Five Ways to Speed up Your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad

Though Apple’s iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad devices are truly remarkable, they’re not perfect. Case in point: just as a computer will slow down the more you use it, so too will Apple’s flagship line of devices. Certain performance issues just can’t be helped, like programs being created with newer and more advanced hardware in mind. But if your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad are generally slow and sluggish, there are a few free ways that you can get its speed back up to the blazing-fast performance that you’re used to.

Close programs you aren’t using anymore. After using a program, most of us just press the “Home” button when we’re done. This closes the program and returns you to your device’s “Home” screen. What many people don’t realize is that it doesn’t actually close the program – it just minimizes it. Press the “Home” button twice to view a list of apps that are currently running. Press and hold on one of the apps until they all start to wobble. Press the “-“ button above the app to close that particular program. The more apps that are running at once, even when you’re not using them, the slower your device will go.

Uninstall apps you don’t use. Having too many applications installed on your device at one time will take up valuable hard drive space, which will ultimately slow down your Apple device. Either uninstall an app via your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad or have the device removed via iTunes on your computer. Always leave some space on the hard drive free to avoid slowing your device down for this reason.

Remove content you don’t watch or listen to. This effectively performs the same function as uninstalling apps you don’t use – it frees up hard drive space. Leaving even a small amount of free hard drive space, like a couple of gigabytes or so, will yield speed-related benefits almost immediately.

Stop upgrading to the newest version of iOS. Each new version of iOS that becomes available requires more system resources than the one that preceded it. This is because the newer versions are designed for newer models of the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. Just because a new version is available doesn’t mean you have to download it. For example, downloading iOS version 5 on an iPhone 3GS will dramatically slow that device. If your device is more than a year or so old, it’s probably time to stop upgrading the operating system.

Stop upgrading applications if the updates specify they take advantages of a new version of the iOS software. Just because you downloaded an app when it was new doesn’t mean it’s always going to run smoothly on your device. Newer versions of applications are designed to take advantage of the latest hardware models of Apple’s iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad devices. This means that the newer version may actually run slower on your device if it isn’t a brand new model. Before you download an update, check the “Update Notes” in the iTunes Store. If the update is geared specifically at improvements for newer hardware models, steer clear.