How To Maximize Your Battery Life

So you are in a hurry, rush out the door, and forgot to grab your phone charger, laptop charger or car charger on the way out to a meeting; sadly there is no way to stop battery life from draining, but there is a lot of things you can do to slow it down so you can continue your day stress free.

So what drains your battery the most? In order to maximize your battery life, it's important to first understand what is the source of the major life-sucker of your laptop and/or phone. A lot of the times it is coming straight from your graphics, brightness settings and programs that are still running. Keep in mind that add-on devices on laptops; like flash drives, USB mice and PC cards are known to drain your battery life very quickly.

One tip is to change your power plan settings on your device. Whether it's your cellphone or laptop, turning down the brightness on your screen and closing out of apps and programs that are not in use can save you a ton of battery time. Adjust your devices LCD screen brightness. You already know that the brightness of your screen takes up a lot of power on your battery percentage, so the quickest way to save your battery for a while is to set your screen to the lowest possible setting. Next you want to take it a step further and try to find a section where Advanced Power Plan settings are available to change. Make sure to change anything that may lower battery life. For laptops, use the low power mode, the system cooling policy setting allows you to change whether the laptop will rely on fans for cooling down, or slow the processor down when the temperature gets too hot. Your computers performance might have a slight change in how fast it responds, but your battery will stay with you for a little longer.

For laptops, using hibernate mode instead of sleep mode allows your laptop to completely use zero power. So if you are taking a break, make sure to set your laptop in hibernate mode instead of sleep to reduce the risk of a dead battery when you return. Laptop batteries are always going to slowly lose their ability to charge as the years pass by, but when your laptop is constantly overheating your battery life is decreasing twice as fast. Make sure to never run your laptop in a hot environment for an extended period of time.

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iGo Green Universal Charger

Imagine a world without multiple chargers for all of your multiple gadgets. This fall, that world could become a reality as iGo will make the first green universal charger available. The charger, just one in a new line of green products scheduled to make their debut this year, will work with over 3,000 devices including the most popular laptops, cell phones, media players, GPS devices, and handheld gaming consoles.

The universal charger will also be electric bill-friendly. The charger consumes about 80% less power on standby than traditional products and will shut down when the attached device is fully charged.

But that's not all iGo is doing to go green. In a recent press release, iGo president and CEO, Michael D. Heil, announced that iGo is launching iGo Recycles, "an electronic device and charger recycling program created to reduce landfill waste," to accompany the release of the new universal charger and other green products. Through the program's website, customers can print shipping labels to mail in old chargers to be recycled. The website also features a list of places where electronic devices can be recycled and makes them easy to locate by zip code.

The charger will be available in two versions. One plugs into a standard wall outlet and is scheduled to sell at $110. The other is designed for cars and airplanes and will cost $130. Custom power tips will be available for about $10 a piece. The green universal charger from iGo will be available around September 2009, both in stores and online.