Mobile computing has got better with lighter components, better chips and faster processors. But the Achilles heel of a laptop has remained its battery.
Modern graphic intensive operating systems and resource hungry applications are cutting down the life of your laptop’s battery every day. The average battery life per continuous use still stands at a maximum of three to four hours. So, a fast depleting battery could very swiftly put the crutches on your ‘mobile’ road trip.
Falling just short of carrying an extra pack of batteries in the back-pack, are several ways to keep the juice flowing through the batteries.
Ship shape with a defrag
Regular defragmentation helps to arrange data more efficiently thus making the hard drive work less to access the data. The quicker the moving hard drive works lesser is the load placed on the battery. The effect is minimal, but this efficiency goes hand in glove with hard drive maintenance.
Kill the resource gobblers
End the background processes that are not vital. Monitor the resource usage through a ‘Ctrl-Alt-Del’ which brings up the Windows Task Manager (in Windows). If you’re not on the internet, it is safe to shut down the immediate non-essential programs running in the taskbar like the antivirus and the firewall. Weed out unnecessary programs running as start-ups by launching the System Configuration Utility from Run – Msconfig – Tab: Startup. Uncheck the programs which you don’t want to launch and reboot the computer once.
Pause the scheduled tasks
It may be a defrag or a virus scan, but make sure it is scheduled for a time when you are near a power outlet. If not then nix them for the moment.
Unplug external devices
USB devices are the biggest drainers of battery power. Unplug all external devices like an external mouse, PC cards, Wi-Fi, external speakers, Bluetooth and even an attached iPod.
Empty the CD/DVD Drives
Even if you don’t intend to use it, don’t leave any CD/DVDs as leftovers in the drives. A spinning drive sucks battery power like a sponge.
Go local
Desist using the DVD/external drives while running on batteries. Shift the content to the hard drive or run using (free) virtual drives like Pismo File Mount or even Microsoft’s Virtual CD ROM Control Panel.
Lower the lights
The LCD screen of a laptop is another huge power sink. Calibrate the brightness to the lowest level you can tolerate using the Function key toggles or using the Display Settings applet in the Control Panel.
Kill the sounds
Mute the speakers and try avoiding the use of multimedia software to maximize the battery life. Installed sound schemes also drain a battery perceptibly.
Rid the screensaver
To maximize battery life by a little, switch off the screensaver.
Visit Power Options
Get familiar with power management through the ‘Power Options’ applet in the Control Panel. Both XP and Vista come with advanced power management features which shut off components like the monitor and/or the hard drive after specified intervals. This again depends on the chosen ‘Power Schemes’ (for XP) in the same applet. For instance in XP, ‘Max Battery’ under Power Schemes can be selected for maximum battery optimization.
Similar settings can be found under ‘Mobile PC’ in the Control Panel of Vista.
Turn off the looks
Today’s OS’s like Windows Vista come with features like ‘Aero Glass’ which are resource guzzlers. One can turn it off and go for the ‘Classic’ appearance which consumes less power. In Vista, click on Desktop – Preferences – View Colour – Appearance – Classic Appearance and Windows Basic graphical interface. In XP it’s – Display Properties – Theme – Windows Classic.
Linux and even Macintosh are better optimized for longer battery life.
Hibernate is better than Sleep
In the Stand By mode (or sleep mode), the computer turns of the hard drive and the display but memory remains active while the CPU slows down. This draws on the battery. In contrast, hibernation mode is better because the computer saves the current state and shuts itself down completely thus saving power.
Get the most…work on the least
Working on too many programs while on the battery is a sure fire power drainer. Keep use of graphic intensive applications to a minimum. Working on a spreadsheet consumes much less than playing your favourite game. To increase the life of the battery open just one or two programs concurrently.
Ram in more RAM
Adequate RAM reduces the load on Virtual memory which by default resides on the hard drive. Though every extra bit of RAM uses up more power, it increases overall savings by short cutting access to the power hungry hard drive.
Keep it clean
A laptop with blocked air vents will generate more heat thus reducing the life of the battery. Clean the air vents regularly to keep operating temperatures low. Allow for open space around the vents for air to circulate freely. Keep the area around the laptop clean to avoid entry of dust.
Temperature is a silent killer
Undue heat kills off a battery slowly but surely. Avoid leaving the laptop under direct sunlight or inside a closed car.
Avoid the memory effect
A problem more for the older Ni-MH batteries than for Li-Ion batteries on which most modern laptops run. Memory effect relates to the loss of battery charge when they are repeatedly recharged after being only partially discharged. It can be prevented by discharging the battery fully and then completely recharging it. Li-Ion batteries on the other hand have no problems with partial discharges and re-charges and complete discharge is never recommended for this type.
Update software and drivers
This sounds a bit incongruous but then newer drivers and software are often designed to be more efficient (and hopefully less resource hungry).
Use the right adapter
Ensure that the adapter you use to charge the laptop battery is an original one or one with the correct specifications. A mismatch in the wattage could cause an overload thus damaging the laptop and the battery.
Pack it up
If you don’t plan to use the laptop on batteries for quite some time, ensure that the charge is nearly 40 percent – remove the batteries and store it in a cool place.
A typical lithium ion battery has an overall average life of 2-3 years. With some care and caution, its mortality can be delayed.
Have you found your own way of increasing the life of your laptop’s battery? Share the ‘life giving’ tips with us in the comments.
Enjoyed the article? Please leave a comment and tell us what you think about it.
Windows/Mac: Foxmarks, our favorite way to keep Firefox bookmarks synced across computers, is now offered for Internet Explorer and Safari, giving anyone with multiple computers or browsers a pain-free way to keep it all together.
Foxmarks offers basically the same type of background bookmark-syncing awesomeness for IE and Safari as it does for Firefox, with a few key exceptions:
No password syncing: A tough break, but not too hard to overcome by using Dropbox as a cross-platform password syncer.
No syncing bookmarks to your own server: Probably not a deal-breaker for most users, but we hope it makes a showing some day soon.
iPhone sync only for Mac Safari: Actually, this isn’t a feature Foxmarks even offers for Firefox, so it’s kind of a bonus.
If you’re still down to try out Foxmarks in its newest forms, head to the Foxmarks downloads page and grab your appropriate installer. I lack a Mac system, so I’ll be stepping through an Internet Explorer setup below.
Double-click the installer, accept all the standard “Do you want …” and “Allow …” prompts, and you’ll be asked to either create a Foxmarks account or sign in with the one you’ve got. After verification, you’ll end up at this simple screen, familiar to Foxmarks veterans:
The default action, if you simply hit “Synchronize,” is for Foxmarks to merge any favorites you’ve got on your system with anything backed up in your Foxmarks cloud. That’s fine for newcomers, but I generally like to get rid of all of the pre-loaded MSN, Windows Live, and similar bookmarks, so let’s hit “Change sync settings” and switch it up:
After that, Foxmarks gets going. Instead of installing an icon in Internet Explorer’s bottom status bar, Foxmarks plants itself in your system tray. You’ll see it pop up a notification when it’s done grabbing or placing bookmarks to/from the servers. Right-clicking this icon gives you access to your Foxmarks settings, can open up your web-based bookmarks browser, and close down the Foxmarks process. It seems to run whether or not you’ve got IE up and running, which is somewhat memory insensitive, but also convenient for those who open and close their browser regularly.
The Foxmarks options are similar to what Firefox users have been used to: a quick-sync button, choices on how and when Foxmarks synchronizes, and, best of all, the same kind of computer-by-computer selective bookmark syncing, or “profiles.”
And here’s the advanced options, where you can change your encryption demands, force a server- or computer-wiping sync, and turn off that Foxmarks tray icon. Turning off the icon still lets you at the Foxmarks options from IE’s “Tools” menu:
Here’s a video tour of Foxmarks features, composed by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal/All Things Digital. It’s somewhat introductory-level, but covers a lot of ground.
Gmail Labs adds a new Multiple Inboxes feature today that allows you to keep an eye on multiple buckets at once while you’re viewing your inbox.
Just head to the Labs tab in your Gmail account to enable the new feature. Once enabled, you’ll get a new Multiple inboxes tab in your Gmail settings. From there, you can choose up to five different panes to display to the right of your Gmail inbox, above your inbox, or below it. For label and filter junkies, the Multiple Inboxes feature is a must. When setting up your multiple inboxes, you can use any of Gmail’s supported search operators to create any sort of search you want. For example, good choices for your multiple inboxes might include searches like:
is:starred is:unread has:attachment
Let’s hear which labels or search operators you’re keeping an eye on in the comments. New in Labs: Multiple Inboxes [Official Gmail Blog]
Usually your CPU beeps when you make mistakes like pressing wrong keys or there is some warning. At times, these beep sounds are very useful for us. But sometimes we don’t want them while doing some very special works.
If these CPU beeps are annoying you or diverting your attention, you can use following registry trick to turn then off! 1. Click “Start” button. 2. Go to “Run”. 3. Write “regedit” and hit ENTER key. 4. Go to “HEKY-CURRENT-USER” >> “CONTROLPANEL” >> “SOUND”. 5. Now double click on “Beep” at right side of the page. 6. Change the value to “NO”.
Thats it! Close the registry editor. Those annoying CPU beeps are off now!
Check following screenshot for more details…
Now, in case you want to restore the sound of your CPU, follow above steps again and this time in step 6, simply change the value to “YES”.
Your CPU beeps will be on again.
Added by Editor: CPU beeps are different than your speakers’ sound. So if you ever wondered why your PC was making those irritating beep sound, even when speaker was muted or powered-off, above is the answer!
When you grow weary of the pedestrian sound from “ear bud” headphones, the in-ear models might be your next step up. Here’s a few tips on making your music sound great inside your ear canals.
Audiophile Steve Guttenberg, who had no role whatsoever in Police Academy, suggests creating a very specific, personalized fit for the pointy headphones. One ear canal may be bigger or differently shaped than its companion, so try all the fitting pieces in each ear. You generally want to gently push the tips until you hear external noise soften. If that doesn’t work, try the “lobe tug”:
Before you push the headphone in, gently tug your earlobe down and/or out, then push the headphone in, then release the lobe. I use this technique with my Monster Turbine headphones. Again, experiment with the tugging direction, as it might take a few tries before you get it right.
There’s an alternate “ear pull” technique, and many more fitting specifics, in Guttenberg’s guide linked below. How have you gotten the best in-ear headphone fit? What brand are you rocking, or which do you dream of getting? Air your audiophile aspirations in the comments.
If u r a web developer or know HTML somewhat then u might have come across a about:blank address/parameter. Actually the developers need to include some more about: addresses for various reasons. These about: addresses are most of the time browser specific and they refers to internal or say hidden pages. What follows is a list of such about: pages for mozilla firefox!
about: A simple prompt without any parameter will display the Mozilla about� information. Since it’s accessible from the top menus as well, it’s not quite a hidden feature. (This is equivalent to using Help >> About Mozilla Firefox option.)
about:blank A blank page. Useful for setting as your homepage.
about:buildconfig Obviously, it will show the build platform configuration and parameters. Well if u r not a programmer then u may find only junk!
about:cache Displays cache statistics and disk cache directory location. This has following two suboptions.
about:config GUI for modifying user preferences (prefs.js). The most complex and meaningful of them all. Careful on what you plan to change here, your browser won’t run properly after if you play with the wrong things.
about:plugins This option will display detailed information about all the plugins installed for Mozilla Firefox. (Note plugin is different from extension)
about:credits It’s time to give the credit to whoever deserves it. There’s an alphabetically sorted list of all the people that gave their contribution to the development of Firefox.
about:Mozilla This is a weird thing. It will display the so-called Book of Mozilla. Something similar was present in Netscape too. There’s actually no real book although the quotations might give you that impression.
about:license Shows the Mozilla Public License and the Netscape Public License for the piece of software.
Well moreover some extensions add their own about:’-thing like:
about:chrome
about:language
about:tmp
about:flashblock
Wait its not over yet! We love firefox for many reason and one of them is availability of extensions for everything!
Everyone knows that Google Image Search sports a drop-down menu for filtering results by small, medium, large, and extra large sizes, but if you’re looking for the perfect wallpaper, for example, the imagesize operator is even better.
Just use the imagesize operator followed by the WidthXHeight in pixels (?q=imagesize:640×480++muffin), like so:
“History of the internet” is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet.
Credits for subtitles: (The correctness of the subtiles depends on the people listed down here) English: Stefan Badragan | youtube.com/StevXtreme Italian: Stefan Badragan German: me French: Arnaud ‘dehy’ DE MOUHY
Remote control your desktop or laptop computer with any Java powered phone. Access and edit your files, start and stop applications, control your mouse, keyboard and another devices.
After that, Foxmarks gets going. Instead of installing an icon in Internet Explorer’s bottom status bar, Foxmarks plants itself in your system tray. You’ll see it pop up a notification when it’s done grabbing or placing bookmarks to/from the servers. Right-clicking this icon gives you access to your Foxmarks settings, can open up your web-based bookmarks browser, and close down the Foxmarks process. It seems to run whether or not you’ve got IE up and running, which is somewhat memory insensitive, but also convenient for those who open and close their browser regularly.
