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App that turns on WiFi when charging?

Why would you want that? If you are in a wifi area, stay on wifi all the time. You'll get both faster speeds and better battery.

Because wifi crushes battery life for some people?
Because the OP might not need wifi on all the time?
Because the OP wants more control of his/her device?

If we wanted the manufacturer/developers to limit us to default configurations we would have bought iPhones. :p

In my case I have no data plan and use wifi to sync to google, etc. I have wifi set up to not sleep when on the charger. So when I use my phone it syncs. When I don't use it the wifi can sleep if it wants, and loses very little battery power.

On my device it's found in Settings | Wireless and Networks | Wifi settings | (menu) advanced.
 
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Because wifi crushes battery life for some people?
Because the OP might not need wifi on all the time?
Because the OP wants more control of his/her device?

If we wanted the manufacturer/developers to limit us to default configurations we would have bought iPhones. :p

In my case I have no data plan and use wifi to sync to google, etc. I have wifi set up to not sleep when on the charger. So when I use my phone it syncs. When I don't use it the wifi can sleep if it wants, and loses very little battery power.

On my device it's found in Settings | Wireless and Networks | Wifi settings | (menu) advanced.

Unless you turn off network data, wifi always gives better battery if you set the sleep policy to never.
 
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Unless you turn off network data, wifi always gives better battery if you set the sleep policy to never.

This. The wifi radio uses MUCH less power than the mobile network. Unless you're switching back and forth between mobile and wifi constantly you will see great battery life with a good wifi connection.
 
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I did specify above that I have no data plan. The OP did not specify either way.

There does not seem to be a unified consensus amongst the more technical folks (xda, etc) that sleep=never will always yield greater battery life.

I think it is fair to say that an established wifi connection to a WAP with a good signal will use less power than 3G, which is not exactly the same thing as saying less power than network data or mobile network. I have not heard the argument made that it would used less power than non-3G data.

In the spirit of experimentation:
For those of us without a data plan it is not clear that sleep=never is a win. With "sleep=never when plugged in" WIFI is always is a minimal drain on my battery (~15%) and it loses 3% overnight on average.

I turned on sleep=never last night; it lost 9% overnight and wifi was 70% of my battery usage. This would seem to indicate that sleep=never may use more power than one of the sleep modes for those of us with no data plan.
 
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I did specify above that I have no data plan. The OP did not specify either way.

There does not seem to be a unified consensus amongst the more technical folks (xda, etc) that sleep=never will always yield greater battery life.

I think it is fair to say that an established wifi connection to a WAP with a good signal will use less power than 3G, which is not exactly the same thing as saying less power than network data or mobile network. I have not heard the argument made that it would used less power than non-3G data.

In the spirit of experimentation:
For those of us without a data plan it is not clear that sleep=never is a win. With "sleep=never when plugged in" WIFI is always is a minimal drain on my battery (~15%) and it loses 3% overnight on average.

I turned on sleep=never last night; it lost 9% overnight and wifi was 70% of my battery usage. This would seem to indicate that sleep=never may use more power than one of the sleep modes for those of us with no data plan.

But who the hell doesn't have a data plan? You can't even get most smartphones without one.
 
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But who the hell doesn't have a data plan?

I'm pretty sure I already answered that.

My mobile bill is about $90/year because I have a cheap prepaid voice with no data plan, and use wifi for data.

I do not fault those who want the Full Monty experience and are willing to pay 10x what I do for it. Fine. But my cheap, non-data setup is fine with me. And it explains why someone might ask the question the OP did.


You can't even get most smartphones without one.

This is demonstratably not true.
 
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I did specify above that I have no data plan. The OP did not specify either way.

There does not seem to be a unified consensus amongst the more technical folks (xda, etc) that sleep=never will always yield greater battery life.

I think it is fair to say that an established wifi connection to a WAP with a good signal will use less power than 3G, which is not exactly the same thing as saying less power than network data or mobile network. I have not heard the argument made that it would used less power than non-3G data.

In the spirit of experimentation:
For those of us without a data plan it is not clear that sleep=never is a win. With "sleep=never when plugged in" WIFI is always is a minimal drain on my battery (~15%) and it loses 3% overnight on average.

I turned on sleep=never last night; it lost 9% overnight and wifi was 70% of my battery usage. This would seem to indicate that sleep=never may use more power than one of the sleep modes for those of us with no data plan.

If you go over to XDA, there have been many posts that bring up the WiFi sleep policy when someone makes a new thread stating that their battery sucks (any Android phone).

You kind of state the obvious, if you DO NOT have a data plan, then keeping Wifi On will definitely drain more than having no data at all - but the downside is that you will probably not get any notifications because for those who DO have data plans and do not set the policy, it shuts off wifi when in standby and uses 3g data instead. There was a complaint regarding this when someone would use Pandora\Slacker\etc while on wifi and sets the phone to sleep, and later find that their data usage had skyrocketed because the phone had switched to 3g while streaming music.

You bring up the argument for people who DO NOT have a data plan, but fortunately\unfortunately (depends on how you look at it), the majority of people HAVE data plans. You speak for the minority regarding your experiences.

Therefore, for the purpose of this thread and any other battery argument, wifi sleep to never = more battery if you have a data plan. This has been tested by many and myself.

Wifi sleep policy set to never: 5-6% battery drain over 8 hour period
Policy set to Always sleep: ~17% over an 8 hour period
 
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