6 Tips to Boost Your iPhone's Battery Life

The iPhone has always been pretty good about battery life, particularly in terms of standby time, but something changed recently—and in a big way. Reports are all over the Web about how iPhone 4S owners in particular have noticed vastly reduced standby time compared to older iPhones, on the order of 10 to 15 percent reductions per hour, although other people are saying they don't see a problem at all.


It turns out there is something to this story, though: Apple has confirmed that a bug in iOS 5, not the iPhone 4S itself, is responsible for the poor battery life many people are seeing, and said that a fix is in the works. It turns out that the iOS 5 bug means you'll also see the problem with an older iPhone, or possibly even an iPad or iPod touch, if you install the new OS on it.
Already have iOS 5? Here are six things you can do right now to boost your iPhone's battery life.
1. Set time zones manually. This time around, by default, iOS 5 tries to auto-adjust your time zone based on repetitive calls to the GPS radio, which is a huge battery drain. For now, turn this off: head to Settings -> Location Services -> System Services (which is located all the way at the bottom) -> Setting Time Zone. Note that this setting isn't in the Date & Time section, which makes it tough for people to find.
2. Disable location services when not needed. You can also disable all Location Services, which is a good rule in general for conserving battery life, but you'll need to re-enable it for GPS navigation and other tasks as necessary.
3. Disable as many notifications as possible. Notifications were a battery drain with earlier versions of the OS; I usually kept them turned off on test handsets, and saw several days of standby time on a charge even with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS enabled. The new iOS 5 has a completely different notification system, with an Android-style pull-down bar at the top that collects multiple notifications and organizes them. In the process of adding this, Apple removed the global notification toggle in the Settings menu, so you can't just disable them all in one shot anymore. You can, however, disable app notifications, while leaving important ones (such as text and voicemail) intact. In other words, you can turn it back into an approximation of the original system, which separated call notifications from app notifications automatically.
To do this, head to Settings -> Notifications, tap a given category (Phone, Messages, Reminders) or app (Walgreens, Zillow, and so on), and toggle Notification Center at the top to Off. The fewer notifications you enable, the more standby time you should see. While you're in there, note that you can change the way they appear; you can return a given notification to an alert window in the center of the screen, the way it used to be, instead of with the new bar on top.
4. Check for e-mail manually. E-mail is another perennial battery drain; normally I set all accounts to receive updates manually (i.e. when I load the app), instead of at a set frequency or via "push." The same goes for Facebook and Twitter updates; if the app is constantly refreshing them in the background, it's hitting the radios and consuming power, and you're not even reading them.
5. Check for software updates. Right now, iOS 5.0 is still current, but be aware that there's a different procedure now: You can check for OS updates right from the phone, instead of using a USB cable and syncing with iTunes. Head to Settings -> General -> Software Update. Apple recently sent iOS 5.0.1 to developers, according to BGR; updates include bug fixes for battery life, among other things. Keep an eye on PCMag for the latest news on iOS updates as well.
6. Some minor things can still help. Finally, you can still do all the usual, old-school things to improve battery life, such as reducing screen brightness, disabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and so on. The only one that really helps here, in my experience, is screen brightness, but you need it cranked to see the Retina Display in bright sunlight. This was never a big issue with the iPhone, though; the above tips, plus an eventual bug fix from Apple, should resolve the vast majority of battery life issues with iOS 5.

Google+ App for Android Gets Major Overhaul

Google revamped its Google+ Android app Monday sprucing up the social network's mobile front door with a cleaner interface, more functions, and a promise of improved battery life. The Android app (now Version 2.1) is available for download at Android Market.
Google's Ben Eidelson announced the update on his Google+ account, noting that the app's developers worked closely with the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) team. "So you'll see the same attention to beauty and simplicity in our new design," he writes.

  
The app's new home screen adds notifications to the top right corner.

Along with a de-cluttered interface the app features bigger photos in Google+'s image gallery, which now more closely resemble Microsoft's Metro UI with big tiles filling up the screen.n your Circles you can now see a preview of who is in each circle with a lineup of their photos. The posting and hangout screens also received a refresh and new controls, while profiles have been changed to be more navigable and look a little slicker.
Another stand-out improvement includes "battery life improvements." It's unclear what exactly Google means by this. It begs the question did the previous version of Google+'s Android app have a power consumption problem? It could also indicate the Google+ app now uses less power than similar apps. We are still waiting to hear back from Google on its power saving claims.
Google's release notes document all that's new in the latest version:

• Completely new app and new visual design
• Battery life improvements
• Navigation and performance improvements
• Significant improvements to notifications
• Brand new posting UI
• Several bug fixes
• Support for Google Apps users
• Ability to sign out
• Add people to a circle from circle profiles

The app is free to download and should work for anyone running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or higher.

Kejriwal returns dues to Govt, writes to PM

New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday returned over Rs 9 lakh in dues to settle the issue of his resignation from the IRS, insisting that he was doing so in protest and it does not mean he has accepted any mistake.
Kejriwal sent a cheque of Rs 9,27,787 along with a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him not to "trouble" his six friends, including Magsaysay winner Harish Hande, who had given him an interest-free loan to settle his dues.
The 43-year-old activist's decision to settle the dues is seen as an attempt by the Team Anna member to blunt attacks from detractors.

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Government has claimed that he had violated bond rules by quitting the service before completing three years of service after going on a study leave on full pay. However, Kejriwal said he took non-paid leave and quit the service after serving bond conditions.
In his letter to Singh, he said, "I am enclosing a cheque for Rs 9,27,787. This does not mean that I have accepted the mistake. When I don't know what was the mistake I committed, then there is no question of accepting it.
"I am returning the dues in protest. I appeal to you to instruct the Finance Ministry to accept my resignation. Once my resignation is accepted, I retain my right to approach the court to reclaim the dues," he said in the four-page letter.
Claiming that he did not have any savings and he took loans from six of his friends to pay dues, he said many people offered him the money but he did not take it as it may be construed as "misusing" the anti-corruption movement.
"That is why I took loan from only those people whom I know for years. The whole government machinery is after Team Anna. I appeal to you with folded hands that your government should not trouble those people who have given me loan," he said.
Kejriwal had taken study leave on full pay for two years from November 1, 2000 after signing a bond that he would return the salary if he resigns or retires or fails to resume duty within three years of his study leave.
He rejoined on November 1, 2002 but took non-paid leave after 18 months.
The government argues that taking leave after 18 months was violation of bond conditions, an argument objected by Kejriwal who claimed that he did not "violate" any bond provisions and resigned from the job after the stipulated three years of rejoining duty following his study leave.
The Office of the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (CCIT) had on August five issued a notice to Kejriwal asking him to pay Rs 9.27 lakh, which Kejriwal and other Team Anna members had termed as an action of the government's "dirty tricks department" under instructions from political bosses.
In his letter, Kejriwal claimed that he did not violate any rules but "your government is asking me to return the salary which I took during study leave with interest.
"Your government is asking me what did I do during my two years of leave without pay. It was during this period that I prepared the draft for RTI. As I have pointed out, I was not given any posting for over a year. Do you think it was right to take salary without any posting for three and half years?" he contended.
Kejriwal said he received international recognition like Magsaysay award during the period when he was on leave but in the eyes of the government, it looks like a wrong thing and is accusing him of committing wrong.
"I would like to ask you what crime I have committed my working for RTI during leave without pay which I should not have committed...I request you to please tell me the what wrong I committed," he said.
Kejriwal said he has been trying to convince the government for the past five years that he has not committed any wrong.
"I have been told that this time, Prime Minister's Office has also seen my file and they also find me wrong. I have not understood what crime I have committed for which I am being punished. If somebody can tell me what wrong I have committed, then I can avoid doing it in future," he said.
The activist said he had taken study leave for two years promising that he will provide inputs on how to tackle corruption in power and PDS sector.
"After joining back, I was not given any posting for more than one year. I was drawing salary without doing any work. I found it worthless. I did not have any leave. So I decided to take leave without pay. It was sanctioned also," he said.
He said many people have offered to pay his dues and it only showed that they can "see through government's attempts at targeting Team Anna members.
"Rather than diminish, such attempts are only increasing support for the movement. It is strengthening people's resolve to fight against corruption," he said.
While his batchmate in IIT-Kharagpur and chemical engineer Subrato Saha gave him a loan of Rs 3.5 lakh, another batch mate Harish Hande gave him Rs three lakh, Kejriwal said.
Civil Engineer and friend Rajiv Saraf provided him a loan of Rs 1.15 lakh while another engineer Atul Bal gave Rs 62,000 and Vikas Gangal Rs 50,000. His former colleague in Tata Steel P Srinivas gave him Rs 50,000.

China’s Space Program Boosted by First Docking

BEIJING — With a “kiss” more than 200 miles above Earth, a pair of Chinese spacecraft successfully coupled early Thursday morning, bringing the country one step closer to its four-decade quest for manned space exploration.


The docking of the Shenzhou 8 capsule with the Tiangong 1 module was broadcast live on national television. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao watched from the control center in Beijing and thousands of ordinary citizens expressed their pride through Internet postings in what many dubbed the country’s first “space kiss,” remarking how far China had come since its more impoverished days.
In the coming year, officials plan to repeat the unmanned exercise with astronauts as part of its mission to both reach the moon and to launch its own space station by 2020. If all goes according to plan, China’s floating laboratory would become airborne around the same time the aging International Space Station goes into retirement.
United States and Russian aerospace engineers perfected space docking in the 1960s, but Wu Ping, a spokeswoman for China’s manned space program, said that Chinese scientists had come to this moment largely on their own, having domestically produced hundreds of components and instruments.
“This makes China one of the few countries in the world that can independently research and develop docking mechanisms,” she said at a news conference on Thursday, describing the achievement as “a historic breakthrough for our country and a huge technical leap forward.”
Some Western scientists, however, say the successful mission provides stark evidence that the 20-year-old sanctions that limit cooperation between American and Chinese aeronautical engineers have been a failure.
The policy, imposed by Congress shortly after Beijing’s violent suppression of pro-democracy protesters in 1989, restricts scientific exchanges and blocks exports of space technology. Chinese scientists are barred from American space conferences, and China is not among the 16 countries whose astronauts are allowed to use the International Space Station.
In the two decades since it was frozen out of the world’s elite space club, China has relied on its own aerospace engineers, aided by lavish government funding, to chase its space exploration dreams. In 2003 came the first successful human space flight and, in recent years Chinese scientists have mastered the manufacture and launch of communication satellites, many of which are sold to nations in the developing world. In 2008, Chinese astronauts took their first spacewalk and last year, China sent up a second lunar probe.
In an ominous turn, in 2007 Beijing successfully tested an anti-satellite missile that alarmed Washington and angered many international scientists for rendering the target, an aging weather satellite, into potentially dangerous orbital debris.
Gregory Kulacki, China project manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an organization based in Cambridge, Mass., says the Congressional ban on cooperation with China spurs suspicion on both sides of the Pacific and fuels a costly, unnecessary space race. “When we deny them visas, it breeds hostility among young Chinese scientists,” he said, adding, “the lack of cooperation could lead to miscalculations and escalated conflicts in times of crises.”
Conversely, he and other scientists say, cooperation has a multitude of benefits, especially in an era of trillion-dollar deficits. For one, the prohibitive cost of NASA’s dreamed mission to Mars would be better shared by other nations, as John Holdren, the White House science adviser, has said in the past.
In testimony before a House panel on Wednesday in which he defended his contacts with Chinese officials, Mr. Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, tried to tamp down Congressional opposition to White House efforts that seek expanded scientific exchanges with China.
He pointed out that 30 years of cooperation have brought a multitude of benefits, from physics to pest control. The exchanges, he said, “strengthen our hand in the effort to get China to change the aspects of its conduct that we oppose.”
Many members of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee, however, were not impressed, citing Beijing’s troubled human rights record and a growing number of cases involving technology theft from American companies. “Any effort on our part to reach out to the Communist Chinese, to engage them on matters of technology is, quite frankly, not just naïve but dangerous,” said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California.
The snubs may sting, but the restrictions do not seem to be holding back China’s aerospace industry. In celebrating the successful docking on Thursday, Ms. Wu of China’s manned space program said that even if its spacecraft were homemade, China would not exclude other countries from playing a role its aerospace program. German scientists, she said, had equipped the Shenzhou 8, with a device for conducting experiments and unlike the International Space Station, China’s space laboratory would have no membership restrictions when it becomes operational. “The planned Chinese space station will be open to global scientists,” she said.      

IOC to raise petrol price from Friday - exec

    REUTERS - Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the biggest fuel retailer in the country, will raise petrol prices by 1.82 rupees a litre from Friday, its head of finance P. K. Goyal said on Thursday.
A source at Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) also said his firm will "definitely" raise petrol prices from Friday, but did not say by how much.
HPCL is considering a further increase in petrol prices as it struggles to cut down on retailing losses, its finance director had said on Tuesday.
India's three state fuel retailing giants, IOC, HPCL and Bharat Petroleum Corp, tend to move their prices in tandem.