passing on the knowledge

[forgotten_aria]

My new smart phone was getting horrible battery life (about 2 days of idle). I shut off data (since I don't have a data plan) and the graph is already looking so much better. I guess it was crying out for data and the network was giving it the cold shoulder, but it wouldn't give up!

Comments

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

If it's an Android, try Juice Defender. It does useful things like learn where your wifi hotspots are and only turn wifi on then; when you're using data it will limit the frequency with which it tries to check.
I've found that it substantially increased my battery life, although it can come with a speed cost.

Watch for programs which keep running and eating your battery. The game Trap, for example, keeps using CPU in the background even after you switch away, unless you explicitly exit. When you're about to recharge the phone, go to the home screen. Hit menu, choose settings, and then select battery to see which programs are using up the battery. If you have a different version of Android OS (I'm on ICS) the steps might be slightly different but the information is there.

[gmpe.livejournal.com]

Similarly, our kids figured out to put their iPads in airplane mode when they don't need network (which is much of the time) to conserve battery life..