If you want to get more battery time out of your laptop read this guide
If you want to get more battery time out of your macbook battery read this guide for some general guidelines and tips that will help you improve the battery life of your laptop.
First, read about: Learn Battery Care and how-to take care of your MacBook Battery and especially the section where it explains how to calibrate your battery. Calibrate your battery first, it is important if you haven't done it already.
Notebooks today have many features which can drain the battery. Wireless networking, bluetooth, screen brightness, power hungry applications, a CD that spins in the drive and much more. You can disable some of these features easily if you do not need them, this way you will save precious battery juice!
Turn off Wireless networking (Airport)
If you have no need for Internet access there is no reason to keep the wireless network active, this put a drain on the battery and will decrease the time you get to work with the computer. Click the Airport icon on the top menu-bar and chose turn off the Airport card.
Turn off Bluetooth
If you often sync your mobile phone to your computer maybe you have bluetooth turned on, this will also put a little drain on the battery. Just click the bluetooth icon on the menu-bar and turn it off.
Decrease the screen brightness
You can also save a little battery time by decreasing the screen brightness. Turn it down until you feel comfortable with the brightness. For me, max brightness is almost too bright in some cases anyway.
Turn off keyboard backlight
If you have the MacBook Pro, or the 2,4GHz Aluminum MacBook (or any other laptop that supports keyboard backlighting) you should turn this off. Just to get a few extra minutes.
Shut down applications not in use
Check the Dock and see if you have applications open that you do not use. This can in some cases cause the CPU to work more and thus requires more juice from the battery.
Remove any CD or DVD
The CD drive might spin up if you have a CD or DVD in it, this will also drain the battery and therefore... take it out.
Energy Saving
Also check System Preferences if you have the most optimal energy saving features turned on.
You understand that all these small things adds up in the end, if you follow this guide you will probably notice some increase in battery time. This will depend on the condition of your battery, but if you get 15 or 30 minutes more work time it was all worth it, right?
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