Related
So, I have been running Beautiful Widgets on my MyTouch 3G 1.2 with Cyanogen Mod 5.0.8-t1 (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=673394). So far I love the way that the widget looks, but I have been having an issue with it. I have noticed it a few times where when Beautiful Widgets updates the weather based on my current location, the GPS never turns off. I can get it to stop by killing the app in Advanced Task Killer, but then the time/weather does not update until i refresh it by clicking on the weather icon in the widget, and then it doesn't turn off again. Issue is, It likes to turn on while in my locker at work (I turn on Airplane mode to conserve power. I have been able to go a 9 hour shift and have roughly 85%-90% battery left, on the days that Beautiful Widgets decides to cooperate. Other days, like today, I'm at ~50% 4 hours into my shift, due to the GPS being stuck on.) I have tried disabling the GPS location, and it still does it. Also tried rebooting my phone, which has fixed it before, but didn't work today. I finally resorted to removing the widget from my home screen and that has worked so far. I would love to buy the app on the market (Currently using version 2.992 which I found in a ROM pack), but I don't want to spend the money on it if it will not fix this issue. I have tried multiple versions of the app, and it has been doing the same thing.
Any ideas?
it would be awesome to start a thread with all the information in one place someone would need to maximize the phones potential without rooting it or wrecking the warrenty. i know i will end up rooting my phone but not right away. so im looking to maximize it without doing anything too crazy. so what should i know and what free programs should i get to do this.
thanks so much
Droiddog and places like that have recommended apps and such if you want to stay stock. XDA is a place for modding. Its great that you're learning and on your way.
Remember, that you can always go back to stock for warranty issues with oden. Once you flash, you never go back.
From a phone
Note: Droiddog only has 1 post in the samsung captivate/epic/fascinate/vibrant forum http://www.droiddog.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=87
When searching for captivate stuff, I found most information (even not related to rooting) on this forum.
For my stock captivate I got:
Advanced Task Killer - the free ad based one. I have not tried the auto kill levels since I am scared that my phone will turn off randomly when I want to receive a call.
Launcher Pro - the free one (so i can customize the 4 buttons at the bottom of the home screen)
Home Switcher - so i can switch to touch wiz launcher if I want to use the Kies mini app
Google Map - I heard the one that came on the phone wasn't as good as the one in the app store.
I removed all the AT&T Apps from the home screens.
For music I got double twist to sync music with my iTunes.
I tried the AT&T video/music players and PowerAMP and DoubleTwist and something else but none are really that good - They seem to forget which podcasts I already watched/listened to and are not really good at resuming. This is probably because they think podcasts are songs.
I got Pod Manager to download podcasts - worst UI in the world but gets the job done. I am still almost thinking of using itunes and just syncing with double twist every morning.
The battery isn't the greatest on this thing. Not sure what techniques I can use to make it better. I set my background to black but not really sure if that will help. Also I used the "Power widget" to dim my screen a bit. I really wish I could use the "auto" setting on the light but still tell it to be darker in general. To offset the power even more I bought a couple micro usb cables. 1 for computer, 1 for car, 1 for work computer, and power adapter from box for next to bed. However I had to cut down some of the plastic off the ends of the cable to make it fit. I do generally make it all day with just the nightly charge even when I watch a podcast on the way to work and home from work (about 1 hour each way) on the bus but I like having the cables just in case.
The Kies app and mini app seems to suck - I can't get either of them to work on win 7 x64 even with .net 4.0. On windows 7 x86 the mini version used (without .net 4.0) to work but not anymore since the latest kies mini update.
Other than that I just got a bunch of games and apps. Although it probably based on personal preference.
Hope that starts you off in your quest.
NinjaCoder said:
Note: Droiddog only has 1 post in the samsung captivate
When searching for captivate stuff, I found most information (even not related to rooting) on this forum.
For my stock captivate I got:
Advanced Task Killer - the free ad based one. I have not tried the auto kill levels since I am scared that my phone will turn off randomly when I want to receive a call.
Launcher Pro - the free one (so i can customize the 4 buttons at the bottom of the home screen)
Home Switcher - so i can switch to touch wiz launcher if I want to use the Kies mini app
Google Map - I heard the one that came on the phone wasn't as good as the one in the app store.
I removed all the AT&T Apps from the home screens.
For music I got double twist to sync music with my iTunes.
I tried the AT&T video/music players and PowerAMP and DoubleTwist and something else but none are really that good - They seem to forget which podcasts I already watched/listened to and are not really good at resuming. This is probably because they think podcasts are songs.
I got Pod Manager to download podcasts - worst UI in the world but gets the job done. I am still almost thinking of using itunes and just syncing with double twist every morning.
The battery isn't the greatest on this thing. Not sure what techniques I can use to make it better. I set my background to black but not really sure if that will help. Also I used the "Power widget" to dim my screen a bit. I really wish I could use the "auto" setting on the light but still tell it to be darker in general. To offset the power even more I bought a couple micro usb cables. 1 for computer, 1 for car, 1 for work computer, and power adapter from box for next to bed. However I had to cut down some of the plastic off the ends of the cable to make it fit. I do generally make it all day with just the nightly charge even when I watch a podcast on the way to work and home from work (about 1 hour each way) on the bus but I like having the cables just in case.
The Kies app and mini app seems to suck - I can't get either of them to work on win 7 x64 even with .net 4.0. On windows 7 x86 the mini version used (without .net 4.0) to work but not anymore since the latest kies mini update.
Other than that I just got a bunch of games and apps. Although it probably based on personal preference.
Hope that starts you off in your quest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want awesome battery life un-install all that crud( launcher Pro, ATK, fancy music player) use any wallpaper you want and toggle your background data and wifi notifications my cappy gets 12 hours easy.
tylerdurdin said:
If you want awesome battery life un-install all that crud( launcher Pro, ATK, fancy music player) use any wallpaper you want and toggle your background data and wifi notifications my cappy gets 12 hours easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sorry I was considering 12 hours (10 hours of sitting in pocket use + some phone calls + 2 hours of video playing) poor battery life.
I picked the black background because I heard the "Live Backgrounds" were a battery drain and I like the black color (its my PC's background color as well).
Auto Task Killer is not needed...does more harm than good IMO.
Also your black background is the best for Super AMOLED (all OLED-based) displays because when a pixel is black it is essentially using no energy.
-Battery life gets better with about 2 weeks of use
-I uninstalled all task killers. This thing multitasks on its own fine
-I figure a full day without plugging into a charger is excellent on any smartphone device.
-However, I bought the samsung external charger and battery on amazon, so I now seldom plug my phone in. I just swap batteries in the evening and charge the battery thats been in the phone all day
My captivate is 1 week old. The battery the first few days was not very good but now it seems to last longer.
This is what I have done:
1- Brightness set the lowest (Phone + Browser) I can see the screen just fine.
2- Black background, but with style so it doesn't look plain
3- All apps. sync manually and background data off. I turn it on when I need it but I am most of the time on wifi.
4- GPS off, I don't need it or use it
As of right now, with moderate use, I am on my 2nd day without charging and I'm pretty sure I will get a 3rd day without charging.
Apps that I can recommend:Fancy Widget,SamServmode, Barcode Scanner, 3G Watchdog
My post about droiddog was about the app reviews and such they do. Basically all unrooted android phones are the same, just different hardware. That's why general android sites are best for unrooted phones. Samsung support forums would be a good place. General public troubleshooting each other. Get where I'm going with this?
From a phone
NinjaCoder said:
Oh sorry I was considering 12 hours (10 hours of sitting in pocket use + some phone calls + 2 hours of video playing) poor battery life.
I picked the black background because I heard the "Live Backgrounds" were a battery drain and I like the black color (its my PC's background color as well).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh why didnt you say that If I were you I would buy an ipod touch for video playing and your battery in your phone will last for 20 hours.
I resisted rooting for the longest time, thinking I'd wait till Froyo.
I finally got tired of waiting and did the one click root + lagfix. Didn't try anything else yet but let me tell you, just doing that small amount has made my Captivate experience so much happier
Do you have the link to the oclf you used? I'm just afraid of bricking it. I need to root first then I can use the oclf? Our does the oclf do it all?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I896 using XDA App
with my usage, my phone lasts me 8 hours, if im lucky. sometimes i go to class at 12 get home by 3 and im at about 60% lol..
messxxxedge said:
Do you have the link to the oclf you used? I'm just afraid of bricking it. I need to root first then I can use the oclf? Our does the oclf do it all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't use OCLF. Use z4root, it works with 2.2
I had Lockbot Pro on my EVO until last night. Got frustrated with it, and when I tried to go and download theme's from the gallery, I kept getting errors and it wouldn't connect, even after rebooting the phone and trying again.
So I read through the comments in the market for Widget Locker and it had a lot of positivity and I decided to give it a go.
I noticed today that my battery is half drained where as at the equivilant time in the past, I would be about 3/4 full.
I am still new with Widget Locker and trying things out. I have the Widget Locker with 6 sliders on it as well as the clock and the Tiny Palmary Weather Widget.
Nothing else is installed recently besides Widget Locker, so this is my reasoning with my question targeted at Widget Locker as the suspect.
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you,
Whiteice
WhiteiceDMSTech said:
I had Lockbot Pro on my EVO until last night. Got frustrated with it, and when I tried to go and download theme's from the gallery, I kept getting errors and it wouldn't connect, even after rebooting the phone and trying again.
So I read through the comments in the market for Widget Locker and it had a lot of positivity and I decided to give it a go.
I noticed today that my battery is half drained where as at the equivilant time in the past, I would be about 3/4 full.
I am still new with Widget Locker and trying things out. I have the Widget Locker with 6 sliders on it as well as the clock and the Tiny Palmary Weather Widget.
Nothing else is installed recently besides Widget Locker, so this is my reasoning with my question targeted at Widget Locker as the suspect.
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you,
Whiteice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's not. Feel free to look at System Panel, Spare Parts, etc..
I was wondering something about this.
When I had Lockbot Pro, it had a still image for the background. When I entered my PIN to unlock the phone, then it takes me to my normal screens which run a live wallpaper.
With Widget Locker, my background is the Live background. Does this mean that even when the phone is in standby until I hit the button to bring up Widget Locker to get into my phone that the background is constantly running whether the phone is on and being used or in standby mode?
Thank you,
Whiteice
WidgetLocker definitely drains your battery. You can just do your own test to find out.
Before you go to bed, leave your phone off the charger and remember what % you left it off at. Then:
1. Observe how much battery is drained overnight without WidgetLocker.
- For me, my phone drains around 1-4%.
2. With all else equal from the night before, apply WidgetLocker and, again, observe how much battery is drained overnight.
- For me, once WidgetLocker was installed and applied, it drained at least 20% every night.
For safe measure, you could reboot your phone before doing these tests to make sure no other apps are running in the background.
This is the test I use for testing the impact on battery every time I install a new app. I'm more cautious of apps that change system settings more than just stand alone apps (such as games). WidgetLocker definitely falls under the former so I wasn't surprised to see that it does cause a fairly significant change in battery life. It's a shame though cause it's definitely a good app. It's just the trade off isn't worth it when the Captivate doesn't have the best battery life to begin with.
khaytsus said:
No, it's not. Feel free to look at System Panel, Spare Parts, etc..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing is that it wouldn't list "WidgetLocker" when you use those apps. For example, with Spare Parts, WidgetLocker's effects would cause other measures to increase. If I remember correctly, "Android System" under the Partial Wakelock category was a lot higher with WidgetLocker installed which means that it does prevent the phone from sleeping at times. Also, Running % was higher as well with WidgetLocker installed which means again that the phone ran for a longer time without sleeping. Anyways, my suggestion is to use my tests above if you want to find out how it really effects real world usage. Observational tests will give you the best results (if all else are equal).
Enhanced said:
It's just the trade off isn't worth it when the Captivate doesn't have the best battery life to begin with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if it's a Captivate issue or an Android issue, but one of the settings the Captivate has turned on by default triggers a bug which might be related to this thread.
Settings -> Wireless and Network -> Wi-Fi settings -> Menu key, Advanced -> Wi-Fi sleep policy.
The default sleep policy that the phone comes with is "When screen turns off". The problem is that when that one is selected, sometimes the phone doesn't sleep correctly, and battery drains quickly because the CPU is still running. (Set to "Never" and I've not had problems since) I've tested with Tasker as well, making it respond to the screen turning off - it also prevented the phone from sleeping, even though it should have done no such thing.
So Widget Locker, if it responds to the screen turning off, could easily triggering the same bug as those two. At least on the Captivate. Other lock-screen replacements would probably do the same thing. If that is the problem, responding to the screen turning on, instead, might fix it.
Thanks all for the info and advice.
For the time being, if not forever, I went and uninstalled and refunded my purchase since I was still able too.
After I posted this thread, I plugged in my phone and charged it. Once fully charged, after 45 minutes off the charger, I lost 1/4 already. This hasn't happened until I installed this program.
I also noticed that my phone is a bit "zipper" once I removed this program.
Thanks anyhow. It seemed like a good program but wasn't worth the battery drain and slight sluggishness I noticed with it installed.
Whiteice
I've measured zero difference between using Widget Locker and not using Widget Locker, but I also have my phone doing stuff, so perhaps it wakes it no more than it already would have been. With K9 email, updating weather, syncing a few accounts, Tasker running, misc stuff, my phone always has 2-4%/hr.
However, the author has said a few times it's doing nothing if it's not visible. Could depend on the widgets you have loaded of course too.
I have Beautiful Widgets time/weather (4x1), PowerAmp (4x1), Android Agenda Widget (4x2).
And do you think that lock bot could drains battery?
khaytsus said:
I've measured zero difference between using Widget Locker and not using Widget Locker, but I also have my phone doing stuff, so perhaps it wakes it no more than it already would have been. With K9 email, updating weather, syncing a few accounts, Tasker running, misc stuff, my phone always has 2-4%/hr.
However, the author has said a few times it's doing nothing if it's not visible. Could depend on the widgets you have loaded of course too.
I have Beautiful Widgets time/weather (4x1), PowerAmp (4x1), Android Agenda Widget (4x2).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I had loaded on the Widget Locker lock screen was the default unlock and silent mode, camera and brightness sliders. I added a Dolphin HD and Pandora slider. I had the default clock and the tiny Palmary weather widget set to update every 1 1/2 hours. This update setting has been the one I've used on Palmary since Ive had it the last month.
And just FYI, I would have loved to have kept it, it seemed really awesome. But again, I did not have this battery draining issue until I installed this program. And it seems to have gone away once I removed it. All this within a 24 hour period from when I purchased Widget Locker.
Whiteice.
the phone will go into a sleep state using widget locker unless you attach a widget that prevents sleep.
I have typoclock and poweramp widget on mine along with a custom slider.
I dont get any difference in power consumption than normal
however im not using homehelper, i have a fully rooted device using the root method of the 5 second rool and turned off weather animations.
I would consider what widgets you attach to widget locker and what method you are using to avoid the 5 second rule. Home helper maybe a resource hog.
I notice no significant drain on my battery. I had my phone on for 3 hours today while in class, and my phone only dropped 6%.
I experience phone lag with it, really awesome app but it needs some more work, interference with stock lock screen too.
Had to remove it but would like to bring it back if those glitches are sorted out.
Had it on Desire ...
Widgetlocker definitely drains my battery. Pity because it's a great application. However with it on android system takes over 40% of my battery, Widgetlocker itself is shown to take another 17%
and OS monitor shows constantly at least 25% CPU load from Widgetlocker.
Don't know what is wrong but something is wrong. Will try to root my device and not to use home helper and check if there is any difference.
I will have to look at my settings because I am not having any serious battery drain at all. On my WL, I have Beautiful widget with clock and weather going (update every 3 hours) and quick dial/text to my wife.
I am getting normail battery life with or w/o WL. I will report back my settings so those that love WL can continue to use.
OK, I've got to admint, rooting the phone and bypassing homehelper definitely improved the situation. Although I still have to check if there is still some battery drain when using the program. I guess there is some but not that significant anymore. Now the program is usable.
Enhanced said:
WidgetLocker definitely drains your battery. You can just do your own test to find out.
Before you go to bed, leave your phone off the charger and remember what % you left it off at. Then:
1. Observe how much battery is drained overnight without WidgetLocker.
- For me, my phone drains around 1-4%.
2. With all else equal from the night before, apply WidgetLocker and, again, observe how much battery is drained overnight.
- For me, once WidgetLocker was installed and applied, it drained at least 20% every night.
For safe measure, you could reboot your phone before doing these tests to make sure no other apps are running in the background.
This is the test I use for testing the impact on battery every time I install a new app. I'm more cautious of apps that change system settings more than just stand alone apps (such as games). WidgetLocker definitely falls under the former so I wasn't surprised to see that it does cause a fairly significant change in battery life. It's a shame though cause it's definitely a good app. It's just the trade off isn't worth it when the Captivate doesn't have the best battery life to begin with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same goes with me... widget locker does drain my battery.. my battery used to drain about 2-4% per night... but after installed the widget locker it drains like 12% to 18% per night..
XmUrF said:
OK, I've got to admint, rooting the phone and bypassing homehelper definitely improved the situation. Although I still have to check if there is still some battery drain when using the program. I guess there is some but not that significant anymore. Now the program is usable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did the rooting too.. but still it drains the battery.. like 15% per night.. that is on standby no usage at all.. jus wonder how will it drain on normal usage.. lol
I wonder if the updated WidgetLocker has any battery life improvements? Anyone with any new experiences?
i installed widget locker last week, and I've noticed it does seem to drain my battery significantly. I also dumped a sh1t ton of widgets on it too.
i think its the price you have to pay for functional lockscreens like this. I had an iPhone 3GS with LockInfo on it and it drained the battery a bit too.
Seems like a dead thread, but I am also having battery issues with WidgetLocker. I am certain that it is the culprit because when I restarted my phone after installing, the battery indicator was yellow, and when WidgetLocker initiated, the battery instantly went to red. Any ideas on how to fix this? I love this app.
Yep - I agree with everybody above. WidgetLocker is a battery muncher.
It's one of my favorite programs, but I've had to part ways with it. With it running I was only getting about 7 hours out of my battery - without it, I go 12 hours easy.
Sucks. Back to default lock screen.
Been experiencing a high battery drain past few days on both VirusROM and BAMF 1.6.3. According to CurrentWidget it keeps at 260-270mA most of the time with screen off. On it jumps up to 400-500mA pretty much right away.
The strage thing is that I haven't really changed anything and have seen 40-60mA draw while idle before.
Partial wake usage mainly lists Android System, everything else has really short duration times.
Any idea how I could track down what's using so much power during idle? Have very few apps installed and all that are installed are pretty standard I think.
Here's a list of what I have:
Where's my droid
Appstore (amazon)
ShootMe
Solo Lite
Facebook
Fandango
Go Launcher EX (maybe this? was updated recently)
Calendar (widget for EX) as well as two themes for EX
Google Maps
Gmail
GO SMS Pro and a theme
Foursquare
Screen Off and Lock widget
ROM Manager
CurrentWidget
SoundHound
Ginger keyboard
Shush!
ColorNote
gTabSiMiClock
Ringer Volume
Retro Cam+
SMS Backup
As far as general settings, Wifi and GPS are always on as well as syncfor gmail and FB, but then again they were since day one and I've seen idle draw at 40-60mA always before.
Thanks for the help.
Have you changed your wallpaper recently?
Mine used to be orange with flames, and it used to do the same thing. Since then, I changed it to a space themed wallpaper that's mostly black and dark blue . My current power usage has gone down significantly to idling at 30 unless I use it!! Try that!!
You could also recalibrate your battery if you haven't done that since ROMing, I did that at the same time too, but I don't think that did it.
Darker wallpaper hmm. Well I changed it to something darker though it doesn't make sense that it would drain battery differently while screen is off, but I guess it doesn't have to make sense heh.
I did use all kinds of wallpapers before even live ones and never really seen such high idle use before. Will try to drain battery and recharge as I haven't done that in a while.
Going to try and wipe everything and just install bamf 1.6.3 along with currentWidget and see what happens I guess. And if issue is fixed will slowly add apps one at a time to try and find which one causes the problem. It also possible that TitaniumBackUp is causing the issue as lately I was using it to reinstall all apps instead of going to the market and doing it that way.
make sure you re calibrate your battery after ROMing, if you haven't done that already. That fixed all my idling power consumption (and charging) problems
Try applying airplane mode. That will help you see if your radios are eating battery.
Reinstalled the rom and while I didn't want to install any apps market restored everything I had, but I did not use TitaniumBackup this time and so far everything is fine. Idle is back down to 40s mA.
I guess was some glitch in the backups. Because everything else is the same.
*Disclaimer* This is all from a personal experience and testing/research from a long time android user, what I have discovered over time and has helped me and some friends. This will work whether your rooted OR not. I kept it as basic as I can so everyone can benefit. If you dont like what you read and disagree, or want to add something PM me, Ill change/add and give credit to you. Hopefully, this can grow with the community.
*Rooted Section Will be Added*
*When I charge my battery I usually drain it all the way down or as much as i can (around 20% left) then charge plugged in till green, then power down and charge for another hour or so. Not sure if this matters or not but seems to help me out try it!*
This guide will help you if your rooted or non-rooted, all the apps I talk about I honestly have no ties to the devs. I don't use any SUPER AWESOME AMAZING BATTERY SAVER 5000 apps or anything like that. Those mostly just turn ur radios off and on and kill apps in the background. In my experience a lot of them cause syncing issues with my e-mail and other notifications. I like to receive my information instantly not have an app waiting for me to turn my screen on to check for updates.
About my personal setup: Basically, I want my phone to last me all day but still perform well with a heavy use, WITHOUT needing to constantly change settings to save battery. With what I have here Im able to keep my Sensation running for a full day of moderate-heavy use (7:30am to around 10pm) with its STOCK battery (Did damn well on my Evo 4G too). Days of very minor use Ive gone into the second day with 60% + battery. Yes, I use all my home screens and have a good amount of widgets, I love sense and its widgets. I play games, surf the web, do a lot of texting, listen to a lot of music, decent amount of fbing and email, usually take a few pictures a day. Half my day is wifi/other is mobile data.
Here goes the real basics, mostly common sense here not trying to insult anyone. Feel free to browse thru it quick (green text) if your not totally new to the android scene, whats after it will be a good read for noobs and vets.
*I use the power control widget, make getting to a lot of settings quicker. Why waste battery digging thru menus?*
Basics:
-Screen brightness: (duh ) these pretty screens eat battery brighter=quicker drain naturally and from my experience leaving it on Auto Brightness kills more battery too. Each time your phone pulls information from the sensor to decide on how bright it should adjust itself too.
-GPS: If GPS is on it should not effect battery unless an app is using it and you see the GPS icon on your notification bar. I noticed a very slight increase in mA discharge when i had it enabled, to be safe leave it off if you dont use it extremely frequently.
Location thru mobile networks: Not to hard on battery. I leave mine on it does add drain but it takes away from my weather widgets updating when Im traveling.
-Bluetooth: Moderate battery drain. I honestly don't use it at all myself but if you do try your best to keep it off when not in use.
-Wifi: Android has gotten a lot better at managing wifi over the past few years. It doesn't drain that bad on battery and it shuts off/on periodically on its own when screen is off depending on whats using it.
Google Back-Up: Takes a little juice here and there no biggie. I dont use it just because I like to fresh install my apps when I try a new rom, run into less problems that way.
2G/3G/4G: This varies phone to phone, the slower speed the better battery life. If you know your not going to be using 4G for a while turn it off. I leave mine on 4G or wifi all day with my sensation. When I had Sprint and my Evo I would leave it off most of the time. Depending on your carrier and how their data works this is a big one. T-Mobile seems to handle well, Sprint and Verizon's 4G Ive seen eat an insane amount of battery.
Sync/Background Data: I lumped them together because sync is pretty much reliant on background data. These kill a lot of your battery in general. It syncs your apps (email, facebook, google data, contacts, etc.), the periodic checks your apps do to check for and download new emails and notifications, using background data (data still transmits when screens off). I always leave these on and still manage great battery life, I like things instant if I wanted to wait Id just wait till i got in front of a PC. Sync and Background data are the settings most battery saving apps control because they really can help your battery if you turn it off. You can control what core apps sync in settings>accounts and sync. Or the power widget that 95% of android phones have has it on there. I recommend minimizing the amount of apps you allow background data with, example: WeatherBug first launch it asks if it can automatically update itself in the background for apps were thats not necessary hit no.
Radio/Airplane Mode: Pretty self explanatory, turns off your connection to your wireless provider. No point in ever turning it off in my eyes, your phones no longer a phone.
What has really helped me with my battery life (non-basics):
There is a lot to be said when it comes down to 2.2+ android phones and whether they need a task killer anymore or not. Since Ive had a lot of android phones and a few now that are 2.2+ Ive done a lot of testing. I usually go about a 2 weeks on one idea or new task killer and keep a close eye on battery drainage using Battery Monitor Widget, free app in the market. It tells you exactly how much of your battery is being drained without killing battery itself. Each phone/rom settles at a different average mA lower the better. In my experience if I can keep my phone anywhere under 100mA when idle im doing good. This held true on both the Evo 4G and my Sensation. Some ASOP roms i could get down to the 30's but for sense under 100mA is good. Keep in mind you will get the occasionally spike here and there its just android and/or apps in the background. You can view the a chart of the battery data in Battery Monitor.
Instead of boring you guys with each task killer Ive used and its results, Ill just get down to what I found out in the end.
Basically, the way android 2.2+ works it really isn't necessary to run a task killer it does a decent job removing apps from memory when you need more memory. But at the same time I found running a task killer periodically (BUT not killing frequently used apps) results in a lower average mA drain leading to overall better battery life.
The best application I have used has to go Automatic Task Killer , trust me Ive used a lot from the top free ones to a few of the more popular paid ones. What this task killer does is kill a selection of apps you allow it too every time your phones screen shuts off and goes idle. On Automatic Task Killer's first boot your shown a screen of every application that could at some point run in the background on your phone. This part sucks a little bit but it is worth it, you need to select which of the apps you want to allow it to kill automatically. It does not kill foreground apps the ones you currently have open on the screen aka a browser or a game. Example your playing NFS: Shift and your boss walks by so you quickly pause and hit the power button turning off the screen, next time you turn the screen on it will kill all other allowed background apps but your game will still be up front and center.
Now the trick is to go thru and set it to kill apps you know your phone won't automatically just restart or you don't use 90% of the time. So don't select things like Dialer, Contacts, Clock, Calendar, Messages or apps you constantly use/check such as a third party SMS app or your main E-Mail Client or third party keyboards (various by person and what you use most). Letting the app automatically kill those is just going to lead to worse battery life because your phone will just restart it each time leading to more CPU cycles (not what you want and part of the reason some consider task killers bad things).
Also, when using any task killer and killing the proper apps sense runs smoother, a big deal with sense 3.0.
So hopefully with a little messing around you can get a good setup where your phone lasts you all day without having to constantly keep changing settings and watching your battery life. All while everything stays syncing and instant. Hope this helps!
*ROOT Section (now that we have s-off )
Everything posted above can be done on any rom, rooted or none. There has been a lot of posts on "freezing apps" that you dont need or typically use, which does in fact really help battery life. Since, we (by we i mean sensation users) now have a permanent root this is my tiny second part of the guide for rooted devices.
I dont freeze my apps I prefer them to be gone for good if its something I dont see myself using or its bloat that came with my phone/rom. Since 98% of us will be using custom roms now this usually isnt an issue since most dev's r good at what they do and remove all the bs we dont need or normally use. Still there is some apps we may not want on our phones so for that I use SystemApp Remover . Its a great App for people who dont want to have to worry about going in manually and getting rid of system apps.
Its just basically an Uninstaller that allows you to access any and every app on the phone for you to uninstall (thats y roots needed). For me I just go in an drop the apps I know i wont use. A lot of roms come with carrier add-ons and such, those I normally delete as well as a few HTC sense widgets and apps I see no need for. It will free up space and increase your phones battery life with most things you delete.
Now, be careful. You are prompted upon opening SystemApp Remover that messing in system apps is dangerous and it is. If your not sure what something is DONT touch it, simply do a google search or ask around to see if its safe to remove first.
Re-calibrate Battery: After you flash a new rom or start using a new battery, you should use your recovery (CWM or other) to Wipe Battery Stats. Before you do this make sure your battery is at 100% and has been on the charger for over an hour with the fully charged green led on. This will allow your device to better drain your battery and can really help battery life.
So hopefully with a little messing around you can get a good setup where your phone lasts you all day without having to constantly keep changing settings and watching your battery life. All while everything stays syncing and instant. Hope this helps!
Thanks to people who have contributed:
-JadeSoturi
thanks for sharing the experience
i'm trying Automatic Task Killer
devine might said:
thanks for sharing the experience
i'm trying Automatic Task Killer
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no problem. let me kno how it goes for you
very good info! would also help if you specify which versions of android.....
Thanks for the info, hope it will increase my battery life to last a day
Airfaire said:
very good info! would also help if you specify which versions of android.....
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im on my sensation so 2.3.3. Been getting a lot of hate on the sensation forums since task killers are officially deemed no longer needed, but this method really helps me with battery life hoping itd help some of u too
Watchdog> then any task killer
ADR6300
Hmm, ill try auto task killer as well, tried a few others.
I use JuiceDefender, I like it. It manages my connectivity pretty well and it does help.
This is excellent, many thanks. As a converted WM 6.5 user I have to say, I am enjoying android considerably more and I prefer it to the Metro interface of WP7. It's nice to know the little tricks to get the most out of it. Thanks again. ^_^
DarkSwanKnight said:
I use JuiceDefender, I like it. It manages my connectivity pretty well and it does help.
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same here, JD works pretty good
TastyTorge said:
same here, JD works pretty good
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Worth getting the full one or will the free version do?
Sent from my HTC HD2 running TyphooN CyanogenMod 7 via XDA Premium App
Thanks
Thanks for the info, and for sharing, i will try the different methods
i havent really bothered with task killers but ive found reducing the brightness and disabling data and sync makes my battery last alot longer. i just re enable when i need them.
also, i downloaded setcpu and added a profile for while the screen is off. that helps alot. the drain is about 5% with the screen off after every 3 or 4 hours.
Very good info thanks
You had me impressed until you mentioned task killers. Absolutely horrible...
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G
Martin_Toy said:
Worth getting the full one or will the free version do?
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Full version is much better.
It's killer app indeed. I think many of it's features should be natively included in android.
Options like "Turn off 3G/EDGE when connected to Wi-Fi", "Turn off all radios when screen is off", "Turn off Wi-Fi after x minutes if it doesn't connect to a network", "Set screen brightess to minimal when battery is low", etc....it wouldn't be that hard to implement and battery life, perhaps most criticized aspect of Android, would improve immensely.
fpu
floating_point_unit said:
Full version is much better.
It's killer app indeed. I think many of it's features should be natively included in android.
Options like "Turn off 3G/EDGE when connected to Wi-Fi", "Turn off all radios when screen is off", "Turn off Wi-Fi after x minutes if it doesn't connect to a network", "Set screen brightess to minimal when battery is low", etc....it wouldn't be that hard to implement and battery life, perhaps most criticized aspect of Android, would improve immensely.
fpu
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Your mobile network DOES turn off when connected to wifi, and if all radios turned off when the screen went off, how would you ever get calls or emails with the phone in your pocket? The wifi after x minutes would be a nice feature, but I don't like things touching my screen brightness.
Thank you for your information.