Help Notification LED?

[ccrows]

This was something missing on the Galaxy S and the Nexus S.


Does anyone know if this is going to be on the Galaxy S II, because I'm struggling to find any concrete info?...

 

[Quboid]

No, from what I've seen and heard in many previews.

 

[Spewy]

No there is no LED

I believe there may be an app that can make the menu or back button (capasitive button that is) glow to notify receipt of messages but have not looked yet until I have the phone to try.

 

[ccrows]

No there is no LED

I believe there may be an app that can make the menu or back button (capasitive button that is) glow to notify receipt of messages but have not looked yet until I have the phone to try.

The App is called "NoLED". It works but it's no the best app to have on overnight since it's a large battery drain IMO. I've used it on and off on my Galaxy S but on the nights that I left it on overnight it would drop 30% by morning.


*SIGH* This is probably going to kill the phone for me since I really need that for work. I would take that over a front facing camera any day but that's just me I guess...

 

[hahaha what]

why dont you keep your phone plugged in while youre sleeping?

 

[NZtechfreak]

Backlight notification (BLN) is better than NoLED, its the one the has the capacitive buttons lights stay lit/pulse whatever on notifications. I have it enabled on my SGSI and its great, and I've not noticed any particularly deleterious effects on battery life. BLN requires a custom kernel to run, so it won't be available immediately, but I expect it will come to the SGSII.

 

[ccrows]

why dont you keep your phone plugged in while youre sleeping?

I've noticed that I get better battery performance by "training the battery". Noticed this with a few different Android phones by different manufacturers.


IMHO leaving it charged in all night and waking up usually doesn't go as far though the day as charging it full, unplug, and working it till the next charge.


I've seen about a good 20%+ difference in doing so. (At least enough where I'm not scrambling for an outlet during the day)


But yeah I used to do the whole battery charge on all night and unplug in the morning. Eventually I decided to reset the battery stats and start over and usually I make it through the day...

 

[kyler13]

I've noticed that I get better battery performance by "training the battery". Noticed this with a few different Android phones by different manufacturers.


IMHO leaving it charged in all night and waking up usually doesn't go as far though the day as charging it full, unplug, and working it till the next charge.


I've seen about a good 20%+ difference in doing so. (At least enough where I'm not scrambling for an outlet during the day)


But yeah I used to do the whole battery charge on all night and unplug in the morning. Eventually I decided to reset the battery stats and start over and usually I make it through the day...

This is a general phenomenon of Li-polymer technology. You can't trickle charge the battery to keep it topped off so leaving a phone plugged in for hours at a time results in less charge available than if you pull it off right after the charge is complete. No need to "train" the battery or reset the stats. It really has to do with the design of the charging circuit and how it handles the power management once the battery has reached capacity.

Lithium-ion polymer battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[MagicMarker]

I thought batteries now stop charging once charged, and just run the phone off the power cable so when you do unplug it it has 100% charge. This is the same with laptops.

Also, the only bad thing I've heard about new types of batteries is that if you constantly charge from say 20%, i.e. it never drops below that, the battery monitor thinks 20% is now 0% after a while.

 

[ccrows]

I thought batteries now stop charging once charged, and just run the phone off the power cable so when you do unplug it it has 100% charge. This is the same with laptops.

Also, the only bad thing I've heard about new types of batteries is that if you constantly charge from say 20%, i.e. it never drops below that, the battery monitor thinks 20% is now 0% after a while.

I've unplugged phones that were sitting on a charger way too long and they fell down to 90% once I unplugged. Don't know how or why its happened...

 

[ccrows]

This is a general phenomenon of Li-polymer technology. You can't trickle charge the battery to keep it topped off so leaving a phone plugged in for hours at a time results in less charge available than if you pull it off right after the charge is complete. No need to "train" the battery or reset the stats. It really has to do with the design of the charging circuit and how it handles the power management once the battery has reached capacity.

Lithium-ion polymer battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By all means I'm not an expert in batteries, so all I can go off of is off of my own past experiences. With Android alone I've owned a Milestone, Desire, Galaxy S, Fascinate, Vibrant, and Atrix (I'm a cell phone fanatic don't ask). Anywhoo doing the daily charge is what works for me.


I forgot which phone it was (Desire maybe) where somebody over on XDA created an app that reset battery stats. After that I was able to finally get through the day with it on one charge. Since then I've been at least "trying" to do the daily charge.


Like I said I'm no expert, and others have their own ways of battery maintenance. Then again I've seen bigger debates happen about whether to use a task killer or not.



Bottom line - Do whatever works for you...

 

[chocobosandwich]

Lithium batteries are a pain in this regard and there's no way around it. Your battery meter can be 5-10% off or even more, and there's obviously other factors like temperature and humidity that probably screw up the actual reading even more. Electric vehicles have it the worst, since some people have reported their vehicle dying even when there's still 10 miles left on their console, and who wants to be stranded on the highway?. I've also heard comments about how you should never run a lithium battery to 0% or it will die permanently, and phones shut off before then. Then again, there's so much BS and conflicting info out there about battery life and maintenance that I just stop caring anymore. From reading probably a dozen articles over a span of years covering laptop batteries to smartphone batteries to whatever my next shiny gadget will be batteries. No one ever speaks definitively, and those who do tend to be idiots. The PhDs and engineers constantly contradicting each other. Ugh.

The lesson I learned is to stop caring at all about batteries and instead just take them for granted, like everyone else in the world. You can try battery resetting apps or putting your smartphone in the fridge or doing various other things, and it may help, but it's not a hard science and I would recommend people who don't have a serious problem with their battery to just plug their ears, blink really hard, and go nah nah nah nah nah.

 

[Quboid]

That's my strategy chocobosandwich, I might do some things when the battery is new like fully charge it, fully discharge it and fully charge it again - and I'm not sure if this is actually any help. After that - screw it, I give the orders around here, not it

I charge my Desire overnight and give it a boost some time in the afternoon or evening when I can bear to be away from my phone for an hour. It might not be optimal, but until we get a new battery technology, it's convenient and effective.

 

[chocobosandwich]

I can't hear you. Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah...

 

[hahaha what]

I've noticed that I get better battery performance by "training the battery". Noticed this with a few different Android phones by different manufacturers.


IMHO leaving it charged in all night and waking up usually doesn't go as far though the day as charging it full, unplug, and working it till the next charge.


I've seen about a good 20%+ difference in doing so. (At least enough where I'm not scrambling for an outlet during the day)


But yeah I used to do the whole battery charge on all night and unplug in the morning. Eventually I decided to reset the battery stats and start over and usually I make it through the day...

huh, thats interesting. have you actually measured the gains or is it just a feel. i'd like to try it out myself

 

[kyler13]

Lithium batteries are a pain in this regard and there's no way around it. Your battery meter can be 5-10% off or even more, and there's obviously other factors like temperature and humidity that probably screw up the actual reading even more. Electric vehicles have it the worst, since some people have reported their vehicle dying even when there's still 10 miles left on their console, and who wants to be stranded on the highway?. I've also heard comments about how you should never run a lithium battery to 0% or it will die permanently, and phones shut off before then. Then again, there's so much BS and conflicting info out there about battery life and maintenance that I just stop caring anymore. From reading probably a dozen articles over a span of years covering laptop batteries to smartphone batteries to whatever my next shiny gadget will be batteries. No one ever speaks definitively, and those who do tend to be idiots. The PhDs and engineers constantly contradicting each other. Ugh.

The lesson I learned is to stop caring at all about batteries and instead just take them for granted, like everyone else in the world. You can try battery resetting apps or putting your smartphone in the fridge or doing various other things, and it may help, but it's not a hard science and I would recommend people who don't have a serious problem with their battery to just plug their ears, blink really hard, and go nah nah nah nah nah.

That comes off a little dramatic, but you're right. The technology isn't very conformal to a simple set of dynamics so YMMV.

 

[chocobosandwich]

Guilty as charged. I get dramatic when I'm bored. I'm typing this on an iPad as we speak. Man this thing has great battery life. I think I played sudoku for 20 hours over the past week and still not drained yet.

 

[diS]

Guilty as charged. I get dramatic when I'm bored. I'm typing this on an iPad as we speak. Man this thing has great battery life. I think I played sudoku for 20 hours over the past week and still not drained yet.

Apple sure is good! They discriminate lefties
Perhaps they will make it right with the I***** 5 and discriminate righties!

 

[chocobosandwich]

Apple sure is good! They discriminate lefties
Perhaps they will make it right with the I***** 5 and discriminate righties!

I don't get it?

 

[diS]

I don't get it?

Signal strenght loss when holding the phone with your left hand on the I***** 4

 

[chocobosandwich]

I have an iPad though. And what does ***** mean?

 

[diS]

Censored the following letters not to upset others

 

[hahaha what]

who would be upset by the word iphone ???

 

[Quboid]

Can we keep this crap out of here? Let's discuss Android, not take shots at other platforms.

 

[kyler13]

Guilty as charged. I get dramatic when I'm bored. I'm typing this on an iPad as we speak. Man this thing has great battery life. I think I played sudoku for 20 hours over the past week and still not drained yet.

Well, if you wired up a 9000mAh battery to an SGSII, restricted it to wi-fi, and ran iOS on it, you'd probably get the same results.

Seriously, the cure to my battery issues came in the form of having a second battery on hand and a battery charger. What would be great is if the manufacturers took on the challenge of allowing these phones to run off external power so you could hot swap the battery. Powering down for the change out is a little cumbersome.