Not sure I Desire this!

[purplemonkey]

Sorry no advice to offer here(yet). but would like to throw some questions out there. they may have been answered elsewhere, but I'm finding it a bit difficult to read though a thread with +5 pages of people saying they get 36hours++ of battery life, with no real 'why' jumping out of the details to me.

anyway ive had my htc desire for 3 weeks, and its still frustrating me compared to my ex-iphone, and I really don't want to go back to the shop and 'upgrade' to iphone4. so please help.

1. Battery. looking at my running services I have Mailservice/cal(obex)/cal(connectivity)/google(gtalkservice)/touch/3gwatchdog/battimelite running. I have turn off my Wifi/BlueT/GPS/brightness to mid setting.
get up in the morning take phone off charge cycle to work. phone it at 85%! use my phone for some calls/texts/reading book while on toilet during the day. by evening its down to 25%. this seems terrible. I used to use my iphone the same way, but also running GPS and wifi the whole time, and the bat would last a whole lot longer.
I want to use this phone for maps/gps but it will kill the life out of it, and I dont' want to carry a charger. is this possible?

2. mail. I get bingbongs telling me I have mail, but my mail app shows nothing, if I click on the taskbar link to the mail it appears in a different mail reader? anyone know why I have mulitple mail readers on here. I have a Gmail widget on one page, a mail icon on another, and if I use the tasklink it opens a 3rd mail reader. seems a bit weird. they are all Gmail?

3. voicemail. is there any way to get this to do the nice iphone function. i.e. the list of names and play buttons, which you can delete/listen etc... without calling 901 like a 1980's phone.

4. Memory managment, its supposed to take care of itself. I open an app, use it, close it. but it stays in memory somewhere. I do this for a few days, and my phone starts to grid like a windows 3.11 machine trying to multitask. I open my taskkiller app, and I have loads of icons and about 30mb of memory left. so its up to me to kill off old apps? this doesn't feel right??


as you can probably tell I'm a bit frustrated with this phone, I've yet to find somewhere its stronger then the iphone. if you can point me to its stong point please tell me.

 

[CarsnGadgets]

1. when charging over night, turn of the apn (mobile network) you will still get calls or texts, but it wont use any power syncing and updating and using data. And get an external power pack that you can charge and leave in the car or office like the Pebble or primo cube for use when the battery is low, or get a spare battery.

2.when you go into the mail app when it informs you of the new mail, have you got more than one email account set up? eg. if the click on the name of the email account at the top, does it list others? the new mail may be in one of the other accounts.

3. android doesnt have visual voicemail as standard, but there are apps that sort of do this. (cant remember the name though, sorry.)

4. It sounds like one of your apps has a memory leak and is hogging resources, get the app spareparts or something similar to see what it is that holding onto the memory. I have never had any slow down on my Desire, you really dont need a task killer except for very rare app lockups or problems.

5. stop expecting it to be like the iPhone, Its better in some ways, and not in others, enjoy it for its differences, the desire is far more flexible, its more customisable, It multitasks properly, It has flash (soon 10.1), It better integrates with google and all its services and facebook, It comes with very good, free turn by turn sat nav, etc etc.

 

[kboya]

as above,

but, on point 1: a simple usb cable for the office will keep charging your phone during the day (

 

[chris100575]

To expand on Carsandgadgets' fourth point, I'd recommend you download spare parts from the market and go into battery history > partial wake usage. If one of your apps is preventing your phone from sleeping it'll eat the battery.

 

[Si Pie]

My understanding is that Android closes background processes when it needs to utilise memory for others. So despite having only a little bit of memory free it shouldn't be a problem because Android will make more available on tap as and when needed. More often than not apps and processes are just lying there but not really doing anything (gone to sleep so to speak).
The new iPhone4 will behave in similar fashion so 'upgrading' will not help you.
However if things 'are grinding to a halt' it sounds like something isn't working right - perhaps you have an app actually running (rather than sleeping) in the background constantly, thus preventing it from freeing up some more memory for foreground processes.

 

[Smithyster]

Mine seems to be the same, i use a few different things, and my phone slows up. So i open task killer and it has about 30 odd memory left, so i kill stuff that i'm not using, and up it hops to 100+ and the speed comes back.

And i'm also not enjoying the battery life, seem to be charging each night and i only use it for a bit of Wifi and texting. I wouldn't complain about this as it is a smart phone, if it wasn't for others saying how long they can get out of their battery

 

[cnanthony]

How are you 'closing' apps? Pressing the home button doesn't close an app, just hides it, it will continue to run in the background. Either use built in close buttons in the app or just the back button to close.

This significantly affected my battery life, also get rid of the task killer the majority of them just drain battery, make the phone more unstable and really aren't neccessary.

 

[TheTrueSpin]

Why do people buy an Android device and expect it to be just the same as their iPhone.

Android does some things better, iPhone does some things better....

 

[CarsnGadgets]

How are you 'closing' apps? Pressing the home button doesn't close an app, just hides it, it will continue to run in the background. Either use built in close buttons in the app or just the back button to close.

This significantly affected my battery life, also get rid of the task killer the majority of them just drain battery, make the phone more unstable and really aren't neccessary.

as said here, pressing the back button to come out of apps, puts them into a dormant state where they use little or no memory until you use them again.

 

[Jason71]

You mentioned maps and gps.

It is not really practical to use the phone as a satnav without a charger.
Google maps navigation will use approximately 30% of the battery capacity per hour while working so you will get little more than 3 hours from a full charge.
Is this unreasonable? no not really. Even dedicated satnavs rarely have more than 2-3 hours battery life. My TomTom 740 can do about 2 1/2 hours and is 3 times the size of my Desire (bulk not screen size) so to expect better of a phone is a bit much.

extra word of warning If you are going to use as a satnav get an HTC CC C200 charger ( ebay

 

[purplemonkey]

1. when charging over night, turn of the apn (mobile network) you will still get calls or texts, but it wont use any power syncing and updating and using data. And get an external power pack that you can charge and leave in the car or office like the Pebble or primo cube for use when the battery is low, or get a spare battery.

2.when you go into the mail app when it informs you of the new mail, have you got more than one email account set up? eg. if the click on the name of the email account at the top, does it list others? the new mail may be in one of the other accounts.

3. android doesnt have visual voicemail as standard, but there are apps that sort of do this. (cant remember the name though, sorry.)

4. It sounds like one of your apps has a memory leak and is hogging resources, get the app spareparts or something similar to see what it is that holding onto the memory. I have never had any slow down on my Desire, you really dont need a task killer except for very rare app lockups or problems.

5. stop expecting it to be like the iPhone, Its better in some ways, and not in others, enjoy it for its differences, the desire is far more flexible, its more customisable, It multitasks properly, It has flash (soon 10.1), It better integrates with google and all its services and facebook, It comes with very good, free turn by turn sat nav, etc etc.

2. I only have 1 mail account setup on the phone.
3. thanks, will have a looksee.
4. just downloaded spare parts, will check it out. I dont' really understand the 'multi tasking' aspect, how do I tell if an app is 'multi tasking' or dormant in the back ground? most apps dont appear to have 'exit' buttons.
5. I do like the sat nav, and maps with little arrow business, I have also come to prefer the widget layout to the icon sets of the iphone. but you have to appreciate the iphone and htc desire are the top of the game phone available to people right now. and unfortunatly I think I would recommend the iphone to people. mainly for its 'out of the box' experience. iphone just works! I didn't spend 1 second on a iphone tech forum for example. but that said, from the customisation point of view, the htc certainly does win in that court.

thanks for the advice/help so far.

 

[purplemonkey]

You mentioned maps and gps.

It is not really practical to use the phone as a satnav without a charger.
Google maps navigation will use approximately 30% of the battery capacity per hour while working so you will get little more than 3 hours from a full charge.
Is this unreasonable? no not really. Even dedicated satnavs rarely have more than 2-3 hours battery life. My TomTom 740 can do about 2 1/2 hours and is 3 times the size of my Desire (bulk not screen size) so to expect better of a phone is a bit much.

extra word of warning If you are going to use as a satnav get an HTC CC C200 charger ( ebay

 

[nacatomi]

4. just downloaded spare parts, will check it out. I dont' really understand the 'multi tasking' aspect, how do I tell if an app is 'multi tasking' or dormant in the back ground? most apps dont appear to have 'exit' buttons.

Its worth pressing menu in apps to see if they have put the exit option in there but most apps rely on you using the back button to exit not home. For example spotify if I use the back button it multitasks in the background as shown in the notification bar. But I can exit via the menu button and it exits completely.

 

[SUroot]

3. For the UK, personally I like "HulloMail". Its still not quite as swish as the blackberry version I had (which was much coooler than iphone version) but its still pretty good. It emails teh mp3 to your email. The HulloMail client picks the emails up and displays them in a list with contact pics, play button etc.

Of course you always have the .mp3 saved in your email account too.

 

[Si Pie]

Its worth pressing menu in apps to see if they have put the exit option in there but most apps rely on you using the back button to exit not home. For example spotify if I use the back button it multitasks in the background as shown in the notification bar. But I can exit via the menu button and it exits completely.

Most apps if you press and hold the back button it will close. I think the main exception I have found is the HTC internet browser which will go to history when you do this. I have no idea if the browser would take much memory up whilst sitting in the background though.

 

[Haste75]

*Looks at topic title*

.....Ahhhh, i see what you did there! It is funny 'coz it is play on words!

 

[lekky]

3. For the UK, personally I like "HulloMail". Its still not quite as swish as the blackberry version I had (which was much coooler than iphone version) but its still pretty good. It emails teh mp3 to your email. The HulloMail client picks the emails up and displays them in a list with contact pics, play button etc.

Of course you always have the .mp3 saved in your email account too.

beat me to it!

 

[purplemonkey]

OK, an update today,

1. battery, Still have no idea how people are achieving 36hrs. I did however, unplug my phone this morning after the alarm, then plug back in again. and after my cycle to work its on 95% so maybe theres something in this, stop charging at 100%. seems weird why it won't self top up, but maybe thats a firmware fix...
I'm also going to get rid of Facebook, and work on all my auto-updaters.

2. Ok I've worked out whats going on here. 'Mail' is rubbish, 'Google Mail' is better, the alerts are tied to 'Google Mail' not 'Mail'. Can someone tell me if they are tied together? Mail appears to hold the sync settings? can I disable Mail? if I do will Google Mail keep running?

3. I have HulloMail, i've got highhopes for it, will see how it pans out over the coming days/weeks.

4. memory management, thanks for the tip of using the back button. will monitor to see if I suffer from 'slowdown'.


p.s. lol @ Haste75

 

[SUroot]

OK, an update today,

3. I have HulloMail, i've got highhopes for it, will see how it pans out over the coming days/weeks.

Oh another tip, sometimes notifications can be a bit unreliable. Log onto the hullomail site and set an SMS reminder. This notifies you instantly.

 

[tomvdp]

About nr 4)... everybody makes the assumption that having a low memory usage is a good thing. In fact the opposite is true nowadays. A computer should optimize memory usage by having as much as possible in memory. Loading programs and data in memory takes up time. Having it already loaded keeps the computer more performant. If the system is short of memory it decides which data to overwrite, but overwriting "clean" memory or used memory is just as fast of course.
So avoid killing apps if they are not using the processor and only use memory space.

 

[g4rvd4]

2. Ok I've worked out whats going on here. 'Mail' is rubbish, 'Google Mail' is better, the alerts are tied to 'Google Mail' not 'Mail'. Can someone tell me if they are tied together? Mail appears to hold the sync settings? can I disable Mail? if I do will Google Mail keep running?

I only use the gmail app. It does have its flaws (can't copy text unless you click forward), but is much better than the Mail App IMO.
I have completely disabled the mail app; they're both independent of each other.

 

[iynCognito]

OK, an update today,


2. Ok I've worked out whats going on here. 'Mail' is rubbish, 'Google Mail' is better, the alerts are tied to 'Google Mail' not 'Mail'. Can someone tell me if they are tied together? Mail appears to hold the sync settings? can I disable Mail? if I do will Google Mail keep running?

If you are just using you googlemail account, then you don't need to use "Mail" at all. I use "Mail" for a work e-mail that uses microsoft exchange. The Google Mail app should be all you need. I believe it functions like push e-mail, so you just have to make sure you enable sync to mail (and calendar and contacts if you so wish ) in Settings-> Accounts and Sync. You get any e-mails instantly.

If you want to delete your Mail account, just open up Mail, press Menu, goto Settings and Delete account. Google mail will still keep running

 

[Tunga]

1. battery, Still have no idea how people are achieving 36hrs. I did however, unplug my phone this morning after the alarm, then plug back in again. and after my cycle to work its on 95% so maybe theres something in this, stop charging at 100%. seems weird why it won't self top up, but maybe thats a firmware fix...
I'm also going to get rid of Facebook, and work on all my auto-updaters.

How do you normally charge it? Mine was terrible for the first few days, would barely even last through a single work day with a couple of hours use on the train and the rest of the time just sitting on my desk.

In an attempt to improve things, I completed nuked the battery to zero until the phone would not turn on, then I charged it (after 2-3mins I was able turn on and I left it on until charged) to full. Then I turned the phone off and left it "charging" over night. Not sure if this last part did anything but that's what I did. Since then, my battery has been a lot better. It has been off charge for 24 hours now. I have GPS enabled, 3G enabled, WiFi was enabled for around half of that time, I used around ten minutes of GPS, and around two hours of internet/games. Battery still has 30% remaining. It will most likely die this evening some time and I will charge it again.

I also recommend getting JuiceDefender, it didn't make a huge difference for me but it definitely helped. This automatically disables WiFi and data (calls/texts are unaffected) when your screen is switched off.

 

[SUroot]

If you are just using you googlemail account, then you don't need to use "Mail" at all. I use "Mail" for a work e-mail that uses microsoft exchange. The Google Mail app should be all you need. I believe it functions like push e-mail, so you just have to make sure you enable sync to mail (and calendar and contacts if you so wish ) in Settings-> Accounts and Sync. You get any e-mails instantly.

If you want to delete your Mail account, just open up Mail, press Menu, goto Settings and Delete account. Google mail will still keep running

I use both but "mail" with no notifications. I find that the gmail app doesn't give a download option for all extension types, where the mail app does. If I find an email with an attachment in gmail I cant download, I switch to mail where I can download it to my SD card.

 

[Phenomenological]

...In an attempt to improve things, I completed nuked the battery to zero until the phone would not turn on...

Not a good idea. The phone automatically turns off for a reason - Lithium Ion batteries aren't designed to be totally discharged, it damages the battery. Running it down till the phone shuts off then charging it fully (With the phone off, preferably) once a month is a good idea to keep the smart circuit inside the battery calibrated, but you should never fully discharge the battery.