Treat your ‘built-in’ battery with respect

After the post on how to get maximum usable hours out of your iPhone through Settings tweaks, emails started coming in asking about if there is anything can be done to make the battery last. Since the battery is ‘built in’, iPhones and Touch devices have to be returned to Apple for battery replacements. Apple has posted that they expect the batteries to take over 300 cycles of charge/discharge before the ability to hold a charge (usable hours) drops dramatically.

Apple posted on their site a few tips to keep the battery in good condition – take a quick look, many are common sense and will keep you from having to be without your device in the near future while it gets it’s battery replaced.

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Add on hardware to max out your usage time

In a previous post we discussed how to adjust your iPhone to go longer between charges. If your like me and like to watch movies on long plane flights then expect to call, email, and use maps for hours after you land – you may need to be able to carry a bit of extra energy.

Here are four of the many choices you have. These four represent ways to go longer between having to plug into a wall outlet with slightly different philosophies on how to get your there.

First off it two companies that produce hardware that is commonly known as ‘sleds’. These are devices that the iPhone slides inside of. They allow the iPhone to run much longer, neither of which actually charge the iPhone. Think of it as adding an extra battery via a bit of thickness to your phone.

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Keep things running longer, everyday

You may have noticed right off with your iPhone that you can not pull the battery out and put in another fully charged one. Apple chose to seal the battery inside like they have done on all of the iPod line.

There are a few fine tuning tips you can do to get more hours of usage between charges. Which ones you use will depend on how you uses your iPhone; Internet usage via Cell connection, lower quality cell signal areas, bluetooth headset, WiFi networks, music listening, brightly lit areas, and email checking. All of the tips on setting changes are easy to flip back and forth so you can tune as you needs change day to day.

Starting off with the adjustment tips, from the ‘Settings’ icon;

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Keyboards, tall and wide

Throughout the iPhone and Touch system you use a keyboard since the OS doesn’t support handwriting recognition. Holding the device the ‘tall’ normal way (called Portrait), you have a narrow keyboard to use so you have room above it to see what you are working on. When you turn the handheld on it’s side (Landscape) you get a wider view – in most applications the keyboard is not supported in Landscape.

An exception to this rule is the Web browser (Safari). If you hold your iPhone / Touch in the Portrait direction and tap the URL address area of the Browser, a keyboard will appear to edit the URL text. If you then turn the device on it’s side the view stays the same. But, if you turn the device to Landscape ‘then’ tap the URL bar, you will get a larger and wide keyboard. Much easier to type (especially thumb typing). 

An application that you may want a wide keyboard for is eMail. Perhaps this might be a ‘feature’ Apple adds in the future. An application that offers a wide (landscape) keyboard for email is Wide WisE-mail along with many other additional email features. Here is a link to it in the iTunes App Store

  Wide WisE-mail

A Stylus Pen that works on the iPhone and Touch

The beauty of the touch screen and layout of the iPhone / Touch has been that you can do what you need to with great success, just using your finger. The technology doesn’t see a pointed object touching the screen like a Palm or other touch screens do, it actually sees the conductance of your finger. So, a plastic tipped pen like you may have used before wont work.

Why do you need a stylus? Do you really need to carry a extra stylus ‘pen’ around with you. If you have longer fingernails (my wife), it helps a lot. And, if you do much drawing or photo manipulation (me), precision is improved using a stylus. General usage, no your finger is always with you and has a plenty small end. 

The folks that do need a stylus though… will be happy to see that they can be gotten for less than 5 dollars and come in several fun colors. I put links with each color here to pages that show that particular color:   Silver,   Purple,   Red,  Black,   blue    all come with a pocket clip. Added ‘feature’ – if you own a new MacBook or MacBook Pro – you can use these on the notebook trackpads too. Handy if you have a sketching program to ‘draw’ a picture.

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