With Comic-Con just around the corner, there are a few specific details we need to cover over the next 10 days- this one focuses on your phone. Unfortunately, there is never a police call box around Comic-Con when you need it. This means that you need to make sure your phone is ready to make it the entire 4 days. Chances are, the most important companion you will have for the show is your phone. So make sure you treat your companion with the love and respect it deserves. Here are a few tips to remember.

*A lot of these are in context to the iPhone so Android users will have to adapt it.

Battery Life

Nothing is more important than making sure you have enough juice for the day. Even if you have a extra battery source (which is a must) you still have to be conservative. Now with the addition of extra programming that now runs into the evenin, you might spend over 12 hours in a single room! The congested network and molasses wifi means a single tweet can spool for minutes and eventually running down your battery. Seriously, your phone runs down three times faster than normal and outlets and charging stations are rare.

Here are a few battery conservation tips to remember:

An external battery is the obvious solution right? Yes, but make sure you get one with enough power. Typically the phone case chargers are only good for one solid partial charge. So have a battery that has at least 4,000-5,000k mAH juice that is good for a couple of charges. Higher the better. You’ll definitely need a big battery if you plan to Periscope or live stream.

Turn down your brightness all the way. I know it’s inconvenient, but your brightness drains your battery big time.

Turn off Wifi and Bluetooth. The convention center wifi is too congested to be useful so it’s just better to turn off wifi so it’s not trying to search for it.

Turn off all the sounds- no ringer, tapping, or anything. Even vibrate mode drains a lot of power.

Temporarily disable iCloud (note: Find iPhone App will be disabled)

Turn off auto notifications from your apps. Don’t worry, the world won’t implode.

Finally, turn off background apps that are automatically refreshing like Facebook, Google Maps, Siri, Compass, etc

Security

Make sure you put a password protect your phone. I know it’s a whip if you are not used to it but you won’t want to risk your personal info getting out during a crazy week like Comic-Con. Losing your phone is one of the worst things that can happen to you at a Con so LOCK IT DOWN.

One of the biggest preventative measures you can take is putting your contact info on your lock screen like pictured on the right. You can list your friends phone number, your e-mail, or which hotel you are at. By putting all your info up front, it greatly increases your chances of getting your phone returned. Write it out, type it, or utilize Apps out there like “If Found Lock Screen” (.99).

Locator App

Another security measure you can take is to make sure your Location Services is on and you have the Find iPhone App on another device- like your iPad or laptop. By inputting your Apple ID, you will be able to locate your phone right away. You have to go through a couple of steps to get it set up so take care of it before Comic-Con

Autograph Apps

Nothing is worst than running into a celebrity and having nothing for her to sign. With Apps like Autograph This, Autograph It, Signature+, and more, not only can you take their pic but you can have them sign it as well. Then on most Apps you can directly share to Twitter, Facebook, or through e-mail. If you have a favorite one then I would love to know!

Group Apps

You might also consider some type of group App. Instead trying to manage a group through your text app, use Apps like Group Me, Groups, Group Text. These tools are especially made for larger groups of 6 or more. They basically make it easy to chat with the group without dominating your actual text app while managing different groups.

Storage

These days, storage for photos isn’t too much of an issue but make sure your phone has plenty of room for Comic-Con. If you plan on taking a lot of video then you will definitely want to bring an external drive to be able to dump your video daily.

I hope these phone tips were helpful and let us know of any helpful phone or tech tricks to help with Comic-Con.

Check out my past Tip of the Day posts.