Apparently my life is so boring that I find myself reading the Diamond user guide. I found the following tips regarding battery life on page 17:
Quote:
Battery Saving Tips:
How long your battery power lasts depends on the battery type and how you use your device. Try the following to help conserve battery life:
1.) When the device is not in use, press the Power key to switch off the display.
2.) On the Home screen, slide to the Settings tab and then tap All Settings. On the System tab, tap Power > Advanced tab of the Power settings screen. Here, you can specify the time before your device automatically turns off the display and backlight to conserve battery power. For optimum conservation, specify three minutes or less.
3.) On the Home screen, slide to the Settings tab and then tap All Settings. On the System tab, tap Power > Backlight tab to adjust the backlight brightness settings.
4.) Use the AC phone charger to plug your device into an external power outlet whenever possible, especially when using a modem or other peripherals.
5.) Turn Bluetooth off when you are not using it. Make your device visible to other devices only when you are trying to establish a Bluetooth partnership. For more information about Bluetooth, see “Using Bluetooth” on page 82.
6.) Lower the volume.
7.) Close battery-intensive programs such as the camera when you are done using them. Make sure the programs are ended and are not continuously running in the background. See “Using Task Manager” on page 113 for information on closing programs.
Most of these are no-brainers, but I actually hadn't thought of #7 before. #5 & 6 are interesting, although I can't imagine a high volume setting would be that big of a power hog.
Page 182 also has an interesting note about holding the phone properly to avoid RF exposure and help with battery life:
Quote:
To assure optimal phone performance and ensure human exposure to RF energy is within the guidelines set forth in the relevant standards, always use your device only in its normal-use position. Contact with the antenna area may impair call quality and cause your device to operate at a higher power level than needed. Avoiding contact with the antenna area when the phone is IN USE optimizes the antenna performance and increases** the battery life.
Underneath the above text, they show a picture of the backside of the phone with a square drawn around the upper section. Apparently this area is where the antenna resides & should be avoided for better signal quality and lower battery consumption.
**NOTE: I added the word increases. The manual has a typo and omitted this word.
yes all of those are no brainers. 5 and 6 was discussed in the 68 forum. BT kills your battery due to it being a constant on signal--just like a data call. if you have the "make device accessible" turned on, its just like having the infrared section turned on---thos phone does nto have Ir so its moot but theu are kinda the same in terms of battery usage. if you keep the device on, its still using battery power to keep the BT active.. its just doing it in spurts instead of bein a constant signal.
yes having memory intensive programs running such as the camera will also shortne battery life because when the program load in RAM memory the phone uses battery power to keep the program active in memory--memory needs battery power and the more programs you have open--so the mroe memory intensive programs you have in memory, the more juice is required to keep the memory going.
and yes you can cup your hand over the antenna and you can watch the signal bars on the display decrease. relocating the phone while up to your head can give the antenna more "look room" and have less obstructions to the tower/signal. our heads are just a big thirsty sponge just waiting to soak up all that yummy RF energy.. mmm tasty!
our heads are just a big thirsty sponge just waiting to soak up all that yummy RF energy.. mmm tasty!
Nice visual!!
About half way down the page at The Touch Blog there's a battery hack that people might want to try as well. I use push mail though, so according to his disclaimer, the hack is not for me.
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