Must have Apps for the Nexus-S

[theotherlinh]

anyone have a good camera app? as I understand it, the stock app is really basic w/o any tap-anywhere-to-focus options (unless this is a hardware limitation?)

 

[eddieras]

Today is Day 1 with no..noled and we will see how it goes I update later with results so far I think im getting better battery.

I'm going to do same tomorrow - i'll let you know as well.

 

[Jerzey McNasty]

25 hours from full charge to completely dead with noled. Normal calling and text, streamed some music for an hour. Moderate use.

 

[eddieras]

with noled? any widgets, live wallpaper running? are you 3g or mostly wifi? that's amazing. i'm not getting half that

 

[j_grouchy]

Quick settings has no 4g toggle. Am I missing something?

 

[skinneejay]

Same here. I had 27 hrs of battery usage on one charge. Unplugged at 730am on friday died at 1030am on Saturday morning. Yes the phone was not in use from midnight to 8am but I was surfing the web and checking emails in bed at 830am on Saturday morning. So its possible. No live wallpaper.

 

[AndroidOne]

... No live wallpaper.

+1

Also, no FB, Twiter, IM chat running on the background either.

 

[eddieras]

that's amazing - i'm not getting 8 hours- i have no live wallpaper - no FB, twitter or IM either!

 

[Wiley_11]

that's amazing - i'm not getting 8 hours- i have no live wallpaper - no FB, twitter or IM either!

How about Google Latitude? I remember reading someone turned that off and got better battery life.

 

[eddieras]

i just found that and turned it off- thanks!

 

[FocusFreak]

If you are going to turn off FB, Twitter, chat and pretty much every setting the phone has...whats the point of owning a smart phone? You could get along just as well with some $50 phone.

 

[eddieras]

If you are going to turn off FB, Twitter, chat and pretty much every setting the phone has...whats the point of owning a smart phone? You could get along just as well with some $50 phone.

how about all the apps, text to speech, full browsing, decent camera that's always with me, shopping tools? i get plenty of use out of these smartphones -- i'm just trying to pinpoint what's draining the battery. sorry to disappoint that i don't use FB, Twitter and Chat.

 

[DeCourseyyy]

anyone have a good camera app? as I understand it, the stock app is really basic w/o any tap-anywhere-to-focus options (unless this is a hardware limitation?)

The camera auto-focuses. The camcorder only has one set focus level. The only difference you would find with another camera app is that you would see the focused camera preview before you actually took the shot.

However, if you are looking for effects, I have seen very good reviews of Vignette. Its $5 in the Market but also has a free demo.

 

[FocusFreak]

how about all the apps, text to speech, full browsing, decent camera that's always with me, shopping tools? i get plenty of use out of these smartphones -- i'm just trying to pinpoint what's draining the battery. sorry to disappoint that i don't use FB, Twitter and Chat.

You dont get it though, its a smartphone and battery will ALWAYS be so-so no matter what you do! If you are going to dumb it down and close everything on it, just saying theres little point to owning one. Anyone expecting to get some magical 24 hour use on a smartphone running things most people want an Android phone to run, is dreaming. Be happy when it makes it thru a 12 hour period with moderate to heavy use on the stock battery or buy a bigger one.

 

[bucketheadmn]

You dont get it though, its a smartphone and battery will ALWAYS be so-so no matter what you do! If you are going to dumb it down and close everything on it, just saying theres little point to owning one. Anyone expecting to get some magical 24 hour use on a smartphone running things most people want an Android phone to run, is dreaming. Be happy when it makes it thru a 12 hour period with moderate to heavy use on the stock battery or buy a bigger one.

So there is one really nice thing about Android - many different ways to use the phone with many different applications and widgets for different things. I think you need to take a step back and realize that different people use their phones for different thins while expecting different things out of a phone. Some of us have no use for Facebook or Twitter and all of these other polling applications to check on our social life. And as for some 24 hours magical usage out of a phone, if you are ok with getting 10 hours out of a phone great. Let those of us that like to get a little more time out of the battery go about it, no reason to concern yourself with it or inject your opinions and thoughts on others.

 

[zmann]

So there is one really nice thing about Android - many different ways to use the phone with many different applications and widgets for different things. I think you need to take a step back and realize that different people use their phones for different thins while expecting different things out of a phone. Some of us have no use for Facebook or Twitter and all of these other polling applications to check on our social life. And as for some 24 hours magical usage out of a phone, if you are ok with getting 10 hours out of a phone great. Let those of us that like to get a little more time out of the battery go about it, no reason to concern yourself with it or inject your opinions and thoughts on others.

I thought thats what a forum is for, to talk, discuss,, have an opinion, agree, disigree, agree to disigree. 12 hours out of these devices is pretty good. I always have a fully charged spare in my pocket. They are so lite and thin its very easy and convenient. If that's all I got to do to carry around a pocket computer that also makes phone calls then what the hell, takes 2 mins to pop in a fresh battery.

EVO-LUTION 3D

 

[Jerzey McNasty]

with noled? any widgets, live wallpaper running? are you 3g or mostly wifi? that's amazing. i'm not getting half that

Widgets yes (calender,beautiful, go sms, pandora etc.) no live wallpaper, 3g mostly, didn't use 4g or wifi

 

[AndroidOne]

If you are going to turn off FB, Twitter, chat and pretty much every setting the phone has...whats the point of owning a smart phone? You could get along just as well with some $50 phone.

No one is saying you HAVE to turn any of those off if you don't want to, however everyone needs to understand there will be a penalty in battery life for every background syncing app/widget you enable, time spent surfing/streaming in 4G or every program/process that keeps the phone from sleeping. We are just identifying those things that most impact battery life to help you manage better.

The battery holds a finite amount of power after every charge, therefore the more power you draw per hour the faster the discharge rate will be. There is no way around that.

 

[eddieras]

focus freak - i'm afraid you don't get it -- i'm not getting 12 hours - if i were i wouldn't be around here - i'm not even getting 8 hours! (see my earlier post- thus my concern!)

i appreciate everyone's feedback - as i said - all i'm trying to do is get even 8 hours of battery life - i see most people getting 10-12 hours, some even double that. i'm not trying to set world record for battery life by shutting everything down - i'm just trying to get a day out of the thing doing the things that i want to do - the things that i enjoy. regarding FB twitter etc = just cause i'm not into social media certainly doesn't mean i don't get full use of my phone-- that's precisely why i want more battery - so i can enjoy this great phone in the manner i want -and that requires some tweaking to get it to a more usable level.

 

[theotherlinh]

The camera auto-focuses. The camcorder only has one set focus level. The only difference you would find with another camera app is that you would see the focused camera preview before you actually took the shot.

However, if you are looking for effects, I have seen very good reviews of Vignette. Its $5 in the Market but also has a free demo.

not looking for effects actually... I read that there's not auto-flash setting, it's just on or off. And no tap area to focus. Looking for ways to make the nexus s work better for my mom before I commit to teaching it to her, haha. It's hard to get her to opt for the EVO 3D.. she just really likes how the nexus s doesn't feel like a brick (for reference, I found out she actually doesn't like the iphone 4 because of that)