For the many of consumers who have yet to upgrade tot he iPhone 5s or 5c but got iOS 7, it may have taken a toll on your already short battery life. Now that a few weeks have passed, you can tell if this is detrimental to your battery. Let’s face it, iPhones are great but if any device needed a bigger battery – it’s that one. Apple’s redesigned mobile software added some much-needed functionality along w/ a visual makeover. But its not the big changes that are causing loss of battery power but the smaller things that are running in the background constantly. Let’s see what needs to get shut off.
Automatic App Updates (Settings > iTunes + App Store > Turn off Apps) – the new software allows you to refresh apps automatically like on Android. Save on juice and turn it off!
Background App Refresh (Settings > General > Background App Refresh) – iOS 7 beefs up the multitasking for your iPhone by keeping apps running in the background. Stop it if you don’t need it and more than likely don’t.
Location Services (Settings > Privacy > Location Services) – this uses your GPS w/ Wi-Fi & cell tower support to determine your location for mapping & geotagging services. Turn most or all of them off unless you use Maps/Google Maps, Siri, & Weather.
Spotlight Search Indexing (Settings > General > Spotlight Search) – the universal search for iOS got better by tracking new data from anything you do. If you don’t use it then kill it.
You still have the classic ways to beat battery drain by:
- Set Auto-Lock to 1 minute or less
- Turn off the Music EQ
- Use headphones instead of the speaker if you have to listen to audio or music
- Turn down the screen brightness or use auto-brightness
- Turn off Bluetooth & Wi-Fi when not using it
- Set all Mail, Contacts, and Calendar accounts to Fetch instead of Push
Hopefully these tips will help you out by getting you a little bit further in your day before having to look for your charger. Let us know if we missed a tip or how well these work for you.
