Hardcore Google Searchers: Save Energy & Extend Battery Life With Blackle

I just found out about this new site, called Blackle, which offers Google searching with a black background and greyish white text. This is meant to have an environmentally-friendly impact on larger scale due to the popularity of Google search. If you're interested in the specifics of their energy-saving mission, click here.

As for me, I'm not sure if this site will catch on with most people, being that the text is slightly less easy to see than the usual black-on-white. However, after spending so much time doing internet research and typing my undergraduate thesis, Blackle is in fact relieving for my strained eyes. One other disadvantage is that this site is not officially Google. I really like the convenience of having my Google Account menu on top with Gmail, Google Documents, News, and more.

I also strongly recommend Blackle if your laptop is on battery power and you want to extend battery life. The reason is because your laptop screen takes up a lot of (if not most of) your laptop's energy, whether your laptop is plugged in or not. When you're on battery power, you might have a dimmer screen and a more frequent "standby" mode (which turns off the screen if the computer is idle for a couple of minutes). Using Blackle will further help, just as having a black desktop would help. But I don't think I could handle a black desktop. I like the look of a landscape scene...it's uplifting.

So if you are doing a lot of research on Google, as I often do for school, and you rely on battery power a lot (or your eyes are strained by the bright screen), then having that black background will surely help. I'm not trying to argue against using Blackle for environmentally-friendly reasons, of course. I'm simply trying to provide alternative incentives for those who might not be willing to completely switch over to Blackle. If this results in making a speck of a difference in Blackle's cause as they say it will, then that's great too.

Getting The Most Out Of Samsung Omnia's Battery Life

Problem: You want to make you Samsung Omnia i900 last, but you don't want to sacrifice all its cool functions.

Solution: Take steps to remove unnecessary battery-straining features like wifi and bluetooth connectivity, backlight usage, and make sure to fully drain the battery and fully re-charge it during its first few uses (some people even recommend overcharging it the first few times).

1) Go to Menu --> Settings --> System (bottom tab) --> Power --> Battery Power (bottom tab). Set the device to turn off when on battery power after 1 minute. Also, set the backlight to turn off as soon as possible (10 seconds). If you are willing to sacrifice screen brightness and screen rotation, uncheck the box that says, "Turn on backlight when a button is pressed or the screen is tapped." Give it a try, if you can't stand it (I couldn't) change it back.

2) Now go to the next few tabs at the bottom of the screen. You'll see arrows you can tap to move forward. Go to the Calling tab where you can set the lcd to turn off when you're in a call. Also, go to the Power Save tab to enable "power save mode" on your phone to help reduce power consumption. Finally, go to the WiFi tab and enable WiFi power saving mode.

3) Exit and return to your today screen. Now go to Menu --> Settings --> Connections (bottom tab) --> Wi-Fi. When you're there, click on Menu on the bottom right part of the screen. Go to Advanced. Set the phone to turn off your Wi-Fi if not connected in 30 seconds. This will ensure that you aren't using up your power being connected to Wi-Fi all the time unless you need it. You can confirm this change by returning to your today screen and clicking on the little white "Ev" box on the top, near your battery level indicator. This white box, once clicked, should now say that no data sessions are active (until you use a program that needs Wi-Fi of course).

4) Finally, whether you are a new owner or not, make sure that you always charge your battery when it's as low as possible and then charge it fully every time. I know it's hard to fit into your schedule, but try to follow that strict regimen. The phone will notify you when it is fully charged (took me forever to figure that out because I was initially unplugging it when the battery showed 100% but hadn't actually finished...) From some online threads I've found, some people recommend overcharging your phone the first few times you drain it. I don't know what's your best option, I'm no expert...but keep looking around for what more Omnia users are doing since we seem to know more about it than Verizon (or whoever you get it from).

5) PS: some people say that disabling the "3g" will drastically improve battery life. However, on my i900 model, I cannot do that. The Verizon people warned me that broadband access is required in my phone plan because you can't disable it on the Omnia--I don't know, seems like they did it on purpose to get me to pay, but I still like having it! Anyway, if you still want to try to disable the "3g" for better battery results, people online have said to go to Settings --> Phone --> Band --> etc. Try looking it up, but my phone doesn't have this directory.

There you go! Now, I'm a new Omnia i900 owner and I have yet to report on the long term results of my findings--but I've got to post this because nobody seems to know anything about the Omnia. I got way too much clue-lessness from Verizon employees and I've found little help online. So here I am trying to add some of my own help.

Useful search terms you might want to try are "omnia battery life" and "omnia full charge."

Please let me know if this helps you or if you have any questions--you can comment anonymously!