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I have the overpriced desktop dock accessory, and contrary to some others here, I really like it. This thread is not for arguing that point, please -- there are already several others where you can't vent your hatred of this accessory
Like others, I find the Samsung docking app buggy, crappy, and, after seeing the screen burn-in from some others, I got rid of it. Only tried it briefly anyway.
So, what to do?
Well, if you have tasker and the clock app from the Syndicate ROM (is that the stock clock app? I never tried it before Syndicate, so I have no idea), you come real close to achieving the same result -- i.e., have the app start when you dock, quit when you undock.
Two things I like most about the clock app vs. the Sammy dock app: It shows the local weather, and this can be set up to work off of GPS (if you want -- optional) so it's always local no matter where you are, and most important, it has a nice dim green time/date display after the device sleep times out that jumps around on a black background so there's no possibility of screen burn-in.
Now the one downside: Tasker doesn't seem to capture dock/undock events from Eclair on the Epic. These events are obviously there, somewhere, as the Samsung app can detect it.
So, a alternative must be used to detect the docking. I chose to use the AC Power state, as this is as close to narrowing down a state that is always "on" when docked.
I tried playing with adding some orientation conditions, but it turns out that when tilted back in the dock, it's neither "on left side" or "facing up" according to the sensor interpretation.
Anyway, this works very nicely. If anyone can come up with an even better context for tasker to further narrow the trigger to just docking, it would be much appreciated!
Of course, the ultimate solution is for tasker to correctely detect docking state on the Epic, for which I am going to write the dev.
Had a question about NFC tags... I'm seeing a bunch of coverage on them lately and it looks like it indeed could be useful.
It seems you would almost need 2 tags per "action" though.
I'd love to have one at work, but wouldn't I need one for "arrive at work" and "leave work" to turn on/off certain things?
I did see (at least some) apps that make use of TOGGLE - however, what if for example I had a Car NFC which I want to turn on bluetooth when I get in, and turn it off when I get out - what if I happened to enable bluetooth earlier - maybe listening to a bluetooth speaker? This would create an inconsistency and kind of break the toggle (assuming I was toggling multiple things, at least...)
Still trying to read through and thoroughly understand it - any insight from people who actually use these on a daily basis?
Seems like these NFC taskers need to create a new service to always listen to NFC - is that true? Are they battery killers?
Lastly - any recommendations on where to pick some NFC tags up?
I'm no NFC expert but I do use it with the Tagstand NFC Task Launcher.
1. You don't need 2 tag with NFC Launcher for, like you said, it can toggle. Toggle works by performing Action 1 the first time its scanned and then Action 2 the second time its scanned.
2. Say, for example, Action 1 says to turn on Bluetooth and Action 2 says to turn it off. You scan it and it performs Action 1 but its already on, it will do nothing (wont create some universe shattering paradox ). Then if you have take the phone off the tag and scan it again it will turn Bluetooth off (Action 2) and then loop back to action 1 and so on.
3. On our phone, if not all of them (idk), the NFC chip is only on when the screen is on. A mod found here enables it to be on always but this eats battery life.
4. I currently use Tagstand's own NFC stickers from their store and they are pretty cheap and work great. buynfctags.com has then cheaper but the blank ones have a minimum order of 5 and the custom printed ones have a minimum order of 250.
VERY IMPORTANT!- The Nexus 4 wont work with Mifare Classic 1K Stickers, these include Samsung tech-tiles, because they use proprietary standards (see here for more).All truly NFC compliant tags will work, eg. The Type 2 (NTAG203) and Type 1 (Topaz 512) stickers.
NFC stuff is great, don't get me wrong. But there are alternatives so I just wanted to offer some suggestions just in case you weren't aware. I'm writing this based on your "work" scenario.
I do a LOT of the stuff that you can do with NFC Task Launcher etc. with automation apps. You can in fact, do all the basics you can do with NFC with automation apps, the bonus of NFC is being able to pin point areas and to design complex macros. I've used Tasker in the past but right now I use llama primarily.
For me, NFC is more of a boon in "trusted" areas, like in my home, my car or say at work vs. out and about. I'll admit I'm slightly paranoid about nfc scanners/readers siphoning information right out of my phone. It's very highly unlikely but tech has gotten all the better and thieves are getting super creative - we're also making it so very easy for them. The culprit would have to be close to me and in case of our devices, the screen would need to be on, but that wouldn't be difficult in a cinema or in a crowded area. My habit right now is to disable it unless I'm home or have a reason to use it while out. Eventually I'll source a nice case for my phone and tablet that blocks it, then I can leave it enabled.
So, yeah...keep the alternatives in mind if you're just interested in basics. I set my wife's llama to set her phone to the silent profile when at work. She's not allowed to use her phone there but I hate her turning it off because sometimes she doesn't remember to turn it on when leaving but rather when driving on the way home. So her llama sets the phone to full silence when in her office and as soon as she leaves the garage it sets it to normal.
As I mentioned, with NFC it's more about the ability to pin point within certain areas and design more complex conditions. For example, llama can detect when I leave my home but it can't detect when I've moved from my office into my kitchen or into my bedroom. This entire area is just, Home. Maybe it could if I trained it but goodness knows I would hate to have to set adjustments based on each of the areas in my home anyway. NFC allows you to focus on the actual area. I haven't found a whole lot of use yet for my tags, but I do have one in my kitchen and bathroom which starts music on my N7. Of course, that's just really, really lazy of me vs. useful. There's also one in my car's phone mount that is set to turn on navigation when I mount the phone but I don't use that one since I have to enable GPS manually anyway.
Kevin has said everything re: the use of the tags and the stores. Some additional stores are here. Like him, I got mine from Tagstand because they look nice, were pretty cheap and they do try to beat competitor prices.
Good Luck.
Kaitlyn2004 said:
Had a question about NFC tags... I'm seeing a bunch of coverage on them lately and it looks like it indeed could be useful.
It seems you would almost need 2 tags per "action" though.
I'd love to have one at work, but wouldn't I need one for "arrive at work" and "leave work" to turn on/off certain things?
I did see (at least some) apps that make use of TOGGLE - however, what if for example I had a Car NFC which I want to turn on bluetooth when I get in, and turn it off when I get out - what if I happened to enable bluetooth earlier - maybe listening to a bluetooth speaker? This would create an inconsistency and kind of break the toggle (assuming I was toggling multiple things, at least...)
Still trying to read through and thoroughly understand it - any insight from people who actually use these on a daily basis?
Seems like these NFC taskers need to create a new service to always listen to NFC - is that true? Are they battery killers?
Lastly - any recommendations on where to pick some NFC tags up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does anyone know the real max range possible of the NFC system the Nexus 4 uses or the range other devices can interface with it at? I guess really I am trying to find out if there is a way to increase the range from the official .2m / 8" to something farther away. I am trying to figure out how far away from my phone someone needs to be to read my info if I have my NFC turned on?
donec said:
Does anyone know the real max range possible of the NFC system the Nexus 4 uses or the range other devices can interface with it at? I guess really I am trying to find out if there is a way to increase the range from the official .2m / 8" to something farther away. I am trying to figure out how far away from my phone someone needs to be to read my info if I have my NFC turned on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well for the chips in our phones, it usually needs to be within 1 inch, like a key fob RFID scanner. I've heard CLAIMS that people can do it from across a room, although I don't believe the chip has enough power to make such a connection at that distance. (Someone correct me if I'm truly wrong, because I'm curious too).
For NFC chips, it usually requires that the chip touch a specific part of the back of the phone. Same with Google Wallet on pay pass. NFC is pretty neat and can be used for various things. Like wallet, tags, sharing items with another phone, etc.
Kaitlyn2004 said:
Had a question about NFC tags... I'm seeing a bunch of coverage on them lately and it looks like it indeed could be useful.
It seems you would almost need 2 tags per "action" though.
I'd love to have one at work, but wouldn't I need one for "arrive at work" and "leave work" to turn on/off certain things?
I did see (at least some) apps that make use of TOGGLE - however, what if for example I had a Car NFC which I want to turn on bluetooth when I get in, and turn it off when I get out - what if I happened to enable bluetooth earlier - maybe listening to a bluetooth speaker? This would create an inconsistency and kind of break the toggle (assuming I was toggling multiple things, at least...)
Still trying to read through and thoroughly understand it - any insight from people who actually use these on a daily basis?
Seems like these NFC taskers need to create a new service to always listen to NFC - is that true? Are they battery killers?
Lastly - any recommendations on where to pick some NFC tags up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the confusion is in the word "Toggle" - instead for NFC Apps let's call them "Switch Tags". This means the first time you tap them, the execute one set of commands and the second time you tap them they execute a second set of commands. But these commands can be anything. So for example you wouldn't have either set of commands "toggle" Bluetooth - instead, you'd have it "Turn BT On" or "Turn BT Off". If you're BT was already in the state then nothing would happen.
NFC was developed to use very little power - part of the reason why the range is very small and you have to pretty much tap a tag. The affect on your battery leaving NFC enabled will be barely noticeable. The apps themselves are not "always on" - the tag is programmed to trigger the app when your phone's nfc antenna detects the tag.
As for where to pick up tags, of course I'd recommend AndyTags, but I'm biased. You can check them out, but there are lots of great places to get tags. For the Nexus 4 phone, make sure to get NTAG203 tags.
Hey I am still confused on these NFC Tags. I watched some video on how it works and it looks pretty awesome but i have some questions.
For example. I have a phone holder in my car. i only use it when i use my GPS. i want to paste an NFC Tag on the holder so every time I place the phone in the holder it turns on my GPS, launches my GPS app, and maybe turns off my Wifi. From what I have seen this can easily be done.
Here is the part I am confused about. When the phone is in the holder it will be right beside the tag. What effect does that have on the tag? Is it constantly communicating?
The feature i really want is this: when I remove the phone from the holder and away from the tag can I program it to turn off the "car settings"?
So I am wondering if I can use a phone holder and NFC tags to create a dock(without the charging). Put the phone on the dock and leave it there and it changes to "car settings" and keeps it at that setting. Take the phone out of the "dock" settings turn back to non-car settings.
everything i see involves tapping.
Prelude38 said:
Hey I am still confused on these NFC Tags. I watched some video on how it works and it looks pretty awesome but i have some questions.
For example. I have a phone holder in my car. i only use it when i use my GPS. i want to paste an NFC Tag on the holder so every time I place the phone in the holder it turns on my GPS, launches my GPS app, and maybe turns off my Wifi. From what I have seen this can easily be done.
Here is the part I am confused about. When the phone is in the holder it will be right beside the tag. What effect does that have on the tag? Is it constantly communicating?
The feature i really want is this: when I remove the phone from the holder and away from the tag can I program it to turn off the "car settings"?
So I am wondering if I can use a phone holder and NFC tags to create a dock(without the charging). Put the phone on the dock and leave it there and it changes to "car settings" and keeps it at that setting. Take the phone out of the "dock" settings turn back to non-car settings.
everything i see involves tapping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The tag is only a marker, in Stock ROM you need to actually unlock your phone before your NFC will start pooling (There are mods for this so no worries). The actions are all programmable depending on what kind of apps you use to program it, that's all!
Personally I find tasker to be more useful than NFC tag. I don't buy all the marketing gimmicks.
I have started to tinker with NFC tags.
Is there a way to start the stock android clock timer (from zero or a countdown from a preset time) using nfc tags? I tried NFC task launcher but it just uses their own in app timer, which im not a fan of (it doesn't show time remaining/elapsed and all that stuff). Or maybe an automation app that can be triggered by a nfc task.
I’ve always been an early adopter…whether it was audio equipment, computers, mobile phones, software and most recently, smart watches. I’ve been researching and monitoring the progress of these devices since they first started to hit the market. My first smart watch was the Sony Smartwatch, which I returned after about a week…a move I would later question. My second attempt was the Basis Carbon Steel and then I finally got the Samsung Galaxy Gear. None of these did everything I wanted and quite frankly, I’m not sure any single watch ever will…because I want features that conflict with each other. On one hand, I want a stylish metal watch that is classy looking with a suit and provides me with notifications at a glance. On the other hand, I want a fitness watch that has every sensor known to man, has built in gps and will let me listen to music through my Bluetooth headphones without having to lug my phone around. I realize that means I’m going to have to own two distinctly different smart watches. However, there is one feature that EVERY smart watch should have…but none do, as yet. The one thing that I’ve found to be lacking on every smart watch is a sensor that tells it when it’s being worn…and when it’s not. When I’m wearing my watch, I love having it notify me of a new text or email. However, when I put it on my nightstand every night, right next to my smart phone…I don’t need it to vibrate across the surface every time my phone notification goes off…it’s redundant and unnecessary. Additionally, on some models when you finally do put your watch back on the next morning, you still have to clear all the notifications that came through overnight…even though you’ve already cleared them on your phone. So, in my humble opinion, no smart watch is truly smart unless it knows when it’s being used and when it’s not! If I'm wrong and one exists, please let me know.
edwmsjr said:
I’ve always been an early adopter…whether it was audio equipment, computers, mobile phones, software and most recently, smart watches. I’ve been researching and monitoring the progress of these devices since they first started to hit the market. My first smart watch was the Sony Smartwatch, which I returned after about a week…a move I would later question. My second attempt was the Basis Carbon Steel and then I finally got the Samsung Galaxy Gear. None of these did everything I wanted and quite frankly, I’m not sure any single watch ever will…because I want features that conflict with each other. On one hand, I want a stylish metal watch that is classy looking with a suit and provides me with notifications at a glance. On the other hand, I want a fitness watch that has every sensor known to man, has built in gps and will let me listen to music through my Bluetooth headphones without having to lug my phone around. I realize that means I’m going to have to own two distinctly different smart watches. However, there is one feature that EVERY smart watch should have…but none do, as yet. The one thing that I’ve found to be lacking on every smart watch is a sensor that tells it when it’s being worn…and when it’s not. When I’m wearing my watch, I love having it notify me of a new text or email. However, when I put it on my nightstand every night, right next to my smart phone…I don’t need it to vibrate across the surface every time my phone notification goes off…it’s redundant and unnecessary. Additionally, on some models when you finally do put your watch back on the next morning, you still have to clear all the notifications that came through overnight…even though you’ve already cleared them on your phone. So, in my humble opinion, no smart watch is truly smart unless it knows when it’s being used and when it’s not! If I'm wrong and one exists, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check A.I Watch it have almost all the features that you are describing
TL;DR
Would you mind having some line-breaks in your post please?
edwmsjr said:
I’ve always been an early adopter…whether it was audio equipment, computers, mobile phones, software and most recently, smart watches. I’ve been researching and monitoring the progress of these devices since they first started to hit the market. My first smart watch was the Sony Smartwatch, which I returned after about a week…a move I would later question. My second attempt was the Basis Carbon Steel and then I finally got the Samsung Galaxy Gear. None of these did everything I wanted and quite frankly, I’m not sure any single watch ever will…because I want features that conflict with each other. On one hand, I want a stylish metal watch that is classy looking with a suit and provides me with notifications at a glance. On the other hand, I want a fitness watch that has every sensor known to man, has built in gps and will let me listen to music through my Bluetooth headphones without having to lug my phone around. I realize that means I’m going to have to own two distinctly different smart watches. However, there is one feature that EVERY smart watch should have…but none do, as yet. The one thing that I’ve found to be lacking on every smart watch is a sensor that tells it when it’s being worn…and when it’s not. When I’m wearing my watch, I love having it notify me of a new text or email. However, when I put it on my nightstand every night, right next to my smart phone…I don’t need it to vibrate across the surface every time my phone notification goes off…it’s redundant and unnecessary. Additionally, on some models when you finally do put your watch back on the next morning, you still have to clear all the notifications that came through overnight…even though you’ve already cleared them on your phone. So, in my humble opinion, no smart watch is truly smart unless it knows when it’s being used and when it’s not! If I'm wrong and one exists, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a very good point. It would save battery life too as it's using less processing when it's not worn.
A smart watch should have as much useful sensors as they can pack in it to make it smart.
A notification LED like the one in the Sony and other mobiles would be useful for saving battery life, you don't have too keep turning the screen on.
As smart watches become more popular they will need Apps without adverts due to the screen size.
Five likely solutions.
Contact switch (requires physical skin contact to work)
Pressure switch (if pressure on back of watch is above X = on)
Heart rate sensor (if detect heart beat then on)
Temperature Sensor (If temp is greater than X = on)
Magswitch in clasp (when clasp is closed device is "On")
Only the Pressure and Heart Rate and Magswitch are viable and would provide the fewest issues. First four would eat battery, the fifth would run into issues if near a magnetic source.
Everything else is doable, and with a transflective or E-Ink/Mirasol display, a notification light is not needed but can see where it would be nice.
Also think that this cam craze is stupid. A 480P front facing would be of far more use than some tiny um 5MP sensor camera mounted elsewhere. It could then also be used as an ambient light sensor facilitating auto brightness.
edwmsjr said:
I’ve always been an early adopter…whether it was audio equipment, computers, mobile phones, software and most recently, smart watches. I’ve been researching and monitoring the progress of these devices since they first started to hit the market. My first smart watch was the Sony Smartwatch, which I returned after about a week…a move I would later question. My second attempt was the Basis Carbon Steel and then I finally got the Samsung Galaxy Gear. None of these did everything I wanted and quite frankly, I’m not sure any single watch ever will…because I want features that conflict with each other. On one hand, I want a stylish metal watch that is classy looking with a suit and provides me with notifications at a glance. On the other hand, I want a fitness watch that has every sensor known to man, has built in gps and will let me listen to music through my Bluetooth headphones without having to lug my phone around. I realize that means I’m going to have to own two distinctly different smart watches. However, there is one feature that EVERY smart watch should have…but none do, as yet. The one thing that I’ve found to be lacking on every smart watch is a sensor that tells it when it’s being worn…and when it’s not. When I’m wearing my watch, I love having it notify me of a new text or email. However, when I put it on my nightstand every night, right next to my smart phone…I don’t need it to vibrate across the surface every time my phone notification goes off…it’s redundant and unnecessary. Additionally, on some models when you finally do put your watch back on the next morning, you still have to clear all the notifications that came through overnight…even though you’ve already cleared them on your phone. So, in my humble opinion, no smart watch is truly smart unless it knows when it’s being used and when it’s not! If I'm wrong and one exists, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need a Pebble bro.
Has DND settings for night time, syncs to phone notifications. I'm using mine on jailbroken i5 and smartwatch+ lets me reply to notifications from the watch, call people. Has massive battery life. Pebble Steel is stylish and functional. I have a Pebble (original) with a wide leather band, looks sweet.
Only thing it can't do is prevent you lugging your phone about, but the BT range on the pebble is about 20-30m in my experience, so you may get away with it at the gym/home/office. I know i can walk to the printer and such at work without my phone, or make a coffee. And at home i can leave the iphone in a dock to play, and change songs and volume while doing the dishes. (yep. pebble is waterproof.)
Got mine second hand for $80. what have you got to lose :victory:
Talking about sensors... http://m.europe.wsj.com/articles/apple-plans-multiple-designs-for-smartwatch-1403245062?mobile=y
Apple's rumoured watch packed with sensors. Wonder if it'll be truly smart. Even if it's the 'best watch' you'll need to buy an iPhone to use it until they find a hack for it.
... how about a pebble like watch but with WiFi, GPS and packed with sensors. The battery wouldn't 't last as long if you use the WiFi. But if you don't then it should last just as long. And an option to have a cam in the strap or no cam at all.
As mentioned above the perfect watch is not one watch, but perhaps two.
1. A non sim pebble like with better battery life with IP67. With loads of sensors!
2. Sim watch transflective colour screen packed with features but shorter battery life and not IP67. With loads of sensors!
Either way the traditional way of opening an app for a specific need will be replaced with a totally new way of accessing info. An ambient service that automatically brings info to your screen as you change your environment. Morning + at home = daily schedule, traffic news, work email only, weather... Etc. At home at evening = personal emails only, audio player, instagram... Etc. Opening an App will be phased out.
Google glasses is doing it already. Android wear is aiming for it.
And when these 'hyperaware' wearable start sensing and working with other hyperaware wearables... that's when the fun really begins.
---------- Post added at 05:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:41 PM ----------
Off topic slightly, I've asked the Moderators to make a forum or thread for general smartwatch discussion, I thought to have it next to where the Sony, pebble, Samsung and other Smart watch is... At the uppermost level. I've asked them to let me know if they agree or not. Let's see what they say.
So I purchased my LG G Watch about 10 seconds after they were made available. I've been using it basically since I/O and love it, but one use-case I've had in mind since they first started talking about them is functionally broken at the moment, and I think it would require a change to Android Wear to make it better (though I'm not certain).
I ride my motorcycle whenever possible -- basically anytime the temperature is 50+ and it's dry outside, I'm on the bike. I wear gear, including gloves, so navigation is generally an annoyance. GPS units made for motorcycles are ridiculously expensive (a $100 GPS for cars is around $500 when made for motorcycle use, for basically just a bit of water-resistance). From the time I first started hearing about Wear (and because of the images Motorola was showing) I've been craving the idea of being able to look at my watch to see my navigation info. The images Motorola had shown (and others), basically worked just like Google Maps navigation, but in reality it doesn't work like that at all.
The biggest problem is that raising the watch turns the screen on, but the card is still minimized. This is *completely* useless for people actually operating any type of vehicle (whether it be a motorcycle, car, or even pedal-bike), since it requires someone to use both hands to operate. Even worse, many times those directions don't even have a distance or any type of visible indicator on what's ahead. I don't have a picture example at the moment, but generally it says "Turn Left at Market St" or something, but with no idea how far that point is.
Any ideas here from people that know more on whether this could be fixed in Maps or would require a more low-level change to Wear? This is my only complaint, but it's a somewhat big one...it's one of the main reasons I was looking forward to Wear, and the functionality is almost useless in implementation.
This seems promising: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dheera.wearmaps
for you can think about this:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...igogo-goal-in-less-than-an-hour-after-launch/
I am considering a smartwatch for this very reason. Now that you've had it for a while, is it useful or at least better? If you are riding and traffic sucks, will it suggest faster routes? Can you dismiss things, and respond to a message (while stopped) with gloves on?
I was thinking about getting one mostly for occasional nav (I've gotten really good at finding my way around without nav since going 2-wheeled full time), traffic updates, and to see if whoever is calling me is worth pulling over for.
[HOW-TO][NEWBIE GUIDE] Optimize & proper set up your Galaxy S6 Edge (stock firmware)
As I've read across this forum and on several specific threads related to usage, battery life and so on, as well as discussing with some of my friends having a S6 or S6 Edge, I realized that most of the people don't really know how to properly set up their phones or how to use them efficiently.
OK, I get it, this is a fancy phone, not every owner is a developer or tech guy so it might be that many choose it based on the looks and don't really know how to optimize it...then they start complaining about different things like lag or battery drain not knowing that most of the problems are caused by miss-usage or improper setup. Of course there are bugs too, nothing is perfect. Of course there are many firmwares available and some are market or carrier dependent so some features or settings might be missing from some of them or even work differently.
What I will try here is to provide some guidelines and tips for setting up various things on the phone in order to maximize it's battery life and for a better usage. I will also make some recommendations based on my experience, tests and usage that might not apply to everyone. Use common sense and logic to apply similar settings in your particular case. Don't come screaming that you made that or that and now something is not working.
And YES, I know there are similar guides like this posted over the Internet and I'll probably make similar recommendations here too but I couldn't find such a guide here on XDA that is particular to this phone (if there is a better one than you might as well ignore mine).
All these things I'll describe below are applicable to any STOCK, NON-ROOTED 5.1.1 firmware and won't break warranty or your phone.
Now that was a long (and maybe unneeded introduction) but I thought to write this for everyone...let's start.
Model No.: SM-G925F
Android: 5.1.1 r2 (LMY47X)
Baseband: G925FXXU2QOI7
Kernel: 3.10.61-5672012
Build date: Fri Sept 4 2015
Carrier: Orange RO
DISPLAY
First I would like to say some words about the display. We have a great display, high resolution and it is most likely the biggest battery drain factor. There are two major things about it that you should keep in mind and will help you to get a better battery:
1. It's AMOLED...that means that the black pixels on it will consume no power because are not lit. Studies showed that even if not completely black, AMOLED displays use less energy if the displayed picture is darker compared to a lighter one.
2. The brightness level. Most people use it on "auto" or high level settings and this will be a major drain factor.
You can drastically lower the battery drain caused by your screen by selecting as much as possible dark (black) backgrounds and/or themes. There are some nice ones available in the Theme Store (my favorite is the Dalkomm Coffee Theme), that make most screens and menus dark/black. Also choosing a dark wallpaper for lockscreen/homescreens will help.
Don't use screen brightness at maximum...never. You don't need that in 99% of the cases. Also you won't probably need the automatic setting either since most of the people are spending most of the time indoors (either at work or home). A low manual setting will be fine most of the time, I have it set up at about 20% and only need a brighter one when going out. At that time I just tap on "auto" and it'll increase based on ambient light level. So you don't even need to tweak it alot every time. Find a low manual setting that's fine for your eyes and just tap on "auto" when you go out in sunlight.
CONNECTIVITY
Another battery drain factor is your multiple connection/radios features. In most cases you use just several: Mobile Data, WiFi, GPS/location and BT (when applicable). That means you should turn off all the others you don't use...NFC or BT (when not connected to a headset or car-kit or not listening to music). I don't listen to music and don't have a BT headset so I mostly not using BT (just when I'm in my car) and almost never use NFC so I have both disabled and I enable them only when needed via the Quick Settings.
WiFi
WiFi should also be properly setup otherwise it'll have impact on battery. It was incorrectly assumed or considered that keeping WiFi on all the time will drain battery faster. That was proven in different tests that's not true and in fact keeping WiFi on all the time won't make a big difference and in some cases was even better than to turn it off/on. I think is something similar with the car engines that suck more fuel when started that when running at idle. The major power drain is not when WiFi is running while is not connected to any network, but when the WiFi radio is powered up. When is on and not connected, it's going into a lower power state so the battery consumption is negligible.
I had a case with one of my friends that had WiFi setup to turn off when display was off...wrong choice, he got about 30% battery drain overnight because instead of having it connected to his home WiFi, the phone was using his 4G/LTE connection to make all the background sync/updates. That was eating his battery and also his data plan. After setting WiFi to "always" his overnight drain lowered to as little as 2-3%.
In some regions/carriers there are 2 other settings that were proven to help battery life: WiFi calling and VoLTE. I don't have either of them but based on different articles and what people say, they surely help with that so don't forget to turn them off if you don't use these features.
You might also want to try turning off "Always allows scanning" and "Smart network switch". I have the second turned off but I keep on the first one. Basically the first option tell the Location service to use WiFi for locating the device even if WiFi is switched off (by the on/off switch) so that means the radio is active. Second option should make you switch faster from WiFi to mobile data in case the WiFi signal is not strong enough or fluctuating. In my country there are plenty of WiFi hot-spots and they have mostly good connections so I don't use this feature.
GPS
Well here the opinions are split but I am currently having it ON all the time and Location Service is set to "high accuracy". I personally haven't noticed such a major difference with or without it so I preferred to let it on as it is used by many apps or services. You can try to set Location to "wifi and cell only" but don't think that will bring you a major benefit.
RUNNING APPS/PROCESSES
Well this is an important one. I've initially started to turn off/disable/uninstall everything I don't need or use. This can be done mostly from the Settings - Applications - Application Manager or if you want to go further, you can install Package Disabler Pro from PlayStore, about which I'll detail later.
Now why we should do that? There are lots of apps, processes and background services running on our devices that take care about all the things we do on the device. The problem is that ALL are using resources: processor time, memory, space and so on. In the end these are translated for a user in LAG or battery drain. Of course we cannot kill everything and I learned long time ago that installing Task or memory managers on Android it's the worst thing you can do. Android it's smart enough to take care better about it's resources and processes (at least to a certain point) and keep killing a certain process won't give you more battery life but will eat more of it in the end,
What I wanted to say is you shouldn't start disabling, killing or blocking everything cause you might end up with an unstable or not properly working phone (case in which only a factory reset might help). First of all look at the ALL tab in Application Manager and try to identify what you don't need or use. For example I'm certainly not using some things like: music, books, news feeds, Samsung's keyboard (I use SwiftKey), the TouchWiz launcher (I use Nova), health services or whatever, S-Voice, S-Health, S-Finder, I don't have any smartwatches so I don't use any Gear processes, fancy device wake-up functions (like wave gestures) or animated wallpapers either.
So after all considerations above, you decided that you can safely disable some apps/processes. All good but you'll quickly learn that some of them cannot be disabled via Application Manager (the "disable" button is grayed out). Now what? Well here comes handy that Package Disabler Pro that I've told you about in the beginning. That app is able to disable ANY apps/processes on your phone, including those that are protected and cannot be disabled via the normal way (and yes it can do that without being rooted). The downside of it is that you must be careful what you choose to disable not to have something that is needed for the normal functionality or the apps you're currently using. The app has also a backup/restore function (via an xml file) for saving the list with apps you have disabled and easily import them back after a factory reset for ex. I've added to this thread my list of disabled apps as it is exported by the application (just unzip and copy the file on the root of your internal memory and it can then be imported in the Package Disabler app)
Another important thing is WHAT apps you're using. I know that socializing and social networking are some of today's most trendy things but keep in mind that some of the apps used for that are not so well made. An example could be the Facebook app/messenger which are reported to drain alot of battery. RSS feeds, news feeds, multiple weather apps or widgets, all contribute to battery drain and lag. Don't install several apps/widgets for the same purpose (like several calendar apps or weather apps). Each will take resources and won't have an added value. Want to use another weather app/widget than the one coming with the phone? Fine, install it...but don't forget to uninstall/disable the built in one or others that do the same thing. Same goes for keyboard for ex; I use SwiftKey for years and got used with it. For me it's better than any keyboard that Samsung might put on the device, therefore I've disabled the standard Samsung keyboard. I also don't like TouchWiz launcher and use Nova that offers me much more flexibility so...I've disabled both the "easy" and "regular" TouchWiz launchers. I went to the point that I've even disabled the different embedded font types, you have 5 of them and I doubt someone uses more than one at a time.
So as you all can see it's not only a matter of setup but also a matter of usage. When you have a device you have to use it properly otherwise it'll not perform as you expect. Imagine a car that has a manufacturer fuel consumption value of 5.5 liters/100 Km....that's under certain conditions not on ANY type of driving. Fly with 200+ km/hr on a highway and I'll guarantee you won't have 5.5 liters/100 km consumption. That doesn't mean the manufacturer has lied or mislead you. Same goes with a phone, if you don't know how to use it and optimize it, you'll have a bad experience.
I work in the IT industry for years and I mostly laugh when I hear someone advising somebody to reinstall the operating system to solve a problem. Same goes for "factory reset" for a phone. Yes, this method works some times but that won't solve the root cause of an issues if you're using it the same way. After several days it'll perform as bad as before and you'll just say that "factory reset" did nothing. Of course it didn't...YOU have to do something different, not the phone.
Now I apologize for the long post and I do hope that at least some will learn to better manage their devices and to understand what they're doing not just running certain commands or procedures blind. Both S6 and S6e are great devices but we should learn how to properly use them in order to benefit the most from them...otherwise we just come here asking for help or mumbling about what crap devices they are.
Thank you, I will check to see if I get an improvement on the standby battery drain.
Your part about not setting the screen to Auto is flawed. You mention that we are mostly indoors, and you don't need a brighter screen for that. Auto mode also knows that and sets the brightness lower. It already does automatically what you do manually.
Tnx. And yes....keeping screen at 20% brightness and just switching to auto when in outdoors works great for the battery life.
ArmedandDangerous said:
Your part about not setting the screen to Auto is flawed. You mention that we are mostly indoors, and you don't need a brighter screen for that. Auto mode also knows that and sets the brightness lower. It already does automatically what you do manually.
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Not quite, I've tested it. If you're on "auto" and use a lower setting on the slidebar, in a dark room the screen is too dark, you'll have to turn off "auto" and the manual brighteness set on the same level will be much higher than on auto.
Now if you have such good eyes and you're able to use "auto" in all cases with the slider at 20% that's good for you...unfortunately I am not so that's why I use it as I've described. The point is that "auto" mode consumes MORE battery regardless of how it's set, than a lower 'manual' mode. So I preffer to have it like this than to use auto all the time.
Thanks for the awesome guide. I'll start disabling some useless processes and see how my battery life is working. Anyway without much editing the battery of S6Edge is pretty good. I can use it a whole day and still 19% remaining. As a comparison I wasn't able to do it with my S3 having to recharge it 2 or even 3 times at day.
Again, thanks for the guide!
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