One of the unfortunate aspects of Android phones is their battery life – some of the models at the upper end of the market can go for ages and ages – but the lower end models are susceptible to running out after a few hours.

There are a number of things you can do to keep your battery going for the whole day without need of a recharge.

• Turn your screen brightness down.

• I keep my screen at about 40% – which is sufficient for indoors and on buses, trains etc.
• Of course you will need it at 100% when out using it in the Roman sun – but you can turn it up quite easily.
• ( I use an app called “Brightness widget backlight” which allows me to alter the screen brightness with a swipe of the screen )
• If you don’t want an app – just go to settings and change the display brightness when you think you are going to be outside for a time )

• Having Facebook, Google+, maps, chat, and twitter running at the same time may be convenient – but they are going to eat your battery.
• Open them when you need them, and close them when you are finished.
• ( Again I have a little app called “Android booster” which allows me to close all non-essential apps with a single touch )

• ( Go to settings, display, screen timeout )
• Leaving your screen on whilst your phone is in your bag is daft – it also eats battery.
• I have my screen timeout set to 30 minutes – but religiously switch off the screen when I have finished using the phone.

• Auto sync is fantastic – you get your emails instantly, Facebook updates, messages etc. etc. when they happen – you don’t have to check for them.
• Unfortunately you pay the price for this in your battery – the update services are running in the background constantly and eating your battery time.
• Switch sync on only for those things that you really need to updated instantly.
• Do you really need to be updated from Facebook, or can it wait until you manually go and look ?
• ( As an observation I find that Google Calendar sync is an absolute battery killer – it seems to try and sync every second – switch it off and sync your calendar when you make a change )
• ( The other Google services do seem to behave themselves – email, talk etc. )

• If you are only using your phone for phone calls – you don’t need to access a 3g network – it takes energy – i.e. battery
• Use 3g when you need it ( you can switch it on or off from settings – networks )

• There is an urban myth that GPS kills battery – it does – but only when it is trying to find your location.
• E.g. your battery will disappear rapidly if you have maps running constantly, but GPS will sit there quite happily doing nothing, is nothing is asking it for your location.

• Wi-Fi also eats battery – switch Wi-Fi on when you know there is a Wi-Fi signal – switch it off when there obviously isn’t.

• Obviously you have a really nice MP3 player, and a video player on your phone.
• Using them is going to eat your battery.
• I’m not saying don’t use them – just be aware that watching “Lord of the Rings” on the train is going to cost you a few hours of battery life later in the day.

• Playing Angry birds, or Dragon’s Lair may be fun – but they are going to consume your battery faster than anything else.
• Try and be plugged in with your charger when you play games.

Those are some of the most common causes for battery failure – keep them in mind and your battery will go from just a few hours, to a whole day.

Other tips you might want to think about :

• Always carry a charger with you.

• Plug it in when available ( in a cafe, office, on the train etc. )
• Chargers are small, cheap and convenient – buy a spare and keep it on your person at all times.

• A bit extreme – but if your phone dies and you don’t have a charger ( or a place to charge ) keeping a spare battery in your bag can be a life saver.

• Ok – maybe excessive – I have a little charger ( half the size of a cigarette packet ) that I keep charged and in my bag. When my phone is getting below a certain level and I can’t find a charging point – I just plug it into the phone and I get a quick ( 2 minutes ) charge that will give me a few more hours.

If you pay attention to your needs and your battery, your little Android will serve you well and stay alive for the whole time you need it.

If you ignore the battery, you will soon find you are getting annoyed with your phone as it is constantly dying.

Some time ago I bought a Kindle as I love to read and didn’t want all of the weight of carrying books around – to date I have loved it.

But when I bought it, I decided to go for the cheaper Wi-Fi only version, thinking that I could download any books I wanted from home and then read them whilst I was out travelling.

Soon I discovered the comfort of sending and converting pdf files to the kindle that I found interesting, or useful for my job.

Soon I also discovered that downloading everything from home wasn’t as convenient as I thought – getting the daily newspaper, converting it and sending it to my phone in the morning whilst I was trying to get ready for work was becoming a little problematic ( particularly the last stage – the email going to and being received by the kindle – it could sometimes take longer than I wanted)

On those occasions I would have to start the email send going, and hope I would be in range of a Wi-Fi spot during the day so that the kindle could download it (which in the case of newspapers sort of destroyed the idea – I wanted to read the papers on the train so that I could discuss the daily news in class if need be)

I soon started to regret not getting the 3g version.

Err, ‘scuse me – what has this got to do with Android ?

Wait – be patient – I’m getting there.

After a while I also bought myself a nice little android phone, just to keep up, and as I thought quite a lot of the functionality in the Android would come in handy – it did – very handy.

One of the things that I found particularly handy was Mobile AP.

Mobile AP allows you to turn your phone into a mobile Wi-Fi spot – as long as your phone has data single it can then broadcast a Wi-Fi signal and other Wi-Fi enabled devices can access the internet.

Which brings me back to my Kindle – now when I don’t have time to receive the newspaper via email before I have to set off for work, all I have to do is turn on Mobile AP, let my kindle find the Wi-Fi connection and it can then download the newspaper whilst I am waiting for the train ( I can read the paper as required )

Another useful part of Mobile AP, was that when I have my netbook with me, I can get rid of that horrible Internet USB dongle (which I am always worried will snap off) and hook the netbook up to my mobile’s network using Wi-Fi.

(This not only works out cheaper – the usb thing I had was costing me a fortune, but it also means no unsightly, or potentially breakable additions to the netbook whilst I am sitting in a park, on a train, or in a classroom)

Some people never use Mobile AP as the second anyone says network to them they run a mile thinking that it will be mega complicated to set up – in fact it couldn’t be simpler.

Setting up Mobile AP

1. Go to Settings
2. Go to Wireless And Networks
3. Go to Tethering and Hotspots
4. Go to Mobile AP settings
5. Configure Mobile AP
6. In the Network SSID put in any name that means something to you. (AdriansAndroid)
7. Change security to WPA2 (PSK)
8. Enter a password ( this means only you can access it unless you give someone else the password )
9. Save
10. Turn on Mobile AP by tapping it.

Simple – you now have a mobile Wi-Fi connection. Your other devices should be able to see it, and to access it all you have to do is enter the password.

The phone doesn’t have to be sitting on or near the device ( I leave it in my jacket pocket with a fairly good resultant signal )

You can return to the phone at any time and simply tap Mobile AP again to switch it off  (it does eat battery a little if you leave it on)

If you think someone else is accessing your Wi-Fi – simply turn off Mobile AP, change the password and switch it on again.

It is really that simple.

Another benefit of Mobile AP that I hadn’t thought about until recently is that I can now buy a Wi-Fi only tablet (which are considerably cheaper than 3G models and will still be able to use it’s full functionality by running it through my phone   )

Last little note :

Remember that you are accessing your phone’s internet connection when surfing the internet from other devices.

In the case of Kindle or non-pc devices this access is going to be fairly light – the device will download what it needs then stop.

In the case of PC’s (netbooks or tablets) the device is probably going to be doing a lot of things in the background that you don’t normally notice when hooked up to a direct line that may impact your data allocation (how much you can access before you start paying by the mega-byte) – eg Syncing a dropbox, a mailbox, preloading pages etc etc.

Don’t let that put you off – just be aware of it and switch off any extraneous services that you don’t actually need whilst mobile on the appropriate device so that you are only accessing what you need whilst mobile.