How to save power?

[ivanoid]

What are some power saving apps or tips you use with you Samsung Vibrant?

 

[nemesys06]

my battery life isn't bad, i have noticed that if you run a live wallpaper, your battery will drain quite a bit faster than a normal wallpaper. but it's no big deal for me, my battery still lasts quite a while. just when you use an app, make sure you shut it down when you're done with it. some phones, if you just hit the home button, it'll keep the app running. i know alot of people praise these app killers, however i don't find a reason to have them. my battery life actually drops with them, cause they constantly run in the background. you can easily kill/force stop apps from the vibrant's menu in the application setting.

 

[yatimameiji]

Lookin at the battery stats is a good place to start, so after a long day, before you plug it back in to charge, be sure to take a look.

The Display is a good place to start:
1. Turn of auto brightness and set to its lowest or a low level. I find this is good enough when indoors, and use of any sensor will draw battery power(well anything draws power)
2. Set the timeout to 15sec, so the screen isnt on for too long when you set the phone down.

GPS/Data
1. Turn off gps. If you need it on, the phone will tell you.
2. Only use wifi when you need it, otherwise turn it off
3. If you can live with edge, set data to use edge only
3a. Another point I've read on this item is to set the phone to use 3g only, which can be done but you have to get into some hidden settings.
4. Try to keep out of dead zones. Besides having low to no signal, if the phone is too busy looking for a signal, it will drain the battery. If you know you are going someplace with no signal, switch into airplane mode to turn everything wireless off.
5. Any social app that syncs regularly, try to either turn that feature off or just set it to a longer interval. Less data use, less use of the radio, less power drain.
5a. You can also turn off background data, but only proper apps obey this setting, so be sure to check each app individually.

Umm kinda late so this is all I can think of. Oh, DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS!! This is bad thinking that comes from people from the Windows world. Do Not Use.

 

[Killing Hours]

Might also try a free program from the market called "Advanced Task Killer". Easy as all heck to use and turns off loads of programs that are running in the background by one click.

Advanced Task Killer v1.9.1 Application for Android | Productivity

 

[robo21]

I have not needed any of the "task killer aps" instead I simply installed the Android Power Control Widget on my home screen so that I can conveniently turn off services I don't need. With this widget I simply go to my home screen and tap the services I want to turn on.

I wasn't impressed with the battery life when I first got my phone, but I was running live wallpaper, and had all the services (e.g. bluetooth, GPS, etc.) running continuously. Now with static wallpaper and everything but Auto Sync turned off my battery went from 100% to 93% overnight which is perfectly acceptable in my mind. The Power Control Widget made the battery life much better for me.

 

[yatimameiji]

Might also try a free program from the market called "Advanced Task Killer". Easy as all heck to use and turns off loads of programs that are running in the background by one click.

Advanced Task Killer v1.9.1 Application for Android | Productivity

I see you are new, so take this to heart. Task Killers do more harm then good on Android. That way of thinking comes from the Windows world and as Android is Linux, we don't need silly things like that. If you do any research you'll find that they are simply not needed and having them constantly monitoring running apps will kill your battery life.

 

[robo21]

I see you are new, so take this to heart. Task Killers do more harm then good on Android. That way of thinking comes from the Windows world and as Android is Linux, we don't need silly things like that. If you do any research you'll find that they are simply not needed and having them constantly monitoring running apps will kill your battery life.

Makes perfect sense. And like I previously stated, I have yet to need a task killer ap. Just use the Android Power Control Widget and be done with it.

 

[rlb4]

Just use the Android Power Control Widget and be done with it.

Where do you get this from? I don't see it on Appbrain.

 

[sixstringsam]

I see you are new, so take this to heart. Task Killers do more harm then good on Android. That way of thinking comes from the Windows world and as Android is Linux, we don't need silly things like that. If you do any research you'll find that they are simply not needed and having them constantly monitoring running apps will kill your battery life.

Can someone please explain how you can kill apps or tasks manually without using ATK?

 

[yatimameiji]

Can someone please explain how you can kill apps or tasks manually without using ATK?

Sure, Go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications. Filter by 'Running Apps' and select any app, scroll down and select Force Stop.

 

[Veritas327]

I have been using battery monitor to watch for rogue programs waking the phone from sleep. That being said, sometimes "dialer" is the biggest culprit. Is that when phone calls come in or when it is searching for a signal?

 

[dan0zone]

yatimameiji.,.,. my good buddy ,,,..,. good to see you still trying to get these guys out of the windows world and into reality ..,,., Getting my vibrant in a day or two , so I'll join you in fighting the good fight .,,.,.,


JuSt SaY NO to TaSk/APP kIllEr cracK

 

[robo21]

Where do you get this from? I don't see it on Appbrain.

Sure! It is built into the phone. It's very easy:

To use the Power Control shortcut bar:​

1. From the Home screen, touch and hold an empty area until the Add to Home screen menu displays.

2. Touch Android Widgets ➔ Power Control. The Power Control shortcut is added to the second panel of the Home screen.​

3. Touch one of the icons on the Power Control shortcut bar to activate the application. A green bar displayed beneath the icon means the application was activated (turned on).

​

4. Touch one of the icons a second time to deactivate the application. The green bar is removed from beneath the icon which means the application was deactivated (turned off).​

 

[rlb4]

Sure! It is built into the phone. It's very easy:

To use the Power Control shortcut bar:​

1. From the Home screen, touch and hold an empty area until the Add to Home screen menu displays.

2. Touch Android Widgets ➔ Power Control. The Power Control shortcut is added to the second panel of the Home screen.​

3. Touch one of the icons on the Power Control shortcut bar to activate the application. A green bar displayed beneath the icon means the application was activated (turned on).

​

4. Touch one of the icons a second time to deactivate the application. The green bar is removed from beneath the icon which means the application was deactivated (turned off).​

Thanks.

 

[yatimameiji]

I have been using battery monitor to watch for rogue programs waking the phone from sleep. That being said, sometimes "dialer" is the biggest culprit. Is that when phone calls come in or when it is searching for a signal?

Why use some app that itself is taking up cpu time and battery life as it reads readily available information that the OS already provides? Android keeps track of battery usage information and gathers statistics. You can view this information by going to Settings > About Phone > Battery Use.

 

[Veritas327]

Why use some app that itself is taking up cpu time and battery life as it reads readily available information that the OS already provides? Android keeps track of battery usage information and gathers statistics. You can view this information by going to Settings > About Phone > Battery Use.

From what I can tell it doesn't give partial wake data which is still important to me as I try out new apps and configurations, not to mention a battery percentage and time remaining estimate in the notification bar.

 

[yatimameiji]

From what I can tell it doesn't give partial wake data which is still important to me as I try out new apps and configurations, not to mention a battery percentage and time remaining estimate in the notification bar.

There is a code you can type into the dialer to access that information, or use Spare Parts. I find battery apps and widgets highly dubious as its been mentioned many times before that increasing the number of times the battery status is checked(like with the polling of any sensor) can increase battery drain.

 

[Killing Hours]

I see you are new, so take this to heart. Task Killers do more harm then good on Android. That way of thinking comes from the Windows world and as Android is Linux, we don't need silly things like that. If you do any research you'll find that they are simply not needed and having them constantly monitoring running apps will kill your battery life.

Very nice info in there.... however, I still don't understand how they do "more harm" when essentially they are doing the exact same thing you would be doing via the "manual" route.

With ATK... I don't keep it running in the background nor monitoring anything... it's installed on the phone and I use it at my discretion. When I check my phone... I usually pop into ATK and kill all running processes before I go back to w/e I was doing. (also... I keep ATK checked so that it is ended as well)

If you do any research you'll find that they are simply not needed and having them constantly monitoring running apps will kill your battery life.

I never said it was "constantly monitoring" my running apps. One of the "options" is to have it do that which... durrr... will use battery life. However, you don't "have" to use that option and can just pop into ATK and kill "all selected" with one click. (i.e. uncheck the processes you want to keep running and close everything else... including ATK)

Now.. I'm not saying I know everything there is to know about how android works and what does it "harm"... but since you seem to now more about it then I do... please inform me how this program is harming my system so that I can verify it and understand it for myself. Thanks.

 

[yatimameiji]

You are going to be constanly playing whack-a-mole and it will get old real quick. The point is that task killers are simply not needed as Android takes care of memory management all on its own. Android is Linux and as a Linux system administer I feel I know a bit of what I talk about.

My understanding is Android has been tweaked to bring apps into memory so when you 'launch' them, they seem to instantly pop into existence since it was already in memory. The app is not running in the background simply because the task killer sees it. To get real complicated Android is launching apps into a separate thread, and then this thread(or process) is put to sleep(ie its not using cpu) and thus only taking up space in ram. Android(and Linux) is very good at managing its memory resources. When you the user makes a request of the system that requires more ram then is available(such as launching a new app), Android will clear out whats not needed to make space.

So ok you are not 'harming' the system, but what it boils down to is you having a philosophical argument with Android over which way to manage system resources. And well a computer never gets tired. Hell even in windows, ram cleaners/etc are bogus crapware that do nothing but slow things down.

 

[ivanoid]

You are going to be constanly playing whack-a-mole and it will get old real quick. The point is that task killers are simply not needed as Android takes care of memory management all on its own. Android is Linux and as a Linux system administer I feel I know a bit of what I talk about.

My understanding is Android has been tweaked to bring apps into memory so when you 'launch' them, they seem to instantly pop into existence since it was already in memory. The app is not running in the background simply because the task killer sees it. To get real complicated Android is launching apps into a separate thread, and then this thread(or process) is put to sleep(ie its not using cpu) and thus only taking up space in ram. Android(and Linux) is very good at managing its memory resources. When you the user makes a request of the system that requires more ram then is available(such as launching a new app), Android will clear out whats not needed to make space.

So ok you are not 'harming' the system, but what it boils down to is you having a philosophical argument with Android over which way to manage system resources. And well a computer never gets tired. Hell even in windows, ram cleaners/etc are bogus crapware that do nothing but slow things down.

Thanks this explains it really well.

 

[ivanoid]

Does anyone know how to see the battery monitor?

 

[robo21]

Does anyone know how to see the battery monitor?

Dial *#*#4636#*#*

 

[rlb4]

You are going to be constanly playing whack-a-mole and it will get old real quick. The point is that task killers are simply not needed as Android takes care of memory management all on its own. Android is Linux and as a Linux system administer I feel I know a bit of what I talk about.

My understanding is Android has been tweaked to bring apps into memory so when you 'launch' them, they seem to instantly pop into existence since it was already in memory. The app is not running in the background simply because the task killer sees it. To get real complicated Android is launching apps into a separate thread, and then this thread(or process) is put to sleep(ie its not using cpu) and thus only taking up space in ram. Android(and Linux) is very good at managing its memory resources. When you the user makes a request of the system that requires more ram then is available(such as launching a new app), Android will clear out whats not needed to make space.

So ok you are not 'harming' the system, but what it boils down to is you having a philosophical argument with Android over which way to manage system resources. And well a computer never gets tired. Hell even in windows, ram cleaners/etc are bogus crapware that do nothing but slow things down.

So if these programs are not really running in the background, why are alot of people seeing such large amounts of data being used when they are not even using their phones?

 

[yatimameiji]

So if these programs are not really running in the background, why are alot of people seeing such large amounts of data being used when they are not even using their phones?

Seeing data usage when the phone is idle is exactly the time when the phone would do any sort of sync operation, including any other apps that do background operations(facebook, twitter, etc). If an app has been built to have a background running service, then one would see data usage even when the phone was idle. These things are computers, they still do things when left alone, think of it as a butler getting your home ready for you while you are out. If you are truly concerned about these things, turn the phone off while not in use.

 

[Killing Hours]

You are going to be constanly playing whack-a-mole and it will get old real quick.[1] The point is that task killers are simply not needed as Android takes care of memory management all on its own.[2] Android is Linux and as a Linux system administer I feel I know a bit of what I talk about.[3]

My understanding is Android has been tweaked to bring apps into memory so when you 'launch' them, they seem to instantly pop into existence since it was already in memory.[4] The app is not running in the background simply because the task killer sees it. To get real complicated Android is launching apps into a separate thread, and then this thread(or process) is put to sleep(ie its not using cpu) and thus only taking up space in ram. Android(and Linux) is very good at managing its memory resources. When you the user makes a request of the system that requires more ram then is available(such as launching a new app), Android will clear out whats not needed to make space.[5]

So ok you are not 'harming' the system, but what it boils down to is you having a philosophical argument with Android over which way to manage system resources.[6] And well a computer never gets tired. Hell even in windows, ram cleaners/etc are bogus crapware that do nothing but slow things down.[7]

1: Playing "whack-a-mole" would be more along the lines of "manually" going into the applications setting and turning off programs that, as you say, linux launches into memory for no other purpose than having them handy when the user feels the need to use that particular program.

Using a task killer that has a one click option as ATK does makes more sense in this scenario because it closes "ALL" the unwanted "threads" in memory thus freeing up that memory and releasing the O.S. from having to keep some sort of data record of what's currently in memory and also from having to communicate with those running apps in w/e background communications it does. If, as you say, linux (android) doesn't need those processes running for current usage.... they are in the way and pulling resources from the O.S. in some form and thus pulling from the battery.

There is no "need" to have them loaded into memory and sitting idle waiting for the user.

2: Well... if linux (android) has this memory management.... please show me where it can be set to quit automatically launching apps into memory as you say. I would like to keep my phone from constantly launching apps into memory and haven't come across that option as of yet.

3: This comment is subjective. Personally, I believe you have a bias against windows (justified or not) and that bias is wreaking havoc on your ability to make logical decisions concerning task killers for android. However, this is my opinion and just as subjective. ;-) You've had to retract your "more harm" statement because it was inaccurate and thus far unproven. I still have faith in you though... waiting patiently.

4: If linux (android) is launching something into memory and having it sit idle... common sense would tell you that it "IS" pulling "MORE" resources then if those processes weren't loaded into memory. The O.S. has to first, launch the process (thread) then it has to maintain a record of what processes (threads) it has loaded into memory and whether or not the user is using said process (thread). If there are no threads in memory for the O.S. to keep up with... then there is nothing for the O.S. to be doing = Less pull on the battery. (keep in mind... even if linux (android) does a bang up job managing power consumption of those processes... it's still pulling more juice than if there were nothing to keep up with)

Even so, it's the same concept as having a program auto start with windows at runtime. You wouldn't have windows load every program you have on the pc into memory and have it sit idle while waiting on the end user to call on that process. You would only run the "needed" processes for the current action being taken on the pc.

5: If linux (android) is having to "clear out" what's not needed in memory to make room for things that are needed... then that's a very good sign that it's not as impressive of managing resources as you've stated. If it's that great at it... it wouldn't be in memory to begin with if it's not needed.

6: It's not so much a "philosophical" argument with linux (android)... but rather a "logical" choice to manage the resources in a different way. There is a "manual" way of accomplishing the task or their are 3rd party solutions to accomplish the same task in a faster way.

Logically speaking.... it would pull less resources from the battery to have a one click solution to do what might take a few mins the manual way. Also, the longer that screen is on... the more power it pulls. So having a program that can close all the unwanted threads out of memory in one click "logically" makes more sense then keeping the screen on longer and having the O.S. run through the commands one by one as the user pushes the "force close" button over and over again.

7: This is the one place I do agree with you though... ram cleaners (for windows) and crap like that I don't really buy into. I've never seen any benefit to "ram cleaners" and as you've stated...are "bogus crapware that do nothing but slow things down". ATK however, can bet setup in such a way that it is a one click solution to clearing out memory (including itself). When linux (android) has this feature embedded into the O.S., ATK will at that point become useless.

Until that time though, this feature is a great one to have for removing unwanted threads from holding a spot in memory that are there... just to be there.

--------------------------------

So if these programs are not really running in the background, why are alot of people seeing such large amounts of data being used when they are not even using their phones?

Well... as they require you to have a data connection on the phone to begin with... I would presume it's because (A) the phone itself is communicating every so often with the update servers, (B) as yatimameiji stated... sync is communicating with w/e services have been setup to sync & (C) depending on the types of programs that are installed to the phone... they communicate out to their respective servers looking for information/feeds/ads & w/e data they use to function properly as well as checking themselves to see if they are up to date or not. (hence the "full internet access" info on the install)

This is why I believe the programs launch themselves into memory and start communicating on their own. (and is why I use ATK to take them out of memory thus reducing overall battery usage)

I base this opinion on what I've seen with my own eyes though. I've had 3 "required data package" phones and have had to cancel all 3 data packages based on where I live and the fact that we don't really get a data connection out here. On all 3 occasions... after removing the data package I've noticed that fewer programs launch themselves as they don't see a connection to the internet. Now when I connect to my router via wifi... it's like the flood gates fly open and it's open season for everything to launch itself thus using more battery life and slowing the phone down a bit.

-KH

@yatimameiji... I'm not trying to say one way or another that something is better than something else... I'm trying to understand what you seem to know about linux (android) that I don't seem to understand from your vantage point. What seems to work best for me on my phone may or may not work best for you on yours. However, you made the statement that ATK is not needed and that programs such as ATK are "silly" so now I'm wanting you to show me the evidence to prove that and not just present opinions based on bad personal experiences with another operating system that has a common function (task killers) between the two. Thanks.