Tricks to Keep Your Device's Laptop Batteries Going and Going

It was great that I could use one device - my iPhone - to check my calendar and respond to multiple incoming calls during January's Consumer Electronics Show, but I paid the price when its battery died at 2 p.m. The answer was not to desperately search for an electrical outlet to recharge the phone (though I've done that) or to consider giving up the phone (done that, too), but rather to figure out a strategy to reduce energy consumption while still having it available for essential tasks. To increase your battery life, turn off push and increase the interval between when the phone checks for new messages. You turn your BlackBerry or iPhone into a music player and personal organizer, and you won't be able to receive e-mail messages or make or receive phone calls, but you will stretch your battery. Get an App to Aid You There are a number of applications that can help monitor battery life and shut off various functions that cut down on a mobile device's effective power. Battery Go and myBatteryLife tell iPhone owners how much charge they have left and how that power translates into minutes of talk time, music, video and Web surfing. NB BattStat alerts BlackBerry owners to the amount of battery charge remaining, as well as the battery's temperature. (Hot batteries lose power more quickly.) The device can be set to vibrate or sound when a predetermined low battery level is reached. For example, certain features can be automatically turned on when the phone is connected to a wall plug, or Bluetooth can be automatically disconnected when the battery charge drops below a certain level. For laptops, programs like Battery Health Monitor (Mac) and laptop batteries Power Monitor (PC) keep track of battery charge and estimate how many more times you'll be able to recharge your battery. Today's lithium-ion batteries don't suffer from memory loss, so it is safe to top off a battery. No matter how well you husband your battery's resources, there comes a time when you'll need to send your battery to its final resting place. "If your battery lasts only an hour after you've charged it," said Anthony Magnabosco, owner of Milliamp.com, a battery replacement company, "you know its time is up."