Topic: Android

[mephisto_kur]

ASTRO File manager
Shazam
Movies (The Flixter one)
IMDb
XKCDViewer
RealCalc
Google Voice
Taskiller*

*alright, lets talk task killers.

They are not necessary.  Android is a Linux OS.  The way Android manages memory is very awesome.  Programs that run in the background aren't actually allowed to *do* anything unless allowed by the root user (or Google\Verizon\Moto).  99% of the apps on the market cannot do anything when they don't have focus except to trigger events when other events happen.  Example: Photoshop.com is an app that automatically uploads any picture you take to your account.  It does nothing but display an icon until the camera is activated.  At the "shutter click" event, photoshop.com wakes up, grabs the photo, dumps it to the site, then goes to sleep again.  Task managers are not needed for the apps you get from the market. (Unless those apps need root access, which is DANGEROUS).

When the system runs low on memory, it frees more as needed.  How it does this is nice.  It takes the oldest running program.  It looks to see when it last was used.  If it has been used recently, it takes the next oldest, etc.  It compares when each program was last used, and kills the oldest program that was used the longest ago.

So why do you need a task killer?  Frankly, you don't.  But they are helpful for one main reason.  All that crap that Verizon\Google\Mot\Amazon start?  Those things have root access.  When they run, even in the background some of them RUN.  They don't go dormant like the things you download.  So, kill the Bluetooth process.  That will save on battery.  Kill the Amazon stuff, the voice dialer, the visual voicemail, the market, google maps (which lights off your location antennae - GPS and cell ping - and kills battery), gallery, email, calendar, music, gallery...  Why does that stuff even light off when you don't tell it to?

There are also some widgets that allow you to turn antennae on and off as needed.  The antennae are one of the biggest battery burners in these phones.

[Trlgg]

Ive tried Shazam, I love that app lol.  i haven't got the paid version yet, only tried the trial.

[anomaly]

nice. thanks man!

yea i noticed all kinds of crap running that i never even used like skype mobile Amazon mp3 store and a bunch of social apps.

i set up Gtalk and it seems to work nice! i tried to find a widget for it but was unsuccessful.

i tried to set up Gvoice but it kept having errors with my number. i found out today ive been roaming this whole time. a quick call to *228 (option 2) changed that. shortly after i got my 1st OTA update and now im gonna try to get Gvoice to work again.

what antennae thing are you talking about? WiFi?

my batt life sucks so far. im getting less than 16hrs (maybe 10-12hrs) with what i would consider lite use. but in all fairness i don't think my phone knows the battery to well yet plus i was roaming....

ive only did one full cycle and it only took 2hrs from the phone turning its self off from low batt to 100% full charge, which i think is not very accurate charge.

the true battery test will be next week when i have more free time to play with this thing. im sure the battery will get pounded on then. right now im hardly using it at all.

[mephisto_kur]

Hey, Mike.  The Shazam app for Android is free, but ad supported.  You get a small ad bar at the top of the app.  No big deal.

Anomaly:
Antennae is the plural of antenna
There are many antennae in your new phone.  You have wifi, GPS, 3G\CDMA, Bluetooth...  You can't turn off the CDMA antenna, but turning off GPS and WIFI when not needed helps a LOT.  Also, the 3G portion of the CDMA antenna disables when you are on Wifi - and wifi uses less juice than 3G.

Battery life on all of these newer large screen smartphones (iPhone included) isn't great.  You'll get into the habit of not messing with it when you aren't going to be near your charger for long periods.  Mine charges every night on my nightstand - its my alarm clock.

Go to Settings -> About Phone -> Battery Use to see what is eating your battery, and adjust your habits to compensate.

To condition a new battery, let it drain ALL THE WAY anf then FULLY CHARGE, and that can help your phone's brain figure out a more accurate reading - it also helps with battery life, both holding a charge and how long it will last.

[mephisto_kur]

Correction:

Airplane mode turns off ALL antennae including the CDMA one.

[mephisto_kur]

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-news/62385-root-has-arrived-droid-x.html

[anomaly]

yea i seen the Root. thats awesome but im not ready yet. unless they find some way to get better battery life im ok for now. this think is blazing fast! so i dont see my self OCing anytime soon. the longest app to load so far has been Google earth. takes maybe 5sec? lol so not really waiting on anything with this thing.

im near WiFi 95% of my day. the only time i see the 3G kick in is when im driving my 15min drive to & from work.

BT i always have off.

so far ive left the GPS on but i only see it kick on here and there when some app needs it. not sure if its running in the background or not but i can run that test after my battery is cycled a few times. i plan to drain it down to as low as when the phone kicks it self off again one more time and then charge it back 100% with out interruption.

it would seem the major killer on my batt is the display. its taking around 80% in the graph, im using med brightness so idk but i seen the same behavior on the OG droid i messed with for a few days.

[mephisto_kur]

Get into the habit of hitting your display off button.

[anomaly]

if you mean the same thing as the lock/power button, ive already made it a habit more so for the locking feature than anything.

i originally had it set to do it by its self every 30 sec but i had to keep touching the screen so it wouldn't lock on me while i was in the middle of reading something. i think 1min might be too long for a time out when i just check my phone randomly for msgs and calls many time a day.

so i just set it to 10min and always lock it after im done looking at the screen.

im looking at the batt life others are getting whih moderate use and i think i will be needing the extended batt when it comes out. i hear it only adds 1mm of thickness to the phone which is like adding 1/10th more so not a big deal breaker considering some one like me could get 16-18hrs with moderate use.

like i said before i don't think ill be using my PC or laptop much anymore. 80% of the time i spend in front of a PC is on the internet and after flash 10.1 i don't think there will be much reason for me to use anything else for web browsing. so ill need this thing to keep up with me all day long with hopefully only needing to charge over night while i sleep.

[GeNe]

I still much prefer to browse the internet on a computer than on my phone.  I know I can get the same content on the phone, but responding to emails, using the forum etc. are much easier for me on the computer.

I used to use the features on my a phone more when I had free time and was usually out of the house/school.  But now I find myself shuttling back between work and home, so my phone gets a lot less use -- I can go 36 hours on my iPhone battery.

BT off, WiFi and 3G stay on.  And push-email stays on too.

[anomaly]

I can go 36 hours on my iPhone battery.

nice.

ive been off the charger for 18hrs so far with the new update and still got 20% left. which is about twice the amount of up time i had last charge.

im going to let it die again and then give it one more charge to 100% so the phone knows how to read the battery correctly.

i just noticed its got 3 power profiles. performance, smart and battery saver. ive been on performance this whole time! i read that battery saver actually down clocks and possibly undervolts the CPU. hmmm...

maybe i may not need the extended battery after all?

[mephisto_kur]

I get somewhere around that, as well, Gene.  Before I started using it as my alarm clock, I was always forgetting to charge it .  But at first you can't stop tinkering and poking at it.  Once anomaly gets over the ITS TOTALLY AWESOME LOOK WHAT IT CAN DO! phase, he'll get better battery life haha

[anomaly]

Once anomaly gets over the ITS TOTALLY AWESOME LOOK WHAT IT CAN DO! phase

NEVER! 

[anomaly]

in all reality i haven't got to do much yet. maybe 5min hear 15min there...

ive been painting and doing some re-modeling around the house since the day before i got the phone. im not truly going to get to mess with it till next week sometime.

then im sure ill be going to the marketplace and browsing a lot. whats your favorite browser?

[mephisto_kur]

I use the stock browser.