Hey guys,
As the radio stack is the second cause of battery draining after the display, I was thinking about a way to save battery life by reducing the impact of the 3G connection. Most of the energy saving apps on the market are only disconnecting the phone from the APN, but this isn't a great solution as each app could be set to update at different times and thus being unable to download data even if the user sets some exceptions. So I thought that an application which operates in the following way could be great to save power:
- The phone uses the 3G network while the screen is on;
- It switches to 2G when phone is in standby mode;
- It disconnects the APN data connection while the phone is using a WiFi Network;
Obviously to avoid possible issues during the switch between 2G and 3G the following rules are applied:
- If there's an incoming call or a phone call is being performed, there won't be any radio switch until the phone call is ended;
- If there's an incoming SMS/MMS, there won't be any radio switch until the text message is fully received.
Unfortunately as I'm not a Java developer I can't code anything like this. But let me know what you guys think about my idea and if it's technically feasible... Maybe some developer could be interested into further exploring my thoughts and will try to create such an app
Cheers
I'm not a developer but I think it sounds like a great idea. I go into settings and switch it to 2g when I'm in spotty areas outside of town. I have to work a bit to keep my N1 battery alive all day...
Hello I'm new here.
I don't know if your suggested profiles are the best case scenarios. You would need to calculate your data throughput, not just the radio power.
If you need to send 100 packets, your radio would be on the longest for edge > 3g > wifi. So, even though wifi uses the most power, it would be for a much shorter duration.
A profile for "place calls only" would work somewhat like airplane mode, but still keep track of towers. Your phone just wouldn't register on the network unless you wanted to place a call. You would miss your incoming calls, have no data connection, or sms. But, you could have it check at an interval for voicemail or sms. This would be most useful for "ringer off" situations like class or meeting.
Afaik Android is always connected to the APN even if the phone is not downloading anything, consuming a lot of battery power. On other platforms, i.e. Windows Mobile, the connection can be terminated by user and re-established when an app needs that.
The amount of data downloaded by widgets, Google mobile applications or apps which operates in background like eBuddy or Facebook should be quite low, so downloading the required data by using GSM or WCDMA while the phone is in standby would be pretty much the same. The only difference is that downloading stuff using GSM/EDGE should take much less energy power.
So that's why I thought about the app I described before: the phone can save a lot of energy power while in standby and be back to its full horsepower when there is any kind of user intervention. Pretty much the same thing that the system already does for CPU usage. It scales to the less consuming protocol (or, in the case of CPU, frequency and voltage) to save power
I know on the google api it isn't possible to do this, but I don't think that isn't the problem.
At the moment you have 3 options. GSM only, WCDMA only and GSM/WCDMA. Whenever you switch between the 3 of them, the phone will lose signal for 10 seconds before it can find the best network. So the switcher here is not the best as you will lose connection, and what if you are downloading something at the same time...
What you need is when the phone is on GSM/WCDMA that it knows the best network to pick from depending on the phones lifecycle. GSM/WCDMA loses battery power because it always tries to find the best network to connect to, so for example if you are on GSM it will constantly try to find a 3G network etc (as far as I understand it).
What we need is the ability for the phone to stay on GSM when the phone is idle and then when the phone is woken up to automatically start to search for a WCDMA network and then gracefully switch over like it does now. For this I have no idea if it is possible as I don't know how the scanning of the network works. If it is possible then that would be wicked. But this is what we need.
my preference would be if the phone would stay on 3g as long as any possible even if there would be a more reliable 2g connection and only switch to 2g if there really is no way to connect to 3g. turn of apn if the screen us turned of for longer then 1 or 2 minutes and only check every 15 minutes or so.
most of the time I'm on 3g only mode . since I live in a city I got good coverage almost all over the city. only problem is that when there is no 3g available also my phone is unreachable. I don't really miss data connectivity when there is no 3g since 2g is so slow that I rather have no internet at all but not being sale to be called or texted is a major disadvantage...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Hi all
I am having some weird problem with Google Map
when i use data plan provided by Maxis (my telco) the location that it shows is a few kilometers away from my actual position.
when i turn off the data usage and use my Wifi to open the google maps, it shows that i am off by 40m from my actual position
anyone got any idea what is causing the problem?
Sounds like your telco's not very good at finding your precise location.
I think wifi would always be more accurate. Wifi hotspots don't have much range, and there are a lot more of them than cell towers, so it's easier to know that you're within 40m of Starbucks WiFi #3828 than a particular cell tower.
In my home, with WiFi off and GPS off, the cell towers here usually report me a few blocks away from my house. With WiFi on, it puts me in my own backyard. With GPS on, it puts me in the correct room of the house.
For some reason my router’s location is way off (in a different state). I bought it off eBay few months back, perhaps it is still showing previous owner’s location.
From what I could find out, Google periodically updates their location database with data gathered using their street view cars or with those anonymously submitted by users (using apps like Google maps mobile). Now I’m wondering if there is a way for me to manually submit my own data or better yet somehow enter my WiFi router’s location data into the phone so whenever I’m connected to my home WiFi my location wont be detected at a different state?
If changing WiFi location is not possible then is there a way to at least give Cell tower location priority over Wi-Fi ? Because my cell tower location is far more accurate (down to like 5km, which is much better than having a location in a different state 1000km away).
I have moved in the passed week and our cell signal is not as good at the new house. I normally don't connect to wifi unless I'm at church since I have an unlimited data plan. Is there a good app that will turn my wifi on when I am at my house and at church so I don't have to think about it?
Trilback said:
I have moved in the passed week and our cell signal is not as good at the new house. I normally don't connect to wifi unless I'm at church since I have an unlimited data plan. Is there a good app that will turn my wifi on when I am at my house and at church so I don't have to think about it?
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tasker can do that, also there is another app, i dont know the name offhand i can find it iif tasker isnt for you.
Wifi manager can do that without problem => WiFi Manager apk
• Switch among your favorite networks with a single tap by using the WiFi Network Switcher widget. It will even enable WiFi if needed.
• Automatic switching between fixed and dynamic (DHCP) IP addresses
When I'm at home my phone automatically connects to this crappy tower but a tower is up the street almost just as close that I get amazing speed on. Any way to lock on to the better tower?
Which version you on, i had the same issue as you changed it to 3G, almost no one uses that anymore so you get decent speeds. i remember on the lolipop you could open terminal en force the lock on tower you needed the ID of that tower but when you go out of the range of that cell tower, it lost connection and stopped connecting to other towers because you forced it on that one.