Mac OS X Lion was designed to save time with its Mission Control view, iOS-like Launchpad and ability to run several apps at full screen. Apple put a lot of thought into how the hardware and software work together to maximize user productivity and minimize extra work.

1. February 8, 2012
batteryfast.co.uk
Ten Ways to Increase Your Mac’s Laptops
Battery Life
Ten Ways to Increase Your Mac’s Laptops
Battery Life
CloudTags: Mac , Laptop , Battery Life , laptop bat-
teries uk , NP-FH60 sony battery , Hp probook 4310s
batteries , Lenovo thinkpad t61
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Mac OS X Lion was designed to save time with its
Mission Control view, iOS-like Launchpad and abi- To turn Bluetooth off:
lity to run several apps at full screen. Apple put a
lot of thought into how the hardware and software • Click the Bluetooth icon in the upper right-
work together to maximize user productivity and hand corner of the desktop.
minimize extra work. With these battery-saving tips, • Select Turn Bluetooth Off. The icon should
you won’t have to worry as much about your Mac now be grayed out.
running out of juice when you need it most.
Alternatively:
1. Turn Off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
• Select System Preferences > Bluetooth.
Disabling your notebook’s wireless radios is one • Uncheck the box marked On.
surefire way to eke out more juice. While turning
off Wi-Fi may not be practical in every situation— To turn Wi-Fi off:
especially if you need to access the Internet often—it
will give you more endurance if you’re using your • Click on the Wi-Fi icon in the upper right-
laptop to watch a movie on an airplane. hand corner of the desktop.
• Select Turn Wi-Fi Off. The icon should
change from a number of concentric arcs to
an outline that looks like a baseball dia-
mond.
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2. February 8, 2012
batteryfast.co.uk
Ten Ways to Increase Your Mac’s Laptops Battery Life
Alternatively: 3. Tweak Energy Saver preferences.
• Open System Preferences > Network.
• Uncheck the box marked Turn Wi-Fi Off.
2. Adjust Screen Brightness.
Changing these settings will cause your Mac to
power down energy-consuming components—such
http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/battery-technology/ten-ways-to-increase-your-macs-laptops-battery-life/
as the screen and the hard drive—sooner during
At full brightness, the 13-inch MacBook Air’s screen periods of inactivity.
measures an average of 285 lux. At 40-percent
brightness (6 bars), it’s just 29 lux, but still very • Click System Preferences.
viewable. And brightness eats power. • Open Energy Saver.
• Select the Battery tab.
To lower screen brightness: • Move the slider bars for Computer Sleep
and Display Sleep as far left as you believe
• Tap F1 repeatedly until the brightness is at a is comfortable. You probably don’t want
level just tolerable enough to view comfor- your computer going to sleep after just one
tably. minute but don’t want to leave it on indefi-
nitely either.
Alternatively: • Below, select the following checkboxes:
• Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible.
• Open System Preferences > Displays. • Slightly dim the display when using this
• Adjust the Brightness slider to the level power source.
you’re most comfortable with. • Automatically reduce brightness before
display goes to sleep.
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3. February 8, 2012
batteryfast.co.uk
Ten Ways to Increase Your Mac’s Laptops Battery Life
4. Quit runaway applications. 5. Turn off backlit keyboard.
Occasionally, an app will consume an inordinate
amount of system resources even when not in use.
Not only does this impact your notebook’s perfor- While it’s a great feature, the backlit keyboard on
http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/battery-technology/ten-ways-to-increase-your-macs-laptops-battery-life/
mance, but it also seriously degrades batteries life. Macs can shave precious minutes off your runtime.
• Open the Applications folder > Utilities To turn off the backlit keyboard:
folder.
• Click Activity Monitor. • Hit the F5 key repeatedly until the on-screen
• Select the CPU tab. icon shows no bars lit.
• Select All Processes in the drop-down menu.
• Sort the apps by CPU percentage. Alternatively:
• Look for any app that is consuming a large
percentage, such as more than 70 percent. • Open System Preferences.
• Select that app and press the Quit Process • Select Keyboard.
icon. • Uncheck the box marked “Automatically
illuminate keyboard in low light.”
Alternatively, if you know an app is • Underneath where it says “Turn off when
hanging, you can force-quit the app. computer is not used for,” move the slider to
5 secs.
• Press Command + Option + Esc.
• In the window that appears, select the app
that’s not responding and force-quit.
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4. February 8, 2012
batteryfast.co.uk
Ten Ways to Increase Your Mac’s Laptops Battery Life
6. Turn off Time Machine. 7. Enable private browsing.
Time Machine makes it very easy to back up all the
data on your Mac, but copying that data to another
drive consumes system resources. Fortunately, you
can turn off Time Machine while your laptop is run-
ning on battery power.
http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/battery-technology/ten-ways-to-increase-your-macs-laptops-battery-life/
Believe it or not, private browsing will let you
• Select System Preferences. squeeze out a bit more battery life, because the
• Select Time Machine > Options. browser is no longer accessing the hard drive to
• Uncheck “Back up while on battery power.” cache pages and images. Of course, Safari won’t
remember your search history or autofill forms,
so you have to balance its convenience with the
potential battery savings.
• In Safari, tap the Safari tab.
• Select Private Browsing.
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5. February 8, 2012
batteryfast.co.uk
Ten Ways to Increase Your Mac’s Laptops Battery Life
8. Turn off Spotlight indexing. 9. Choose Automatic Graphic Switching
(MacBook Pros only).
MacBook Pros have both integrated and discrete
http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/battery-technology/ten-ways-to-increase-your-macs-laptops-battery-life/
GPUs and can switch between the two seamlessly,
so you can get better battery life or increased perfor-
Apple’s Spotlight, which instantly returns search re- mance, depending on the task. However, the discrete
sults of everything on your hard drive, is very useful. GPU can seriously cut into battery life.
But the way it works consumes CPU resources. You
can prevent Spotlight from searching your drive. • Select System Preferences.
• Select Energy Saver > Automatic Graphics
• Click System Preferences. Switching.
• Select Spotlight > Privacy. • On MacBook Pros from 2008 to 2009—those
• Press the + button and add your hard drive, with Nvidia GeForce 9400M and 9600M
or drag the hard drive into the list. GPUs—Select Better Battery Life in the En-
ergy Saver control panel.
10. Eject optical disks if you’re not using
them/disconnect unused peripherals.
Even when not in use, whenever you have an optical
disk in your notebook, the system will occasionally
spin up the drive (and the laser) to check the disk.
While this isn’t an issue for MacBook Airs, which
lack optical drives, you can save battery life by dis-
connecting any peripherals, such as external hard
drives and mice. These devices don’t draw a ton of
power, but every little bit helps.
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6. February 8, 2012
batteryfast.co.uk
Ten Ways to Increase Your Mac’s Laptops Battery Life
Related Articles:
Apple Technology, Battery Care Tips, Battery FAQ,
Battery Technology, How to, Laptop Battery FAQ,
Technology NewsBattery Life, Hp probook 4310s
batteries, Laptop, laptop batteries uk, Lenovo think-
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