With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the eastern seaboard, millions of smartphone owners will be left without a way to recharge the battery that keeps them connected to the world. But if you can read this, here are a few tips to make sure you squeeze as much as possible out of your battery until you can get to a functioning outlet again.

Turn the display brightness down much as you can while still being able to make things out. The dimmer the better.

Say goodbye to Bluetooth. It sucks battery like no tomorrow and a natural disaster. So no Jamboxing your Storm Party playlist.

The power is out. That Wi-Fi connection isn't doing you any good. Turn it off.

Unless you really need to include your location in those Instagram photos of the water rushing down your street, turn off location services.

Turn off push notifications, too. People will understand if they're not getting immediate e-mail responses from you right now.

Go back to 2G. Staying on 3G, 4G or LTE sucks battery faster than you can stream your 30th viewing of "Gangnam Style". If your smartphone gives your the ability to use the 2G network, do it.

Use Airplane mode. I did this to my iPhone 4s on a two-and-a-half-day camping trip once and got home with juice to spare, even though I'd been taking pictures and listening to music out in the wilds. If you don't need to make a call, this is your best play for saving battery life, especially if you've also dimmed the screen.

If you've still got power, plug in your laptop so you can use it to charge your phone. In situations like this, mobility and connectivity trump the laptop. Use it as a giant battery.

Adjust your usage. Obviously. Going a couple of days with only minimal Facebook and Letterpress time will be worth it when you're able to phone your mom two days into the blackout. Put the phone away and read a book.

Tweet via SMS. You can save battery life by using SMS instead of data and still get your tweets out. Send a text message to 40404 to let your followers know you're okay.