Feature
Battery boosting tips and tricks «Automate
your settings
Diagnose with
Battery Doctor
Tasker is one of the most popular automation
apps on the Google Play store, but an
excellent free alternative is Automatelt. It sets
up rules that activate under certain
conditions, such as turning silent at night or
dropping the volume down when headphones
are plugged in. All it takes is a few clicks to set
a rule based on an activity, time or battery
level so you can force it to power down once
you hit 20 per cent, thus maintaining battery
life for when you need it the most. Set as
many rules as you like to make sure your
battery consumption is as low as possible
during periods of inactivity.Apps running in the background are a huge
source of pointless battery waste. But you can
become battery savvy. Battery Doctor will
identify what apps are running that don’t need to
be and will kill them instantly by redirecting
processor power to the task that you are doing
and therefore improving battery effi ciency. The
Task Killer is located in a one-click widget, so you
can improve your battery life in a fl ash without
having to close down apps manually one by one.
It will also provide information on when to charge
your device and more importantly, how long to
charge it for. In a real battery emergency
situation, you can shut down every function
apart from the ability to make and receive phone
calls and texts.Clear caches and unwanted apps to make your battery usage more effi cent
Kill background apps
Enter Settings Show Cached Processes Clear Media
Pull down the top menu and click on the
Settings icon. In the Device section you will see
a section for apps, which you should click on.
This will then take you through to a screen that
shows you all of the apps that you currently have
running. There may be some surprises!You should see a list of your downloaded
apps in front of you. Swipe across until the word
Running is highlighted near the top of the screen. In
the top right-hand corner you should see a button
markedShowCachedProcesses.Clickonitto
bring up another app list.This list shows all the apps that currently
have a cache running. While this is helpful to get
things moving more quickly, it eats up memory,
processing power and battery. Click on Media and
select Stop. Repeat for any other apps. This
cache will fi ll up again so do this regularly.Avoid auto-syncing
Whether your Wi-Fi is turned on or not, your
phone will still be searching for social media or
email alerts. Head into Settings, then Accounts,
then switch off Auto-sync to stop your phone
searching constantly and using battery.Mini-charge
Repeated flash charges – where you plug your device
in for a short period of time to give it a boost – is the
best way to extend its life. Keeping your phone
somewhere between 80 and 40 per cent is best.Don’t overcharge
Charging your phone overnight could lead to it
overheating and that could damage the
lithium-ion battery. Unplug once you hit 100 per
cent or keep it well ventilated during charging by
taking off the case.Keep it cool
Scorching temperatures could lose you as much
as 35 per cent battery life over a year. Try and
keep it as cool as possible by not leaving it
exposed to the sun for long periods of time.12 3
Above: Use an automation tool like Tasker is a great
alternative to Lollipop's Battery Saver Mode