Extend Battery Life On Android Devices

There is nothing worse than missing an important call, or not being able to access your Android device because the battery is dead.  Luckily there are several options available to you to help optimize your device, some of them are pretty straight forward and while they may limit your social interaction with others on Facebook, Google+ or FourSquare – they will help conserve battery life.

First up – don’t install applications that require persistent connections to the web as they will drain power from regular updates.  If you must keep them then use something like Advanced Task Killer (free and paid version — free version shows ads, while the paid version does not) to tag and kill applications that shouldn’t be running all the time.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been using FourSquare quite a bit, but also noticed that my battery wasn’t lasting as long as it normally would (this “evidence” is purely anectodal, short of resetting my phone to factory specs and testing each application I have no real way of measuring which apps are sucking battery — so knowing what I know [and reading a lot], I eliminate apps that I feel are draining my battery).  So I’ve uninstalled it.  I do like the application and I’ll probably re-install it once I try some additional tweaks I’ve made.

Other apps I’ve “shut down” or “force stopped” are things like WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and any other VOIP application.  I’ve got a phone plan that offers unlimited voice calls, data, and (local/national/international) SMS so I don’t really need to have those apps running all the time.  I realize that this may not be a solution for everyone, but perhaps minimize the number of VOIP apps you are using.

As I mentioned earlier I also use ATK (Advanced Task Killer) to keep only the essentials running (that would be the Android OS plus a few other apps that are required).

I purchased an application called JuiceDefender Ultimate (free and paid version — I prefer the paid version which offers more configuration options) which does a great job of power management and for the two weeks I’ve been using it the application has reported that it’s extended my battery life by as much as 45% – again tough for me to measure, but I’ll take the apps stats for what they are.  Juice Defender Ultimate is set to a balanced setting so does things like turn off WiFi when I forget (when I don’t connect to a WiFi network within 1 minute it will shut it off).  Defender is a great app and the commercial version is highly configurable, so I’m probably not the poster child for the app.  But with the balanced setting it does what it does well for me.

Through the Android OS settings I’ve also set my screens timeout to about 30 seconds.  Why set your timeout very long unless you really need to?

Under the Accounts & Sync Settings in Android, I’ve also disabled the Background Data option.  Yes it’s nice to have an updated inbox, but seriously I can spend 10 seconds and do it manually.  I have turned off the sync on virtually every application I use (Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, Twitter) again, I can update them manually as I’m not using them all the time.

Now if you have already done all that and are still having problems, then here are a few more solutions.

First up – carry a spare.  Not a phone, but an external battery.  I picked up two great external batteries (rechargeable battery packs) from Fred Meyer a few months ago for $19.99 each.  They allow me to charge several types of devices through USB and the device is very small and can easily fit into my messenger bag.  The cables are also thin so you could carry the spare battery plus cable in your pocket without it getting in the way.

There are plenty of rechargeable battery packs on Amazon to choose from, here are two that have received hundreds of good reviews and are very popular items.

1. Trent ifuel IMP500 5000mAh External Battery Pack and Charger
2. PowerGen External Battery Pack 5200mAh High Capacity Power Bank Charger

Both of these are great external battery packs as they are designed to work on a variety of devices by way of nibs (aka connectors).

The rechargeable battery pack that I purchased is not as powerful as the two above,  as it’s only 2000mAh however charges my device fully and recharges in a matter of a few hours and retains the charge for weeks.  I picked up  an Adapti brand rechargeable battery pack, I could not find this one on Amazon but at $19.99 it is expensive since you can get a Trent or PowerGen for $10 – $20 more which more than doubles the mAh allowing you to charge at least two devices if needed.

I’ve used the battery pack on my Android phone, iPhone, and iPod touch without any issues.  The 2000mAh is not powerful enough for the iPad and it will not work on my Acer Iconia A100 tablet as it does not charge through USB.  For the Acer Iconia I manage power very carefully through the use of OS tweaks (via settings), using ATK and JuiceDefender Ultimate.

Another thing to do is keep an extra USB cable with you at work so you can charge your device when it is running low.  You could also do the same in your car so that you can charge your device in the car — remember to purchase a cell phone holder rather than leaving the phone on the seat or elsewhere.

Buy an extra battery for your phone OR a more powerful battery.  The only problem with this is that you’d have to pop open your phone with the current battery in use dies.  As well going with a more powerful battery sometimes means you also need to use a different back case potentially turning your nice thin smartphone into the old style brick phones.  Ugly.

Today’s devices pack a lot of features, larger HD screens and more into phones and tablets at the same time manufacturers are trying to keep costs down and devices as thin as possible.  Until someone develops ultra long-life battery’s we will be forced to make do with what we have, and utilize combinations of software (ATK, JuiceDefender Ultimate), OS tweaks and hardware options to extend the life of our devices so that we can make it through an entire day without worry.

If you have any other suggestions, leave me a comment.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 At Fred Meyer

Though the Asus 7″ 1280×800 tablet is “just around the corner”, and with rumors flying about the impending release of the Apple iPad 3 retailers are trying to clear out what stock they have.  Spotted FutureShop (in Canada, at least) dropping prices on all their iPad 2 – and their staff is flogging them heavily to any unsuspecting customer that happens to walk down the aisle with all the other tablets.

I just spotted Fred Meyer (yes, they actually sell electronics…) selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.  Specs include:

• Android Honeycomb 3.2
• 1.2GHz Dual-Core processor
• 16GB memory
• Front and rear camera

Doesn’t mention whether it’s locked or unlocked or any other details on their flyer but what I don’t quite understand is the price – $349.99 it would seem that they are not trying to get rid of these.  I’ve seen this for as low as $299.99 at FM several months ago so don’t quite understand their pricing strategy (and that price is at a $50.00 savings off the regular price of $399.99).

But if you’re looking for a 7″ tablet and can’t wait for the Asus then the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 is a nice tablet.

 

Bad FaceBook MoJo

It’s probably happened to you.  You “LIKE” something, then a few days later your FaceBook account gets a mind of its own liking porn or worse of the worst on the web.

Chances are you liked what looked like a legitimate page, and accepted the permissions (most apps/likes etc., almost always want to post to your FB page as you) and now you’re in a conundrum.  You don’t want to delete your profile and start over.  How do you fix it?

You can try and find the Customer Service address for Facebook – I tried that once without much luck, maybe it was staring me in the face but couldn’t locate it and when I did nobody ever replied to me.  Or you can take matters into your own hands.  It’s easy.

First find the offending post(s), for this example I’ll use ZAGG (they are a GREAT company – this is ONLY BEING USED for an example):

Hover your mouse above the BOXED ARROW as shown in the picture above and CLICK on it.  Next you should see this:

At this point you can either REPORT STORY OR SPAM or HIDE ALL BY [offending item name]

You’re done.

If you HIDE ALL these rogue posts will never show-up on your account, but I would also recommend REPORTING THE STORY.  Hopefully FB would then take action against those rogue posts.

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