Newbie Android user I need tips

[kat89447#AC]

I just switched from BB to Android and I could use some helpful tips on setting up my dinc 2 for best batt life and favorite apps that people have. I am not comfortable rooting so just the things that work for stock phones. Thanks.

 

[Tarpit_Carnivore]

Based on comments in this forum there is very little to complain about with battery. Most of us are easily hitting 10 hours, with some going higher.

 

[Astrodroid]

I'm hearing good things about battery life here too (mine hasn't arrived yet). But there are some key things that can help.

The screen eats most of the power on phones like this. You don't necessarily need it at 100%. By default I think you have a widget on your screen that toggles between 40%, something %, and 100%. Try out the 40% indoors and see what you think. The lower that is, the more power you save. There's also an auto brightness feature somewhere in the settings that would be better than always-100%. Other widgets you can download offer other percentages. The Elixir widget offers a 25%. I think somewhere in settings you can just do a slider that may not show a percentage (can't remember) but gives you the full range.

Look in the settings for your various apps that update. Lengthening the update interval can save power. If Facebook and Twitter are checking for things every 10 minutes, that's going to be more power than if they check every couple of hours. Same for other apps that periodically update.

Get the JuiceDefender app. It has various levels of battery-saving settings that can help.

If you don't need GPS or wifi, toggle them off until you do.

Go look in the Thunderbolt forum under the battery problems sticky. Lots and lots of tips there that should also apply to this phone.

 

[thebizz]

You can also disable auto sync and use the widget to sync all but for me only in extreme cases would I do this I love auto synchronization and my phone bringing everything in for me

 

[Yukstin]

Try out the 40% indoors and see what you think. The lower that is, the more power you save. There's also an auto brightness feature somewhere in the settings that would be better than always-100%

I tried out the automatic brightness part for a few days and switched to the one bar on the widget and noticed an increase in battery life. At one bar on the widget the screen was plenty bright for me, automatic was draining my battery a bit more than I wanted it to.

 

[kat89447#AC]

Thanks everyone. I had a BB before and knowing some of those tips is great, on day 3 and just figuring out how to apply them on my Dinc lol. It's like a new language. Thanks for the tip about auto lighting I had my brightness set low, but was wondering about that feature if it saved or hurt the battery time. lol Does anyone know if there is a way to set a "bedside" type mode. On my BB I could tell my phone to just run the clock on dim and tell it when to turn off notifications for emails etc, but still have the phone ring in case there was an emergency during the night. Great feature that BB had, hoping there is something similar on Android.

 

[bik2101]

i recommend the app tasker. its a super powerful app that you can pretty much program to automate just about everything

 

[mturco]

Thanks everyone. I had a BB before and knowing some of those tips is great, on day 3 and just figuring out how to apply them on my Dinc lol. It's like a new language. Thanks for the tip about auto lighting I had my brightness set low, but was wondering about that feature if it saved or hurt the battery time. lol Does anyone know if there is a way to set a "bedside" type mode. On my BB I could tell my phone to just run the clock on dim and tell it when to turn off notifications for emails etc, but still have the phone ring in case there was an emergency during the night. Great feature that BB had, hoping there is something similar on Android.

There are a lot of ways of going about this, but I would recommend an app called Gentle Alarm (which you can find here if you're on a PC and here if you're viewing this on your phone.) It's not free (costs about $3) and there's no free version that I know of, but it's worth every penny in my opinion.

Anyway, the feature of that app that pertains to your question is called Night Display. It dims the screen completely, showing only the current time and either the time of the next alarm or a countdown until the next alarm. In the settings you can set it so the phone goes into Silent Mode when in Night Display mode, which will mute all notifications, calls, etc. There's also an option to only mute notifications and to allow calls to come through.

Like I said though, there are a lot of ways to do this, and probably many for free. This is just how I do it and I think Gentle Alarm is worth promoting.

 

[kat89447#AC]

Thanks a ton! I downloaded the free trial to start and see if that works for me. Will buy it if it does. Appreciate the help.

 

[chassum]

Thanks everyone. I had a BB before and knowing some of those tips is great, on day 3 and just figuring out how to apply them on my Dinc lol. It's like a new language. Thanks for the tip about auto lighting I had my brightness set low, but was wondering about that feature if it saved or hurt the battery time. lol Does anyone know if there is a way to set a "bedside" type mode. On my BB I could tell my phone to just run the clock on dim and tell it when to turn off notifications for emails etc, but still have the phone ring in case there was an emergency during the night. Great feature that BB had, hoping there is something similar on Android.

The standard clock widget has a Desk Clock mode that should be exactly what you want.

 

[jtwildman1]

I don't think battery life is really an issue with this phone. I put some pretty heavy use on mine and it lasts for awhile. Most of the suggestions on here will work. Being new to Android, you will have a bit of a learning curve, but there are a lot of kewl features and shortcuts.

 

[yellowsun]

I noticed last night that Gentle Alarm is free today at the Amazon Appstore.

I am also new to Android. I have found SystemPanel (full version), Battery Status Bar, and ZDbox to be very helpful in helping me monitor and manage battery life. They have also helped me to understand better how the operating system works. ZDbox, specifically, puts a symbol in the status bar which indicates how many apps are open at any given time. This is part of the task killer option, but I don't actually ever kill any apps. I can open the list to see which apps are open and what their impact is. I am learning a lot through watching trends, This knowledge is a great help in managing my battery life.

ZDbox also monitors new apps and tells me when I have apps that can be moved to the SD card.

 

[mturco]

I noticed last night that Gentle Alarm is free today at the Amazon Appstore.

Nice catch! There's no reason for anyone not to give this a download.

 

[TBolt]

There are a lot of ways of going about this, but I would recommend an app called Gentle Alarm

Amazon appstore has been giving Gentle Alarm away for free today (Monday). If the OP is still awake, you can get it free.

Personally, I dig an alarm called Good Morning. You can enter text, such as reminders, that it will read to you when you wake up along with the day, date, current weather, weather forecast, calendar events, etc.

---

Every Android phone needs the Amazon Appstore. One free app a day.

 

[lauranelli]

I was wondering what app is best for killing running apps. I have only had the Incredible 2 for 1 day. So I'm on here learning as much as possible. Anything would help. Thanks

 

[TBolt]

I was wondering what app is best for killing running apps. I have only had the Incredible 2 for 1 day. So I'm on here learning as much as possible. Anything would help. Thanks

Just say "No" to app killers. You're not running Android 0.0.998.

 

[RicanMedic78]

check out launcher pro, beautiful widgets, and better keyboard. 2 of them have free versions while beautiful widgets is paid. Once you have all these 3 on your phone, the customization options are endless.... try it!

I too recently went from a BB 9650 to this.... And I wont be lookin back! lol

 

[TBolt]

I love Launcher Pro cuz it runs better on my Inc than ADW or Go Launcher EX. Go Launcher EX has cooler features, though.

If you like the home screen clocks in Sense, recommend Fancy Widgets - the clocks look better than Beautiful Widgets. Although, I purchased both just for the heck of it.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[SpringRyan]

How do I get facebook to check once every hour?

 

[ioo]

Open facebook app, go to settings, turn on "notifications", set interval to your desired time.