I thought he was mad; my boss that is.
This was quite a few years ago now when I started out in IT at a car leasing firm in Swindon. My boss came back from lunch one day and proudly showed off his brand new Nokia mobile phone.
Bearing in mind this was 1993, my initial reaction was “who’s going to call you, nobody knows your number?”
Things have changed quite a bit since then; today it’s very uncommon to hear of anyone that doesn’t have a mobile. Even my mum has a mobile, the biggest technophobe you could ever meet. It is permanently switch off in the glove compartment of her car but she has got one!
One thing that’s on the decline though with the latest smartphone is the battery life. My boss could have left his mobile on without needing a charge for a good week; didn’t get too many calls mind you but even if you don’t get a call on a smartphone today, it would need charging at the end of the day.
This is all down to the complexity of the beast. Phones are no longer phones. They are mini computers, connected to the internet via Wi-Fi and hooked up to the car speakers with Bluetooth while you drive so you can have a chat with your friend or work colleague legally and hands-free; catch up on the latest news or listen to your favourite music.
All this choice takes up power and charging a smartphone daily is something we have become very accustomed to.
Charging in itself isn’t a quick process but one Israeli startup company recently unveiled a device that will eventually charge a smartphone in under a minute.
Until the one-minute charge does becomes a reality, here’s a few tips for slowing down your smartphone’s battery usage.
> Turn off the Bluetooth – No need for this if you’re not connecting to an external device.
> Don’t leave apps running in the background – Certain apps left running will drain your phone very quickly.
> Dim the brightness of the screen.
> Keep the screen timeout short.
> Turn off Wi-Fi – This might not be practical for most of you, but definitely one worth disabling to prolong the battery life if you find you’re running low and not able to re-charge for some time.
> Turn off vibrate.
> Disable non-essential notifications.
