In Texas we have been blessed or cursed, depending on your point of view, with record rain for the entire month of May – enough to cover the whole state with 8 inches of water. Nearly everyone has had to wait out flooded streets, creeks, and rivers. Of course we all phone home to let our near and dear know where we are. And so the drain on the cell phone battery begins.
We thought some tips on conserving cell phone battery life would be useful as you are waiting for the water to recede around you. Our sources for the excerpts for this blog, click on 5 Ways to Keep Your Phone Charged in a Power Outage by Doug Gross, CNN and 15 Tricks for Getting Way Better Smartphone Battery Life by Ben Taylor, Time.com.
Use your laptop as a battery for your cell phone. Of course that means you have to plan ahead and have your USB cord with you.
Purchase for $100 or less and they are available for both Apple and Android devices. Alternately, battery-powered backup chargers can provide several full charges for your mobile devices after the usual electrical options are gone.
Many apps run in the background, even when you’re not using them. This makes sense for things like email and social media. Do you really need your games, notes, and music players gobbling up battery resources 24/7? Turn off notifications for all but your most important apps.
Sure, you want your text messages to come through on your lock screen, but do you really need every MLB score from across the league? You can even customize your notifications down to where they appear, from banners to sound alerts to the lock screen.
Apps that run in the background, track your location or send you push notifications can end up being a big drain on your battery. Each of those problems can be addressed individually, but why not just delete those dozen apps you used once in 2013 and haven’t touched since
GPS navigation sucks the juice right out of your device. After all, your phone is working constantly to track your spot on the map.
For years, “close all your apps” was the most popular battery saving tip in the world of smartphones. When you leave an app open in the background, then access it a little later, your phone is smart eno
ugh to let you pick up where you left off, with minimal harm to battery life. If you keep closing and re-opening the same apps all day, you end up taxing your phone a whole lot more than necessary. It’s a little like turning off and starting up your car every time you hit a stoplight.
If all else fails, there’s still good old Airplane Mode. It might render all your phone’s bes
t features useless, but it’s guaranteed to stop the bleeding. After all, a smartphone gone dumb is still better than a smartphone gone dead.
We hope that you have survived the month of May here in Texas. If you have dama
ge to your property and are one of our customers, we invite you to call. We are ready to move your claim through the process as quickly as possible.
Dean & Draper is a Trusted Choice insurance agency representing over 200 insurance companies. For over 35 years we have offered a trusted freedom of choice to our clients. ContactUs.