The Introduction
There are disparate threads, forums, web pages all involved with trying to improve the perceived Achilles heel of the HTC Desire. Between them they all just about cover everything that can be done, except that there is no central repository for this information and secondly none of them really provide a way of easily managing the configurations.
I will update it with sensible suggestions for as long as practical and if users find it useful.
The Concept
Therefore the following is based around the idea of simple and effective management of the battery consuming applications, facilities and connections on this phone. This is achieved by configuring screens with simple applications and toggle (on/off) style widgets.
In other words, set up your Desire's default settings as a phone (remember those days when a mobile was for phone calls and texts). Then when you want it to be a computer, or navigator, or PDA etc, quickly enable it to be one.
The Configuration
Set up a single screen with system management tools and/or use a systems control bar.
The objective being to make it as easy as possible to manage (eg toggle on and off) the following facilities:
Wifi
Bluetooth
GPS
3G
Data Connection
Back Light time and brightness
Synchronisation
Then essentially disable all the above until required. Simple really, yet so very effective. Keeping them all in one place allows one to easily see and manage them.
Then when you wish to sync an app or feature or facility, enable the most appropriate connection and sync as required (eg if by useable wifi, and you wish to update your emails or weather or sports app, press the wifi widget, the sync widget and/or the specific application sync). Then when done disable the same features.
The Examples
Set up a single screen with all of the inbuilt control widgets and any additional or replacement widgets you wish
It is also feasible to set up Power Control at the top of multiple screens (or even better, use Extended Controls bar widget with all the above)
You may also wish to set up specific widgets next to certain apps (such as the GPS toggle next to Navigation shortcut)
Use a task killer (such as Advanced Task Killer Free) and use the widget to frequently kill un-required apps - Again you could load the widget on multiple pages.
Whilst not necessary if using above configuration, it is still worth configuring all your applications that require data access to sensible refresh frequency rates such as every hour (or not at all) (eg, sportmobile, weather, news etc ).
The Other common recommendations
Use lowest screen brightness appropriate to ambient conditions (again a simple widget is best tool here such as curve fish )
Use Darker wallpapers and Don't use moving wallpapers.
Disable 'Wireless Network Positioning Services' - Again slightly superfluous with above phone set up.
Of course if you know you are never far from a charging facility then keep everything on and synchronising away ... but at least this way, you can quickly and confidently know that you can make your phone last days and not hours.
Doesn't your Phone ever need spleep?
Open the Spare parts application ( Spare Parts vAd Supported Application for Android | Tools ), then tap battery history, and using the top list box select 'Partial Wake Usage'. Any app with a large bar on here is stopping your phone from sleeping when inactive, and hence will seriously dent your battery life.
Open up the application in question, and look through settings trying to find anything that could keep the phone awake. It could be anything from frequent online updates (Eg sports or email apps), through to a flashing notification LED (Eg Handcent). For anything that is updating, set it to a less frequent interval or, preferably, a manual update only, and disable any other functions that could stop the phone sleeping. Then see if your battery life improves.
The Summary
I hope you find this beneficial - I have tripled my battery life under normal use.
Summary of additional tools used by the Crimson Pirate ;-):
Extended Controls - Honolulu Team
SystemPanelLite - NextApp inc
Spare Parts - Android Apps
Advanced Task Killer - ReChild
Brightness Level - CurveFish
Additional application information suggested by others:
SwitchPro (Power control widget) SwitchPro Widget v1.8.3 Application for Android | Tools
Extended Controls Extended Controls v3.8.4 (changelog on Application for Android | Tools
EasySwitch is a good alternative to Extended Controls and it's free
JuiceDefender - gets mixed reviews but works for many
SetCPU (for rooted users)
There are disparate threads, forums, web pages all involved with trying to improve the perceived Achilles heel of the HTC Desire. Between them they all just about cover everything that can be done, except that there is no central repository for this information and secondly none of them really provide a way of easily managing the configurations.
I will update it with sensible suggestions for as long as practical and if users find it useful.
The Concept
Therefore the following is based around the idea of simple and effective management of the battery consuming applications, facilities and connections on this phone. This is achieved by configuring screens with simple applications and toggle (on/off) style widgets.
In other words, set up your Desire's default settings as a phone (remember those days when a mobile was for phone calls and texts). Then when you want it to be a computer, or navigator, or PDA etc, quickly enable it to be one.
The Configuration
Set up a single screen with system management tools and/or use a systems control bar.
The objective being to make it as easy as possible to manage (eg toggle on and off) the following facilities:
Wifi
Bluetooth
GPS
3G
Data Connection
Back Light time and brightness
Synchronisation
Then essentially disable all the above until required. Simple really, yet so very effective. Keeping them all in one place allows one to easily see and manage them.
Then when you wish to sync an app or feature or facility, enable the most appropriate connection and sync as required (eg if by useable wifi, and you wish to update your emails or weather or sports app, press the wifi widget, the sync widget and/or the specific application sync). Then when done disable the same features.
The Examples
Set up a single screen with all of the inbuilt control widgets and any additional or replacement widgets you wish
It is also feasible to set up Power Control at the top of multiple screens (or even better, use Extended Controls bar widget with all the above)
You may also wish to set up specific widgets next to certain apps (such as the GPS toggle next to Navigation shortcut)
Use a task killer (such as Advanced Task Killer Free) and use the widget to frequently kill un-required apps - Again you could load the widget on multiple pages.
Whilst not necessary if using above configuration, it is still worth configuring all your applications that require data access to sensible refresh frequency rates such as every hour (or not at all) (eg, sportmobile, weather, news etc ).
The Other common recommendations
Use lowest screen brightness appropriate to ambient conditions (again a simple widget is best tool here such as curve fish )
Use Darker wallpapers and Don't use moving wallpapers.
Disable 'Wireless Network Positioning Services' - Again slightly superfluous with above phone set up.
Of course if you know you are never far from a charging facility then keep everything on and synchronising away ... but at least this way, you can quickly and confidently know that you can make your phone last days and not hours.
Doesn't your Phone ever need spleep?
Open the Spare parts application ( Spare Parts vAd Supported Application for Android | Tools ), then tap battery history, and using the top list box select 'Partial Wake Usage'. Any app with a large bar on here is stopping your phone from sleeping when inactive, and hence will seriously dent your battery life.
Open up the application in question, and look through settings trying to find anything that could keep the phone awake. It could be anything from frequent online updates (Eg sports or email apps), through to a flashing notification LED (Eg Handcent). For anything that is updating, set it to a less frequent interval or, preferably, a manual update only, and disable any other functions that could stop the phone sleeping. Then see if your battery life improves.
The Summary
I hope you find this beneficial - I have tripled my battery life under normal use.
Summary of additional tools used by the Crimson Pirate ;-):
Extended Controls - Honolulu Team
SystemPanelLite - NextApp inc
Spare Parts - Android Apps
Advanced Task Killer - ReChild
Brightness Level - CurveFish
Additional application information suggested by others:
SwitchPro (Power control widget) SwitchPro Widget v1.8.3 Application for Android | Tools
Extended Controls Extended Controls v3.8.4 (changelog on Application for Android | Tools
EasySwitch is a good alternative to Extended Controls and it's free
JuiceDefender - gets mixed reviews but works for many
SetCPU (for rooted users)
