International travel, ATK and battery usage

[Berry me a G]

I travel a lot and will be taking my X overseas for the first time. So the question is..

What do I need to do to have basically nothing running unless I open it? I will only be using the phone & apps while under wifi and then for media/music when not in WIFI zones. That's it, nothing more.

Basically, I want to maximize battery life by only using it for the programs I want while not in reception areas. I am not currently using a ATK and have been very happy not to as everything has been working great but this might be a different scenario

What do you guys think?

 

[kdkinc]

No to ATK its a battery killer and may even hurt 2.2.
Ac power converter for battery charger if not able to USB phone.

 

[ottscay]

Be sure to toggle on airplane mode any time you are out of reception (or just don't care to use it as a cell phone). Your cell connection (especially when running data) is one of the biggest users of battery.

Also, ATK won't help, and would probably make it worse.

 

[Berry me a G]

Thanks guys and glad to hear that ATK is NOT the way to go for this. Should I manually kill all apps/ programs running in background and then toggle airplane mode and if so will this keep them "dead" or will they all start back up on the next cycle?

Again, my X will be in airplane mode 98 % of the time and I dont want anything running unless I want it to.

 

[ultravisitor]

Do not bother killing apps. Read this:

Droid Den - Android Guide: Should I Use a Task Killer - Droid Den

 

[Ricky Babalu]

Here is another good read along the same lines and why it is necessary and OK to have apps running in the back round.

http://www.android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html