Tips and Tricks for iOS Devices (iPhone, iPad and iPods)

Tips and Tricks in regard to iOS Devices (iPhone, iPad and iPods) that are not necessarily “how to” instructions.

General iOS Tips and Tricks

Conserving battery life on an iDevice

Battery life for the iPhone, in particular, has been a topic of frequent discussion. Up until iOS 4.0, it seemed to be a an even hotter topic, and the 4.3 update has apparently caused it to resurface in some cases again. Thus, I have gathered some tips from both various articles and user experiences to, hopefully, give some helpful advice in prolonging the battery life of your iDevice.

Battery life, of course, is going to depend on the amount and type of use of the device, so keep that in mind first. Obviously, the more things you use your iDevice for, the faster your battery life is going to decrease. There are several types of power packs and charging devices out there to enhance or extend your battery life, so, for example, if you utilize your iPhone for playing games, listening to radio streams or music quite a bit during the course of a day,, that might be an avenue to explore.

However, in regard to some basic things you can do to increase your battery life between charges, the general consensus is that turning off some of the various services you are not using on your iDevice as being a good way to prolong your battery life. These can all be found in the Settings menu or in the General menu under Settings. According to the articles I have read on this subject and recommendations from users, some of these settings are;

In the Settings Menu

  • Turning on Airplane Mode by double tapping it if you do not need things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G and so forth.
  • Turning off Wi-Fi by doing the following;
    1. double tap the Wi-Fi button
    2. In the Wi-Fi menu, double tap the, Wi-Fi on, button to toggle it off.
  • Turning off Location Services by double tapping it.
  • Lowering the Brightness by doing the following;
    1. Double tap the brightness button
    2. In the Brightness menu, decrease the currently indicated brightness level by swiping a finger down on the displayed level. It should initially show as 50%.
    3. Turn off auto brightness by double tapping that button.

      4. Note that you can toggle screen curtain off and on by triple tapping the screen with 3 fingers.

  • Turning off Push Notifications under the Mail Menu by doing the following;
    1. Double tap the mail button.
    2. Locate the Fetch New Data button and double tap that
    3. Double tap the Push On, button to toggle it off.

      4. If you prefer to have push notifications active, You can also use the options in that menu to set it to manual as a better alternative than the other values.

In the General Menu under Settings

  • Turning off 3G in the Network menu by doing the following;
    1. Double tap the Network button.
    2. Double tap the 3G button in that menu to toggle it off.
  • Turning off Bluetooth by doing the following;
    1. Double tap the Bluetooth button.
    2. Double tap the “turn Bluetooth off” button in that menu.
  • Turning off Ping in the Restrictions menu by doing the following;
    1. Double tap the Restrictions Button.
    2. In the Restrictions menu, double tap the, Enable Restrictions, button, which will then require entering a four digit passcode twice).
    3. Once you do this, toggle Ping off by double tapping the, Ping on, button.

Another suggestion I have read is to try to limit the number of apps you have running at a single time. You can do this by doing the following;

  1. Double tap the home button to bring up the app switcher
  2. Double tap and hold your finger on any of the running apps. You will hear VoiceOver announce, “Editing Apps.”).
  3. Double tap that app and any others you want to remove from running.
  4. Double tap the, Dismiss App Switcher, button.

Locking the screen when not using the device is another obvious tip for conserving battery life. I use the auto lock feature and have it set for 5 minutes on both my iPhone and iPad.

Also, something that I find is quite helpful is actually turning off the device entirely if you are not using it for an extended period of time. For instance, I always turn off my iPhone before I go to bed unless I need to use the alarm feature to wake me up in the morning.

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