynamo wind up power light

As the name says, it is powered by a dynamo. The device still have batteries inside, but not like the disposable ones, they can be recharged by cranking a built in dynamo by hand. A two minutes of continuous cranks can provide 30 mins of power. The bulbs are made up of  LED, known for being a power efficient and last many years.

There are also models that can be recharged by mains or by car battery aside from dynamo.

Dual powered radio

And to hear from the outside world, a portable radio is essential. Even more essential is a radio that lasts without the need of additional batteries. Dual power model like the dynamo and solar powered device can give you news at anytime, rain or shine. No worries even the mains doesn't come back for a month, as this device doesn't need it. Other models also have the capability to recharge a compatible cellphone with charger cables that come with it.

Self powered chargers

Communication can be the last bridge between life and death in an emergency, so it is essential to keep the lines open and the equipment up and running. Harnessing the power of the sun to use it on batteries or by the use of the power of magnets can give you an endless source of power as long as you have the gadget to do this. They may not be available to your normal electrical store or if they are, they can cost arm and leg. But getting this at the worlds marketplace is a bargain. 

The reality of man's great contribution to global warming is alarming. Though we can not stop in one push of a button, perhaps we can help in retarding it's effect by simply relying to natural forces in powering up the gadgets we use everyday. This can also make us fit in the process.

8 Ways to Conserve Samsung S3's Battery

I am really impressed with the longevity of the Samsung S3's battery. It can get me through to 3 days without recharging with my normal use. Wifi when I am home, 3G or HSPA when out, bluetooth on and mp3 player on for at least 30 minutes when I travel by car, and up to 3 to 5 calls in a day. I am not really a gaming fan but I do sometimes play chess to kill time when picking up my son from school. At the end of the third day I still have at least 35% of power before I start filling up again. This is far more than my previous phones that can only do at most a day and a half with my kind of phone activity.

How to do it? Do you need a program to do it? Here are simple tricks!

1. Adjust screen brightness to a comfortable level.

Obviously, the larger the screen the more power the screen can consume. In my case the screen is the second  greediest in consuming the most power. Setting it to a low but comfortable brightness can throttle down the power that is going to this part of the phone, but not necessarily to set  it to it's lowest, that you may need to adjust it again to get a better view of what's on the screen. You can also try to set it into auto mode, and if you are comfortable with the output, leave it.

Setting >Display>Brightness

2. Use darker wallpaper and home screen.

The brighter the screen the more power it is consumed. Lesser light is used to display darker images and more light with lighter ones. Putting this in the equation, using a darker theme can also extend the battery life. 

On Google Play, search for dark wallpapers. One interesting app is Picspeed HD wallpapers 300,000. There is a wide selection of exciting and pretty wallpapers to choose from. Open the app and tap all categories. The categories are arranged alphabetically. Go to the black classification and download a dark wallpaper from there. Once downloaded, you can set it as your home and lock screen photos.

3. Screen Timeout

Set the screen time out to the maximum time you think that you need or comfortable with before the screen goes blank. Too soon  will only waste your time in pressing the button of the unit to bring it to life. Anyway you can turn the screen off when you are finished with it by pressing the power button quickly.

Setting>Display>ScreenTimeout(under general)

4. Turn Off Smart Stay

This feature is great when reading something without the screen turning blank when it reached the set timeout. But this feature uses the front camera in order to function, and again using an extra muscle of the processor and draining the battery power.

Setting>Display>SmartStay(under general)

5. Change screen mode

By default, the S3 is set to standard screen mode, setting it into movie mode will make the images in your phone less vivid and less bright. This may not be suitable to everyone's taste and may make your phone images unattractive but this will surely contribute more to the battery power.

Settings>Display>Screen Mode(under screen)

6. Tick auto adjust screen tone.

This automates the rendering of  brightness and tone when viewing photos. Less light, means less power consumed.

7. Enable built in power saving mode.

Instead of downloading apps that can help in extending the range of battery power, use the built in power saving feature which lets you in control of the processes within your phone to conserve battery like adjusting the CPU performance especially when you are not in gaming mode. It automatically reduces the screen frame rate and lowers brightness, turns off the vibrate function or the haptic feedback when pressing a function button.

8. Turn off connectivity when not in use

When away from your home router, turning off the wifi button saves power. As long as the wifi is on, it will continuously keeps on looking for wifi signals, thus using power without any benefit. The same with bluetooth connection. When you do not intend to use your bluetooth earpiece or away from your car's bluetooth connectivity, turn it off. Turning the mobile data traffic off when you do not intend to use the internet whilst away from your home is also a good way of saving the battery life. Whilst using the internet and you suffer from an intermittent data signal, it is also more sensible to turn off this button because the strain of the power goes to the radio button searching for decent signals, resulting in more battery drain than productivity.

During the night, you can turn off all connectivity by turning the flight mode button on. You can do this by pressing the power button for a few seconds. This doesn't affect the wake up alarm you've set in.

My Thoughts

Doing two or more of these steps can make a difference on the battery's life but it is possible to really extend the power of up to six days without recharging with light usage, using all it's built in power saving features you know and with being sensible to know the time when we need to turn off the features we do not really need at a particular time.

This does reduce the wear and tear of plugging in and out the connectors, and of course adding  further life to the battery's life cycle.

It's about time to get an S3 whilst the price has gone down! Online only deal!

Buy the Samsung S3 from a low £21 a month tariff see more details here!

How to Extend the Battery Life of Samsung Galaxy S II

Sexy and light yet powerful, that's the Galaxy S2. The only let down with this smart phone is the battery life. In my experience, I need to recharge everyday. My usage is not really that heavy, I rarely use it for calls, I am not a game addict as well, but most of the time I use it for browsing the apps store, check social status and emails using wifi.

Contributing factors

The smaller and slimmer chassis really made an impact with the battery life, as it can only accommodate a smaller capacity power pack. It's larger and brighter screen requires more juice than smaller ones. Dual cores bring about multitasking, although useful in bringing apps into a faster pace, it takes a faster bite as well in battery consumption. Some of the apps run in the background and there is no easy one click to monitor or even disable this apps. Free apps that need to access the internet contributes to power depletion, and others that users let on and  always active like  wifi and 3G or 4G connections. All of these drink the power of the battery in no time.

To see what's drinking the most juice, go to settings, about, battery usage.

Battery Saving Tips

Decide what do you want to do with your phone.

• If you plan not to do anything than placing a call, then disable data calls. This will disable the reception of 3G and 4G signals but will allow your phone to take 2G's or placing and receiving a call or text messages. 

• Disable wifi when you're going away from home network. There's no point finding a wifi you can not connect to. It will only uses more battery without gaining anything.

• Adjust the screen time out to the shortest possible time. You can also automatically adjust the screen brightness automatically.

• Use a darker screen wallpaper, darker colours use less light, the brighter your screen the shorter your battery becomes.

• As much as possible, just press the power button slightly to turn off the screen when you finish what you are doing. Chances are, if you wait for the screen time out before putting your phone in your pocket, you might be pressing some buttons you are not aware of and this will make the screen on for longer time. This will also avoid accidental dialling.

• Use built in power saving mode. Customizing this setting can let you save more battery. You can tweak the screen brightness, screen time out and most of the connectivity functions from here. Press settings, power saving, custom power saving setting.

• The galaxy S2 has a task manager than closes running applications when you press clear memory under RAM. Don't be scared as this will make the applications run faster and unloading the burden on battery usage. It does not affect the phones function on receiving calls or going online.

• Application writers are always on their feet to keep their apps more battery friendly. Updating them will benefit not only for mobile threat attacks but to make them use power efficiently.

• Syncronize email, social networks and other live gadget widgets manually. This prevents these applications from becoming active to use your phone's resources and battery all the time.

• Use Juice Defender. I was skeptical with apps like this before. But juice defender does what it is advertised. The best part is it has a free version that really works. I've been using it for at least a week now and I noticed a big difference. Before, I charge once a day, now every other day! Get it by going to the Play store and just type juice defender. There is also an instruction on how to use it. Brilliant app!

• And this is the ultimate remedy to do more with your device without clock watching what's going on within your device. Buy a bigger capacity battery pack.Use the search tool below to see what's in offer.

Ways To Revive iPhone's Battery

Do you still keep your old iPhone models? Like the 3G and the 3GS? Some of my friends and I still do. And we have a common problem, the battery can no longer hold a charge. The phone can be charged up to 100% but when you start using it the battery drains very quickly. The only sensible solution at this point is to replace it. And it can be done by sending to apple or replacing it yourself. The problem is, it can be expensive and complicated, but can be cheap and easy, as long as you know what to buy! Here's a useful guide, read through and see what's best suited for you.

Replace it yourself with internal battery

This is an option for the brave and with experience. You need to buy the battery which at ebay costs at least £4, plus the opening kit. 

The iPhone's battery is located and kept very securely. It is not straightforward to open the case and change the battery like other mobiles. Opening it up is a problem, if you manage to open it, replacing the battery is an added problem, then putting it back together after replacing it is  another problem! And your warranty becomes void when you open the case yourself.

See guide video on how to open and replace the battery of an iPhone 3G below.

Now you know it is not for the faint heart and needs a bit of an expertise and practicality to do it yourself.

Send it to apple

This is more reliable than doing it yourself. You will not lose your warranty and you can count on the service. The problem here is the costs and the waiting time. Service arranged through apple at the time of this post is £55, plus a shipping cost of £7.44. See link below for more information. While this service is reliable, it may not be sensible because of the cost. Especially when you just want to give away your old device. But if you still want to keep and use it as your main phone then this is the best solution.

http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=servicefaq&geo=United_Kingdom&product=iphone

Buy external battery case

If you want to revive the power instantly this is the most practical option. Buy a power sleeve, or external battery case for your iPhone. It costs at least £10 from ebay, see related products below, and other sources like at mymemory. You can buy it for £9, delivery included.

The power sleeve is doubled as a case for the iPhone, that's why it is also called a battery case. It is lightweight but a bit bulky. But the bottom line is, it works and it is cheaper and safer than the two other options above.

The unit  is a polymer battery encased in a lightweight material. It has a mini USB port for charging. The battery indicator has 4 lights that lit up during charging to show how much power  the unit been charged and a button to press to know how much power is still left. There's an on and off button as well to turn the sleeve to power up the iphone. The same button doubles up to charge the iphone as well while charging the power sleeve. The unit comes with a mini USB connector but without a power charger. This doesn't matter as you can use the iPhone's original wall charger to plug in the mini USB or any other 5 volts charger that has a mini USB socket.

Front view

Back view while being charged, note the lit up led light indicating the charge

The iPhone within the power sleeve

As simple as it is, it revives iPhone's battery instantly, cheaply and without sweat.