Chris Pirillo » batteries

Battery Saving Tips for iPods and Zunes

Chris — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:20:54 +0000

Battery Saving Tips for iPods and Zunes is a post from Chris Pirillo

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If you use your MP3 player a lot, you likely go through batteries very quickly. Here are some great tips that can help you extend your battery life… and save you some money.

Backlight: You can change the setting on your iPod to adjust how long your backlight stays on. You can also set it to stay off permanently, to save the battery even more. Just changing the backlight on-time from 10 seconds to 5 can make all the difference. If you are in a well-lit area, turning it off all together can help as well.
Drain the battery Purposely run down your battery every once in awhile to increase life. You should fully run the battery down, and then charge it fully. You can easily run the battery down by pressing “play” with the volume up full, and leaving it to run if you dont have time to listen to it.
Play your music at a lower volume. Turn it down to a level where you can hear it over conversation and other noise… but set it so you can just hear the iPod a little bit more. By doing this, you can not only help preserve your hearing but also save alot of battery life.
Use lower-quality music files and changing albums To reduce access to the disk drive on hard disk ipods, there is a certain amount of cache memory for the music files to be loaded. This increases battery life and increases speed between the changing of song. It also acts as jog protection.

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Wireless Power

Chris — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 23:23:44 +0000

Wireless Power is a post from Chris Pirillo

Is it just me, or is this invention a game changer?

It may sound futuristic, but Powercast’s platform uses nothing more complex than a radio–and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device’s battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

Fewer wires? Fewer proprietary power cables? Fewer batteries? Fewer headaches? OMG. Finally, a piece of technology that nobody will be able to live without.

Actually, even though I’m looking at this link today (March 30th) – the page title is “Powercast’s technology cuts the electric cord – April 1, 2007.” Is this an AFD joke that was published before AFD?

A Better Battery Life

Chris — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 10:14:57 +0000

A Better Battery Life is a post from Chris Pirillo

I was surprised – our battery interview turned out to be quite informational. PC World also has a handful of iPod battery tips, although I believe the suggestions trancend Apple’s platform. Here are my takeaways from both pieces:

Don’t leave your battery-driven devices plugged in all the time.
Let your batteries drain completely before recharging them.
On the iPod, “Standby” doesn’t save as much juice as “Pause” does.
Turning off sound equalizers may also increase battery life.
Batteries drain quicker in warmer environments.

My biggest beef with batteries is that they’re not all removable, they’re not all rechargable, and they’re not as interchangable as they should be. Moreover, I’m wholly unimpressed when I can’t charge a device by USB.

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.