Extend the battery life on your Blackberry

With the Blackberry reliant on always-on data for its Push email services, including the extended social networking angle in the shape of Facebook and Twitter. The battery is more likely to take a hit when working for extended periods away from the office with no access to a mains point. So you’ll need to ensure that there’s enough left in the tank to make cheapest cialis prices calls or to get you home at the end of the day (GPS). In this tutorial we show you how easy it to conserve battery life by following these simple steps.

Step 1: Adjust your backlight
The first step is to head to the main menu and look for the options icon (spanner), select this by pushing down on your trackball/pad and then scroll down to find the Screen/Keyboard sub-menu. Inside this menu look for the Backlight brightness field. Now highlight the number and with the trackball/pad choose a lower value. However move to step 2 before saving.

Step 2: Adjust your backlight timeout
Whilst in the above screen from step 1 you can also adjust your backlight time out. Simply use your trackball/pad again to scroll to where it says ‘Backlight Timeout’ and reduce the timeout to suite. The Automatically Dim Backlight option can also be left on to improve battery life. Once you are happy with your selection press the menu key and click save.

Step 3: Enable Auto on/off
The best way to conserve battery power is to simply turn the phone off and the Blackberry has a handy Auto on/off setting that you can use to do just that. Head to the options menu and then scroll down to access the Auto on/off menu. Once inside you can specify what times to turn on and off the phone during weekdays or weekends. Press the menu key to save your changes.

Step 4: Turn off your GPS
Another way to save battery life is to turn off your GPS location service and turn this back on when required. Once more you need to head to the options menu and scroll to Advanced options and select this. Locate the GPS sub-option and enter this. Next to where it says ‘GPS Services’ highlight the option and push down on the trackball/pad to change this to Location Off. Press the menu key to save the changes before exiting.

Step 5: Turn off Data/Wi-Fi
The biggest drain on your battery life will be Wi-Fi and mobile data, so if you are simply making calls you can disable these to prolong battery life. Head to the main menu and look for the ‘Manage Connections’ icon. Select this and you’ll see the Wi-Fi option listed. Highlight this and push down on the trackball/pad to remove the tick – thus turning it off. Data services are held under the Mobile Network Option so choose this to quickly turn off the data services. Press the menu key to save any changes (before exit move to step 6).

Step 6: Turn off Bluetooth
Another source of constant battery drain is Bluetooth and you’ll find the option to turn this off in the steps shown in Step 5. Essentially all you need to do is scroll to where it says Bluetooth and once again push down on the trackball/pad to disable it. Press the back button to exit and return to the main menu.

Step 7: Close down running programs
Similar to a lot of smartphones the Blackberry can perform multi-tasking operations. Unfortunately a lot of the programs don’t close properly, so you’ll find these can be running in the background zapping battery life. To ensure they are closed properly go to the main menu and press the menu key. From the drop down menu choose ‘Switch Application’. This will then produce a list of all the programs currently running. Using the trackball/pad move to the required application and select it. Now press the menu key and choose close to exit the application.

Step 8: Keep an eye on data-enabled applications
Applications such as Facebook and Twitter can send notifications to your phone, which of course uses data to do so. With this in mind it’s a good idea to check the settings of each applications to control how often updates are sent. Taking UberTwitter – as an example – launch the program and press the menu key. Now go to options and run through the wizard until you get to ‘Timeline Refresh Delay and adjust the time to suite. Note if you prefer you can also un-tick the option ‘Add location to every tweet’ and use your cell tower for location, this way you are not using the GPS which will help reduce power consumption (though at the cost of accuracy of course).

Step 9: Download 3^rd party battery monitoring software
The default battery icon is not allays the best method of visualising your phones battery life, so instead you could download an alternative from the Blackberry App store. Simply launch the App Store and do a search for battery status. You’ll then get various paid for apps and one free program called battery watch which is what we installed. You can launch the software via the download folder – held under the main menu – or move the icon to your home screen if you prefer. This will then provide you with quicker access to battery status.

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