NOTE: The following is written by a bald, slightly wrinkled yet devastatingly handsome member of the Baby Boom generation. He is not the sharpest knife in the technology drawer and believes that 1982 occurred the month-before-last and wonders what's all the hoopla about Netflix. Oh, and he's getting just a wee bit more crotchety every day. Now, proceed.

People tell me I'm walking around with a dinosaur. An iPhone 7. Apparently there has been a whole bunch of iPhones out there this I got this one. It's been, ah, coming up on 4 years. I guess it was already a bit outdated when I got it.

I've read for years how a dog's year of life is like 7 human years. Well, I guess a smartphone's year of life is worth about 40 human years. You got a phone that's 2 years old, well that's like 80 human years. If you're pushin' 4 years like I am, that phone should long be in the grave.

Whoa, pardner, whoa, hold on there! My parents had their phone for as long as I can remember. Yes, it was a big 'ole black heavy thing with a rotary dial, granted. But that old dog lasted decades. I should be able to suck another year or two out of this little pup.

'But you can just get a new one, you old fart', they say.  To which I reply....' Shut Up'.

And so I nurse this dinosaur, this iPhone 7. But it's not doing much good, not really. It's pooping out on me. So undeterred, I do some extensive research, a deep dive into how I can save this relatively new (to me) technological marvel.

I Google.

'Why is my iPhone 7 dying?', I ask. And it answers.

The battery. The battery is beginning to say 'So long, it's been fun'. Okay, so how do I squeeze some more life out of (or into) the battery?

One of the websites that came up was a place called Mashable. And according to these folks, it's something called 'Background App Refresh' that could well be the main reason for taking my battery and beating the stuffing out of it. The article says:

The battery-draining culprit that perhaps bears the most responsibility is a new feature called Background App Refresh, whose default is set to "on" in iOS 7. It lets apps run in the background while you multitask and continually refreshes content when running on Wi-Fi or a cellular network.

Okay, I don't understand all that but I'm pretty sure I'll be OK without 'apps running in the background'. So I followed their instructions and turned that off (I think).  And then I went through a bunch of stuff (stuff is my fallback word for a lot of...stuff) in my settings and 'un-enabled' a bunch of other...well, stuff.

So now it's wait and see. Will it keep some power? Heck, I don't need all the power. I've lot some power myself in the decades I've stumbled around the planet. I just want to get it up off the bed and moving around a bit. Maybe last 2-3 hours instead of 10-15 minutes.

A new battery? A new phone?

Probably in the not-too-distant future. And that'll be something to look forward to. Heck, instead of having 787 things on my phone I know nothing about, I'll be able to have 2,354 things on my phone I know nothing about.

Just so I can make calls. And text. I'm pretty Okay at those things.

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

CHECK IT OUT: How To Unlock Your iPhone With Your Voice

 

More From KXRB