1.13. Extend Battery Life

Apple posts various recommendations on its iPad website to ensure long battery life:

• Don’t expose your iPad to extreme hot or cold temperatures—keep it between 32 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. (In other words, don’t leave it in a hot, parked car, and don’t expect it to operate on Mt. Everest.)

• Use your iPad regularly (not that you wouldn’t). And be sure to charge it at least once a month to keep that battery chemistry peppy.

• Put the iPad to sleep to conserve power (press the Sleep/Wake button on top).

  
  

  

  
  

• Take the iPad out of any heat-trapping cases before you charge it up.

• Dim the screen when you don’t need it at total brightness (see Section A.1.5).

• When you see the Low Battery icon or message, plug your iPad into an electrical outlet using the AC adapter. The iPad battery indicator shows roughly how much charge the battery has left.

• Features like the music equalizer—or jumping around within your media library—can drain your battery faster, as can using big, uncompressed file formats, like AIFF (see Section 12.3). To cut back on the equalizer, see Section A.1.10.

• That wireless chip inside the iPad saps power even if you’re not trawling the Web. Save energy by turning it off when you don’t need it; go to Settings→Wi-Fi and tap Off. Lower the frequency with which you check email or have data pushed to the iPad from the Internet to save some energy as well—make those adjustments at Settings→Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Bluetooth and Location Services also take their toll, and you can turn them off by visiting the Settings icon.