Technologies

If You Want Your iPhone Battery to Last Longer, Turn Off These 3 Settings ASAP

Which is more important: Lock screen widgets, or better battery life?

The longer you’ve had your iPhone, the more you’ll notice that the battery doesn’t last the way it did when it was fresh out of the box. Over time phone batteries gradually degrade, robbing them of their ability to hold a charge. That doesn’t mean that you need to constantly charge your phone, or keep it in Low Power Mode though. By tweaking a few settings you can help your battery to last longer, even if it’s a few years old.

Whether you’re using your phone to get directions, stream music or send that one last text, the last thing you want is for it to shut down at the worst possible moment. Instead of scrambling for a charger or switching on Low Power Mode every few hours, take a minute to check your iPhone settings. Turning off a few power-draining features could be the fix your battery desperately needs-and it only takes seconds to do.

You can also keep an eye on your Battery Health menu — it’ll tell you your battery health percentage (80% or higher is considered good), as well as show you how many times you’ve cycled your battery and whether or not your battery is «normal.»

We’ll explain three iOS features that put a strain on your iPhone’s battery to varying degrees, and show how you can turn them off to help preserve battery life. Here’s what you need to know.

Turn off widgets on your iPhone lock screen

All the widgets on your lock screen force your apps to automatically run in the background, constantly fetching data to update the information the widgets display, like sports scores or the weather. Because these apps are constantly running in the background due to your widgets, that means they continuously drain power.

If you want to help preserve some battery on iOS 18, the best thing to do is simply avoid widgets on your lock screen (and home screen). The easiest way to do this is to switch to another lock screen profile: Press your finger down on your existing lock screen and then swipe around to choose one that doesn’t have any widgets.

If you want to just remove the widgets from your existing lock screen, press down on your lock screen, hit Customize, choose the Lock Screen option, tap on the widget box and then hit the «—« button on each widget to remove them.

Reduce the motion of your iPhone UI

Your iPhone user interface has some fun, sleek animations. There’s the fluid motion of opening and closing apps, and the burst of color that appears when you activate Siri with Apple Intelligence, just to name a couple. These visual tricks help bring the slab of metal and glass in your hand to life. Unfortunately, they can also reduce your phone’s battery life.

If you want subtler animations across iOS, you can enable the Reduce Motion setting. To do this, go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion and toggle on Reduce Motion.

Switch off your iPhone’s keyboard vibration

Surprisingly, the keyboard on the iPhone has never had the ability to vibrate as you type, an addition called «haptic feedback» that was added to iPhones with iOS 16. Instead of just hearing click-clack sounds, haptic feedback gives each key a vibration, providing a more immersive experience as you type. According to Apple, the very same feature may also affect battery life.

According to this Apple support page about the keyboard, haptic feedback «might affect the battery life of your iPhone.» No specifics are given as to how much battery life the keyboard feature drains, but if you want to conserve battery, it’s best to keep this feature disabled.

Fortunately, it is not enabled by default. If you’ve enabled it yourself, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback and toggle off Haptic to turn off haptic feedback for your keyboard.

For more tips on iOS, read about how to access your Control Center more easily and why you might want to only charge your iPhone to 95%.

Technologies

Lossless Audio Finally Arrives for Spotify Premium Subscribers. Here’s How to Enable It

The streaming audio company says the feature is rolling out to Premium subscribers in some regions.

Lossless audio, a format that Spotify says has been much-requested by subscribers over the years, is finally arriving on the streaming service.

In a post, the company says that 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC audio will now be an option for premium subscribers in select markets «across nearly every song available in Spotify.»

Subscribers will have the option to adjust music quality as low, normal, high, very high and now lossless, with the option to see how much data each tier requires.
While audio formats such as MP3 or AAC use varying degrees of compression to reduce file sizes — which means you don’t get the full depth and range of the music — lossless formats including FLAC and Apple’s ALAC preserve the original data from a song without any quality loss.

In addition to working in Spotify’s apps, the company says, lossless audio will be available on some Spotify Connect devices from Sony, Bose, Samsung, Sennheiser and other manufacturers. It plans to add support for Sonos and Amazon audio devices next month, according to the post.

The lossless feature has been a missing component on the service, which launched in 2008 and became available in the US in 2011. Some of its audio-streaming competitors added lossless before Spotify.

«Spotify has promised a lossless music tier for many years, originally dubbed Supremium, and it is one of the last of its competitors to add uncompressed tunes,» said Ty Pendlebury, TV and home video editor at CNET. «Both Apple and Amazon added complimentary lossless and hi-res files back in 2021, while YouTube Music is one of the only holdouts by only offering compressed music.»

Spotify says lossless is eventually rolling out to 50 different markets.

How to enable lossless audio on Spotify

Once you receive a notification from Spotify that lossless is available, you can use the Spotify app to enable the feature.

To do this, tap on your profile image, go to Settings & Privacy, then Media Quality and select where to enable the format: over Wi-Fi, over cellular or in downloads.

The company says you need to enable the feature manually for each device you use.

Technologies

You Can Play Hollow Knight: Silksong on Xbox Game Pass Now

Microsoft is adding a few other games to the service soon, but everyone knows we’re here to play Silksong, right?

The wait is over. After years of rumors and speculation, Hollow Knight: Silksong, the sequel to the award-winning indie darling Hollow Knight, is here. And Xbox Game Pass subscribers can play the highly anticipated sequel right now at no additional cost.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a CNET Editors’ Choice award pick, offers hundreds of games you can play on your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, smart TV and PC or mobile device for $20 a month. A subscription gives you access to a large library of games, with new ones, like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, added monthly, plus other benefits such as online multiplayer and deals on non-Game Pass titles.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source on Chrome.

Here are all the games Microsoft is adding to Game Pass soon. You can also check out the games the company added to the service in August, including Gears of War: Reloaded.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play now.

The wait is over for one of the most anticipated indie games in recent memory. You play as the hunter and princess Hornet as she ascends to Hallownest’s peak. You’ll venture through mossy grottos, craft deadly tools and take on over 200 powerful bugs with acrobatic skills as you climb to the top. But you aren’t just taking down everything in your path. You’ll also befriend strangers and unlock secrets that might help you in your quest.

I Am Your Beast

Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play now.

This covert, revenge thriller is like a comic book in game form. You play as a retired secret agent who gets called in for «one last job.» But unlike other stories where the hero says, «Yes,» you say, «No.» So now the military-industrial complex is hunting you through the North American wilderness. You have to evade your enemies and sabotage their equipment to survive.

Nine Sols

New to Game Pass Standard.

Don’t let the cute cat-like hero fool you; this game can be brutal. This 2D action platformer is about revenge. You play as an ancient hero who awakes from a 500-year slumber to embark on a vengeful journey against those who imprisoned them. The hand-drawn art style and gameplay inspired by Sekiro make this a uniquely challenging and beautiful game.

Game Pass Ultimate subscribers could play this game in December, and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play this difficult but rewarding game soon, too.

Cataclismo

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play now.

This game combines resource management, real-time strategy, siege defense and exploration into one title. Creatures from a corrupted world, called Horrors, are seeking to destroy humanity, so you have to build intricate fortresses to fend off waves of enemies. Once the Horrors are gone, you’ll forage for resources outside of your defenses during the day to help in the next night’s attacks. Will you be able to find a way to put a stop to the Horrors once and for all, or will you fall like the rest of humanity?

Paw Patrol World

Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play now.

Microsoft removed this kid-friendly game from Game Pass in February, and the company is bringing it back to the service this month. You can play as Chase, Skye, Marshall or Everest as they save the day across locations like Adventure Bay, Jake’s Mountain, the Jungle and Barkingburg. Use your nose to sniff out secrets and pup treats you can use to unlock new outfits and more for your pup.

RoadCraft

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on Sept. 16.

When natural disasters strike, someone has to clean up the damage and restore the local infrastructure. That’s where you and your company come in. You’ll use construction machinery to clear debris, replace faulty equipment and rebuild roads, bridges and more. Don’t just throw all that debris away. Some of it can be recycled and used for reconstruction in this building simulator.

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass on Sept. 15

While Microsoft is adding all those games to Game Pass soon, the company is removing a few others from the service on Sept. 15. So you still have some time to finish your main campaign and any side quests in these games before you’ll have to buy them separately.

For more on Xbox, discover other games available on Game Pass now, read our hands-on review of the gaming service and learn which Game Pass plan is right for you. You can also check out what to know about upcoming Xbox game price hikes.