Tracking Battery Usage
When you make the switch from AC to battery with MacBook Air, it’s vital to keep an eye on the battery status. Your biggest concern is to prevent MacBook Air from completely discharging the battery while you’re working. This can have disastrous consequences because MacBook Air simply shuts down without warning when the battery runs out of juice. If you have unsaved work in any running applications, that work will be lost forever. Tracking the battery usage also helps when you’re cycling the MacBook Air battery (as described later in this chapter) and when you want to store MacBook Air for a long time (see the sidebar a bit later in this section).
The basic tool for tracking battery usage is the battery status icon in the menu bar. If you don’t see this icon (it’s shaped like a battery), follow these steps to display it:
1. Choose Apple →System Preferences. You can also click the Dock’s System Preferences icon. The System Preferences window appears.
2. Click Energy Saver. The Energy Saver preferences appear.
3. Select the Show battery status in the menu bar check box. MacBook Air adds the battery status icon to the menu bar.
The battery status icon changes to reflect MacBook Air’s current power source (AC or battery). When MacBook Air is running on battery power, the amount of black inside the icon tells you the amount of power you have left (see Figure 9.2).
9.2 When your MacBook Air is running on battery power, the battery status icon changes to a ...
Get MacBook Air Portable Genius, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
