| Your Treo includes a couple of power settings for maximizing each battery charge based on how you use your device. More specifically, if you don't mind your device turning off after a short period of idle time, a change to the Auto-off feature can help save some battery charge. And if you don't use the infrared receiver much to receive beamed data, you might consider turning it off as well. You can always turn it on if someone needs to beam you something. Of course, if you beam information back and forth on a regular basis, it's well worth the small battery drain the infrared receiver incurs. The power settings for your device are entirely personal, and you may or may not decide to deviate from the default settings. To tweak the power preferences, follow these steps: 1. | Press the Application button to open the main application screen.
| 2. | Press the P key to jump near the Prefs application, and then navigate with the five-way navigator to select the Prefs application.
| 3. | Press the Center button to launch the Prefs application. The Preferences screen appears and displays several options for tweaking device settings.
| 4. | Navigate to Power on the Preferences screen under the General heading, and press the Center button to open the power preferences. The Power Preferences screen provides access to a couple of power options for your device, as shown in Figure 3.9.
Figure 3.9. The Power Preferences screen presents two power settings that you can customize to help reduce the drain on the battery. 
| 5. | Because the screen eats up a fair amount of battery life, decreasing the Auto-off time can help reduce the toll on the battery. Options for the Auto-off After setting include 30 Seconds, 1 Minute, 2 Minutes, and 3 Minutes. If you don't find the 30 Seconds option too annoying, it's the optimal setting for maximizing battery life.
Note The one scenario in which you might want to shy away from setting a short Auto-off time period is if you have your device set so that it automatically locks when it powers off. You'll probably grow tired of re-entering the device password every time the device shuts off after a 30-second idle period. In this case, you might want to extend the time period to 1, 2, or 3 minutes to help minimize unnecessary password entries. | 6. | To turn off the infrared receiver, select Off for the Beam Receive setting. If you decide to make this change, just remember that you'll need to manually turn on the infrared receiver when you want to receive beamed information from someone. However, you can always beam information to someone, regardless of the Beam Receive setting.
| 7. | Tap the Done button to accept the changes to the power preferences.
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You might be a little surprised that there aren't more power preferences to set for your device. However, keep in mind that a lot of power management boils down to using your Treo efficiently, as opposed to relying on the device to force you into certain habits. To brush up on some practical ways to take battery life management into your own hands, see "Preserve the Treo Battery" back in Chapter 2, "Performing the Treo Essentials." |
