turn on what you turn off! - Droid X General

i have noticed with 3rd party and blur widget that switch the gps on and off that (at least on mine) it does not turn on what it turns off.
if you use a widget it will turn off:
use wireless networks
use GPS satellites
enable assisted GPS
but when you turn the GPS back on it only turns on "use GPS satellites".
how do i get it to turn on aGPS as well?

I wish my DX did that, lol. As far as I can tell it still suffers from the GPS bug or whatever it is. (Where after the GPS is used, it won't let the phone sleep properly.) Sometimes I get pretty decent battery life, and other times it gets horrible battery life. I've tried using task managers and not using task managers, but still haven't quite decided what the best setup is. All I know is after going from my highly modded G1 to the stock DX (1.5 or 1.6 for the G1 vs 2.1 for the DX) I am still very much in love with the android OS, and the hardware I'm on now compared to the G1 hardware makes me breathe a sigh of relief.
As for a solution to your problem, you might be able to try the app Tasker? I am trying to hold off on getting it until 2.2 to see how much the official 2.2 release is going to help my phone, but I may just get it anyways for its other handy uses besides helping conserve battery. From what I understand, power management apps can't directly turn on and off certain functions like you are talking about. They can only bring you to the settings screen or perform similar tasks automatically. I'm wondering if 2.2 addresses things like that myself.

Related

GPS Today

GPS Today
I am very impressed with this program so far. Found it at
http://www.freewareppc.com/download/travel/gpstoday.shtml
Like Google Maps but with a Today Plugin.
Works easy and fast!!
Try it!
Mobo
Sounds cool, I'm trying it now. Here's a link to the full page with the description: http://classic.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=26396
Application Description
GeoTerrestrial GPSToday is a lightweight today screen plugin that will allow you to utilize the full capabilities of your device.
* It utilizes intelligent algorithms to always maintain and display a fix on your position right on your today screen, without draining the battery.
* Always see your full street address, not just geo-coordinates.
* Currently WORKS in the US only!
* Slide the red icon over to the right to start the GPS in continuous mode, or single-tap the red icon to start the GPS in quick-fix mode.
* GPSToday always shows the distance to the nearest contact from your device's address book.
* Single tap to create a new contact with your current location as the address, or save the current location as an existing contact's address. Imagine not having to type the full street address on the PPC keyboard!
* You will never need the stylus to use GPSToday!
* Speed, heading and satellite data is shown clearly on the today screen whenever the GPS is running.
* In-pocket tap protection. A single tap on the today screen only operates the GPS in quick fix mode. To fully start the GPS in continuous mode requires an iphone like sliding motion, guaranteeing no pocket accidents.
* Single tap from the today screen to access fully draggable online maps!<
* Always see all your address book contacts on the map. Just tap a contact to quickly call/email or send sms.
* Single tap from today screen to quickly do a yahoo local search around your current position and see the results on a live map. Just tap a result to call or open the website.
* High quality Yelp Reviews for local search results!
* Fetch the full street address for any point on the map.
* GPSToday automatically disables data access when your device goes into roaming mode.
* And many more features.
* Best of all, its free!
Update Description
Added Note: Currently Works in the US only!
i'm trying t too
I'm really curious how can it be "without draining the battery" when internet is active and gps is active. If those two features are active then battery must be drain more than normal usage. Hopefully, someone can measure it. If it is true, we can have GPS open all day long without worry about battery drain and in the same time no need to wait for "cold" boot and have instant gps when open tomtom or other gps application.
I had it on my device for the last few days and while it does offer direction, speed, etc it does consume battery life. It stays active and when it hits open sky, begins the search. Several trips home from work monitoring my speed yielded a very warm battery...
I'm really curious how can it be "without draining the battery" when internet is active and gps is active. If those two features are active then battery must be drain more than normal usage. Hopefully, someone can measure it. If it is true, we can have GPS open all day long without worry about battery drain and in the same time no need to wait for "cold" boot and have instant gps when open tomtom or other gps application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There should be no extra Battery drain with GPS on because GPS doesn't require the transmitter to be turned on like the internet access does.
The receiver in the unit always stays on (so you can get calls) so receiving satellite data doesn't require any more power than normal.
The internet connection DOES drain the battery though as it needs to turn on the transmitter each time it sends data.
i used it this morning and last night.
first off, it leaves the data connection active while it updates your location/address so yeah, it drains the battery. i lost 10% or so in about an hour of constant use. but keep in mind that also had the screen on while i was watching it. next, its a little buggy because, for me, it would stop GPS'ing when the screen shut off and once the screen came back on, it would get the sats for about 20 seconds then stop. i have to go into the map, choose MORE, and chose run GPS to make it stay on. all in all, its a really neat app, i love the speed part.
I just found this the other day and tested it. One problem I had was I had to go to the map to keep my connection open. It kept turning on and off until I clicked on the map and it didn't turn off afterwards. I didn't have to keep it open. I just opened and closed it. It seems to get a pretty quick connection when outside. It seems to be a memory hog I think for what it does. I start at 11 mb with just this on the Today screen using NexVision rom, which I usually started at 15. I like the plugin. I wish it didn't use at much ram as it does.
OK.. I might just be lame but I ran the cab on this.. Did the soft reset and there is nothing installed for it.. In my programs there is no listing for it and on my storage card (where I installed it) there is only a listing for a help file that does not open...
Any ideas??
RevSand said:
OK.. I might just be lame but I ran the cab on this.. Did the soft reset and there is nothing installed for it.. In my programs there is no listing for it and on my storage card (where I installed it) there is only a listing for a help file that does not open...
Any ideas??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NM... just installed it to the device and it works.. hmmm not a fan of it there but it will have to do...
Asphyx said:
There should be no extra Battery drain with GPS on because GPS doesn't require the transmitter to be turned on like the internet access does.
The receiver in the unit always stays on (so you can get calls) so receiving satellite data doesn't require any more power than normal.
The internet connection DOES drain the battery though as it needs to turn on the transmitter each time it sends data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you delve a little bit deeper into how GPS receivers work, you'd understand that it actually does draw quite a bit of power. Also, the mogul does not use aGPS, which uses the cellular tower information to help get a faster fix without as much effort on the part of the GPS chip. Your explanation of "The receiver in the unit always stays on (so you can get calls)" doesn't make any sense in this case since the technologies do not rely on each other.
To prove my point:
Turn off the cellular radio on your phone in the comm manager. Turn on Bluetooth. They both use a receiver, however bluetooth uses far less power than the cellular radio. Your battery will last longer. The GPS radio also uses power, perhaps less than cellular, but more than not using it at all.
BOTTOM LINE: Leaving GPS on will eat your battery. Period.
it's a today plug in. if it doesnt show up, reinstall it to your device
This program makes my mogul really slooooooooooow...
hmmm, I was really trying to prevent downloading on device but i'll do it and hope all works.
Update. I now see the gps but my phone is slow as dirt. Cant even click on Start or anything....whenever I receive a new message I get same issue...bout to soft reset again to see if it works a little better....
seems to be running better just needed time to boot up I guess....should we be changing anything on GPS settings? I feel like I just got a new toy man...
Seems like a cool new toy.. I cannot wait to get outta the cave I am working in right now and see how well it really works with a sat signal...
Dishe said:
If you delve a little bit deeper into how GPS receivers work, you'd understand that it actually does draw quite a bit of power. Also, the mogul does not use aGPS, which uses the cellular tower information to help get a faster fix without as much effort on the part of the GPS chip. Your explanation of "The receiver in the unit always stays on (so you can get calls)" doesn't make any sense in this case since the technologies do not rely on each other.
To prove my point:
Turn off the cellular radio on your phone in the comm manager. Turn on Bluetooth. They both use a receiver, however bluetooth uses far less power than the cellular radio. Your battery will last longer. The GPS radio also uses power, perhaps less than cellular, but more than not using it at all.
BOTTOM LINE: Leaving GPS on will eat your battery. Period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and besides that, even if the gps doesnt need extra power to recieve GPS data it still has to do something with the data, that means the processor is running, stuff is being written to and from RAM, then displayed on the today screen, all this takes more power that doing nothing
anyway, i ended up having to prime the GPS with google maps to get this thing going, and the today plugin flickers rather annoyingly (and its definately eating the battery, i got it charging now but its charging up a lot slower than usual)
hmm, i have google maps on my laptop for mobile. I will attempt to install later. as far as the gps working, I was driving to work and it showed me how fast I was going and how far i was from work. I didnt even put it to search for work but it must have found the address somehow in my phonebook?
I'm lookin at the program and its linking to an Autozone that is 5,397.7 miles away from me. I know which one they are referring to since i saved that name and number but i'm pretty sure its closer than 5 thousand miles from me...WTF
i'm still trying to learn how to use this...
program seemed REALLY cool.. but while it was installed and looking for a signal it seemed to REALLY lock up my phone... I could not do anything on it for a couple mins. I will keep an eye out for a newer version when it comes out since I did really like the concept of this program...
Thank you
Hi all,
First, its wonderful to see so many positive comments about the software just days after its first release. Now we know we are on the right track!
Secondly guys, apologies for the bugs/issues you faced, or are still facing. This is still version 0.9, so its actually a beta release (not that that's an excuse!). Also please excuse us for the lack of documentation.
About the "without draining the battery" part, I agree the language is somewhat confusing. It was meant to compare with the consumption that would occur if the GPS were actually running all the time. You'll agree that if you start up the GPS at 8:00 in the morning on a typical Phone-PDA and leave it running non-stop along with an active internet connection, it will not last until noon. With GPSToday one can get the same benefit throughout the entire day. There have been some inconsistencies though, with some users reporting almost no perceptible change in battery life, and some being seriously affected.
Please note that tapping the red icon on the today screen is intentionally meant to temporarily start the gps, obtain a fix if available, and then stop. To start the GPS in continuous mode from the today screen itself, drag the red icon over and drop it onto either of the two icons on the right. Once you are done, you must remember to stop it by repeating the same gesture. Also, try this once if the automatic mode is not able to get a fix the first time you go outdoors.
Memory: our tests indicate significantly less than 1MB consumption when the map window is closed, and about 1.5 Mb overall when the map window is being actively used. We agree this is a bit high (but nowhere close to the 4mb one of you is reporting). Some of this is also an offshoot of the fact that it uses up only a tiny amount of storage memory, < 200kB. Nevertheless, expect to see ram usage being reduced significantly in later versions.
Lastly, please fetch the latest version 0.9.1 which fixes some battery life issues and other minor fixes, from Pocketgear at http://classic.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=26396. Make sure the download filename is GPSToday091.CAB. We recommend a soft reset immediately after installtion. We also promise that from v 1.0 onward soft resets will not be required!.
Thanks!
GT, Inc

Do most of you leave your GPS on constantly?

Hey guys - have a question for those of you that have used Dream/Magic.. I notice that most of the really interesting Android apps are location-aware apps.. which got me wondering whether people constantly leave their GPS on and if so, how this goes with the battery life. Or are most of these location aware apps using tower-based triangulation?
For example, some apps let you know if one of your friends is in the area - surely such an app would be kind of useless if your friend had to intentionally turn both GPS and the app on before leaving home.
Thanks!
My understanding is that the Android API has a location call which will use whatever is available... cell tower triangulation, wifi hotspot location and GPS. So apps will just default to the most accurate in any given circumstance, no need to leave on GPS to necessarily get the location features.
Personally I leave GPS and WiFi on and I get about 18 hours out of the battery with some talktime and fairly heavy usage on the screen. I don't get enough for two days even if I turn everything off so the way I see it I'm resigned to charging every day and might as well have the features
georgefrs said:
My understanding is that the Android API has a location call which will use whatever is available... cell tower triangulation, wifi hotspot location and GPS. So apps will just default to the most accurate in any given circumstance, no need to leave on GPS to necessarily get the location features.
Personally I leave GPS and WiFi on and I get about 18 hours out of the battery with some talktime and fairly heavy usage on the screen. I don't get enough for two days even if I turn everything off so the way I see it I'm resigned to charging every day and might as well have the features
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your understanding is not correct. As a programmer, you can specify minimum required accuracy, which means that you can force it to require GPS over cell tower.
@rahux: cell tower location doesn't use any extra power since it is connected to the cell towers anyways. Regarding "leaving your gps on", that is really an inaccurate way of saying "not force-disabling the gps". The gps does NOT consume any extra power just because you have it enabled in the system settings... it only consumes power when an application/service is actually USING it, and you can tell when something is using it because the GPS icon will be visible. In other words, if all your gps-aware software is well behaved, then there is NEVER any reason to disable the gps, and if any of your gps-aware software is NOT well behaved, then you should probably uninstall that software rather than disabling the gps.
@lbcoder
That makes sense. Thanks That makes a lot of sense. Just curious - how long would it take to get a GPS signal then? I know my current WinMo phone always takes over a minute to find satellites, sometimes longer (on a clear day in the suburbs). Suppose it doesn't really matter anyway.
Thanks!
I leave it on solely because of "Wheres my Android". I get a GPS fix in less than 5 seconds and [knock on wood] if I ever lose my phone, I want the GPS ability. The developer had written somewhere that you used to be able to force GPS on through the app remotely but that functionality was removed.
I have a g1 & with my GPS enabled I am only down about 25% of my charge on the average day of probably about 15 hours of intermintent use mainly on messaging & web apps.. And some apps do not work with the cell location, but do with GPS.. 1 being an atm location finder for my bank,,
I always leave mine on. The difference in battery life is minimal. The only time you need to worry is if you have an app misbehaving in the background that is checking your location CONSTANTLY. My favorite GPS Speedometer app does this, once you run it there's no way to get it to release the GPS and it will kill your entire battery in just a couple of hours.
But under normal circumstances, simply leaving the hardware enabled isn't going to make any significant change to your battery life, it all depends on how much your background processes are using it.

Possible cause and solution to X10 Battery? -"No Sleep Bug"

Hey guys,
Just updated to the x10 after my samsung galaxy died on me, so far i am rather happy - except for the lack of root, but that will come.
I have noticed many complaints on the forum about battery life, and have experienced the same thing myself. From my experience, i think this looks like the same issue that was faced on a leak of 1.6 for the galaxy - it was referred to as the "No Sleep Bug".
TBH, the name says it all - for some reason, in many builds of android 1.6, phones were not sleeping correctly. There are many theories as to why, from cpu not being allowed to sleep, to permanent communication with google servers.
Despite all these different theories, one thing seemed to fix the problem - turning off all location services. Some people argue that a different carrier build, turning off just 'share with google' under location, turning off just AGPS etc. would fix it, but from my experience, the only real way to fix the issue was to turn off all GPS usage unless you need it. The once you have used it, reboot your phone.
This fix obviously sucks, and a new fix has recently been released by a veritable android-demigod around the Galaxy.
HERE IS A THREAD ABOUT NO SLEEP ON i7500 GALAXY;
(ok, some stupid rule says i can't post links - can a mod help me out?)
HERE IS THE FIX FOR THAT PARTICULAR BUG;
(ok, some stupid rule says i can't post links - can a mod help me out?)
LINKS ARE IN POST #5 - THANKS TO ONDOTEAM (would still be nice to get them in this original post though)
Now, from my experience, no sleep behave exactly the same way on the x10 as it does on the Galaxy;
1) I turn of all location services, and my battery life at least doubles.
2) After said turning off of services, 'spare parts' no longer says 100% running time under battery usage - in fact it can be as low as 10%.
These two factors are identical to my experience with Galaxy. SO; is there any way drakaz's fix can be applied to our X10's? It seems to me that the files he mods are standard Android system files, not sony/samsung specific.
Now i am no developer, so i dont know it this is possible - the first question that comes to mind for me is "do we need root access, or can this be done through developer tools using the android SDK?"
Can anyone help shed anymore light on this?
Seems to work for me. I disabled all location services. Spare Parts went down from 100% to 7.6%.
I'll just have to enable GPS when I need to use it..
Awesome! Glad to hear it has helped.
Let's keep testing this guys - if it does show up to be a big cause, then perhaps the devs around this place can help is figure out a patch for Drakas' mod to make it work with our x10's!
n3man said:
Awesome! Glad to hear it has helped.
Let's keep testing this guys - if it does show up to be a big cause, then perhaps the devs around this place can help is figure out a patch for Drakas' mod to make it work with our x10's!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello send me a PM with links, I will try to post it
http://androidforums.com/samsung-i7500/61168-no-sleep-has-nothing-do-anything.html
http://androidforums.com/samsung-i7500/78471-no-sleep-bug-fixed-drakaz.html
Links from n3man
No sleep is easy to fix, took me a while to figure it...
Turn your screen brightness from manual to auto, spare parts will now start showing proper running stats, no more 100% running.
The screen is a little dark in auto but it will cure the 100% running.
GPS and location services etc make no difference to my X10i, I am running the 1.6 version unbranded UK handset, the only thing to stop mine running 100% is to put the screen on Auto.
ronnyuk said:
No sleep is easy to fix, took me a while to figure it...
Turn your screen brightness from manual to auto, spare parts will now start showing proper running stats, no more 100% running.
The screen is a little dark in auto but it will cure the 100% running.
GPS and location services etc make no difference to my X10i, I am running the 1.6 version unbranded UK handset, the only thing to stop mine running 100% is to put the screen on Auto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL... this is already going the way of the Galaxy thread!
My phone came out of the box with auto-brightness and i never changed that option, yet i still had no sleep.
Drakaz has done some fairly deep digging and is next to certain that it is an artefact of the geolocation bug discussed in the thread in which the problem was fixed.
I can't see "Spare Parts" in About Phone -> Battery Info
tuxStyle said:
I can't see "Spare Parts" in About Phone -> Battery Info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me neither.. I was wondering about that myself!..
Although I'd half assumed that they were referring to the total "up-time" figure which you can see at the bottom of the "about phone"; "Status" screen.. But perhaps not.?
Spare Parts is a standalone Program ...
(i don't know for sure if it is in the market or downloadable as .apk from somewhere here in the forum ...)
Bax
im_iceman said:
Me neither.. I was wondering about that myself!..
Although I'd half assumed that they were referring to the total "up-time" figure which you can see at the bottom of the "about phone"; "Status" screen.. But perhaps not.?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can download it here
Spare parts is indeed available from the market - it is a much more powerful tool for indicating battery usage than the regular android methods. The galaxy stared on 1.5 which had NO indicator of battery usage statistics at all, so we all learned about spare parts very fast.
Perhaps that is why no x10 users have realised about the potential no sleep bug; because so far only the android usage indicators have been used?...
Anyway, hopefully this can help us all understand the way our phones are working better together
n3man said:
Spare parts is indeed available from the market - it is a much more powerful tool for indicating battery usage than the regular android methods. The galaxy stared on 1.5 which had NO indicator of battery usage statistics at all, so we all learned about spare parts very fast.
Perhaps that is why no x10 users have realised about the potential no sleep bug; because so far only the android usage indicators have been used?...
Anyway, hopefully this can help us all understand the way our phones are working better together
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
14% it's mine value for running time, not 100%. By the way thats 30 minutes of 210 in total :S
I'm also experiencing "No sleep bug" after i used GPS. I use Battery Graph to plot my power consumption and after I use GPS, I can clearly see that power consumption is high even if i turn the phone in plane mode.
In addition SE widget, used to turn on/off GPS, seems to not work very well for me. So, to fix the bug, i manually disable GPS in parameter menu and restart my phone. After that power consumption is hardly null (20% in 8h with MP3 on almost all the time).
mimok said:
I'm also experiencing "No sleep bug" after i used GPS. I use Battery Graph to plot my power consumption and after I use GPS, I can clearly see that power consumption is high even if i turn the phone in plane mode.
In addition SE widget, used to turn on/off GPS, seems to not work very well for me. So, to fix the bug, i manually disable GPS in parameter menu and restart my phone. After that power consumption is hardly null (20% in 8h with MP3 on almost all the time).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have 3G always on?
My phone has no trouble sleeping.
Gps hasn't really been an issue but I keep it off when not needed.
Here's my solid settings:
1) No auto sync
2) No moxier
3) Gps off
4) Restart after using wireless
As long as it's like this my phone lasts 2 days easily
ondoteam said:
Do you have 3G always on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but I made a lot of test with and without 3G enabled and 3G seems not to be a problem for me. I think my problem comes from GPS.
ondoteam said:
Do you have 3G always on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3G always on.
n3man said:
LOL... this is already going the way of the Galaxy thread!
My phone came out of the box with auto-brightness and i never changed that option, yet i still had no sleep.
Drakaz has done some fairly deep digging and is next to certain that it is an artefact of the geolocation bug discussed in the thread in which the problem was fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been playing with mine for a month to work out what caused mine to not go into sleep, I keep GPS wifi etc on 24/7 but in spare parts I was running 100%, after numerous reinstalls and removing everything i chanced on turning on auto screen brightness, now when i unplug my x10 the running sits at the correct level.
No Geolocation bug here
I have this problem with 100% on and off. Sometimes when I check its under control (~10%), other times its at 100%. I have GPS off, no WiFi, auto brightness... don't know why it sometimes just gets stuck at 100% :/

Any Battery power saving tips?

So as the thread name states does anybody have any tips for helping have the WildFire's batterey last longer?
So far ive turned the screen brigtness down by half of what it was & turned off touch vibration.
Any other tips?
ATOJAR said:
So as the thread name states does anybody have any tips for helping have the WildFire's batterey last longer?
So far ive turned the screen brigtness down by half of what it was & turned off touch vibration.
Any other tips?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not tried many things but one thing i am pretty sure of is go to MARKET >>>> Download and use Advanced Task Killer .. kill the running apps.. i leave my installed keyboard..and mobile security app ON rest most of them i kill... its a useful app.. i mean why to keep music app or weather app or news app or messaging app running when u are not using them..
Have Fun
warriorvibhu said:
I have not tried many things but one thing i am pretty sure of is go to MARKET >>>> Download and use Advanced Task Killer .. kill the running apps.. i leave my installed keyboard..and mobile security app on rest most of them i kill... its a useful app.. i mean why to keep music app or weather app or news app or messaging app running when u are not using them..
Have Fun
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah ive been using the Advanced Task Killer for a while now already.
I have read that usage of ATK is not required at all because of Androids near perfect RAM Management. And you also could come into trouble because android looses a small amount of ram capacity every time you use ATK untill the next reboot.
other than that you could try Juice Plotter and Juice Defender
find a app can auto turn on/off fly mode.
I ve tried Juicy defender, it seems not fit wildfire very well, some function not working. like auto fly mode, and auto turn off wifi when over 50M.
(btw,it will change your apn setting,cause me can not connect after uninstall it.)
after 1 month, I found navigation app take me 80% of battery.like google map/navi.
rasenzhang said:
find a app can auto turn on/off fly mode.
I ve tried Juicy defender, it seems not fit wildfire very well, some function not working. like auto fly mode, and auto turn off wifi when over 50M.
(btw,it will change your apn setting,cause me can not connect after uninstall it.)
after 1 month, I found navigation app take me 80% of battery.like google map/navi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use the automatic brigtness option under the phone settings. much better batterty performance
Read:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712990
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=701567
Not sure if these steps actually improve the efficency of the battery OR wheter the S/W behind the battery guage becomes more accurate as it goes through a process that alows it to better estimate the SOC of the battery.
Andy
Yup, even I have read a lot that Android manages the apps in a beautiful way. When I first used Android, the first question that came to my mind was how to exit apps as none of the apps had an exit button. Coming from nokia, sony erricson etc this was an obvious question to ask. Then after some research I found that Android just freezes the apps when we go back. The app is not actually running in the back end.
But anyway, yesterday my battery again went to 8% and on checking the used status, it showed that the android system used 92% of the battery lol.
One more thing I would like to suggest is that there is a Power control widget built in the wildfire. Its pretty useful to decrease the brightness, turn off gps, wifi etc from the home screen itself.
sumeetchawla said:
One more thing I would like to suggest is that there is a Power control widget built in the wildfire. Its pretty useful to decrease the brightness, turn off gps, wifi etc from the home screen itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this!
I installed this widget and it said that GPS was on even though it wasn't appearing in the tool bar along the top. I had run several apps that use GPS, but had assumed if the GPS icon was gone, GPS was off.
Is that wrong?
(good news if it is, as I was struggling to keep enough power to in my phone to get through the day without charging)
joan
Avoid task killers like the plague. They cause more problems than they solve. Trust the android os to manage ram.
Just discovered the most powerful app I have ever seen called "Tasker". It its only £4, but will make your android so much more diverse. You can, for example, have it go into airplane mode between certain times (i have between midnight and 6am) but periodically check for sms or voice mail every hour. It saves stacks of battery.
I have it turning wifi on only when it knows I'm at home or at work.
I have it turning off wifi, dropping screen brightness down, and playing a louder notification when battery gets to 15%.
It silences my phone when I get within 100m of the two cinemas I use.
It is not the most easy app to use, be patient with it. Look up some of the "recipes" on the internet to get a good tutorial on how to work it. £4 is a steal for something so potentially vast. Its limited only by your imagination.
Oh and having run Tasker for 24 hours, (how long my battery normally lasts) only contributes to a 2% drain, and its adding roughly 6 to 8 hours extra! It would cost you ten times that for an extended battery!
I use an free app called timeriffic to auto disable WiFi
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using XDA App
Try program JuiceDefender....you can download free from Android market.
my battery life is really awful too,i noticed it a couple days ago,that it drains to fast,so i started looking into it,and i found out,that my device won't go too sleep. so in settings/about phone/battery the awake time and up time are the same. i had similar problems on my hero, but there it was the messaging apps fault.
here, i kill everything with advanced task killer,it still can't go too sleep,android battery use shows,that android system is using most of the battery.
anybody else with similar problem?solutions? i have stock 1.25 rom rooted with unrevoked.
What? You mean your screen is permanently on? .....
Ive head bad things about using task killers too, I dont use on anymore.
Some things i have done that have helped my battery like quit alot actually is turn off Wi-Fi, Turm off GPS, Turned off haptic feedback(vibration when pressing buttons), Screen brightness to automatic & screen timeout too 15 seconds.
I can now have a really good fiddle with the phone and it can last more than a day without needing a charge.
As I understand when screen goes auto shut off, all apps are idle, even WiFi or gps is on. I tried with music on continuously for 2 hrs in flight mode, I still have about 80% power. With gps on for 1 hr continuous, I still have about 80%. With normal use my power can last the whole day.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using XDA App
ATOJAR said:
What? You mean your screen is permanently on? .....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no,the screen turns off,but something still runs in the background what eats the battery,and I can't find out what it is. I tried multiple task managers,and they show that everything is closed.i have it in flight mode,with everything turned off,still something runs,what shouldn't.
Did you solve this? It's happening on my phone now, and it's very frustrating.
(just installed ATK - very scary the apps I never use are running) and killed everything except ATK. Touch the power switch to turn off the screen. 15 minutes later, up time and awake time are still the same.
jefmcg said:
Did you solve this? It's happening on my phone now, and it's very frustrating.
(just installed ATK - very scary the apps I never use are running) and killed everything except ATK. Touch the power switch to turn off the screen. 15 minutes later, up time and awake time are still the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2 updates from me, to help anyone else with similar problems:
1) I uninstalled any recently installed or updated apps** and widgets now I have a 1:6 ratio of awake time. So, fixed?
2) In the meantime I logged a call to HTC via their website. Answer:
With regards to your problem, if the battery is going down significantly and you have turned of applications when your not using them and used task killer. It might be better to call us up so we cann look into it further and we might have to book the phone in for repair especially if you have noticed it not charging properly or overheating at any time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.
Yup, those problems started occurring at the same time as the other, so it looks like I have an underlying hardware fault. Dammit! I don't want to be without my phone for 2 weeks.
joan
**including CardioTrainer! When I reinstalled it I'd lost around 900km of workout history.
Just out of curiosity
What gain of time are we actually talking about here ?
I tried lots of different things but never suceeded to receive more than two full days.
What is your max. with all the different programs and hints ?
ebioman said:
Just out of curiosity
What gain of time are we actually talking about here ?
I tried lots of different things but never suceeded to receive more than two full days.
What is your max. with all the different programs and hints ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are asking me, the answer is "about 6 hours".
I've (partially) fixed my uptime = awaketime problem. But I obviously have some more serious battery issue.
Hopefully someone else can chime in with happy battery life.
joan

[Q] Android location services and GPS

Hi guys, I know that some people say to disable location services and/or GPS because they drain the battery (under Android system in battery usage). I just want to clarify. I came from an iPhone, and on the iPhone I leave location and GPS on, but as long as the app is closed, the GPS will NOT run (just that its functionality remain on) so there is no drain.
Is this the same on Android? Is it okay to leave them on but not run any location-based apps?
Bump...
It'll constantly bounce the GPS signal AFAIK, so will use it up. buuuut, on 4.4.2, you can edit your location preferences GPS accuracy etc and it tells you battery use on it. However I believe it's on perma unless you disable it totally
I wouldn't be so sure. I have GPS, WIFI, BT and all other crap 24/7 and I loose about 3% charge over about 7hrs sleep, personally I don't think it's worth bothering or lifting my finger to shut it off. Also when I drive I see my correct location on the map, after screen goes off and I need to check again few min later, the map shows my last location and it takes few seconds to update to new one. If it was working with screen off it should have been updated right away, no? At least it's working in some low power mode. I think what really kills the battery is all those push services like e-mail etc, especially when not set properly, but the best way is to test yourself.
fterh said:
Hi guys, I know that some people say to disable location services and/or GPS because they drain the battery (under Android system in battery usage). I just want to clarify. I came from an iPhone, and on the iPhone I leave location and GPS on, but as long as the app is closed, the GPS will NOT run (just that its functionality remain on) so there is no drain.
Is this the same on Android? Is it okay to leave them on but not run any location-based apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically 100% the same.
However for practical reasons things are not quite the same - as long as you have many, many apps and your data (WiFi and/or Mobile) active certain apps will try to connect from time-to-time, and some will try to get a location. Unfortunately Google Services is one of those, and an older version of that was generating a really huge amount of power consumption. The problem is reported to be a lot better now but I can not confirm since I am anyway keeping my data connections OFF for most of the time when I am not really using those.
xclub_101 said:
Technically 100% the same.
However for practical reasons things are not quite the same - as long as you have many, many apps and your data (WiFi and/or Mobile) active certain apps will try to connect from time-to-time, and some will try to get a location. Unfortunately Google Services is one of those, and an older version of that was generating a really huge amount of power consumption. The problem is reported to be a lot better now but I can not confirm since I am anyway keeping my data connections OFF for most of the time when I am not really using those.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess this is one of the few things that iOS is better than Android at - managing how apps run. I use Greenify to freeze inactive apps, but the limitation is that I will not receive push notifications. On iOS apps are frozen yet push notifications are functional (that's ironically the downside of iOS too - no true multitasking). I don't disable my data connections because I want my push notifications, but I do turn off GPS. :/
fterh said:
I guess this is one of the few things that iOS is better than Android at - managing how apps run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, when coming from a situation when there was absolutely no multitasking at all (and that was successfully sold as a "feature" for quite some time) I can really see that being easier
fterh said:
I use Greenify to freeze inactive apps, but the limitation is that I will not receive push notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the latest Greenify PRO version has something to improve that too. But I will have to test a lot more to see the real limits of that.

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