The iPhone 4s is a nifty little gadget that is capable of performing actions never before seen on a mobile phone. It has a fast processor that can easily compete with CPUs, an improved download speed that is twice as fast as its predecessor, and a powerful virtual assistant named Siri. A common complaint among users, however, is the short battery life and the need to constantly charge. Here are some tips and tricks on how to increase the battery life of your iPhone 4s and get the most out of your gadget.
Choose Between Wi-Fi or 3G
Chances are, your iPhone comes with a data plan that provides you with internet connectivity on the go. As such, you won’t need to activate your Wi-Fi because it eats up power everytime it searches for network connection. Simply go to Settings/Wi-Fi to turn the service off. There are instances when you would opt to use your Wi-Fi service because of the need for faster connectivity or to save on data charges. You may turn off your data service by going to Settings/General/Network and turning cellular data off.
Push Notifications
Most of the time, downloading new applications will prompt the user to turn on push notifications. They do serve their purpose and send out important alerts about the developments in the app. However, users also have a tendency to get tired of certain apps and begin to ignore them after a few days or weeks. This results to quite a number of unused applications that continue to feed off on the battery’s power. If you don’t need your iPhone to check for updates from these applications, then it is best to go to Settings/Notifications to do some cleaning up. Simply go through the applications listed under “In Notification Center” and switch “Notification Center” to Off.
Location Services
Another iPhone feature that seems to be present in most applications is location services. Certain apps such Find My iPhone may require this in order to properly function, but most games and music applications do not really need to be privy to your exact location all the time. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter only need this feature if you want to put a location stamp on your status messages. To turn this service off and save battery life, simply go to Settings/Location Services and you will have a choice between turning off the entire service or the service for each of the listed applications.
Email Push Notifications
Unless your work or business requires you to check on your mail every second of the day, you probably won’t need to have push notifications setup for your email. Push notifications collects your mail from the email servers immediately, and checks on them real time. Light email users may opt to manually check their mails, or set a fetching schedule at 15 minute, 30 minute, or hourly intervals. The longer the intervals between email fetching, the more battery life will be saved. To change your settings, simply go to Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars/Fetch New Data.
Siri
Siri has a “Raise to Speak” feature that automatically activates the virtual assistant when the phone is lifted to the ear and the user speaks a command. Several iPhone 4S users have noticed that this action results to battery drain. It is just as simple to press and hold the iPhone’s “Home” button and speaking. To turn this feature off, simply go to Settings/General/Siri and set “Raise to Speak” to Off.
The iPhone 4s is indeed a wonderful device, and it continues to make life so much easier for millions of users all over the world. Until Apple resolves the battery life issue, however, users are left with no choice but to make a conscious effort to save battery life themselves.