HOW TO stretch the battery life of portable devices

Tips from a recent NY Times article on increasing the battery life of portable devices like BlackBerry, iPhone, smartphones & laptops:

• Consider using G.S.M. over CDMA for your mobile
• Turn down the devices' screen brightness.
• Turn off Bluetooth & Wi-Fi when not required otherwise portable devices will continue to look for Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth headset, using power
• If you’re in a weak signal area turn off your portable device’s mobile capabilities as your phone must work even harder to find one, decreasing battery life.
• Set up your phone to check for e-mail and instant messages manually.
• Put your smartphone into "airplane mode" to cut power to a minimum.
• Disable Flash when not using wall power; Flash animations are a power hog
• Get an app to monitor battery life and shut off various functions that cut down on a mobile device’s effective power.