Hello
I’ve got a quick tip for you today about charging your phone or tablet.
You can charge a phone or tablet while it’s turned on, or turn it all the way off first then charge it. And you might have wondered which way is best, or whether it makes any difference.
Well, you might be surprised to hear that it’s actually quite important.
At least once a week (and certainly if your phone’s having any problems) you should leave it on while it charges. Don’t use it – lock the screen and leave it in standby – but keep it turned on. Because your phone isn’t just sitting there doing nothing while the battery fills up. It uses that time to run all sorts of background tasks that it can’t do while you’re busy using it, and it won’t do if there’s any risk of the battery running out mid-task. This is when it runs your regular automatic back-ups to the cloud, and sorts out any issues with its memory or storage.
That’s why iPads and iPhones automatically turn on when you plug them in to the mains, even if they were turned all the way off – so they can do these background tasks uninterrupted.
So there you go.
More help?
Those of you who’ve been reading my newsletter for a while might know we also run something called the Tech Inner Circle – which gives more help with PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Unlike the newsletter, this isn’t just open to everyone and in fact the doors have been closed to new members since May last year. We’re planning to open them again shortly to let new members in, but only for a few weeks, then they’ll slam shut again.
We’ve been working hard on updates and improvements to the Inner Circle over the last few months, actually. We’ve recently launched a brand new version of our Clubroom, where you can ask technical questions and have them answered by our experts-in-residence. And just last week, we finally unveiled our new and updated Library of articles, eBooks and video tutorials for members to browse.
Keep your eyes peeled for more info about what it involves, why you might (or might not) want to join and how long the doors will be open for.
(And for members who are reading this: why not take a look around at our changes and let us know what you think? Oh – and prepare to welcome in some new members very shortly!)
Bank Holiday opening
Since it’s the bank holiday, we don’t actually have anyone in the office today. Please feel free to drop us an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can, or the girls will be back in the office ready to answer your calls from 8am tomorrow morning.
Yours
Julie Wakeling