After waiting hours on line or waiting patiently at home for your order to be delivered, you finally have the new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus in the palm (or palms) of your hand. But you may have noticed that the latest iOS 8 software is draining the battery life out of your Apple device.
The software update— which can also be downloaded on older Apple devices— includes new features that make the operating system work harder, which in turn sucks up more battery. Unlike older models, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus that run on iOS 8 are less likely to suffer from this problem because of stronger batteries. But no matter what iPhone you have, it's still a good idea to know how to keep battery use efficient. Here are some ways to preserve your iPhones battery life so that you do not face the fatal situation of a dying phone.
1. Identify what is draining the battery
The updates to iOS 8 allow Apple users to see a breakdown of what apps are using the most power. To find which apps have been draining your devices battery over the last 24 and up to a week, go to Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage. Close the applications or delete any that are not needed.
This feature may take some time to start working if your iPhone is new because it needs enough data to pull from. Let your new phone run for a few hours first.
2. Turn off location-tracking apps
When you are in need of GPS directions, location-tracking apps are a necessity. However, tracking each move you make is one of the phone's biggest battery drainers. The updated iOS 8 allows users to select a "While Using" option for some apps like Facebook, which will let you see locations for nearby friends when the app is open.
To monitor this feature, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Apple users can still leave on functions like Find My iPhone from this menu. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Share My Location, to turn off another battery draining feature. Just turn it back on when you want to share your current location through messages.
You can also turn off your Wi-Fi from the Settings menu, which can save battery life when you aren't using your phone.
3. Manage notification widgets
Apple users can access the Notification Center easily by pulling down the menu from the top of the screen and customizing your 'Today' view. These widgets include weather updates and sports scores, which can use up some valuable battery life. You can now select which widgets you want to turn off by tapping the "Edit" menu.
You can also go into Settings > Notifications and scroll through to turn off notifications from apps like Netflix.
4. Turn off Handoff
Handoff allows Apple users to seamlessly move from device to device, such as when you are writing an email and switch off between your iPhone and iPad. If you are not planning on multitasking between devices, turn off this battery draining feature by going to Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps.
5. Stop fetching
The fetching function pushes email notifications to your home screen, a process that drains your battery. Instead, manually check your email and turn off this feature by going to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data.
Other more obvious ways to get the most battery life out of your new iPhone is to turn down the brightness in Control Center by going to Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness and disabling Auto-Brightness. Another big battery killer for iOS 8 is the parallax feature, which makes it seem like your wallpaper is moving behind your list of apps. Turn this off by going to Settings > General > Accessibility and turning on the Reduce Motion.
Related: Best Ways To Preserve Data On iPhone 6, 6 Plus And Android Phones
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