The Low Battery Mobile Casino Curse
Marc Armstrong ENYou know what really makes my day? Wanting to go to the shops, grabbing my phone, and seeing that the phone battery is below twenty five per cent. This, inevitably, means that I have to plug my phone in, awkwardly sit on my couch, and wait for it to charge back up to at least forty per cent. Why? Because my phone was created by a mad, devious genius who had one life ambition; to make my life an inconvenient hell.
If my phone goes below twenty five per cent most of the features switch off in what is deemed “battery saving mode.” Or, to put it another way; it makes my phone virtually useless. Charge it back up to thirty per cent, and it’ll be back below twenty five in about half an hour, if you do anything as outrageous as check emails, or respond to text messages. Play any online casino games and it’ll be back below twenty five per cent in about ten minutes.
If it wasn’t already obvious my phone has one of the worst battery problems in history. I have had to buy a new battery no less than eight times, because the batteries degrade so quickly, and the battery time gets even worse. And, even when the battery is brand new, it can run down in half a day, assuming I’m using it for any of it’s intended purposes, and, you know, not just having it sit in my pocket on standby. I suppose I should be grateful I didn’t manage to get one of those exploding phones, but maybe that would have forced my hand and made me go buy another one. That however is a story for another day…
If you relate to any of this, allow me to share some of my mobile phone battery saving tips. Essential if you're intending on a long journey, and hope to play some casino games to pass the time.
Useless Features
I’ve mentioned my disdain before for useless phone features. In an effort to keep the mobile phone industry alive phone designers are forced to cram in as many bells and whistles as possible, most of which are a gimmick, and serve only to drain the battery. Lest we ever forget, my phone can be controlled without touching the screen using built in sensors. The knee slapping joke being that you have to touch the phone in order to switch the feature on. Leave it on permanently and you battery will be dead inside of an hour or two.
And this brings me to my first mobile battery saving tip. Turn off the useless features. Every feature you turn on kills the battery. This means Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, gesture sensors, auto scroll, eye tracking, and whatever else nonsense happens to be shoehorned into your phone. Turn these features off, unless you are making explicit use of them.
Let’s face it; the phone works perfectly fine without the majority of this nonsense. It was forced into the phone to give it a list of impressive features, and for no other reason. Turning off all these features, can increase your phone battery life by leaps and bounds, I promise you.
Selective Online
Now, I’m well aware of the fact that pretty much the only purpose of a phone is to be connected to the Internet wirelessly. Mobile data is the only feature I keep turned on, and the notion that it can be turned of in itself is a bit silly. You won’t receive WhatsApp messages or be able to surf Facebook with mobile data turned off. But, it just so happens that turning off mobile data can increase battery life by an astonishing amount. In fact, I make no jokes when I say it can increase battery life by up to a full day, depending on how much you use the phone.
In the event of taking a long car journey, and wanting to play casino games offline, you might consider turning off mobile data. No, you wont be able to play for real money, but the phone may just last the entire trip. It’s an option. A bit of offline blackjack and roulette can still be very entertaining.
Battery Saving Features
One little factor that increased my battery life significantly was allowing the phone to automatically adjust screen brightness, depending on ambient light. By default phone screens are set to be very bright, and this, naturally, chews through battery in record time. A little box titled “auto” sits inconspicuously in my brightness screen, not being very verbal about it’s purpose. Ticking this box allows the screen to dim or brighten as needed, which is an enormous help.
Another little useful nugget is that phone screens often stay on far longer than is needed. Checking your phone and putting it right back in your pocket will often result in the screen staying on for up to thirty seconds, wasting battery life right into the inside of your pocket. Adjust this so that the phone screen switches off automatically after ten seconds of no activity. You’ll see, it works. You can thank me later, especially if you land jackpot win now that you can play that little bit extra.
