Sorry, another helpful, but off-topic tip from me today. I know all of you real designers out there have cool phones like the Nokia N95 (well, I do, *brag* *brag*).

I've been shocked at how bad the battery life on this device is out-of-the-box, so after charging it thoroughly for around 10 hours and then witnessing having just 1 bar of battery left after just a handful of quick calls and 3 or 4 text messages.

After altering the usual power eaters; turning off Bluetooth, dimming the display a bit and then having the backlight turn off as soon as possible. I then touched on two things that have improved my battery life considerably so far.

1) I live in an almost 3G area (meaning, depending on which hill you stand on will determine 3G access). The Nokia N95 is mutli-band, but has the option to switch to GSM only. I don't use 3G to it's potential, so I switched the phone to GSM. (To do this: (based on my phone, your menus might be different) go to Tools > Settings > Phone > Network > Network Mode > GSM))

2) Turn off Active Standby. This has something to do with those applications that appear at the top of the screen. I don't know how they work and how they drain the battery, but switched them off (I don't use them anyway) and after a full charge, the phone is still on full bars about 16 hours after the charging!

Hope that helps somebody!

Gav

You know i used to love spangley wizz bang phones and i was even considering getting an N95. But you know what, all i want now is a bloody phone that makes calls i can understand (unlike the N71) or call that don't get cut off every 5 mins (unlike the N70) or batteries i don't have to charge every 10 mins (unlike the N95).

I must admit though the video function looks cool, but do you actually use it?

I used to be a Nokia only man, but the quality of their new devices it making me consider switching to SE.... :O shock horror!

I wasn't really using my phone to it's potential until recently because of the battery life problems, but now that it'll last a couple of days from a full charge, I'm finding that I've started to rely on it a bit more.

Went to Global Gathering at the weekend, and used the video function to capture some footage. Wicked!

Gav

I have an N95 - thanks for the power-saving tips, how do you turn off active standby? ... I thought it was going fine until it died without warning the other day. Was OK after a charge but I could've sworn it was half charged anyway.

What's the UI like on it. I'm a Samsung man currently sporting the D900 (http://uk.samsungmobile.com/wcms/products/phones/phonedata/features/UK-SGH-D900I.jsp), which works fine for me and I really like the UI, which is what's it's all about at the end of the day.