There are very few things that we use as crutches nowadays. That is primarily because smartphones have surpassed, and incorporated, all others. So how will yours last Electric Picnic weekend without going dead?
In an ideal world, you can just turn your phone off and enjoy your few days in the Electric Picnic sun (apparently). But this isn’t an ideal world, and we are far too reliant on these awfully clever gadgets.
So here are 10 incredibly obvious steps to ensuring your phone survives the trip.
1 – Turn off sound and vibration
If I’m honest, I never have either of these functions enabled anyway. The vibration drains smartphones, much like it drained the humble Nokia 3210 back in the day.
Turn it off on your keyboard too, as your thumbs don’t need consistent validation with each and every letter typed.
And sound, well, who needs that at a festival? The odds are you check your smartphone constantly, regardless of prompts, so there’s really no need.
2 – Lock it up
Set your lock screen to start at the shortest possible interval. When your screen is awake it’s taking up considerable amounts of battery power, through light primarily. Locked screens are happy screens.
3 – Dim switch
Speaking of light using up your juice, try turning down your screen brightness. Full whack is probably as acceptable as half power, so go with the latter.
If you struggle to make things out in certain apps, then up it accordingly. But on the whole, the darker the better.
4 – Disable when locked
When your screen does go into lock mode, ensure that your phone disables social media apps and data throughout.
Again, you can check in on your phone every now and then and boot it all up, thus getting what you need.
There’s no point having it work away in your pocket while you don’t get to enjoy any of the fruits.
5 – Turn off GPS
You’re in Stradbally. The minutiae of your exact geographical existence is lost on everybody. No need, turn it off.
If you’re worried that Google or Apple won’t know where you are, they’ve already thought of that.
6 – Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth
WiFi will probably be useless when you’re in Stradbally, but that won’t stop your phone consistently scanning for a connection if you leave it turned on.
Likewise Bluetooth should be turned off unless you need it. Of course, you will need it, if you’ve gotten one of those handy Bluetooth wireless speakers for around the campsite, that is.
7 – Battery saver option
If you have an Android device, or iOS, there should be an extreme battery saver option.
The iOS variant even comes in greyscale, which is snazzy and retro – remember when smartphones were in black and white?
This will limit your functionality to a large degree, but it makes your battery last far longer.
8 – Don’t record video
Filming things from your phone is great. You can get all that footage of your favourite band from just 800 metres away, behind thousands of people, with an unsteady hand, and poor audio, with tone deaf people talk/singing along. Who wouldn’t want to watch that?
9 – Ok, record, but don’t watch it
If you can’t help but capture your brand new favourite band from a bad angle, then at the very least let it stay in your media gallery.
Don’t show people, send it to people or even watch it yourself. It’s rubbish and it drains your battery.
10 – Just bring a power bank
We’ve given this advice already, but power banks are where it’s at. We’re charging ours right now!
Main image via Shutterstock
