At Home with Tech

It’s not as complicated as it looks. Tech tips for your life.

Category: apple

January 14, 2024

Is It Bad to Fully Charge your iPhone Every Night?

With new iPhones, now you have the option to throttle back the battery’s charging limit to just 80%. Is that good? Let’s find out.

Once upon a time, rechargeable batteries, however magical at the time, came with ‘memory’ problems. If you kept topping off your device with a bit electrical juice every day without really using the rechargeable battery, it would ‘forget’ how to fully recharge.

Today, Apple says of its lithium-ion iPhone batteries, “You can charge your iPhone every night even if the battery isn’t fully depleted.”

Well, that’s progress. So, what’s the problem here?

Should You Charge your iPhone to 100% Each Night?
On the one hand, yes, our friends from Apple say it’s okay to charge up your iPhone’s lithium-ion battery every night.

On the other hand, Apple has now offered a new feature in its iPhone 15 line to limit charging to just 80% to help reduce the drain on battery life.

The reality has always been that full-charge cycles accelerate the eventual reduction of an iPhone’s lithium-ion battery’s lifespan.

In fact, fully charging up and completing discharging your iPhone’s battery… that’s actually bad. Charging up to just 80% will, in fact help your battery last longer.

The 80% Solution
Here’s how you activate the 80% Limit mode:
Click:

  • Settings
  • Battery
  • Battery Health & Charging

Choose between:

  • Optimized Battery Charging
  • 80% Limit (sometimes it still goes to 100%)
  • None

Apple’s default setting is – Optimized Battery Charging

The Value of Optimized Battery Charging
So, yes, you can choose the 80% Limit setting, but Apple also talks a lot on its support pages about how useful the Optimized Battery Charging setting can be to maintain your iPhone battery’s health.

How Optimized Battery Charging actually works… I do find confusing. Something about learning algorithms based on your use. The setting doesn’t always get your iPhone’s charge level back to 100%, and it can delay when the actual charging is happening overnight. (I think there could be some borrowed “Flux Capacitor” or “Borg” tech involved. Who knows.)

But it’s all supposed to be good for your iPhone’s battery. (And that’s all that really matters, right?)

Plus, the name implies it’s the best setting. It’s ‘optimized.’ And it’s the default setting.
What more can you ask for?

80% is Technically Better than 100%
So why is there now the 80% setting? Well, it’s not totally clear to me other than charging up to 100% is simply not optimal for a lithium-ion battery. (Yes, there’s some irony here.)

I imagine the 80% solution is technically best for your phone’s battery, but then you’re constantly denying yourself the dopamine hit when you see that 100% glow to start your day.

Optimized 100% is Better than Regular 100%
So ‘optimized’ charging is designed to minimize the inevitable long-term damage of the 100% solution.

Optimize. Yes. That’s the camp I’m in.

Live your life. Minimize the damage.

As nuanced as all this may feel, what is crystal clear is to never go with the third battery-health option – ‘None.’

Then, you’re just charging up… old school. You’ve got yourself the 100% solution with no benefits from optimization. Your iPhone’s battery will flame out (not literally) more quickly.

Optimize Me!
So where does all of this leave us?

  • Is it bad to charge your iPhone to 100% every night. YES.
  • Can Apple minimize that problem by optimizing it? YES.
  • Should you go ahead and keep charging every night in Optimized Charging mode? YES.
  • Is that better than the 80% Solution? PROBABLY NOT.

But where’s the fun in 80% of anything?
I want 100%!

Plus, I want it to be optimized, even if it’s just a word to make me feel better about making the wrong choice. Well, second best.

Happy charging.

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December 31, 2023

My Biggest Discoveries I Blogged About over the Past Year

Here’s my At Home with Tech year in review. Below are the links to my key learnings and tech discoveries.

So yes, these next few weeks can all be about looking forward. The fresh start. The resolutions. The turning over a new leaf. But I like to think of this time of year as the next chapter that builds on the past. It’s not so much ‘the new’… as ‘the next.’

I try to carry it forward. That way, I can greet these annual cycles with the perspective of my past years’ experiences. Said another way, it’s important to look back as you look forward. Otherwise, a lot can get lost across the years.

That’s why I think it’s critical to package up the story of your past year in an organized photo collection (digital or book) or perhaps an edited video-clips overview.

You might also want to perform a mental review and acknowledgement of your other notable actions and learnings.

Take it in. Then lock it in, or let it go if need be.

At Home with Tech Year in Review

As you know, I document my thoughts on technology and family life each week. So, I’ll follow my own advice and offer this summary of my blog posts that reflect my big learnings across the past year. Please check out the links below that most interest you!

My Growth as a Parent

Working in our Post-Pandemic World

My Journey as the Family Photographer

My Role as the Family Archivist

How a tiny film-to-digital converter brought new life to my father’s old analog slides
How to quickly turn a scanned negative into a positive image on a Mac
How to use SmugMug as a family photo archiving tool
How to prevent your family’s identity from being washed away by time

Maximizing your Family Video Clips

My Family Vacation Tips

Best Practices for your iPhone

My Evolving Understanding of Apple Computers

Here’s to a Prosperous 2024
As always, thank you for reading my blog. I’m looking forward to sharing more with you in the year to come.

Happy New Year!

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December 3, 2023

Is There a Wireless Charging Stand for iPhone SE?

Even though iPhone SE isn’t built with MagSafe magnets, you can still charge it wirelessly. But it won’t stick to a charging pad. Thus begins my journey for a workable solution.

By now, it shouldn’t be this hard to figure out how to charge up all your gear. But if you’re like my family, you’ve got different versions of the same device (like iPhones) running simultaneously. So, over the years, I’ve collected various chargers that could keep powering newer tech. That’s good, right?

But the charging equation is complicated now that the tech industry sells much of its gear with the ‘bring your own charger’ sales strategy. Then, you’re forced to figure out how to power your new device. You need to immediately run through the compatibility equation with your existing power blocks.

Yesterday’s chargers may not be strong enough to handle today’s power-thirsty tech. And in a family where the kids are likely using older gear than the adults, every charger won’t work across the board.

And the complexity doesn’t stop there. There’s fast-charging technology and wireless-charging to also consider.

Wow. Do you also feel it’s hard keeping up?

Barrett’s Recent iPhone Purchases
Some months back, I had a little kayaking mishap, and my old iPhone XS Max drowned only weeks before iPhone 15s came out.

So, I decided to buy myself a new iPhone SE to hold me over with the plan to later gift it to our 13-year-old son.

For that period, I stuck with the standard Apple 20W USB-C Power Adapter and lightning cable. But when I ordered my new iPhone 15 Pro Max, of course I quickly upgraded to Apple’s MagSafe wireless circular charging pad.

No Click-and-Stick for the SE
When I had a moment to stop fixating on my new flagship iPhone, I turned my attention back to the scrappy but still totally capable new SE. I wondered whether it couldn’t also charge wirelessly. (Yes, I was totally enamored with the belated joy of wireless charging.)

Unfortunately, the basic iPhone SE doesn’t contain the magnets for MagSafe functionality. But yes, it actually can wirelessly charge if placed properly on top of a Qi charger.

That last detail didn’t thrill me. Without that magnetic ‘click-and-stick,’ you can easily miss the charging connection lock by a few millimeters and end up in the morning with a smartphone that’s not ready for the day.

Stand vs. Pad
But I figured if I could find a solution where the iPhone SE fit more snugly into place, like on a stand vs a pad, that could be a better system for charging success.

Unfortunately, Apple does not sell a wireless charging stand without a MagSafe connection requiring iPhone levitation. So, I had to turn to other manufacturers…

Fortunately, I found two brands I trust that offered what I needed.

Anker 313 PowerWave Wireless Charger Stand
Anker makes a Qi-certified, tilted stand that an iPhone SE can safely lean on without relying on MagSafe.

The stand is boxed with a Micro USB to USB-A cable that connects to a USB-A wall charger. But it doesn’t come with the charger. You’ve got to provide that separately.
Anker states that you can’t use one of your old Apple 5V/1A stock chargers (the original tiny white block). Not powerful enough. You need a minimum of 5V/2A output. An iPad charger will work if you believe in sharing one charger for different devices. (What could go wrong with that plan?)

So, I knew I also needed a new power block.

Anker PowerPort+ 1 with Quick Charge 3.0
I read the fine print on the Anker stand’s power requirements to maximize its capabilities. My mind started to melt.

I immediately searched for a shortcut and landed on Anker’s only small USB-A charger. (All of their other models are USB-C.)

With both stand and charger, the Anker price is $30.38.

Belkin Boost Charge Wireless Charging Stand
Belkin offers an all-in-one solution, which you may feel is more elegant that my MacGyvered Frankenstein Anker plan.

You don’t have to figure out which charger block to buy. A Belkin charger comes packaged with the stand (which is similar to the Anker model, though more rounded).

I Bought the Anker Wireless Charging Package
I think both the Anker and Belkin options are solid choices. That said, the Anker stand and charger is only 30 bucks vs $45 for the Belkin option.

Based on this pricing differential, I went with Anker.
Click.

Fast-Charging is Always Helpful
All I really wanted was an overnight wireless charging solution for our iPhone SE. And now we’ve got that.

But as it turned out, I’ve also put in place a fast-charging solution with the Anker 313 Stand and PowerPort Quick Charger for any number of our current and future devices.

As much as I prefer the overnight charging rule for our son, what could possibly go wrong with that rigid strategy combined with the complexities of busy family life?

We all sometimes need a little quick boost of power in the morning.

And so do our devices.

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