Tutorial: 10 Tips For Increased Battery Life in iOS 5

Apple released iOS 5.0.1 last week to try and fix the poor battery life encountered by many iPhone 4S and 4 users, and while initially the company was confident, customers are still reporting poor battery life.

While Apple gets its act together and releases an update that actually works, the IBTimes has put together a quick list of tips to save battery life on iOS 5 devices.

1. Turn off Location Services - do you really want to add your location to every tweet and Facebook status? Having that GPS chip on all day is a waste of battery life and your friends don't really want to know where you are all of the time.

2. Screen brightness. Ever noticed how in the Apple Stores every device is nice and bright? Well they nearly always have the screen wacked up to full brightness - great for showing off, bad for battery life. Also blinding in low light, so turn it down to about 40 per cent. It'll seem dark at first, but you'll soon get used to it.

3. Turn Bluetooth off. When did you last use Bluetooth? It's great for regular drivers, but they if you drive a lot you probably have your iPhone plugged in anyway. Otherwise it's just about useless for everyday tasks.

4. iCloud syncing. Limit how much your iPhone syncs with iCloud by going to Settings -> iCloud. Otherwise, every time you change or add a contact, email account or calendar event then your phone will sync with iCloud, using up precious battery life, not to mention data, too.

5. Photo Stream. Another iCloud feature that, while nice, will destroy your battery (and data allowance) by syncing photos to and from the cloud every time you take one on any of your iDevices.

6. Turn Wi-Fi off. You might use Wi-Fi at home and work - makes sense because it's faster and cheaper than 3G - but when you're out and about keep Wi-Fi off. When not connected to a Wi-Fi network, your iPhone will constantly try to find one to use, chewing through battery life like it's going out of fashion. Be smart and only have Wi-Fi on when you need it.

7. System Location Services. The bug in iOS 5 (which might still be present in 5.0.1) caused iPhone to constantly check which time zone they are in, killing the battery in the process. Make sure this is turned off in Settings -> Location Services -> System Services.

8. Turn on Airplane mode. If your phone is almost dead but you know you'll need it later, then turn on Airplane mode in Settings. This will all but turn the phone off, but without the lengthy process of booting down and re-starting the device, which can take a couple of minutes.

9. Keep everything tidy. If you're running low on juice then cancel all of your downloads, close open pages in Safari and force-quit any running apps that you don't need. Every little helps and if quitting Angry Birds fully means you get to make that important phone call, then you'll be thankful.

10. Cycle your battery properly. Not a lot of people know this, but batteries like those found in the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch need to be looked after. This means fully cycling them from time to time. Use your iDevice until it completely dies, then fully recharge. Do this twice, once a month if you can and your battery will last longer and be better calibrated - meaning the percentage icon will remain accurate.

Apple will hopefully release another update shortly to fix the on-going battery problems in iOS 5, but in the meantime there are plenty of ways to get the most out of your iDevice.