[X4U] Laptop battery life?

[B. Kuestner]

> My battery in my MacBook Pro has been yielding shorter and shorter  
> usage times

That is normal: Every LiIon battery will age over time.

But to reduce the effect, try to avoid:
- overheating (such as in a car in the sun)
- freezing (such as in a car in the winter)
- constant charging (high charge states facilitate self-destructing  
effects in LiIon batteries)

In other words:
- Load the battery when it's empty
- Unplug the battery when it's full
- Use it at room temperatures

I also found that my iBook runs fair enough when processor speed is  
set to minimum.
You can further increase battery run time by disabling Airport or  
Bluetooth when you don't need them.
Reducing display brightness increases run-time, too.
Avoid CPU intensive processes.
Stop apps you don't need even if they use 0 CPU to free up RAM.
Max out your RAM in your laptop: Although more RAM theoretically eats  
more power, too, it will cut on CPU and disk usage which outweighs  
the RAM power consumption.

Björn