Tip o’ the Week: iPhone Power
The iPhone is an excellent traveling companion, whether you are still sporting the iPhone 2G or loving you some GPS-equipped iPhone 3G. Google Maps, music, movies, and apps are several of the features that make traveling more sublime, but all this functionality requires a lot of juice, and if you haven’t noticed by now, you can’t swap your iPhone battery when you’ve run it dry. What to do? Read on for this week’s Tip!
Following are some suggestions for the road warriors and frequent flyers who must conserve power and/or be opportunistic about charging their iPhones!
- Carry a spare battery. Ha, just kidding. Unlike most other smartphones, the iPhone does not have a user-replaceable battery. Instead, you have to be prepared to charge at anytime, anywhere. Carry your iPhone’s power adapter with you (the new ones are quite small, but apparently pose a risk of breaking and electrocuting — be careful, and trade it in for replacement as soon as you can!). Airports have power outlets scattered throughout and if you have a little spare time before or after your flight, plug in to juice up your iPhone.
- If you are in a meeting or conference, try to arrive early enough that you can sit near a power outlet, if possible. You can also charge your iPhone via USB connected to your laptop. When you need power, it doesn’t hurt to get creative!
- If you have an iPhone 3G, try disabling 3G under “Settings” to conserve power. The 3G network is faster, but just like a car using more gas the faster you drive, so goes the battery life of your iPhone when on the 3G network. Unless you really, REALLY need speed while surfing the net, drop down to EDGE for a while to save your battery.
Dim your screen. The brighter your screen is, the more power you are using. If you can handle a dimmer screen for a while, then save your battery life by adjusting the brightness to a lower setting.- For convenience, take along something like the Belkin Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger. Hotel rooms are sorely lacking in available power outlets, so if you have a Belkin Mini Surge Protector with you, you just added THREE power outlets and two USB charging ports to hopefully meet all of your power needs. You can get it here in the TiPb Store.
Disclaimer: Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and in defense of OJ – “If you’re travelin’ on the loose, make sure you got The Juice.” – ahem. Or at least a charger.)
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:06 am
LOL that OJ picture is weak!!!!! =)
Also I know that most Trains have electric outlets inside of them right at your seat..
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:39 am
Any thoughts on those little USB battery things? Are those worth using?
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:59 am
You guys should do a smackdown on external power. Morphine has a cool looking one out for 3g now and I’ve seen some others. I’d even consider buying one of those 9-volt chargers if I knew it wouldnt jack up my phone.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:01 am
I would suggest the Duracell Mobile Charger. It is designed to:
The official word is that you should only use NiMH batteries, but that is oriented around charging. In a pinch, I’ve used non-rechargables in a pinch to charge my phone.
I used it successfully with my iPhone, as well as a Garmin GPS-based cycle computer. The fact that it is USB out means it can afford this flexibility. I also like that it offers several choices. I refer to it as the “uber-charger,” as it offers several options for several devices.
Details at http://www.duracell.com/precharged/
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:05 am
The Kensington Battery Pack and Charger is smaller and lighter than the iPhone, can completely recharge the iPhone or add 4hrs talk and 100hrs of music. I’ve replaced my Duracell Charger with this because the Duracell was too heavy. Additionally, this is a charger (one less thing to carry on trips).
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
I’ve got a few external battery packs. The most convenient one is the iPhone Power Station from dealextreme as it’s small enough for me to have 2 in a side pocket of my gadget bag. As it plugs straight into the bottom of the iphone without any need for connecting wires it means I can use my slightly elongated iphone easily.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
I ordered this AA battery charger, but have not tried it yet: http://www.thepocketsolution.com/PSI-45407/3g+iPhone+AA+Battery+Booster.html
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:44 am
Disabling the GPS/location gives me the biggest boost to battery life.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
also, turn off wifi if you don’t need it.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
i turn on airplane mode if i’m using apps that don’t require internet (like most games). also turn on airplane mode if i’m in a spot i know has no reception for extended periods of time like the subway.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
OJ’s iPhone is bigger than my Newtons! Wait, did that sound bad?
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:51 am
The Duracell Mobile Charger, in spite of saying that it will charge devices which charge over USB, will not charge an iPhone 3G.