Dear LPG,

I am very lucky I think, because I have many family members and friends that live outside the UK and during the winter there is something special about being able to have a chat with one of them in the middle of my night (when I often can’t sleep anyway), and when it is often quite early in their evening.  This means that I am not interrupting their night and I am doing something practical with mine. 

I used to do this by buying those calling cards that allow you to spend time talking in the knowledge that you have already paid, because it is really not much fun learning that you have a massive telephone bill when it arrives on your doorstep. 

I have always had a basic mobile phone too but I have now worked out how to be able to both see and hear my foreign friends using a rather nice smart phone which my children have taken the time to teach me the basics of how to use. 

I know that I am not unique here and noticed references to WhatsApp Skype and Facetime in the LPG article posted on January 7^th this year.   I would really like to thank LPG and WT for that little bit of advice.  I have had my smartphone for a year or two now and I am very pleased with it although I have noticed that the battery does not last as long as it used to.  Apparently a few years ago all you had to do is buy a new battery and get someone to put it in your phone, but more and more of the modern mobiles don’t actually open which means that once the battery stops working the phone is no good.

I took a look at the internet and learned some tips that will help to make sure that the battery in your phone, tablet, laptop etc. works efficiently for longer, and would like to share them. 

I looked at quite a few websites and found the information quite technical but when I showed it to my son he explained the basics to me which included the importance of not allowing the phone to get too hot or too cold (room temperature is best).   Keeping it out of direct sunlight and only charging it until the battery is between 40% and 80% appears to help too.  The bit where I really needed the help of my younger experts was when working out how to turn off unused apps and adjust settings (I have to admit to just letting them do that bit).

The tips I found are quite complicated I think but my children were able to understand them better than me.   Even though I didn’t understand everything, they were impressed that I was able to pass the information on to them and also used some of the adaptations on their own phones.

So if you want to impress at least some of the youngsters in your family and maximise the life of your mobile phone’s battery, I suggest you pass on the tips that I will ask LPG to share.

  PR, Crofton Park

LPG agrees with HK that quite a lot of this information might well mean very little to us elders but the children and grandchildren in our lives will definitely understand.

(►►►)   (►►►)     (►►►)