If you ever need a reminder of how much we depend on our smartphones, just let your battery run down below 10% or so, and wait for the panic to set in.

I hate having to worry about battery life, so I'm always looking for ways to squeeze out more power without seriously compromising my phone's capabilities. While you'll seldom see me turn off cellular or Bluetooth, I'm not above making other tweaks that can keep the dreaded red battery indicator at bay.

Whether you're dealing with a depleted smartphone battery or just trying to maximize the life of your new phone, here are some simple battery-saving options to consider:

The most impactful thing you can do to preserve battery life is also the simplest: Just make sure your screen brightness is as low as you can tolerate. Dismiss this one as obvious at your own peril; I've had plenty of situations where I've scratched my head over excess battery drain, only to realize the solution was staring me brightly in the face.

Being able to glance at notifications from your desk is nice, but it can also be a steady source of battery drain.

Some newer phones come with high refresh rate displays that provide slightly silkier animations at the expense of battery life. Limiting the refresh rate to 60 Hz is an easy way to conserve power, and you might struggle to perceive any difference.

Some Android phones—including higher-end Samsung and OnePlus models—let you reduce screen sharpness to conserve the battery. Try looking under Settings > Display for screen resolution options, and dialing things down from there.

If your phone has an OLED display, using black backgrounds whenever possible can help squeeze out a bit more battery life.

To maximize the effect, use a pure black background for your home screen as well, but don't bother if your phone has an LED screen instead, as the backlighting will use up the battery regardless of background color.

Both the iPhone and Android phone offer low power modes, which act as a one-stop shop for battery-saving features. On the iPhone, for instance, low power mode disables 5G networking, prevents apps from loading in the background, disables iCloud Photo uploads, and minimizes visual effects, among other things.

If you're still suffering from battery drain, investigate whether any particular apps are misbehaving:

The last thing to do is check whether your battery's total capacity is depleted:

If your battery health is in the ballpark of 80%, and none of your battery-conserving efforts are getting you through the day, it's time to consider a battery replacement or a new phone.

Did I miss any useful battery-saving tricks? Send me an email with your personal favorites.

The Pixel 6a arrives: Google has just released a new mid-range Pixel phone, and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Compared to the $600 Pixel 6, the new $450 Pixel 6E has a smaller 6.1-inch OLED screen, a not-as-smooth 60Hz display panel, an older dual-lens rear camera, and no wireless charging. Still, the consensus is that it still takes excellent photos—especially for the price—and gets long battery life, and the new in-display fingerprint reader is a nice touch. It also has the same Tensor processor as its pricier siblings, which helps with AI-enhanced photo features and speech recognition.

One knock stands out, though: Google is still only promising three years of major software updates, versus four years for Samsung flagships and five years for iPhones. While the Pixel 6a will at least get five years of security patches, long-term feature updates are an area Google ought to be leading. (Also, the phone costs $50 more through Verizon, due to the cost of supporting its barely-used mmWave 5G network.)

Google's also taking pre-orders on the Pixel Buds Pro, its first wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation. They're launching soon for $199. I'll run through some deals for both devices further down in this newsletter.

More cohesive smart homes: Setting up a smart home will get a lot easier in the future if you have a device with Thread 1.3.0 support. As The Verge reports, this update is now out for a slew of smart home devices, including Google's latest Nest Hubs and Nest Wi-Fi routers, Apple's HomePod Mini and second-gen Apple TV, and Amazons fourth-gen Echo speaker and Eero Wi-Fi 6 routers.

With the update, all these devices will work together as Thread "border routers," forming one big network that connects your lights, door locks, and other assorted smart home gear. That means you won't need any extra bridges or hubs to get those devices online, and the more border routers you have, the more resilient the connection will be. (Think of it like a mesh Wi-Fi network, but on a wireless frequency that works better for smart home gear.)

At least that's how it will work in theory, but for now, very few Thread-compatible products exist, and none will work together as envisioned until the Matter smart home standard arrives later this year. My advice has been to avoid making major smart home purchases until we know more about Matter compatibility as a whole, but at this point, devices with border router capabilities seem like safe bets.

Fend off Google Calendar spam: Google has added a new setting in Calendar to help keep spam invites from showing up on your agenda.

Just open the Google Calendar settings page and head to "Event settings," then click "add invitations to my calendar" and select "Only if the sender is known." With this setting, invites will only appear on the calendar when they come from someone you've interacted with or added to your contacts. (Google Workspace users will also see invites from anyone with the same company domain name.)

Google Calendar spam rose to prominence a few years ago, as scammers realized they could fill your agenda with the kind of bogus gift offers and malicious web links that you'd normally find in an email spam folder. While Google Calendar previously let you hide invites that you hadn't already accepted via email, this new setting lets invites appear directly on the calendar if they come from a known source.

Spam is still an issue for iCloud Calendar as well, though Apple's only defenses at present are to unsubscribe or report them as junk.

Your new profile pic: Photomash is a new tool from Pixlr for creating stylized profile photos. Just select a template, upload your picture, then tweak the effects until they're to your liking. Just like the excellent Pixlr E, which offers Photoshop-style editing on the web, Photomash is free, through some templates are locked behind the site's premium tier. I feel trendier already.

Endless ambient audio: Flowful is yet another neat source of ambient audio for when you're trying to relax or stay focused. The site offers a handful of algorithmically-generated tracks that last forever, including classical strings and electronic tones, and there's an option to mix in background noise as well. Flowful is free to use, while a $50 per year subscription unlocks more sounds and extra features.

If you're intrigued by the Pixel 6a that I mentioned earlier in the newsletter, the Google Store is offering up to $300 off with trade-in, bringing the price down to $150. It's also throwing in a pair of Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds, which normally cost $99 on their own. Devices eligible for the full credit include the iPhone 8 and up, Samsung Galaxy S10 and up, and Google Pixel 3A and up.

Meanwhile, Google Fi wireless customers can get the Pixel 6a for $10 per month with a two-year service agreement, or $15 per month with device protection. And if you're eying the new Pixel Buds Pro earbuds, Wellbots is taking $15 off with the code VERGE15. (Via a promo for The Verge readers.)

Other notable deals:

We've been having some great conversations in the Advisorator chat room lately, so come on by if you're interested in talking tech with me and other like-minded folks. If you're not already a Slack user, you can sign up with any email address. Of course, I'm always happy to answer your tech questions over email as well. Just reply to this email to get in touch.

Until next week,
Jared