Tag: Battery Life

Review: Anker PowerCore 20100 Ultra High Capacity Portable Battery Pack

In todays modern battery powered mobile world it is very inconvenient to be caught out of charge. Usually when you first get your device it never seems to be an issue but as your device ages the battery never seems to last as long. I have 3 mobile devices and decided it was a good time to buy a mobile battery pack. The first one I bought was mostly dead after one charge of my iPhone 6 Plus. It was time to look for a larger capacity and thats when I found the Anker PowerCore 20100 Ultra High Capacity Portable Battery. I’d bought other Anker products and been really impressed at the quality and thoughtfulness in their design. A list of other Anker products I’d recommend can be found at the bottom of the post. 

Tech Specs

  • Anker in general has some great technology and this product is no different, below are the tech specs from Anker:
  • Ultra-High Capacity: It can charge the iPhone 6 seven times, the Galaxy S6 five times or the iPad mini twice. Recharges in 10 hours with a 2 amp charger, phone chargers (generally 1 amp) may take up to 20 hours.
  • Fast Charging Technology: The trademarked PowerIQ and VoltageBoost technologies combine to deliver the fastest possible charge up to 2.4 amps per port or 4.8 amps overall. Input: 5V / 2A.
  • PowerIQ: Discovers and replicates the charging protocol of the device’s original charger.
  • PowerIQ: Device safely accepts its fastest possible charge speed.
  • VoltageBoost: Detects the cable resistance and adjusts current accordingly to provide the fastest, most steady charge, whatever cable you use. 
  • Certified Safe: Anker’s MultiProtect safety system ensures complete protection for you and your devices.
  • Short Circuit Protection
  • Temperature Control
  • Output Voltage Surge Protection
  • Output Current Stabilizer
  • Power Overload Recovery
  • Battery Cell Protection
  • Auto Shut-off Sleep Mode
  • Input Voltage Surge Protection
  • Output Current Limiter
  • Low Voltage Protection

Other Good Stuff

Anker has a superb warranty, a whole 18 months which shows faith in their products. The device also come with a micro USB charging cable and a travel pouch. The pouch is a nice idea to keep your device safe and looking good.

Note: All other cables needed to charge your devices are sold separately. I’d recommend the lightning/micro USB hot swap Spigen cables. 

Uses

My PowerCore goes everywhere with my in my bag, it doesn’t take up much room and I don’t notice additional weight. I’ve used it in many different situations but some key ones have been on a transatlantic flight to top up my devices prior to landing. I’ve used it in coffee shops and even at the top of a mountain to keep charge on my mobile phone. The device is rugged, versatile and highly mobile thats to its high capacity. 

Summary

In summary, if you are looking for or considering a mobile power solution then I would highly recommend the Anker PowerCore. 

Other Anker products I own and I’d recommend include:

  • Anker PowerPort 5: 5 port USB charging hub utilising all of the charging technology mentioned above in a portable hub.
  • Anker PowerDrive 2: 2 port USB charger for the cigarette charger (12V outlet) in your car.


How to Preserve iOS 9 Battery Life: Part 1 Background App Refresh

I’ve had my iPhone 6 Plus for about 1.5 years now, initially the battery life was amazing. More recently I’ve noticed that it rapidly drops off, this is in part due to the age of the device but it’s also in part due to several factors that I will cover in a series of posts about preserving iOS 9 battery life. I expect these tips will remain valid even with subsequent iOS versions.

Background App Refresh was a feature introduced in iOS 7 and for the best summary of what it does I refer to an Apple support article:

…Apps can continue to run for a short period of time and are then set to a suspended state so they are not actively in use, open, or taking up system resources. They will instantly launch when you return to them. Certain tasks or services can continue to run in the background. To lessen the effect on battery life, normal app background refreshing is scheduled for efficient times, such as when your device is connected to Wi-Fi, plugged into a power source, or being actively used. When Background App Refresh is on, apps that take advantage of this feature can refresh themselves in the background. For example, an app can check if new content is available and download the updates, or retrieve the updated content in the background when it receives a push notification, so the new content is ready for viewing when you launch the app. Apps can also schedule background refreshing based on your location. If you force an app to quit by dragging it up from the multitasking display, it won’t be able to do its background activities, such as tracking location or responding to VoIP calls, until you relaunch the app. iOS learns patterns based on your use of the device and tries to predict when an app should be updated in the background. It also learns when the device is typically inactive, such as during the night, to reduce update frequency when the device is not in use.

You will read many articles on the internet that tell you disable all Background App Refreshing to save battery life and others that will tell you not to bother at all as it makes no difference. 

Apple Resource’s advice is to go through the list and make a conscious decision as to how much you use each application and how much you’d value it updating whilst in the background. It’s perfectly OK to leave apps that you value and use all the time as active due to the intelligent way Background App Refresh works. What you don’t want is every single app using it if you rarely use them. Although it was first introduced in iOS 7, apps taking advantage of Background App Refresh will have percolated through over time, which is why you may have a shock when you open up the Background App Refresh found at:

Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh 

Leave a comment about how many apps you ended up disabling. As always, follow Apple Resource in Twitter, Facebook or sign up to our monthly newsletter.