I Came, I Saw, I Learned...

Technology: Is Your Cell Phone a Vampire?

by AJ George

After running a couple week's worth of tips for prolonging your Droid's battery life, I was approached with additional battery related topics. I wouldn't say I'm an authority on all things battery-related, but I was able to find a few resources on the topic that I'd like to share.

Is your cell phone sucking energy?

If you leave your cell phone plugged in all night to charge, even if it really only needs a few hours to fully charge, you're wasting energy, right? Well, yes and no. Yes, you are, but you probably aren't wasting enough energy to really make an impact on reducing your energy usage if you change your ways. The term for such unnecessary sucking of energy is called vampire draw.

This article does a good job explaining exactly how much energy is being burned up by leaving your cell phone (and other electronics) plugged in. Some highlights of the article:

• If you leave your phone plugged in all night, every night for a year, you will be using 6.5 kWh of energy. Compared to the 4,000 kWh the average American uses each year, it's really kind of a drop in the bucket. If you'd like to do something little to make a bigger difference-swap one incandescent light bulb in your home for a fluorescent bulb and save yourself 126 kWh a year.

• It is suggested that you unplug your phone's charger when it is not in use (because every little bit of energy you save helps, right?); but the article also pointed out how tiny of an impact unplugging will make. If you leave your charger plugged in the entire year (8,760 hours) you will only be using a total of 2.3 kWh of electricity--equivalent to the amount of energy you would save that year by skipping one hot bath.

The article goes on to cover iPod and laptop battery energy consumption, as well as if it is better to charge your devices in your car or in your house (spoiler: you're better off at home). It is definitely worth a read if you've ever pondered how your gadgets were affecting your energy consumption.

If you read the article and are still convinced that you should be more proactive about vampire draw, there are a few products that are specifically made to eliminate needless use of electricity, like this Volt-Star Eco-Charger.

The jury's still out on overcharging

Whether or not overcharging your cell phone's battery can cause the battery to lose its charge faster has been the subject of much debate. Most resources I found (like this one) said that today's gadgets are very difficult to overcharge and that any depletion in battery life you experience is due to regular wear and tear of the battery over time. Others swear that leaving their phones on the charger too long has led to a decrease in battery life as compared to when they only charged it long enough to reach full charge. I couldn't find any official sources stating that this was the case.

I charge my phone all night, every night and have not experienced any sort of loss in battery life, but I'd love to hear from you. Do you notice a difference in your phone's battery if you leave it on the charger for too long? Do you think that's all just hype and overcharging is a thing of the past? Leave your comments below.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

Troublshooting Tips: Upgrading to Office 2010 for Windows XP Users

by AJ George

A couple weeks ago I upgraded from Microsoft Office 2007 to Microsoft Office 2010--at least I tried to upgrade. It seemed like a routine upgrade process until I tried to open Outlook 2010 and was greeted with a message saying something along the lines of "Please wait while Windows Configures Microsoft Office Single Image 2010."

I had no idea what the message meant, but it could not be ignored. I was able to get Outlook to open by starting in Safe Mode (which you can do by holding down the Control key on your keyboard as you start Outlook). Running Outlook in Safe Mode allowed me to do my work, but I had to remember to use Safe Mode every time I started Outlook and none of the customization I'd done to my preferences was functional.

After struggling with this problem for hours, I got in touch with Microsoft tech support. He went through my computer and deleted any remnants of legacy versions of Office, and spent hours doing who knows what else, but to no avail.

There is an option when installing Office 2010 to customize the upgrade process to only upgrade certain programs. Hypothetically I could have just upgraded everything except Outlook 2007. But, alas, Outlook was the only program I could not opt out of. Eventually I gave up on Microsoft support, uninstalled Office 2010 and just reinstalled 2007.

Two weeks later I was finally given a solution that I would like to pass along to anyone having this same Microsoft Outlook 2010 upgrade problem. The actual fix takes only minutes. All you need to do is download Microsoft Windows Search 4.0 for Windows XP (KB940157). Reinstall Office 2010. And you're done. Outlook 2010 (as well as the rest of the Office suite) now works perfectly for me.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

Technology Tips: Make Your Droid Battery Last Longer, Part II

by AJ George

Last week I covered a couple ways to ensure that you get as much life as possible out of your Droid's battery. This week I bring you a few more battery saving tips.

Monitor What's Using Your Battery

By choosing Settings > About Phone > Battery > Battery Use you can monitor what exactly is eating up your battery life. If your Display percentage is higher than your Android System percentage, you should definitely consider turning down your screen brightness. You can do this by using the Power Control widget mentioned last week or by selecting Settings > Display > Brightness. Disable Automatic brightness and slide the Brightness level as far down as you can while still being able to comfortably see what's on your screen. Disabling the Android Live Wallpaper (by simply selecting a static wallpaper) will also save some battery. Personally I enjoy watching grass sway in the breeze (and it only uses up 2% of my battery) so I leave it be.

Forget 4G (Sometimes)

The penny pincher in me never wants to disable my 4G since I am being forced to pay extra for it every month. But leaving it running gobbles up the battery. Often there is not even a 4G network available and your phone will drain the battery just searching for one. For this reason, I only use 4G when I want to optimize web surfing or download speeds. To turn off 4G, choose Settings > Wireless & networks and disable 4G. If you are running a 3G phone, abide by this same principle and use 2G instead (unless you really need the performance boost).

Cache Out

Many applications leave cached data on your phone that you don't necessarily need. One such app is the Task Killer mentioned last week. To clear these caches, choose Settings > Applications > Manage applications. Select each application listed and if there is a pushable Clear cache button in the Cache area, go ahead and push it to clear the cache.

More Battery Saving Tips

• Going to full versions of websites on your phone will use up more battery. Most sites have a mobile version that can be accessed (typically by adding "m." or "mobile." to the front of the site name) that will use less of your battery to load.
  
  
• When your phone is hot, it eats up more battery. Keep your phone out of direct sunlight and avoid using the phone if it is warm to the touch. Or, perhaps, you could show your phone you really care and put some clothes on it. Or maybe not.
  
  
• I have not tried them, but I've heard good things about downloading the apps APNdroid and Locale to conserve battery life. APNdroid will turn off certain networks when you aren't using them. Locale allows you to specify how your phone's setting should be adjusted for different circumstances (like when you're sleeping or at work vs everyday use).

Do you have any other battery saving tips? Share them in the comments below.

Note: Image above courtesy www.sprint.com.

Click here for Part I of Tips to Make Your Droid Battery Last Longer.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

Technology Tips: Make Your Droid Battery Last Longer

by AJ George

I was ecstatic to trade in my archaic Palm 700 for a sexy new HTC Evo. I was even more excited when a friend of mine pointed out that my new toy had a kickstand (HOW HAD I NOT NOTICED THAT?!). My enthusiasm, however, was a bit dampened when I realized I'd traded in an old clunker (one that could barely hold a charge) for a shiny new speed monster--that still couldn't hold a charge.

A friend (the same one who opened my eyes to the kickstand, this guy is amazing!) heard me lament over my poor battery life and told me the mystical secrets of saving my Droid's battery.  Over the next couple weeks, I'll share some of his best tips.

Find Your Zombies

My friend advised me to lay off the "Advanced Task Killer" that the folks at the phone store had installed for me (to help improve my battery life). Apparently, only some apps should be "killed," and, in fact, killing some of  them actually eats up more of your battery because they'll restart again within moments.

Go ahead and run your Task Killer. Kill everything. Then check it again within a minute. See those apps that are running again? Those are the zombies. Without blowing them up (read: going into your settings and force quitting or removing them), they'll just keep coming back. So go ahead and deselect them so their lives can be spared upon your next killing spree.

Don't discontinue use of the Task Killer altogether though, as some things (like the camera, for example) may actually need the Task Killer to shut down.

Caution: If you use your phone as an alarm clock, do not kill the Clock application (even if it's not a zombie). If you do, and it is not restarted again before your alarm is supposed to go off, you will be in the unfortunate predicament of not having your alarm go off at all. Trust me on this one.

Add the Power Control Widget

Keeping things like GPS, Bluetooth and Auto Sync running when you don't need them will really eat away at your battery life. An easy way to keep them all in check is to add the Power Control widget to one of your home screens.

On the Evo this is done by swiping over to a screen with some empty real estate and pressing and holding down on the screen. From the Add to Home screen, choose Widget > Power Control. The Power Control widget is then added to your screen.

By simply touching the button for each application (which are, in this order on the power strip: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Auto Sync & Screen Brightness) you can toggle it on or off. In the case of Screen Brightness, you can quickly adjust it to three different levels.

Most of these applications will have no effect on your phone until you need something that directly accesses them (for example, if you use your phone for navigation you will need to turn GPS back on first). By turning Auto Sync off, your weather, Gmail and Facebook applications will not be automatically updated. For me this is not a problem and is worth the extra battery life I gain by leaving it off. If you would like to continue having these applications automatically updated, you should leave this on.

Note: Image above courtesy www.sprint.com.

 

Click here for Part II of Tips to Make Your Droid Battery Last Longer.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

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