Because I spend a good deal of quality work time traveling on airplanes, I've been on the lookout for simpler, cheaper ways to optimize my battery time, besides buying an extra battery. This list of 10 tips linked below offers some of the best suggestions I've found for saving battery time, especially if you own a Windows laptop (although many of these same principles apply to Apple products too).

What follows is a sampling of the best tips, but you'll want to click on the link below to learn more about how to implement them.

• Keep your laptop cool by ensuring the heat it emits gets redistributed safely.
• Pay attention to which programs you use on your laptop, especially when you're away from an electrical plug, and how big they are.
• Close most programs and services you don't use on a flight.
• Ease the drain on your battery by doing one task at a time.
• Turn down the brightness of your screen.

Live Digitally August 13, 2006