Small Business

10 Ways to Improve iPhone Battery Life

By Rick Broida

Updated on: July 16, 2008 / 2:53 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Apps, GPS, 3G -- all the great new features in the new iPhone can drain your battery in a hurry. Gizmodo serves up 10 tricks for maximizing iPhone battery life, starting with two that work with all phones:

Turn down the LCD. The new iPhone's screen is brighter, but you shouldn't be running this thing at full heat if you want to save battery power. I keep mine at 10% brightness. Change this under Settings -> Brightness.
Wi-Fi new network scanning off or Wi-Fi off. While you're not checking data for more than a few seconds at a time, I'd turn off Wi-Fi and in general, I'd turn off Wi-Fi scanning. It uses less power than EDGE or 3G, but when you're not using your network connection, you might as well shut it down. Change this under Settings -> Wi-Fi. Same goes for Bluetooth.

One thing I've definitely noticed about my newly upgraded iPod touch is that battery life does indeed seem to be plummeting. But that's probably because of all the time I'm now spending time playing Bejeweled and reading e-books. Consequently, I've dialed down the screen brightness a bit, which I barely even notice. On the other hand, a dead battery might help me get back to work. I can't put this thing down!