[email protected] 10 - 23 July 2019 65
Web User Masterclass
TA KEIT TOTHENEXTLEVEL
More advanced tips for whenyou’re feelingbraveKeepyour battery cool
Batteries generate heat while charging- especially when fast charging– but
overheating damages them. Remove a
phone’s case or cover while charging,
and avoid putting a laptop under the
sofa or bed, or on a carpet. Don’t place
devices on top of each other, either,
and make sure air can circulate so any
heat can escape.
A laptop cooling pad is usually
unnecessary, but it may be beneficial if
you have an old laptop that overheats.
There may be a lot of dust inside, too,
which you can remove by blowing air
into the vents or sucking the dust out.
Turn downthe brightness
Modern screens use a lot of power.
Simply turning down the brightness
reduces the power requirement, which
helps the battery last longer. Laptops,
phones and tablets all have brightness
controls, so make the screen as dim as
possible while still being readable.Switch to silence
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile connections
and Near Field Communication (NFC)
all use power, so a device’s battery will
last longer if you switch these off.
Putting your phone, laptop or tablet in
flight mode turns off all radio functions.
You can’t make calls or access the
internet while in flight mode, but at least
you can preserve the last remnants of
charge for when you really need it.
One of the quickest ways to drain a
phone’s battery is to go to an area with
poor mobile coverage, because your
phone searches for a signal constantly.
If you’re in the countryside, up a
mountain or anywhere else where
there’s no signal, enable flight mode.
If flight mode is too restrictive, just
disable the connections you’re not
using, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or NFC,
to get more from the battery. Windows
10’s flight mode and the Bluetooth
controls are in Action Centre. Click the
icon to the right of the notification area.Power Options in the Control Panel
that provide many more choices.
If there is a Power Saver plan, select
it. If not, click ‘Create a power plan’ to
make one, then select it. This extends
battery running time, but even greater
power savings may be possible.
Click ‘Changeplan settings’ next to
the Power Saver plan, then ‘Change
advanced power settings’. The next
window lists various PC components,
such as the hard drive, Wi-Fi adapter,
USB ports and so on. Expand each
section to see an ‘On battery setting’.
Check that the maximum power
savings are selected for each one.
Don’t use the Power Saver plan all
the time because it reduces your
laptop’s performance. Just enable it
when you need the battery to last as
long as possible.Use battery savingmode
Many devices have a battery saving
mode that you can turn on manually
or set to kick in when the charge falls
below a certain value. In Windows 10,
click the icon to the right of the
notification area, then ‘Battery saver’
to enable it. Click Expand if the button
isn’t visible.
Android
phones vary,
but you may
find a power-
saver button if
you pull down
from the top of
the screen or
look in Settings.
Go to Device
Maintenance,
Battery on
some phones,
for example.Stopbackgroundapps
Batteries last longer when devices
have less work to do. If you see any
programs you’re not using when you
look in the pop-up panel at the right
side of the taskbar, right-click them
and quit. Postpone any virus scans
and backups, avoid syncing OneDrive,
Google Drive or Dropbox, close
unused tabs in browsers and so on.
Some phones can stop apps
running in the background. Android
phones vary, but you may have an
Always Sleeping Apps function that
puts apps to sleep when not in use.
On some phones, for example, you go
to Settings, Device Maintenance,
Battery, Always Sleeping Apps.
In iOS, go to Settings, General,
Background App Refresh and use
the switches to stop unimportant
apps updating in the background
when not in use.Hibernate, don’t sleep
Click Start, Power and you may see
options to Sleep, Hibernate and Shut
down your device. Although some
laptops and tablets can sleep for
weeks, this option slowly drains the
battery, so it’s best avoided. If you
want be able to resume quickly, select
Hibernate instead. This is like Sleep
but doesn’t use any battery power.Optimise video playback
In Windows 10, open Settings and
click Apps, then ‘Video playback’.
Halfway down you’ll see options to
‘Optimise for battery life’, disable
video processing and use a lower
resolution. Each of these extends
battery life when watching videos.Configure the power plans
In Windows 10, you can click the
battery button on the taskbar and
drag the slider to the left to reduce
power and increase battery life. It’s a
simple process, but how effective is
Turn Bluetooth off and ‘Battery saver’ on it? All versions of Windows have
to save power while you’re out and about
The video playback options in Windows
10’s Settings can reducebattery drainEnable power saving
on your phone and
put apps to sleepConfigure the power plan in the Control
Panel for battery savings