7 Tips to Extend Smartphone Battery Life

7 Tips to Extend Smartphone Battery Life

If you’re finding it hard to make it through the day on a single smartphone charge, you might need some advice on how to extend smartphone battery life.

While our smartphones are valuable toolsnecessities? – for most of us each day, they don’t do us much good when they die.

Here are 7 tips to extend smartphone battery life.

1. Disable Vibration Notifications

Many of us prefer to have our phones vibrate rather than ring, but did you know that vibrations consumes more battery power?

Turn your phone to silent or keep the ringer on low, but do not set it to vibrate for all incoming notifications.

Better yet, disable all vibrations in your notifications settings.

2. Decrease Screen Brightness

Dim your screen as much as possible.

Many smartphones have an automatic setting to adjust screen brightness — and while this is a better option than leaving the brightness set to full, you can probably get away with manually dimming it further.

3. Decrease Screen Timeout Setting

The timeout setting refers to how long your smartphone screen will stay illuminated before it powers off.

In most cases, you can decrease this setting such that your screen will power off in fewer seconds following your last interaction with the smartphone.

This is one of the simplest ways to extend smartphone battery life.

4. Turn It Off

As you may know, powering up your smartphone consumes plenty of battery life — but so does leaving it on for several hours when it isn’t going to be in use.

If you are heading into class or a meeting and know that you won’t be able to check your phone, consider totally powering it down.

5. Close Apps

If you are finished using an app, close it rather than allowing it to continue to run in the background.

Background apps drain a lot of battery power, so if you’re not likely to remember to close them — download an app that will.

So-called task killer apps will automatically close other apps that haven’t been used within a fixed period of time.

6. Disable Location Functions

Most smartphones are equipped with location / GPS services. These can be very taxing on battery life, especially if you are in a more remote location.

Disable all location functions when not in use.

7. Disable Notifications

Many apps, including social media and news apps, bombard us all day long with notifications. And while some of them we may need to receive in a timely fashion, others can be disabled.

Each time a notification comes in, our smartphones will generally illuminate and play a sound — not to mention these apps need to run continuously to generate the notifications as they happen.

What’s your best tip to extend smartphone battery life?

Do you have any other suggestions to improve smartphone battery life? Drop your ideas in the comments below.

And if you’re finding that your smartphone simply isn’t holding a charge anymore, contact us at Target PC Repair. We would be glad to help.

The Best iPad Apps for Kids to Learn On

The Best iPad Apps for Kids to Learn On

Are you looking for good iPad apps for your kids or grand kids – ones they can learn from and enjoy using?

There are hundreds of thousands of iPad apps. It’s hard to decide which ones to get.

We’ve got recommendations for you for the best iPad apps for kids to learn on. Some of these apps are free, while others have a small cost – usually under $5.00

If you’re wondering whether it’s a good idea for you to encourage kids to use iPads, then here are some benefits you may be glad to hear about:

  • iPads are portable. You can take them anywhere.
  • iPads use a direct touchscreen. Kids don’t need a mouse or stylus to use iPads.
  • With an iPad, a kid can enjoy independent learning.
  • As long as you limit screen time to no more than two hours for kids 2 and older, the iPad is a great tool for children to learn from, explore, and enjoy.

How to get the best iPad apps for kids to learn on

You can download the apps to your computer from the ITunes Store, and from there they can be transferred to your iPad. There’s a free data manager app, AnyTrans, that will do the transfer for you. There is one version of AnyTrans for PC and another for Mac.

Go to this website to get AnyTrans free.

Another option is to go online to the iTunes Store to download apps directly to your iPad, or you can transfer apps to your iPad from your iPhone.

Get directions for how to do that here.

Our list of the best iPad apps for kids to learn on

We gathered these apps from several websites that rate kids’ apps. All of the apps on this list are designed for learning. Some of them use games as learning tools, and some don’t. You can find descriptions of the apps online at the iTunes Store and reviews at various websites.

Apps for Preschool Kids

Cookie Monster’s Challenge ($2.99)
Disney Story Central (first 4 books free)
Fish School HD ($1.99)
Habitat the Game (free)
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss ($3.99)
The Sight Word Adventure ($1.99)

Apps for Kids 5 to 8

Elmo Loves 123s ($2.99)
Plants by Tinybop ($3.00)
School Zone Time, Money & Fractions ($4.99)
Bugs & Buttons 2 ($2.99)
Disney Animated ($9.99)
Dragon Box Algebra 5+ ($2.99)
Marble Math Junior ($2.99)
Monkey Word School Adventure ($1.99)
Motion Math: Hungry Guppy ($3.99)
Thinkrolls ($2.99)
Thinkrolls 2 ($2.99)
Barefoot World Atlas ($4.99)
Art Set ($1.99)
The Human Body by Tinybop ($3.99)
Book Creator ($4.99)

Apps for Kids 9-12

Middle School Vocabulary Prep ($2.99)
Book Creator for iPad ($4.99)
Oratio’s Flute Master ($2.99)
Rhythmic Village ($0.99)
Crazy Gears ($1.99)
Experia Kids ($2.99)
Dragon Box Algebra 12+ ($2.99)

If your iPad has a cracked screen or isn’t charging very well, bring it in and let us replace the screen and fix the plug for you.

Then you’ll be all ready to enjoy the new learning apps with your kids!

7 New Features in Windows 10

7 New Features in Windows 10

As most of us already know, Windows 10 will officially be available on July 29, 2015. There are a variety of new features in Windows 10, many of which will come as a pleasant surprise for those running Windows 7 and 8.1.

In fact, if you are running either of these versions of Windows, you can move ahead now with reserving your copy of Windows 10.

Let’s take a look at seven new features in Windows 10 that are sure to be big hits.

(1) Return of the Start Menu

Windows 10 features the return of the Start Menu. The decision to remove it in Windows 8 impressed no one.

Best of all, it can be customized to remove the tiles and apps that were first introduced in Windows 8. In other words, you can set it to have the look and feel of the traditional Start Menu you’ve come to know and love.

(2) No more full-screen apps

Perhaps one of the best new features in Windows 10 is the elimination of full-screen apps – referred to as Windows 8 “Metro” apps. Those apps still exist in Windows 10, but they launch as a desktop window rather than something intended for a touchscreen experience.

(3) Improvements to the Action Center

The Action Center in Windows 10 takes on the familiar look and feel of an inbox. Notifications are all grouped in one place, and as they are resolved, they become archived.

(4) Cortana makes the jump to PC

Cortana was first introduced as your Microsoft digital assistant on Windows Phone 8.1, but she is one of the best new features in Windows 10! She has access to your hard drive, calendar, email, OneDrive, Bing, and more.

With simple voice commands, Cortana can be asked to perform basic functions for you, much like Siri on the iPhone. As luck would have it, Cortana also got a lot wittier between her first introduction and now.

(5) The introduction of Microsoft Edge

Microsoft laid Internet Explorer to rest for the greater good of us all. But one of the new features in Windows 10 is the introduction of Edge, a totally new and redesigned web browser.

It was designed for speed, and for functionality. For instance, Cortana can provide you with directions and reviews as you browse a restaurant website. You can also make notes and drawings on particular websites before sharing them with others.

(6) Improved apps for email and calendar functionality

Windows 10 boasts some significant improvements to email and calendar apps. They are much faster than Windows 8, totally responsive, and feature a variety of swipe gestures.

(7) Create multiple virtual desktops

If you do not have multiple monitors to work on, Windows 10 offers a solution with virtual desktops. You can easily create multiple desktop views, and then easily switch between them using shortcut keys.

Which new features in Windows 10 are you most excited for?

We at Target PC would love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment below.