How can I extend my battery life?

[veronicaleo]

I just got a new G4 ibook so I foolishly expected the battery life to be 6 hours (like Apple advertised). However, after a full charging I turn it on and it shows that I have a little less than 4 hours. Can I change settings to make it last longer?

 

[PlaceofDis]

I just got a new G4 ibook so I foolishly expected the battery life to be 6 hours (like Apple advertised). However, after a full charging I turn it on and it shows that I have a little less than 4 hours. Can I change settings to make it last longer?

in system preferences, under the power management page you can adjust settings that will help with the battery life, also turning down the screen brightness helps a lot

 

[Abstract]

Yeah, turn screen brightness down a bit, and turn your CPU usage to Automatic under Energy Saver "Options". Oh, and using things like iTunes will kill at least 30-40 minutes of your battery life if you plan on using it for as long as your lappie is on battery power. So don't use iTunes.

And it's not just Apple who lists battery power under very specific usage conditions. All PC laptops would also do tests when Windows Media Player and Winamp aren't in use.

Basically, if you're just browsing the internet in Safari and typing out a report in Word, then you should get great battery life.

 

[musicpyrite]

I don't have a laptop, so I don't really know some good ways of saving the battery, but here are a few good ones I've heard:

- turn down the screen brightness
- when you play a DVD (on an airplane for example), make sure to rip the DVD to your hard drive, then play it so you don't have to constantly spin up the optical drive
- go somewhere in the System Preferences and set the CPU to 'Maximum Battery Life' or something of the sort
- turn off BlueTooth and 802.11g when ever you get the chance