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>> Palm Pre is finally out, and the reviews of the smart phone from everyone from tech journalists to the Pre owners have been very positive. However there's one universal problem people are reporting, and that's battery life. So to help you get the most mileage out of your Pre, I'm gonna show you how to optimize battery life with a few easy tips. The first one is the most basic, and that's turning down the brightness of the screen, and adjusting the backlight time. To do this, tap the launcher and swipe to the third panel, and choose the screen and lock option. Here you'll find a sliding panel where you can increase and decrease the screen brightness. If you've got the screen set to the brightest level I'd bring it down to maybe the half way mark, which I found to still be bright enough to see the screen. There's also a dropdown menu where you can choose when the backlight goes off, and I'd recommend setting it to thirty seconds. The next thing you can do is change your email settings to retrieve messages less frequently. To change the setting, go to your email app and tap the upper left corner, and choose preferences and accounts. If you have multiple email accounts hooked up to the Pre, you'll have to do this separately for each email address. So select one and scroll down to the sync section, and then tap on the get email section. Here you'll see different time intervals that you can choose from. If you have an account that constantly gets messages, consider changing it to every ten or fifteen minutes, or even longer if you can live with that, and that will improve battery life. Along the messaging lines, instant messaging is a major power drain. Palm is already aware that there's a bug in the AIM client that's straining the battery faster, and it's working on a fix that they'll send out through an over the air update. But even with that you should always sign out of IM when you're done. Also, unlike other applications, simply clicking the cart off screen doesn't sign you out of IM. You have to go to the messaging app and then to your buddies list. Here you'll see a green dot that says you're available. Tap on that and then choose sign off to truly disconnect out of IM. The last tip is whenever possible turn on Wi-Fi. I know this doesn't sound right, and in most cases you would want to turn off Wi-Fi to conserve battery life. But if you're in an area where you can connect to a Wi-Fi network, the Pre will do a more efficient job of getting data over a Wi-Fi, especially if you have weak cellular coverage. One wireless [inaudible] you might want to turn off when not in use though is GPS. So there you go, a few tips to help you get better battery life from your Pre.
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Of course since it has a user replaceable battery, you can always carry an extra one with you and swap it out when you're low on juice. I'm Bonnie Cha from CNET.com.
