Another, more flexible way to get instant notifications when necessary while keeping as much of JuiceDefender’s power saving as possible is by using the Peak schedule.

Need to reply to your boss’ emails at a moment notice? Go to the Schedules tab, enable Peak, set the start/end times to your work hours via the sliders, and select on for the frequency. As you can guess, on will keep connectivity always on during the programmed period.

Or maybe a 5 minutes sync frequency is enough during work hours, but decidedly overkill otherwise? Well, you can set a regular Schedule frequency of 1 hour and rely on a 5 minute Peak schedule for office hours.

One of the best features of the Peak schedule is that you can manually activate and deactivate it when necessary using the QuickBox. Just make sure Peak is enabled and set to on; when, say, you’re having an important but "sparseâ€? IM conversation, use the QuickBox to activate Peak – you’ll be notified instantly of new messages even when the screen is off. Just remember to deactivate it when you’re done!

JuiceDefender’s complete customizability allows even more sophisticated scenarios. For example, another way to have instant notifications at work – while still saving juice – is to leave only mobile data enabled and turn on the WiFi radio on demand. To do this, set the Peak schedule frequency to on; then, under Controls, tap on Custom and leave enabled mobile data only. Your phone will be always online via mobile data during the Peak schedule; as soon as you turn the screen on – e.g. to place a Skype call – it will connect to WiFi; and when you’re done, the WiFi radio will be disabled to save juice.