Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 7, comes complete with a bevy of new animations and colorful effects. Unfortunately for some older model iPhones, these animations can be a big drain on the device's battery life. Below are a few things that can help you improve the battery life on your iOS device now that it has iOS 7, courtesy of Mercury News.

App Refresh: Your iPhone comes with a feature that will automatically update the information on all apps before you even load them. By turning this option off you can save your phone the extra leg work and make it only update your apps when you first open them. You may have to wait an extra few seconds for your apps to load but the wear on your battery should be a bit diminished.

Automaitc App Updates: iOS 7 lets users update all of their apps automatically. This means that they will begin to download an update for your app as soon as it is available. If you're not going to be in one place long enough to charge your phone to completion, this might be a smart thing to turn off to save battery life. Sure you'll have to update your apps manually but you've been doing that all along anyway.

Bluetooth: Unless you have a Bluetooth device that you use connected to your phone or tablet, there's really no reason to have it constantly searching for a connection. You can use the new Control Center to turn Bluetooth on and off as you wish. If you keep it off, you can save a bit of battery.

Wallpaper: The iOS 7 comes with a lot of wallpaper animations and parallax view. These can be turned off in the setting menu. Sure you'll lose some of the beauty of iOS 7 but you'll also be able to use your smartphone for longer periods of time.

Notification Center: It would do you well to be selective about what notifications you want to see here. You can go to settings and turn off some of the more useless notifications and just wait until you open the app to receive them.

WiFi: Similar to Bluetooth, when your WiFi antenna is not on a network, it is still searching for one. You can either shut this of or you can at least turn off the Ask to Join Networks switch at the bottom of the settings menu.

Location Services: The more you can avoid having your location services used the better for your phone's battery life. This is a useful feature for many of your apps, particularly map applications, however, if you need battery life more than you need a map, it might be a good idea to switch it off.

You can check out a more complete list of ways to save battery on your iPhone HERE via Mercury News.