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refresh) on my HTC clock is proclaiming Sunny times. The rain is currently
hammering down so heavily it's bouncing a foot off the ground and deafening
everyone in this office building! Well done Google. Well done. If you want to know
what the weather is doing, look out a window!
3. Are you managing your radios well?
Leaving Bluetooth and GPS activated when you are not using them causes massive
battery drain. It is well worth having the very handy power control widget on one of
your home screens to quickly and easily turn these on and off without messing about
in menus. There is also now a nice addition to your notification area called 'Quick
Settings' where this can be easily switched on and off.
Find a suitable place where you'd like the widget to be (it needs an entire row but
only one icon in height) and do a long-press on that part of the screen. A menu will
pop up. Select add widget, then scroll down the list to select the 'Power Control'
widget. This will now place the widget on your screen. When you are not using Wi-Fi,
turn it off. Same goes for GPS. Only turn GPS on before using Google Sat Nav, and
try to remember to turn it off afterwards. Again, let Tasker handle any automation of
your radios. E.g. have it turn GPS off every time the Navigation app closes.
4. What is your Wi-Fi sleep policy?
Believe it or not, when at home it saves much more battery having your phone
permanently connected to your Wi-Fi. If your phone is left on 3G, it uses much more
power periodically connecting to your network provider for syncing. There is also a
setting called 'Wi-Fi sleep policy'. This determines how your Wi-Fi connection
behaves when your screen is off. Again, against what you'd guess, it uses much less
power if you set the sleep policy to 'Never'. To check this setting (for some reason
they make it very hard to find) do the following: Menu> Settings> Wireless &
Networks> Wi-Fi Settings....hit the 'Menu' again, then select 'Advanced'. Select the
top drop-down called 'Wi-Fi Sleep policy' and make sure its set to 'Never'. Now your
phone wont waste power turning the Wi-Fi on and off and on and off and on and off
when you turn your screen on and off.....I've tested this out as I didn't believe it at
first myself. Definitely saves power.
Whilst in the 'Advanced' section, turn off 'Best WiFi performance'. I'm not sure how it
boosts WiFi performance when on (possibly a higher gain or uses wireless N
protocol?) but I personally have not noticed any improvement with it on, so I have
mine turned off. Leaving it on uses lots of power.
Also whilst in the 'Wi-Fi settings', untick the 'Network notification' box. This will stop
your phone wasting power constantly scanning for open (free) Wi-Fi networks to tell
you about them. If you want to scan for free WiFi, do it manually.
5. Do you need to be rung in the middle of the night?
Sounds like a silly question, but some people don't like the idea of having their
phone off when they go to sleep in case of emergency and someone tries to ring
them. Which are you? Phone on or off?
If (like me) you are not fussed about being contactable in the early hours by mobile,
there's little point in having your phones radios on all night. If you don't want to shell
out £4 for Tasker, there is a free app called Timeriffic. This can turn various settings
on and off on any time schedule you set. For example, set it like this:
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HTC Desire S Owner's Guide – V1.02 | wnp_79
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