Short Battery Life

One of the major complaints lodged about the new iPhone G3  has been the very short battery life.   Some are syaing it goes dead before noon, which is an untenable situation for many.

 

A probable cause for the significantly reduced battery life in the iPhone is the touch screen.  In addition, many new features were introduced along with the new iPhone 3G. 

 

There are an enormous number of devices powered by rechargeable batteries.  People have learned to extend the life by turning off featuresnot needed (Where the option is provided.)   As with a laptop computer, you can spin down the hard drive when it isn't being used.  Another feature I shut off on my laptop is the wireless connect feature.  For laptops, reducing the screen brightness can buy you some extra minutes.

 

The so called "smart phones" check for email automatically. This can be shut down and checked for manually.

 

Battery Memory

Did you know some batteries have memory?  It is a fact.  The most commonly used batteries are lithium ion.   These have memory effect but it is not nearly as significant as in some of the other types of rechargable batteries.  The way memory effect works is that if you are constantly recharging your battery before it is drained, then pretty soon the battery will no longer take a full charge thus shortening the length of useful power time.  The solution to this is to drain the battery completely at least a month.  this can be problematic in some units since they have an auto shut off... to conserve the battery.  Normally, I leave my laptop plugged in all the time.  The reason being, when you run a notebook off battery power it reduces the speed up to 50% to extend battery power.  However, I just found out the hard way that this shortens the useful life of the battery after awhile.  As soon as I finish this, I am going to unplug it and drain the battery.

 

If you come up with a unique way to extend the useful life of your batteries, pass it on.