I’ve been through three iPod Touch units in the past three years. One of the things that has always frustrated me was the battery life of it and the need to have to recharge it through a USB port. When I found out that I could get an adapter to allow me to recharge my iPod Touch without having to power up my laptop or Playstation 3, I didn’t hesitate to spend five dollars to get it.
There are some things that you can do to preserve your battery life on your iPod Touch; since the iPod, iPod Shuffle and iPod Touch are all different units some of these things won’t apply.
Internet Connection: When I have my iPod Touch connected to the internet I only get about 90 minutes of battery life. This drops to about 60 minutes when the signal is low and it has to keep searching. When you are not using the internet, go to the Settings menu and turn off the Wi-Fi option. You can also have it set up to not automatically connect. This is especially nice if you are driving around and are in a lot of Wi-Fi hot spots or near places that offer free Wi-Fi. You don’t have to worry about it seeking out a signal and wasting your battery.
Notifications: These are only active if you are connected to the internet however if you have notifications on, when you connect to the internet it will give you all of the updates. This means games, messages and updates will all start hitting your screen. One of the ways that this kills your battery is when you are running one application and you get a notification from another. This is most evident with games. When I am playing Bejeweled Blitz online and someone makes a move within the Words With Friends game, I get a notification of it and not only does it slow down the game but it takes a small bite of my battery life. You can go to the Notification menu from the Setting app; you can pick and choose which notifications you get as well as completely disabling the “notification push” of messages and updates.
Screen Display: If you are listening to music, click the screen button off by clicking the top power button. This will turn the screen to black but you can turn it back on in an instant if you need to change songs. One of the nice things about this is you can still adjust the volume without the screen coming back on. Adjusting the brightness isn’t going to do a lot to save your battery life, neither is changing the setting within the song menu. Those are small insignificant things that are going to use power regardless of the settings.
Auto Lock: You can select an auto lock time that ranges from one minute to five minutes. The auto lock will prevent accidental powering on of the unit and help save the battery. This is extremely helpful if you carry your iPod Touch in a backpack. The Auto Lock is not the same as the Passcode Lock. That is something that requires you to punch in a four digit number to unlock the iPod Touch.
Applications: Your apps won’t make a huge difference in your battery life providing that they aren’t something that is constantly in use. I deleted those off my iPod Touch because I didn’t like that they automatically started when there was an internet or Wi-Fi connection. Apps eat up a lot of your battery reserve; even more so when you are switching back and forth between then. I have Twiter, Words With Friends, Bejeweled Blitz and Zombie Farm on my iPod Touch. They are all horrible for my battery life so I have to remember to turn off the Wi-Fi when I am done or I will wake up with a dead battery.
GPS: There are a lot of apps that you can download to access GPS programs. Some people use them for directions and shortcuts while others use them for business and tracking purposes. Since the GPS is an app that is updated a lot, it is one of the biggest battery offenders for all handheld electronic devices. The same thing applies to “location” and apps that ask to use your current location. This can be for their marketing, to provide you with better information, for GPS or to mark your exact location for Twitter and Four Square.
Your iPod Touch will disconnect from the internet while dormant but that could be as much as an hour if you get push notifications. Even with the capability to recharge my battery without being hooked up to my laptop or Playstation 3, it’s not much of a consolation when you are in the middle of nowhere with no way to recharge it.
