Category: Power

Disable Keyless Entry Before Going on Holiday

Most cars still utilise traditional turn key locks in rider to restrict access and usage but a growing number of vehicles employ the use of keyless entry mechanisms such as the Toyota Prius and certain Lexus and BMW vehicles amongst others. Such systems usually include push button locking and the ability to start the vehicle …

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Know the Difference Between Wall Chargers and USB Chargers

Another short, sharp tip for this evening. It seems these days that we have a constant merry-go-round of gadgets needing to be recharged be it mobile phones, tablet devices, portable music devices, wireless console controllers or even USB batteries. Sometimes, we just need to charge something quickly without knowing which option is necessarily best. USB …

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Reclaim Space – Remove an Unnecessary Windows Hibernation File

Yesterday, I wrote an article about a great little utility called WinDirStat and its ability to create a bitmap of what files and folders are consuming the most space on your drives. One thing I did discover was a huge 9GB hiberfil.sys file on my C: partition that was serving no real purpose as I …

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Save Your Gadgets and Power Bill This Christmas

At this time of year many of us will be doing the rounds to see family, friends and relatives and, in some cases, this may involve a decent amount of travel (intrastate, interstate or international). If you are going to be away from home you might consider doing the following: Completely shutdown your computers (as …

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Sleep and Hibernation Modes – What’s the Difference?

Over the years the humble shut down menu in Windows has been home to a number of options since it appeared back in Windows 95. If you can cast your mind back fifteen years, the usual suspects in the menu were: Shut down the computer Restart the computer Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode Close …

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Mi-Fi Devices – A Convenient Mobile Data Solution

A friend and colleague of mine has been without her fixed line broadband at home for the best part of a week which has hindered her ability to work remotely as well as allowing her family to conduct their online activities (like checking personal and work e-mail accounts as an example). Today, it came to …

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First Impressions – Google Navigation Arrives Down Under

Google Navigation (Traffic Conditions)

If you have been watching either the Twitter feed or Facebook page for Boydo’s Tech Talk you would have seen that Google Navigation was officially released yesterday. This is good news for those of you who have had to hack their Android devices with Brut Google Maps to get turn-by-turn navigation as there is now …

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Tips to Further Extend Your Mobile Device Battery Life

The last couple of blog updates have covered ways to prolong your battery life using your existing battery and either supplementary chargers or altering your usage habits. Whilst those approaches may go some way to help you get through those longer periods sometimes you can’t beat a bigger battery. Not all devices allow you to …

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Save Battery Life on Android – Turn Off Unused Radios

Leading on from yesterday’s article, sometimes you need to be a real power miser if you are nowhere near a power socket or you have forgotten your charger. I’m sure many of us have undergone the humiliating scrounge  around the office begging for a charger. Worse still, there are people that will simply help themselves …

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Save Battery Life on Android – Check Background Services

Android Battery Statistics

Whilst Android had the one up on iOS for a while with its multitasking ability with user applications it did come with a few drawbacks one of which was an impact to battery life. This can occur when you leave applications running without quitting them or when an application has a background service component that …

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