cgardnervt
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Juice defender?
- Thread starter Blaalad12
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TarekElsakka
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+1 on Tapatalk Community Reader, it's definitely the best application for forums ever! I love and use Google Keyboard, however, and sometimes the stock Sense one.
Thread hijacking; and being fair to Juice Defender
Wow. Nice hijack, with the completely non-sequitur gift card and keyboard conversation. This place has rules, right? Moderators? Just checking.
Actually, pretty much no other battery saver app is quite like Juice Defender... at least not its "Utlimate" version. Don't get me wrong, there are other battery saver apps out there that are pretty darned good; though, honestly, even the best of them is not quite as good -- or, perhaps only as good -- as the free version of Juice Defender. None of them, then, is as good as "Juice Defender Plus," or, especially, its aforementioned "Ultimate" version, that I use.
Now, all that said, I confess that I am increasingly impressed with the GreenPower battery saver app, particularly the premium version. Just from my small bit of testing, I think it's fairly safe to say that if a person, for whatever reason, didn't want to use Juice Defender, then GreenPower would be an excellent 2nd choice. Andd, of course, there are GreenPower users who would beg to differ, and would consider Juice Defender the "2nd choice." That's fine. Loyalty can be a good thing.
By the way, to be clear: There's really only one version of Juice Defender: the basic, free version. The both "Plus" and "Ultimate" versions are actually just add-ons. One must begin by installing the basic free version; and then one adds to that either the "Plus" or "Ultimate" versions, as desired. And if memory serves, it can all happen in the app, as in-app purchases, so that if one has already paid for the "Plus" version, one then only pays the difference between the "Plus" version's cost, and the "Ultimate" version's cost to upgrade from "Plus" to "Ultimate." It's been a while since I've done it, so I can't remember precisely if that's how it works, but I think I remember that it is.
I'm not, by the way, in any way associated with Juice Defender (though I've used it, now, for over two years; and have had a couple feature suggestions incorporated into it, and a bug that I reported fixed), and I am not a shill for it or anything like that. I did, however, two years ago, when I settled on Juice Defender, test just about all the battery saver apps out there (and re-tested, again, fairly recently when I noticed a few new ones; and as long as I was app-populating my new phone); and so I, of course, recommend Juice Defender, with nothing of any (promotional, or anything like that) benefit for it to me (though now that I think about it, with my having written a few pieces like this one in various places around the web, I probably should at least get my copy for free, eh? Just kidding... er... well... you know... sort of. [grin])
The answer to that is both "yes" and "no"... but mostly "no"; and so I admonish the poster(s), here, who wrote that that's all Juice Defender does to please be more careful about not conveying misinformation in places like this. Yes, of course, whenever Juice Defender does something as simple as turning off Wi-fi or GPS or something, that's something that the user could do, manually, usually right at the top of the phone's pulldown shade. But in addition to much of the app's point being that it saves the user from having to manually do such things, it's the when and why of turning such things on or off that's Juice Defender's superpower. Juice Defender is about learning your routine, and then adjusting the phone to accommodate it; and then making said accommodation by-golly save battery by when and why of it turning things both off and on. Timing is everything; no user could ever manually keep-up with all that.
The short answer is "positively, yes!" And that's because it sounds like you're already, even without Juice Defender, adopted a "battery-saving," or "battery-conservation" sensibility, or mindset. No battery-saving app -- not even Juice Defender -- can help very much on a phone owned/operated by anyone who does not first adopt and live by a battery-saving or battery-conservation mindset. Keep reading... it's long, but worth it!
Juice Defender does, indeed, save considerable battery. It is a myth that it just uses more battery to accomplish no net savings; and whomever says otherwise is obviously doing nothing else to save battery. Batterysavings conservation, remember, is a mindset. One may no more run the phone in the least battery conservative manner and then expect something like Juice Defender (or any other battery saver app) to successfully counter/undo all that than one may presume car insurance will protect one from inordinate harm if one drives like one's in a Fast and Furious movie.
The mindset of battery conservation requires doing things like turning off as much -- or, better yet, all -- background syncing as possible. Not using "live" wallpapers... or, really, any wallpaper (either get a "no wallpaper" app -- the two best ones out there are free; see here and here -- or use an all-black wallpaper). Keeping screen brightness down to the lowest you can stand it; and then if turning it up when outdoors, remembering to return it to a low setting. Calibrating the battery to the phone so that when the phone reports a certain battery percentage, it's actually accurate. Using a screen-off app, with its activation button both down in the dock and up on the pulldown shade, so it's always easy to get to; and then always remembering to use it to screen-off whenever done using the phone at that moment rather than letting it time-out...
...stuff like that. Again, a mindset. Adopt that mindset, and then augment with Juice Defender -- I prefer the Ultimate version -- and you will simply not believe the battery savings... though it does take the app a little while to train and adapt itself to the userer's particular habits. Yes, if the default "balanced" plan is used, then the phone's data may be turned off when a push notifcation comes through; but one of the reasons for using the Ultimate version is that that can all be finely-tuned.
Another thing one must get used to (unless, of course, one uses the Ultimate version's fine-grained refinement capabilities to change this behavior) is, for example, you set the weather app to refresh every 30 minutes (the results of which refresh would normally be reflected on the weather app's widget); yet when you unlock the screen after the phone's been unused for 90 minutes, you notice that the weather widget reflects a temperature from 90 minutes ago because it missed all background updating when the screen was off, and the various times that Juice Defender momentarily turned-on data to allow piled-up push notifications and other things to get through didn't happen to sync-up with right when the weather app needed to refresh. Something similar can happen with news app widgets. But as with most things, there's always a workaround, if you're willing to both find and implement it. In my phone's case, I simply chose weather app that auto-updated on screen unlock so that, yes, for however long it takes the weather app to get caught-up once I unlock the screen the temp on the widget is behind... but within 4 to 8 seconds, give or take, it gets caught-up because the weather app refreshed on screen unlock it updated. The news app I prefer doesn't yet do that, but I happen to be working with its dev on some other stuff (which I hope he finishes soon because until he does, he's unwilling to release his paid version which gets rid of the ads, and the ads in his beta version are driving me insane), and so it soon will. The battery conservation mindset, then, also includes a bit of an activist mindset, too, so that one doesn't just sit there and let apps run one around like a bull with a ring in its nose; one, instead, gets involved. That's true about life, too, but now I digress. Sorry.
Such configuration as I just described regarding the news and weather apps is but one way to counter the effects of not allowing apps to constantly sync in the background. Most apps, even if they're not allowed to constantly sync when not front-and-center on the screen, will do a catch-up sync on launch. And, fortunately, with most apps, it makes little difference other than it might take an extra 3 to, what the heck, maybe even 30 seconds for the app to do a cumulative catch-up on launch rather than just a quickie to only get caught-up since the last behind-the-scenes sync. But so what? Even an email app like GMAIL works just fine that way if you turn-off all background syncing; and only if you insist on being notified on your phone with a beep whenever you get an email would turning-off all background syncing of the GMAIL app be a problem. I don't know about anyone else, though, but if I let the GMAIL app beep me on my phone every time I got an email in my GMAIL account's inbox, I'd both get beeped literally every few seconds, plus all that beeping would knock my battery flat by noon. Including all subscriptions, I get a couple hundred emails a day! Yes, I could filter them into a folder and configure GMAIL not to notify me if the message happens to be anything in said folder, but why in the name of all that's holy would I ever want to be so connected with my freakin' email account? Maybe it's 'cause I'm old, but I just don't see why anyone would ever want to be that distracted in life!
Only if one wants to always be instantly notified of something -- as with the Facebook app, for example; or even with GMAIL, as I just described -- would just turning off most or all background syncing not work; and the truth is that if one needs that kind of constant connectivity, then it's unreasonable for one to expect pretty much any battery on any phone to be able to keep-up all day long. The solution, if one needs that kind of constant connectivity is for one to either keep doing interim charges just to get through the day, or for one to seek a hardware solution...
...such as a double or triple or even quadruple (if it's availabble) capacity battery, including the often-ugly and always phone thickening oversize replacement back cover for the phone to accommodate said battery. I have a Galaxy Note II with a stock 3100mAh battery in it; but if I were going to be so constantly in touch with people and servers and whatnot out there that I pretty much had to allow everything to be live and sync'd in the background at all times, then I'd certainly not do multiple interim recharges all day long. Instead, I'd opt for this badboy, or this one, rather than trying to ask the stock battery to do what simply isn't possible... either with or without something like Juice Defender. I'm an IT guy; and all IT people know when and how to determine that the only reasonable solution to a problem is to simply throw more hardware at it! Needing more battery to get through the day than the phone's stock battery can provide is one of those times; and no battery saver app's wishing otherwise will make it any less true. If you cannot get through the day without being accessible and knowing, with a beep on your phone, in real time, about even someone who simply comments on one of your Facebook posts, or who follows you on Twitter, then no battery-saver app can help you; so expect to pay for the hardware to make it happen... either that or plan on interim charges all day long. Don't, in any case, expect a battery saver app to be able to even make a dent in a problem like that! (Sheesh... end users... can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em.) [shakes head in disbelief]
By my being mature enough to not let the people at places like Google, Facebook and Twitter brainwash me into believing that I need to be notified, in real time, of every little thing that happens on their servers which have even the slightest thing to do with my accounts on them; and by insisting that anyone who really wants to reach me uses telephony or texting (as the whole system, from the outset, was set up to do) and doesn't delude himself/herself into believing that such as Facebook is a reasonable communications alternative to either telephony or texting (which it is not), I'm able to turn-off almost all background syncing (and, in fact, because even if the Facebook app is so configured it still cheats and phones home, I've uninstalled it and use Facebook in the phone's browser, and am just as happy because the experience is nearly identical); plus I use the other strategies herein earlier mentioned, plus I use a now-finally-trained Juice Defender Ultimate...
...and you know what? On my Note II -- which many (who don't follow such as my advice, here) call a battery hog, requiring them to do multiple interim battery chargings all day long -- I'm able to unplug my phone from the charger at 7AM and if I use the phone normally all day, I still have between 70% and 80% battery by noon to early afternoon; and still have around 50% to maybe 60% battery by end-of-business-day; and still have between 30% and 40% battery by the time I plug the phone back into the charger and retire for the night at or around 11PM. Even if I have a heavy phone usage day, those numbers only reduce by about 10% each.
But here's the really astonishing thing: On a day like today, when I was so busy 'til early afternoon that I never really even used the phone to speak of in the morning, and I finally unlocked the screen to use it for real at around 1:30PM (so, then, in other words, with the phone basically just sitting, on but idle, in its leather pouch on my belt from 7AM until 1:30PM) my phone was still at 94% battery when I unlocked it (at 1:30PM). Yes, you read that right: Because of how I configure things, and because I use Juice Defender, my phone, just sitting idle, caused only around 6% battery drain in a little over six -- count 'em, SIX -- hours. That's really the first acid test... the way to determine if you're really configuring the phone right at the first stage: Seeing how much battery it uses if it's just sitting there, screen dark, unused, for maybe six hours after unplugging it from its charger. If you unlock the screen after six hours of on-but-idle time, and you've got more than 80% battery, you're doing pretty well. I've fine-tuned things to where I've got better than 90% after six idle hours, as I just described; but I know that that's really wringing every bit of battery conservation out of the phone that's possible; and the price I pay is, yes, pretty much only texts and telephone calls can get through to the phone when it's screen-blanked; and actually, that's not true because Juice Defender still turns-on data every however many minutes I have it set for, and so push notifications and whatnot still get through, but just a few minutes delayed. Since I'm not a fire fighter, paramedic, cop or other first responder, that few-minute delay is fine with me! And because I use the finely-configurable "ultimate" version of Juice Defender, I could even make it so that that few-minute delay were either reduced or went away entirely... albeit at a slight battery usage cost.
Getting back to today being a low usage day, and so my battery being at 94% when I finally unlocked the screen at 1:30 PM: It's now well past midnight as I type this, and I've still not plugged my Note II into the charger for the night; and I just woke-up the screen and looked at it and it still shows 68% battery. Yes, that's right: even over 17 hours after unplugging it from the charger this morning at 7AM. Granted, and I repeat, it was a very light phone use day; but don't be misled by that. My experience is that even if it had been a normal to even heavy phone use day, the typically lowest that the battery would be by 18 hours after unplugging in the morning would be maybe 20%, give or take. As I recall, about a month ago, I had a heavier-than-heavy phone use day and got down to around 20% battery by 9:00 PM that night; and one other day, when I really used the phone a lot, I was down to like 13% by only 6:00 PM. So I'm not saying my methods keep me from ever having to do an interim charge in order to make it through 'til bedtime; but c'mon... most phone users can't even make it 'til noon! That's especially true of users of a big Galaxy Note II like mine... it's a "phablet," remember... and so is a monster battery hog if the user doesn't employ at least a few of my battery conservation strategies...
...which most don't, of course; and so then they get into one or more of the various Galaxy Note II forums out there and complain that the phone's a battery hog when, in fact, the real problem is that they're typical end-users who let both phone makers and social networking sites convince them that every phone feature must be on and draining battery at all times just so they can feel in touch... connected... and not lonely. That, actually, is a very serious social problem, today. Please, when you finish reading this post, go watch this magnificent, only-19-minute-long, but nevertheless must-see TED talk video to learn more. Here's the link to the TED talker's book, which I believe, as a matter of principle given the subject matter, should not be purchased in its Kindle editiion (and, instead, should be purchased only in paperback or hardcover)... but, hey, that's just me. But now I'm really digressing... sorry, yet again. Back to how amazing it is that I can get such battery longevity... especially on a normally battery-hogging "phablet"...
Yes, I'm an IT pro with pushing 40 years experience, so, yes, if anyone knows how to tweak the settings and other aspects of a phone -- or pretty much any device, for that matter -- so that its battery lasts far more than most others, it's me. That's true. I know a few tricks... in both technology and in life. And guess what? Juice Defender Ultimate is one of them. I made the decision three phones back that I'd never operate an Android phone (or tablet, either, come to think of it) without it. It's that good.
Yes, the battery conservation mindset plays a huge role, too; but Juice Defender Ultimate plays a nearly equal one. Still, without the battery conservation mindset, then, seriously, just save your money because not even Juice Defender Ultimate with all its finely-tunable magic can really help you. If that's the case then, again, only throwing more hardware at the problem by getting an oversized battery and making your phone both thicker and heavier will really help. That said, I confess that I know a guy for whom even an oversized battery didn't keep him from having to do interim charges just to get through the day; but that's simply because his phone usage is so constant all day long that it now borders, in my opinion, on pathology... he really needs to read Dr. Turkle's book!
So, in any case, please, those of you who've done it, here, don't shoot from the hip with such as that Juice Defender (and apps like it) do nothing. If you're using the phone hard, and having to do one or more interim charges during the day, then NO battery saving app will help you. None! And so your choice, at that point, is to either keep doing interim charges and just decide that that's how your life is going to be; or get a double or triple capacity battery and live with your phone being up to four times thicker and more than twice as heavy. The slighly good news is that there are, believe it or not, a few both leather and canvas pouches for one's belt that can accommodate the overly-thick phone; but they're darned few and far between... very difficult to find... not even available for any but the most popular phones. The bad news, though, is that carrying a phone that heavy on your belt will both make you tilt to whichever side it's on when you walk, and will also make you pull-up your pants a lot. [grin]
The bottom line, in any case, is this: Develop and live by a battery conservation mindset, as I have; and then also use such as Juice Defender Ultimate, and, trust me, you, too, can experience the kind of battery life (or at least nearly so) from the stock battery as I have herein described... and, yes, even on a normally-battery-hogging "phablet," like my Note II (or most of the other over-5-inch-screensize phones listed in that Wikipedia article).
Hope that helps.
Wow. Nice hijack, with the completely non-sequitur gift card and keyboard conversation. This place has rules, right? Moderators? Just checking.
Actually, pretty much no other battery saver app is quite like Juice Defender... at least not its "Utlimate" version. Don't get me wrong, there are other battery saver apps out there that are pretty darned good; though, honestly, even the best of them is not quite as good -- or, perhaps only as good -- as the free version of Juice Defender. None of them, then, is as good as "Juice Defender Plus," or, especially, its aforementioned "Ultimate" version, that I use.
Now, all that said, I confess that I am increasingly impressed with the GreenPower battery saver app, particularly the premium version. Just from my small bit of testing, I think it's fairly safe to say that if a person, for whatever reason, didn't want to use Juice Defender, then GreenPower would be an excellent 2nd choice. Andd, of course, there are GreenPower users who would beg to differ, and would consider Juice Defender the "2nd choice." That's fine. Loyalty can be a good thing.
By the way, to be clear: There's really only one version of Juice Defender: the basic, free version. The both "Plus" and "Ultimate" versions are actually just add-ons. One must begin by installing the basic free version; and then one adds to that either the "Plus" or "Ultimate" versions, as desired. And if memory serves, it can all happen in the app, as in-app purchases, so that if one has already paid for the "Plus" version, one then only pays the difference between the "Plus" version's cost, and the "Ultimate" version's cost to upgrade from "Plus" to "Ultimate." It's been a while since I've done it, so I can't remember precisely if that's how it works, but I think I remember that it is.
I'm not, by the way, in any way associated with Juice Defender (though I've used it, now, for over two years; and have had a couple feature suggestions incorporated into it, and a bug that I reported fixed), and I am not a shill for it or anything like that. I did, however, two years ago, when I settled on Juice Defender, test just about all the battery saver apps out there (and re-tested, again, fairly recently when I noticed a few new ones; and as long as I was app-populating my new phone); and so I, of course, recommend Juice Defender, with nothing of any (promotional, or anything like that) benefit for it to me (though now that I think about it, with my having written a few pieces like this one in various places around the web, I probably should at least get my copy for free, eh? Just kidding... er... well... you know... sort of. [grin])
The answer to that is both "yes" and "no"... but mostly "no"; and so I admonish the poster(s), here, who wrote that that's all Juice Defender does to please be more careful about not conveying misinformation in places like this. Yes, of course, whenever Juice Defender does something as simple as turning off Wi-fi or GPS or something, that's something that the user could do, manually, usually right at the top of the phone's pulldown shade. But in addition to much of the app's point being that it saves the user from having to manually do such things, it's the when and why of turning such things on or off that's Juice Defender's superpower. Juice Defender is about learning your routine, and then adjusting the phone to accommodate it; and then making said accommodation by-golly save battery by when and why of it turning things both off and on. Timing is everything; no user could ever manually keep-up with all that.
The short answer is "positively, yes!" And that's because it sounds like you're already, even without Juice Defender, adopted a "battery-saving," or "battery-conservation" sensibility, or mindset. No battery-saving app -- not even Juice Defender -- can help very much on a phone owned/operated by anyone who does not first adopt and live by a battery-saving or battery-conservation mindset. Keep reading... it's long, but worth it!
Juice Defender does, indeed, save considerable battery. It is a myth that it just uses more battery to accomplish no net savings; and whomever says otherwise is obviously doing nothing else to save battery. Battery
The mindset of battery conservation requires doing things like turning off as much -- or, better yet, all -- background syncing as possible. Not using "live" wallpapers... or, really, any wallpaper (either get a "no wallpaper" app -- the two best ones out there are free; see here and here -- or use an all-black wallpaper). Keeping screen brightness down to the lowest you can stand it; and then if turning it up when outdoors, remembering to return it to a low setting. Calibrating the battery to the phone so that when the phone reports a certain battery percentage, it's actually accurate. Using a screen-off app, with its activation button both down in the dock and up on the pulldown shade, so it's always easy to get to; and then always remembering to use it to screen-off whenever done using the phone at that moment rather than letting it time-out...
...stuff like that. Again, a mindset. Adopt that mindset, and then augment with Juice Defender -- I prefer the Ultimate version -- and you will simply not believe the battery savings... though it does take the app a little while to train and adapt itself to the userer's particular habits. Yes, if the default "balanced" plan is used, then the phone's data may be turned off when a push notifcation comes through; but one of the reasons for using the Ultimate version is that that can all be finely-tuned.
Another thing one must get used to (unless, of course, one uses the Ultimate version's fine-grained refinement capabilities to change this behavior) is, for example, you set the weather app to refresh every 30 minutes (the results of which refresh would normally be reflected on the weather app's widget); yet when you unlock the screen after the phone's been unused for 90 minutes, you notice that the weather widget reflects a temperature from 90 minutes ago because it missed all background updating when the screen was off, and the various times that Juice Defender momentarily turned-on data to allow piled-up push notifications and other things to get through didn't happen to sync-up with right when the weather app needed to refresh. Something similar can happen with news app widgets. But as with most things, there's always a workaround, if you're willing to both find and implement it. In my phone's case, I simply chose weather app that auto-updated on screen unlock so that, yes, for however long it takes the weather app to get caught-up once I unlock the screen the temp on the widget is behind... but within 4 to 8 seconds, give or take, it gets caught-up because the weather app refreshed on screen unlock it updated. The news app I prefer doesn't yet do that, but I happen to be working with its dev on some other stuff (which I hope he finishes soon because until he does, he's unwilling to release his paid version which gets rid of the ads, and the ads in his beta version are driving me insane), and so it soon will. The battery conservation mindset, then, also includes a bit of an activist mindset, too, so that one doesn't just sit there and let apps run one around like a bull with a ring in its nose; one, instead, gets involved. That's true about life, too, but now I digress. Sorry.
Such configuration as I just described regarding the news and weather apps is but one way to counter the effects of not allowing apps to constantly sync in the background. Most apps, even if they're not allowed to constantly sync when not front-and-center on the screen, will do a catch-up sync on launch. And, fortunately, with most apps, it makes little difference other than it might take an extra 3 to, what the heck, maybe even 30 seconds for the app to do a cumulative catch-up on launch rather than just a quickie to only get caught-up since the last behind-the-scenes sync. But so what? Even an email app like GMAIL works just fine that way if you turn-off all background syncing; and only if you insist on being notified on your phone with a beep whenever you get an email would turning-off all background syncing of the GMAIL app be a problem. I don't know about anyone else, though, but if I let the GMAIL app beep me on my phone every time I got an email in my GMAIL account's inbox, I'd both get beeped literally every few seconds, plus all that beeping would knock my battery flat by noon. Including all subscriptions, I get a couple hundred emails a day! Yes, I could filter them into a folder and configure GMAIL not to notify me if the message happens to be anything in said folder, but why in the name of all that's holy would I ever want to be so connected with my freakin' email account? Maybe it's 'cause I'm old, but I just don't see why anyone would ever want to be that distracted in life!
Only if one wants to always be instantly notified of something -- as with the Facebook app, for example; or even with GMAIL, as I just described -- would just turning off most or all background syncing not work; and the truth is that if one needs that kind of constant connectivity, then it's unreasonable for one to expect pretty much any battery on any phone to be able to keep-up all day long. The solution, if one needs that kind of constant connectivity is for one to either keep doing interim charges just to get through the day, or for one to seek a hardware solution...
...such as a double or triple or even quadruple (if it's availabble) capacity battery, including the often-ugly and always phone thickening oversize replacement back cover for the phone to accommodate said battery. I have a Galaxy Note II with a stock 3100mAh battery in it; but if I were going to be so constantly in touch with people and servers and whatnot out there that I pretty much had to allow everything to be live and sync'd in the background at all times, then I'd certainly not do multiple interim recharges all day long. Instead, I'd opt for this badboy, or this one, rather than trying to ask the stock battery to do what simply isn't possible... either with or without something like Juice Defender. I'm an IT guy; and all IT people know when and how to determine that the only reasonable solution to a problem is to simply throw more hardware at it! Needing more battery to get through the day than the phone's stock battery can provide is one of those times; and no battery saver app's wishing otherwise will make it any less true. If you cannot get through the day without being accessible and knowing, with a beep on your phone, in real time, about even someone who simply comments on one of your Facebook posts, or who follows you on Twitter, then no battery-saver app can help you; so expect to pay for the hardware to make it happen... either that or plan on interim charges all day long. Don't, in any case, expect a battery saver app to be able to even make a dent in a problem like that! (Sheesh... end users... can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em.) [shakes head in disbelief]
By my being mature enough to not let the people at places like Google, Facebook and Twitter brainwash me into believing that I need to be notified, in real time, of every little thing that happens on their servers which have even the slightest thing to do with my accounts on them; and by insisting that anyone who really wants to reach me uses telephony or texting (as the whole system, from the outset, was set up to do) and doesn't delude himself/herself into believing that such as Facebook is a reasonable communications alternative to either telephony or texting (which it is not), I'm able to turn-off almost all background syncing (and, in fact, because even if the Facebook app is so configured it still cheats and phones home, I've uninstalled it and use Facebook in the phone's browser, and am just as happy because the experience is nearly identical); plus I use the other strategies herein earlier mentioned, plus I use a now-finally-trained Juice Defender Ultimate...
...and you know what? On my Note II -- which many (who don't follow such as my advice, here) call a battery hog, requiring them to do multiple interim battery chargings all day long -- I'm able to unplug my phone from the charger at 7AM and if I use the phone normally all day, I still have between 70% and 80% battery by noon to early afternoon; and still have around 50% to maybe 60% battery by end-of-business-day; and still have between 30% and 40% battery by the time I plug the phone back into the charger and retire for the night at or around 11PM. Even if I have a heavy phone usage day, those numbers only reduce by about 10% each.
But here's the really astonishing thing: On a day like today, when I was so busy 'til early afternoon that I never really even used the phone to speak of in the morning, and I finally unlocked the screen to use it for real at around 1:30PM (so, then, in other words, with the phone basically just sitting, on but idle, in its leather pouch on my belt from 7AM until 1:30PM) my phone was still at 94% battery when I unlocked it (at 1:30PM). Yes, you read that right: Because of how I configure things, and because I use Juice Defender, my phone, just sitting idle, caused only around 6% battery drain in a little over six -- count 'em, SIX -- hours. That's really the first acid test... the way to determine if you're really configuring the phone right at the first stage: Seeing how much battery it uses if it's just sitting there, screen dark, unused, for maybe six hours after unplugging it from its charger. If you unlock the screen after six hours of on-but-idle time, and you've got more than 80% battery, you're doing pretty well. I've fine-tuned things to where I've got better than 90% after six idle hours, as I just described; but I know that that's really wringing every bit of battery conservation out of the phone that's possible; and the price I pay is, yes, pretty much only texts and telephone calls can get through to the phone when it's screen-blanked; and actually, that's not true because Juice Defender still turns-on data every however many minutes I have it set for, and so push notifications and whatnot still get through, but just a few minutes delayed. Since I'm not a fire fighter, paramedic, cop or other first responder, that few-minute delay is fine with me! And because I use the finely-configurable "ultimate" version of Juice Defender, I could even make it so that that few-minute delay were either reduced or went away entirely... albeit at a slight battery usage cost.
Getting back to today being a low usage day, and so my battery being at 94% when I finally unlocked the screen at 1:30 PM: It's now well past midnight as I type this, and I've still not plugged my Note II into the charger for the night; and I just woke-up the screen and looked at it and it still shows 68% battery. Yes, that's right: even over 17 hours after unplugging it from the charger this morning at 7AM. Granted, and I repeat, it was a very light phone use day; but don't be misled by that. My experience is that even if it had been a normal to even heavy phone use day, the typically lowest that the battery would be by 18 hours after unplugging in the morning would be maybe 20%, give or take. As I recall, about a month ago, I had a heavier-than-heavy phone use day and got down to around 20% battery by 9:00 PM that night; and one other day, when I really used the phone a lot, I was down to like 13% by only 6:00 PM. So I'm not saying my methods keep me from ever having to do an interim charge in order to make it through 'til bedtime; but c'mon... most phone users can't even make it 'til noon! That's especially true of users of a big Galaxy Note II like mine... it's a "phablet," remember... and so is a monster battery hog if the user doesn't employ at least a few of my battery conservation strategies...
...which most don't, of course; and so then they get into one or more of the various Galaxy Note II forums out there and complain that the phone's a battery hog when, in fact, the real problem is that they're typical end-users who let both phone makers and social networking sites convince them that every phone feature must be on and draining battery at all times just so they can feel in touch... connected... and not lonely. That, actually, is a very serious social problem, today. Please, when you finish reading this post, go watch this magnificent, only-19-minute-long, but nevertheless must-see TED talk video to learn more. Here's the link to the TED talker's book, which I believe, as a matter of principle given the subject matter, should not be purchased in its Kindle editiion (and, instead, should be purchased only in paperback or hardcover)... but, hey, that's just me. But now I'm really digressing... sorry, yet again. Back to how amazing it is that I can get such battery longevity... especially on a normally battery-hogging "phablet"...
Yes, I'm an IT pro with pushing 40 years experience, so, yes, if anyone knows how to tweak the settings and other aspects of a phone -- or pretty much any device, for that matter -- so that its battery lasts far more than most others, it's me. That's true. I know a few tricks... in both technology and in life. And guess what? Juice Defender Ultimate is one of them. I made the decision three phones back that I'd never operate an Android phone (or tablet, either, come to think of it) without it. It's that good.
Yes, the battery conservation mindset plays a huge role, too; but Juice Defender Ultimate plays a nearly equal one. Still, without the battery conservation mindset, then, seriously, just save your money because not even Juice Defender Ultimate with all its finely-tunable magic can really help you. If that's the case then, again, only throwing more hardware at the problem by getting an oversized battery and making your phone both thicker and heavier will really help. That said, I confess that I know a guy for whom even an oversized battery didn't keep him from having to do interim charges just to get through the day; but that's simply because his phone usage is so constant all day long that it now borders, in my opinion, on pathology... he really needs to read Dr. Turkle's book!
So, in any case, please, those of you who've done it, here, don't shoot from the hip with such as that Juice Defender (and apps like it) do nothing. If you're using the phone hard, and having to do one or more interim charges during the day, then NO battery saving app will help you. None! And so your choice, at that point, is to either keep doing interim charges and just decide that that's how your life is going to be; or get a double or triple capacity battery and live with your phone being up to four times thicker and more than twice as heavy. The slighly good news is that there are, believe it or not, a few both leather and canvas pouches for one's belt that can accommodate the overly-thick phone; but they're darned few and far between... very difficult to find... not even available for any but the most popular phones. The bad news, though, is that carrying a phone that heavy on your belt will both make you tilt to whichever side it's on when you walk, and will also make you pull-up your pants a lot. [grin]
The bottom line, in any case, is this: Develop and live by a battery conservation mindset, as I have; and then also use such as Juice Defender Ultimate, and, trust me, you, too, can experience the kind of battery life (or at least nearly so) from the stock battery as I have herein described... and, yes, even on a normally-battery-hogging "phablet," like my Note II (or most of the other over-5-inch-screensize phones listed in that Wikipedia article).
Hope that helps.
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Gotta love Juice Defender Ultimate. It just works and makes battery conservation easy.
Sent from me LTE Note 8.0
Sent from me LTE Note 8.0
Amen... and more
Amen... but, again, only if one first adopts and lives by a battery-conservaton mindset, as I described above. Both things must be true, else something like Juice Defender can really only barely make a dent in the problem. The answer for someone who doesn't adopt a battery-conservation mindset is to either keep doing interim charges just to get through the day; or, better yet in my opinion, to throw more hardware at it in the form over an oversized, double- or triple-capacity battery, with concomitantly oversized phone back cover, which, of course, not only costs money, but also makes the phone much thicker and heavier.
But at least that hardware solution works for most people. Users like me who adopt and live by a battery conservation mindset can typically get a solid two to three days without charging from such an oversized, double- or triple-capacity battery; and even a typical heavy user who keeps pretty much everything going and syncing in the background, and who spends a lot of time with the screen on, actually doing things on the phone (and so who uses a lot of battery) can at least get through a single day, most days, with no interim charging of such an oversized battery.
I've read user comments on some oversized battery's Amazon pages wherein people claim to get as many as five days, without charging, out of an oversized battery. That, I strongly suspect, would simply not be possible on a large and normally-battery-hogging phone like most any phablet (or even like the not-really-phablet, but still large-screened phones with very fast quad-core processors). However, I can see where it would be entirely possible on a lesser phone with smaller screen size, and a not-quite-so-beefy processor. It would not surprise me one bit if someone with a smaller and less battery-consuming phone, who adopted and lived by a battery-conservation mindset such as I've described in this thread, and who then also used Juice Defender (preferably, but not necessarily, the Ultimate version) could easily get four or five days on a single charge using one of those oversized batteries. I just don't know if it's worth making the phone heavier and thicker in order to accomplish it. Only, I would think, if someone were going to be hiking or camping where there'd be no ability to charge the phone make something like that make some sense.
The bottom line, in my opinion, is that as long as one can get through an entire from-getting-up-to-going-to-bed time period/cycle/day, so that one may get away with only charging the phone at night while one sleeps on most days, that's good enough... perfect, in fact. By adopting and living by a battery conservation mindset, and also using Juice Defender, I'm easily able to accomplish that -- even on a normally-battery-hogging phablet like my Note II -- most (as in something like 25 to 27 out of 30 calendar) days, most months. I dunno' 'bout anybody else, but that's just WAY good enough for at least me; no oversized battery required!
And so for at least me and Mary-Anne, carrying around a phone charger -- either for a 120VAC wall outlet, or a 12VDC car cigarette lighter -- is almost unnecessary. That said, in part because I'm an anally-retentive, former-Boy-Scout-be-prepared kinda' guy, our keeping of this little self-constructed (by me) kit (no affiliate links included)...
We also each have much better Bluetooth headsets than the ones in the kit; but remember that the kit is primarily for times when we happen to be in our cars and don't happen to have any of the devices in the kit with us... or at least the Bluetooth headsets are in the kit for that reason. All other things, I guess, are in the kit precisely so that we don't have to carry them with us in any other manner.
You, the reader, of course, would adjust the kit contents, as needed, to accomodate your particular brands/models of phones.
Does anyone want me to list, in another post, here, the very specific things that one must do in order to both adopt and live-by a battery conservation mindset (in other words, the both settings on the phone, and general usage methodologies that I employ) so that if one did that, and then also used Juice Defender (preferably the "Ultimate" version, but even if only the freeware version) one could enjoy the kind of daily typical battery life that I enjoy?
Hope that, again, helps.
Amen... but, again, only if one first adopts and lives by a battery-conservaton mindset, as I described above. Both things must be true, else something like Juice Defender can really only barely make a dent in the problem. The answer for someone who doesn't adopt a battery-conservation mindset is to either keep doing interim charges just to get through the day; or, better yet in my opinion, to throw more hardware at it in the form over an oversized, double- or triple-capacity battery, with concomitantly oversized phone back cover, which, of course, not only costs money, but also makes the phone much thicker and heavier.
But at least that hardware solution works for most people. Users like me who adopt and live by a battery conservation mindset can typically get a solid two to three days without charging from such an oversized, double- or triple-capacity battery; and even a typical heavy user who keeps pretty much everything going and syncing in the background, and who spends a lot of time with the screen on, actually doing things on the phone (and so who uses a lot of battery) can at least get through a single day, most days, with no interim charging of such an oversized battery.
I've read user comments on some oversized battery's Amazon pages wherein people claim to get as many as five days, without charging, out of an oversized battery. That, I strongly suspect, would simply not be possible on a large and normally-battery-hogging phone like most any phablet (or even like the not-really-phablet, but still large-screened phones with very fast quad-core processors). However, I can see where it would be entirely possible on a lesser phone with smaller screen size, and a not-quite-so-beefy processor. It would not surprise me one bit if someone with a smaller and less battery-consuming phone, who adopted and lived by a battery-conservation mindset such as I've described in this thread, and who then also used Juice Defender (preferably, but not necessarily, the Ultimate version) could easily get four or five days on a single charge using one of those oversized batteries. I just don't know if it's worth making the phone heavier and thicker in order to accomplish it. Only, I would think, if someone were going to be hiking or camping where there'd be no ability to charge the phone make something like that make some sense.
The bottom line, in my opinion, is that as long as one can get through an entire from-getting-up-to-going-to-bed time period/cycle/day, so that one may get away with only charging the phone at night while one sleeps on most days, that's good enough... perfect, in fact. By adopting and living by a battery conservation mindset, and also using Juice Defender, I'm easily able to accomplish that -- even on a normally-battery-hogging phablet like my Note II -- most (as in something like 25 to 27 out of 30 calendar) days, most months. I dunno' 'bout anybody else, but that's just WAY good enough for at least me; no oversized battery required!
And so for at least me and Mary-Anne, carrying around a phone charger -- either for a 120VAC wall outlet, or a 12VDC car cigarette lighter -- is almost unnecessary. That said, in part because I'm an anally-retentive, former-Boy-Scout-be-prepared kinda' guy, our keeping of this little self-constructed (by me) kit (no affiliate links included)...
- 120VAC dual-port wall outlet charger (quantity 1 per kit) (2.1A port for my phone; 1.5A port for hers)
- 12VDC dual-port car charger (quantity 1 per kit) (2.1A port for my phone; 1.5A port for hers)
- Black USB/charging cable (for my use with either charger) (quantity 1 per kit)
- White USB/charging cable (for her use with either charger) (quantity 1 per kit)
- Extra battery (for my phone) (quantiy 1 per kit) (I rotate into use in my phone every 3 months)
- Extra battery (for her phone) (quantity 1 per kit) (she rotates into use in her phone every 3 months)
- Black wired stereo headset (for my phone) (quantity 1 per kit)
- White wired stereo headset (for her phone) (quantity 1 per kit)
- Black wireless (Bluetooth) headset (for my phone) (quantity 1 per kit)
- White wireless (Bluetooth) headset (for her phone) (quantity 1 per kit)
- Canvas pouch (with belt-loops) in which to put it all (quantity 1 per kit) (both phones can fit in it, too)
We also each have much better Bluetooth headsets than the ones in the kit; but remember that the kit is primarily for times when we happen to be in our cars and don't happen to have any of the devices in the kit with us... or at least the Bluetooth headsets are in the kit for that reason. All other things, I guess, are in the kit precisely so that we don't have to carry them with us in any other manner.
You, the reader, of course, would adjust the kit contents, as needed, to accomodate your particular brands/models of phones.
Does anyone want me to list, in another post, here, the very specific things that one must do in order to both adopt and live-by a battery conservation mindset (in other words, the both settings on the phone, and general usage methodologies that I employ) so that if one did that, and then also used Juice Defender (preferably the "Ultimate" version, but even if only the freeware version) one could enjoy the kind of daily typical battery life that I enjoy?
Hope that, again, helps.
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Adopting a battery-conservation mindset - Part 1 of 2
First, look back at my first post in this thread; I've added a little, and clarified a bit more than a little. I'm not saying
I want to say "be careful what you ask for," but instead I'll just go with "okay." [grin]
Ten steps to adoptping and living by
a "battery conservation" mindset
Today's smartphones -- especially the newest, biggest and most powerful of them -- use a lot of battery power. As phones get bigger, the batteries get bigger to try to accommodate them; but even then, it can be tough to make a phone last through a single day on a single charge... especially if everything that the phone's capable of doing is turned-on and using battery. When such is the case, and if the phone is used even only normally, one may find oneself doing one or more interim charges during the day just to make it through 'til nighttime when, presumably, the phone is finally plugged-in to the charger for its overnight charge.
Smartphone users need to ask themselves a simple question, and make a simple decision about how they're going to use their phones, to wit:
"Do I really want to be constantly in touch with my email, with my Facebook, with my Twitter, etc., all day long, every minute of the day and/or night, so that the very instant I get an email, or a Facebook or Twitter notification, my phone notifies me with a tone and an indicator on my both notification bar and pulldown shade?"
If the answer is "yes," then that, right there, is already contrary to a battery conservation mindset. I'm not saying that it's bad; all I'm saying is that if a person really wants that sort of thing from his/her phone, then s/he's going to need to just accept and live with that his/her phone's gonna' use a whole lot-o'-battery! And, also, that s/he's going to quite likely need to recharge his/her phone -- do an interim charge -- at least once during most days.
There is simply no battery-saving app that can really help very much on a phone like that that's constantly busy listening for and receiving various notifications from such as Facebook and Twitter, and also email systems like GMAIL, Yahoo!, etc.; plus texts and phone calls. And then there's also all the time that a phone like that's screen is on while its user is both reading and responding to such notifications, emails, texts and phone calls. Factor-in that said user is likely engaging in numerous bad habits like, for example, not be intentionally turning-off/locking the screen when s/he's done using the phone for the moment, and, instead, just let's thhe lockscreen just timeout and finally blank the phone's screen...
...and the unavoidablle bottom line becomes that a phone like that, using the stock battery that came with it, is likely going to need to be not only charged overnight while its user sleeps, but then also re-charged a time or two (or three or five) throughout the day. There's simply no getting around that, and all the user's wishing otherwise won't change that. And no battery-saving app will even be able to make so much as a dent in that situation!
The absolutely only way that such a user of such a busy phone may avoid some or all interim charges during the day is to throw more hardware at the problem in the form of an oversized (either double, triple... or if someone makes one, a quadruple capacity) battery for the phone. And such batteries are not only costly, but they're typically physically huge (by comparison with the stock battery that came with the phone) and also comparatively heavy. They nearly always require that the phone's stock back cover must be replaced with a cover especially made to accommodate the bigger, thicker, heavier extra-capacity battery. Such extra capacity batteries and associated back covers can cost from $20(US) to $60(US) (sometimes even more), for a typical smartphone.
In this minute-and-a-half-long video, a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone's stock battery and normal-sized back cover is replaced by a
thicker, heavier extra-capacity aftermarket battery, and the necessarily much bigger back cover that came with it.
The purchaser and user of such an extra-capacity battery may reasonably expect the phone to last far longer on a single charge than when it's using the stock battery. How much longer depends, in largest measure, on how many times the phone's stock battery's capacity is that of the new, extra-capacity battery. If the phone comes with a 3100mAh battery, and one purchases a double-capacity 6200mAh battery (and necessarily-larger back cover) for the phone, then the time between charges when using the extra-capacity should approximately double, give or take. Similarly, if it's a triple capacity (9600mAh) battery, then times between charges when using it should approximately triple, give or take, compared with the stock battery. It's important to remember that doubling or tripling stock battery capacity may not necessarily equate to doubling or tripling times between charges. Something more along the lines of 150% to 175% longer for a double-capacity battery, and 250% to 275% longer for a triple-capacity battery is far more likely; but your actual mileage may understandably vary.
Using something like the Juice Defender or the GreenPower battery-saving apps on a phone that requires such a battery because it's just so busy every day and it actually needs one is a little bit like trying to empty one of America's Great Lakes, a glass at a time. It will obviously have at least some extremely minor effect...
...but not so's ya'd notice. So, then, bottom line: If you either will not or cannot buy-in to a battery conservation mindset because you either use the phone so much every day -- and/or you insist that it be constantly syncing with such as Facebook and GMAIL and Twitter; and "listening" for and then immediately notifying you, in real time, of new messages, notifications or tweets; plus texts and phone calls; plus whatever is your Internet and/or basic app use -- such that the phone just uses so much battery that you must do one or more interim charges each day just to get through 'til the evening, then just either live with the interim recharges; or reduce or eliminate them by getting an oversized, heavier, extra-capacity battery and necessarily-larger back cover; and then just save your money and don't even bother getting a battery-saving app. Simple as that.
However, if you're like me, then you don't want to be that accessible; to give others the power to direct and redirect your attention onto them and whatever are their petty issues, like that. Therefore, you don't want to be told, by your phone, in real time, about every single new email, tweet or Facebook notification... no matter how good a "friend" happens to be posting it! If they really need to reach you that fast, then you've already made sure they have your cell phone number, and so they can text or call you if it's that important. Then, whenever you're able to take a moment to manually check your email, Facebook or Twitter accounts (using either their apps, or even just the phone's browser) however many times you decide you'd like to during the day, then, and only then, is when they get your attention... on your terms and schedule, not theirs.
It takes a mature and self-confident person to be able, in this day and age, to take a giant step back from it all and put it into its proper perspective and realize that life's short; and that things like social networking and email should be only a small part of it. I refer the reader, again, to this TED talk video...
Psychologist and Internet futurist SHERRY TURKLE gives a TED Talk about how our devices and online personas are redefin-
ing human connection and communication, ultimately making us feel, yes, connected, but nevertheless alone. We must be
careful not to replace real, face-to-face human interaction with the fake, online kind. About this general subject, I, Gregg
DesElms, have both said and written, many times, that if it weren't for the Internet, we, as a society, wouldn't even need a
"National Night Out" just so we can get to know our neighbors. Instead, we'd know them the same way our parents got to
know their neighbors: By talking to them over the back fence; or seeing them at church, or a school PTA meeting.
...and associated book. The first of the generations born to a world wherein the Internet is normative, and who are now young adults, have, I believe, already gleaned from life a horribly skewed notion of what real human interaction really is, and why it's important. And so they try to substitute such as social networking for it, with what I fear will be truly dire consequences for mankind, just generally. It's too soon for most to see it, of course; and I'll be dead by the time anyone's able to quantify it, and/or notices that I was right; but mark my words: I am. Just give it time.
As a hedge against that, please don't let the likes of Facebook, Twitter or GMAIL determine how you spend the precious moments of the precious days of your short life. And, trust me: it's shorter than you think! If you're young, you've not yet come to the point in your life when it finally hits you just how short it really is. Young people think they're going to live forever (or that even if they're not going to so do, however long it takes for them to die is so far out in the future that it's effectively the same thing to them... I know... I was young, once, too). They have no concept of their own mortality; but when they reach my age, it finally hits them -- and hard -- and then, trust me, they'll regret frittering away their lives on texts, Facebook, Twitter, and even emails.
Embracing a battery conservation mindset includes all of that, believe it or not. It requires the courage to turn things off; to control what the phone does, rather than letting it control you. Yes, people must still be able to reach you quickly through the phone if they must; but when they needn't, then they shouldn't be able to, simply by doing something like posting a comment to one of your Facebook posts; or tagging you in a photo; or messaging you through Facebook; or posting a tweet; or even sending you an email! Those are things -- the timing, at least, of them are things -- that you, and not your phone, should control. It is, in large measure, about not letting yourself get interrupted against your will; about makin' 'em wait until you decide that they may have your attention for their mundane purposes for a little while.
Once you embrace that, then the rest of the battery conservation mindset is pretty much just about the technique and methodology of making the necessary settings to make your phone not be busy and working all the time, even when its screen is black and it's in your pocket, or purse, or briefcase, or belt holster; and then, additionally, making the phone not use so much battery even when its screen is lit-up and you're actually using it for something. If you do the settings right, and then use, for example, Juice Defender, your phone will still be fully functional, and you won't miss a single thing...
...except that it may so be by a slightly different means which may or may not result in at least some things reaching you slightly (and by that I mean only seconds to, at most, minutes) delayed. If you do it right, the phone will still interrupt you for the really important stuff (the definition and operation of which you will entirely configure and control), yet it will not bug you with stuff that you decide can wait. Here's how to do it...
THE TEN STEPS
FIRST, turn-off as much background syncing as you can... all of it, if possible. On most phones, today, that's controlled in two places: In the app, itself, and then, also, as a phone-wide account setting. That's especially true of the various Google apps, so let's take Google's GMAIL as an example. If you believe that your phone should control you, and lead you around like a bull by the ring in its nose, beeping and notifying you of every incoming email, as it arrives, in real time, then you will configure your GMAIL app, in its "Settings" area, in the Settings sub-section accessed by pressing on your GMAIL address, such that both the "Notifications," and the "Sync Gmail" boxes are checked. Then, additionally, in the phone's "Settings" area, in the "Accounts" sub-section, in the area accessible by pressing on your GMAIL address (or it may be called "Google", as in your Google account; and then, once you've pressed on that, then by pressing on your GMAIL address), a checkmark next to that you want GMAIL to sync.
So, then, by your now seeing how you'd set things if you wanted your phone to constantly sync, and to notify you in real time whenever you get a new email message, all you need to to not have it so do would be to not check those things. Simply unchecking the "Notifications" box inside the GMAIL app isn't enough. You also need to stop GMAIL from syncing all the time in the background... which happens not only by unchecking the "Sync Gmail" box inside the GMAIL app, but also by removing the checkmark next to the GMAIL app in the sync section of the phone's "Settings" > "Accounts" area. And your reason for wanting to disable syncing as well as notifications is because syncing uses battery... lots of it. And it also slows-down the phone, truth be known.
"But, wait," you ask, "won't I miss messages?" And the answer is "no, of course not!" And the reason is because whenever next you manually enter the GMAIL app to manually check your email, all you have to do is press the phone's MENU key, then press "Refresh," and it will get all caught-up in just a moment or two. And, in fact, the shorter you set the...
Phone's MENU key > Settings > [your GMAIL address] > DATA USAGE > Days of mail to sync
...setting, from within the GMAIL app, the quicker it will refresh. I have it set only for 7 days because it's unlikely that I'd ever care -- at least while I'm using my phone -- about anything older than that. Anything requiring me to be able to see something older can just wait 'til I'm at my notebook in my Windows browser, where I can see everything which ever passed through my GMAIL account in its web interface. Or, if I'm on the phone and really and truly need to go back further, then I can simply go to that setting, change it to the necessary longer period, then "Refresh" again... but it would have to be something really important for which I could not wait 'til I was back at my notebook, in order for me to do a silly thing like that.
If you don't need to be notified, in real time, as it happens, of new incoming emails, then turning sync completely off, and then manually refreshing and getting caught-up when entering the GMAIL app, has no downside... except, maybe (and I stress that word), that if GMAIL had been staying in sync in the background, then you wouldn't have to "refresh;" or, if you did, it would take two seconds to refresh (because it had so recently refreshed in the background) instead of 5 or 8 or however many seconds more than two it would take to make a slightly bigger refresh. For those extra few seconds, it's not worth it to at least me to waste all that battery on all that background syncing.
Pretty much all other of Google's apps work basically the same way... though some, like... um... let me think... oh, yeah... maybe Google's "Now" service, will be more aggressive and make you work harder to bygod get 'em turned-off and not sync anywhere. If you're like me, you allow none of them to sync all by themselves in the background; and you'll manually refresh them if you have to have to, whenever you actually use them. Only the item, in the phone's (not any of the apps's, but the phone's)...
MENU key > Settings > Accounts > Google > [your GMAIL address]
...area, called "Sync app data" must, no matter what, have a checkmark next to it, and be allowed to sync... basically so that the Google Play Store app can check for updates however/whenever it wants to. If you don't allow app data to sync, then the Google Play Store app will kick little toast error messages, so you pretty much have to let at least that one sync all the time.
Other, non-Google apps may or may not work the same way; though if they, by your logging-in to them, cause an account to be created in...
The phone's MENU key > Settings > Accounts
...then it's likely that you'll need to turn off syncing in both the app, and in the phone's accounts area, just like with the Google apps. It all depends, though, on the app.
The Facebook app, though, is a sneaky little ******* (there... Isaid wrote it) because it will still phone home even if you turn off all syncing both in the app and in the phone's...
MENU key > Settings > Accounts > Facebook
...area. The proof of that is that even after you turn-off all syncing in both the app and the phone's accounts area, a little red circle on the Facebook app's upper-rightmost corner, with a number in it, will appear to indicate that there's however many (as indicated by the number) Facebook notifications waiting for you. Hmm. No wonder the Facebook app has only three-point-something stars on the Google Play Store! That so infuriated me that I deleted the Facebook app from my phone. The reason that's not an in convenience is because, if you'll notice, the Facebook experience in the phone's browser is nearly identical to in the Facebook app... so why even use the Facebook app, I say; especially because, if you buy-in to my whole battery conservation mindset, you only look at Facebook when you want to, manually, on your terms! As long as that's all you're doing, then why not just do it in the browser, where you don't have to worry about the Facebook app sneaking behind your back and phoning home, I say. If you cannot delete the Facebook app, then just go into...
Phone's MENU key > Settings > Application manager > Facebook
...and then, in the App-info area, force close Facebook, then clear its both cache, data, and any "launch by default" association it may have, if any, and then press the phone's BACK key however many times it takes to return to the homescreen. Then go to...
Phone's MENU key > Settings > Accounts
...and see if there's still a Facebook account listed there. If there is, then go into it, and into its sync area, and press the "Remove Account" button near the bottom. Doing those things will sufficiently disable the Facebook app, and deny it knowing your Facebook credentials, that it will have nothing with which to sync behind your back, and so will stay quiet, not using any battery.
There will be a lot more than that, regarding background syncing, that you'll need to first hunt down, and then turn off; but at least those examples will give you the idea. From there, go have at it, yourself. You may, sadly, need to enter nearly every app, go into its settings or configuration or preferences or whatever the app calls it, and make sure that the app's not syncing or updating on anything; or, if it is, that it only does it whenever you enter the app and actually use it. If it won't do that, then just turn off syncing/updating in the app altogether (if you can), and simply do it manually, using a "Refresh" or whatever similar button in the app, whenever you use the app.
The ideal situation is an app like BEWeather & Widgets Pro that will background sync/update and use all kinds of battery if you want it to; or will only do it only whenever you unlock the phone, so that the weather information on its widget can get caught-up from whenever last you were using the phone and it was allowed to sync/update; but won't keep background syncing/updating when the phone's screen is off and locked. For absolutely maximum battery savings, it will also let you you set it to update/sync only when you enter the weather app, itself (which you shouldn't use if you're using its widget on one of your homescreens, else said widget would only update if you entered the weather app), or even not at all, automatically (thereby forcing you to manually refresh/update it).
That BEWeather & Widgets Pro weather app, then, is just about perfect for use by someone who has a battery conservation mindset; and even someone using Juice Defender (since unlocking the screen also tells Juice Defender to turn on everything for however long it's needed... thereby allowing the weather app's sync/update). The reason, by the way, and I'm proud to say, that that weather app has those features is because the dev and I worked through it a couple years ago after I reported to him that the way he had things configured, his app was just sucking battery like crazy. He was very cooperative and knowledgeable, and eventually got the configuration capabilities just about perfect. Everyone reading this should use and pay for his app, and support him, which, as it happens, isn't really as big a favor to him, at your expense, as you might worry because, as it happens, that little weather app is one of the best out there... in part because it uses the Weather Underground network of online amateur weather stations, and will, if you so configure it, try to read its data from the one geographically nearest you (and if it can't find one that's closer than wherever you are to the nearest airport, then it uses airport data, like any other weather app) so that whatever are the temp and other readings really and truly are local to you. In my case, I have several amateur weather stations on that network within a few blocks of my home, so whenever I'm at home, the weather information via that app on my phone is as good and accurate to me as if I had spent a thousand dollars on a backyard weather station of my own! Trust me, it's a great weather app... with lots of cool icon and widget and animation and weather mapping features, too. Seriously, it's best-of-breed.
So, then, anyway... we've now covered the first of the things to do to make your phone as battery conservative as mine: Stopping as much as you can of, or all of, your phone's background syncing. And, of course, since at least "App data" must sync, in order to make the Google Play Store app happy, one can't really and truly stop all background syncing. Plus, who knows, there may be at least a few things that you actually want to sync, and that's fine. It's your phone... do what you want. Just know that every little thing you allow to sync, while you're phone's screen is off and locked and you're not using it, uses unnecessary battery; and can also slow-down the phone. So just keep that in mind.
SECOND, turn off all wallpapers... especially "live" ones. Live wallpapers, with all their animation, suck battery like crazy. But remember that battery is needed to light-up pixels on the phone's screen; and so every pixel on the screen that isn't black is using more battery than is necessary if you really and truly want to become fully immersed in the battery conservation mindset thing. Therefore, even static wallpapers use too much battery, in my opinion. A black background -- preferably using no wallpaper at all, not even a black one -- is best. But even just a black wallpaper is better than nothing. I make that distinction because the two freeware apps out there which allow one to make one's homescreens and app drawer backgrounds totally black do so via different means. This one (that I use) actually removes the wallpaper, altogether; and this one displays a black wallpaper. Technically, the former uses a tiny bit less battery; but the truth is that the difference is so negligible that it almost matters not which one you use. If displaying a black wallpaper is acceptable, then not only is the latter okay, but so, too, would be any of the (usually freeware) apps out there that will display any solid color as a wallpaper, as long as the color you choose is black.
That said, really dark colors -- like a super-dark hunter green, or a super-dark blue, or a super-dark red, for example, just to name three -- use a lot less battery than bright colors; and so I suppose if you insisted on using at least some color as a homescreen and app drawer background, then you could go with one of the apps that can make any color as a background (like this one, for example; or maybe this one, just to name two (I prefer the latter because of the interesting little patterns that can be inflicted on whatever color you choose)), and just be sure to select a really dark color.
All that said, though, if you really want to wring every last bit of battery life out of your phone, then go with a black background... preferably the one where there's literally no wallpaper -- not even a black one -- being used. That's what I was doing before I got my phone so fine-tuned that I actually kinda' had battery to spare each day, at which point I went back to a beautiful old wallpaper that I've used for years which is super-dark hunter green, with a gradient black irregular frame sort of thing around the edges, and a sort of grunge pattern throughout... very pretty. That, truth be known, is what I now use, since I actually have enough battery each day to easily display it. However, if you're cutting it close, then you really do need to just go with black. Period.
THIRD, keep your screen as dim as you're able, at all times, whether indoors or out. My Galaxy Note II, with its Samsung SuperAmoled screen, boasts such black blacks, and white whites, and brilliant colors in between (you should see it next to an iPhone... makes the darned thing look downright pale, by comparison); and is capable of such near-blinding brightness (at least when indoors), and such more-than-adequate brightness even at only 75% when outdoors (at least if in the shade; and more than enough even in the sun at around 95%), that I can, believe it or not, set my phone's brightness to only around 15% when indoors (no more than 25% even if bright windows are nearby). And so that's what I do. As with dark wallpapers, the dimmer the screen, the better. As it uses battery to light-up a pixel, it uses even more battery to light it up brightly. So keeping brightness as low as you can stand is key; and then...
[CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST]
First, look back at my first post in this thread; I've added a little, and clarified a bit more than a little. I'm not saying
I want to say "be careful what you ask for," but instead I'll just go with "okay." [grin]
Ten steps to adoptping and living by
a "battery conservation" mindset
Today's smartphones -- especially the newest, biggest and most powerful of them -- use a lot of battery power. As phones get bigger, the batteries get bigger to try to accommodate them; but even then, it can be tough to make a phone last through a single day on a single charge... especially if everything that the phone's capable of doing is turned-on and using battery. When such is the case, and if the phone is used even only normally, one may find oneself doing one or more interim charges during the day just to make it through 'til nighttime when, presumably, the phone is finally plugged-in to the charger for its overnight charge.
Smartphone users need to ask themselves a simple question, and make a simple decision about how they're going to use their phones, to wit:
"Do I really want to be constantly in touch with my email, with my Facebook, with my Twitter, etc., all day long, every minute of the day and/or night, so that the very instant I get an email, or a Facebook or Twitter notification, my phone notifies me with a tone and an indicator on my both notification bar and pulldown shade?"
There is simply no battery-saving app that can really help very much on a phone like that that's constantly busy listening for and receiving various notifications from such as Facebook and Twitter, and also email systems like GMAIL, Yahoo!, etc.; plus texts and phone calls. And then there's also all the time that a phone like that's screen is on while its user is both reading and responding to such notifications, emails, texts and phone calls. Factor-in that said user is likely engaging in numerous bad habits like, for example, not be intentionally turning-off/locking the screen when s/he's done using the phone for the moment, and, instead, just let's thhe lockscreen just timeout and finally blank the phone's screen...
...and the unavoidablle bottom line becomes that a phone like that, using the stock battery that came with it, is likely going to need to be not only charged overnight while its user sleeps, but then also re-charged a time or two (or three or five) throughout the day. There's simply no getting around that, and all the user's wishing otherwise won't change that. And no battery-saving app will even be able to make so much as a dent in that situation!
The absolutely only way that such a user of such a busy phone may avoid some or all interim charges during the day is to throw more hardware at the problem in the form of an oversized (either double, triple... or if someone makes one, a quadruple capacity) battery for the phone. And such batteries are not only costly, but they're typically physically huge (by comparison with the stock battery that came with the phone) and also comparatively heavy. They nearly always require that the phone's stock back cover must be replaced with a cover especially made to accommodate the bigger, thicker, heavier extra-capacity battery. Such extra capacity batteries and associated back covers can cost from $20(US) to $60(US) (sometimes even more), for a typical smartphone.
thicker, heavier extra-capacity aftermarket battery, and the necessarily much bigger back cover that came with it.
The purchaser and user of such an extra-capacity battery may reasonably expect the phone to last far longer on a single charge than when it's using the stock battery. How much longer depends, in largest measure, on how many times the phone's stock battery's capacity is that of the new, extra-capacity battery. If the phone comes with a 3100mAh battery, and one purchases a double-capacity 6200mAh battery (and necessarily-larger back cover) for the phone, then the time between charges when using the extra-capacity should approximately double, give or take. Similarly, if it's a triple capacity (9600mAh) battery, then times between charges when using it should approximately triple, give or take, compared with the stock battery. It's important to remember that doubling or tripling stock battery capacity may not necessarily equate to doubling or tripling times between charges. Something more along the lines of 150% to 175% longer for a double-capacity battery, and 250% to 275% longer for a triple-capacity battery is far more likely; but your actual mileage may understandably vary.
Using something like the Juice Defender or the GreenPower battery-saving apps on a phone that requires such a battery because it's just so busy every day and it actually needs one is a little bit like trying to empty one of America's Great Lakes, a glass at a time. It will obviously have at least some extremely minor effect...
...but not so's ya'd notice. So, then, bottom line: If you either will not or cannot buy-in to a battery conservation mindset because you either use the phone so much every day -- and/or you insist that it be constantly syncing with such as Facebook and GMAIL and Twitter; and "listening" for and then immediately notifying you, in real time, of new messages, notifications or tweets; plus texts and phone calls; plus whatever is your Internet and/or basic app use -- such that the phone just uses so much battery that you must do one or more interim charges each day just to get through 'til the evening, then just either live with the interim recharges; or reduce or eliminate them by getting an oversized, heavier, extra-capacity battery and necessarily-larger back cover; and then just save your money and don't even bother getting a battery-saving app. Simple as that.
However, if you're like me, then you don't want to be that accessible; to give others the power to direct and redirect your attention onto them and whatever are their petty issues, like that. Therefore, you don't want to be told, by your phone, in real time, about every single new email, tweet or Facebook notification... no matter how good a "friend" happens to be posting it! If they really need to reach you that fast, then you've already made sure they have your cell phone number, and so they can text or call you if it's that important. Then, whenever you're able to take a moment to manually check your email, Facebook or Twitter accounts (using either their apps, or even just the phone's browser) however many times you decide you'd like to during the day, then, and only then, is when they get your attention... on your terms and schedule, not theirs.
It takes a mature and self-confident person to be able, in this day and age, to take a giant step back from it all and put it into its proper perspective and realize that life's short; and that things like social networking and email should be only a small part of it. I refer the reader, again, to this TED talk video...
ing human connection and communication, ultimately making us feel, yes, connected, but nevertheless alone. We must be
careful not to replace real, face-to-face human interaction with the fake, online kind. About this general subject, I, Gregg
DesElms, have both said and written, many times, that if it weren't for the Internet, we, as a society, wouldn't even need a
"National Night Out" just so we can get to know our neighbors. Instead, we'd know them the same way our parents got to
know their neighbors: By talking to them over the back fence; or seeing them at church, or a school PTA meeting.
...and associated book. The first of the generations born to a world wherein the Internet is normative, and who are now young adults, have, I believe, already gleaned from life a horribly skewed notion of what real human interaction really is, and why it's important. And so they try to substitute such as social networking for it, with what I fear will be truly dire consequences for mankind, just generally. It's too soon for most to see it, of course; and I'll be dead by the time anyone's able to quantify it, and/or notices that I was right; but mark my words: I am. Just give it time.
As a hedge against that, please don't let the likes of Facebook, Twitter or GMAIL determine how you spend the precious moments of the precious days of your short life. And, trust me: it's shorter than you think! If you're young, you've not yet come to the point in your life when it finally hits you just how short it really is. Young people think they're going to live forever (or that even if they're not going to so do, however long it takes for them to die is so far out in the future that it's effectively the same thing to them... I know... I was young, once, too). They have no concept of their own mortality; but when they reach my age, it finally hits them -- and hard -- and then, trust me, they'll regret frittering away their lives on texts, Facebook, Twitter, and even emails.
Embracing a battery conservation mindset includes all of that, believe it or not. It requires the courage to turn things off; to control what the phone does, rather than letting it control you. Yes, people must still be able to reach you quickly through the phone if they must; but when they needn't, then they shouldn't be able to, simply by doing something like posting a comment to one of your Facebook posts; or tagging you in a photo; or messaging you through Facebook; or posting a tweet; or even sending you an email! Those are things -- the timing, at least, of them are things -- that you, and not your phone, should control. It is, in large measure, about not letting yourself get interrupted against your will; about makin' 'em wait until you decide that they may have your attention for their mundane purposes for a little while.
Once you embrace that, then the rest of the battery conservation mindset is pretty much just about the technique and methodology of making the necessary settings to make your phone not be busy and working all the time, even when its screen is black and it's in your pocket, or purse, or briefcase, or belt holster; and then, additionally, making the phone not use so much battery even when its screen is lit-up and you're actually using it for something. If you do the settings right, and then use, for example, Juice Defender, your phone will still be fully functional, and you won't miss a single thing...
...except that it may so be by a slightly different means which may or may not result in at least some things reaching you slightly (and by that I mean only seconds to, at most, minutes) delayed. If you do it right, the phone will still interrupt you for the really important stuff (the definition and operation of which you will entirely configure and control), yet it will not bug you with stuff that you decide can wait. Here's how to do it...
THE TEN STEPS
FIRST, turn-off as much background syncing as you can... all of it, if possible. On most phones, today, that's controlled in two places: In the app, itself, and then, also, as a phone-wide account setting. That's especially true of the various Google apps, so let's take Google's GMAIL as an example. If you believe that your phone should control you, and lead you around like a bull by the ring in its nose, beeping and notifying you of every incoming email, as it arrives, in real time, then you will configure your GMAIL app, in its "Settings" area, in the Settings sub-section accessed by pressing on your GMAIL address, such that both the "Notifications," and the "Sync Gmail" boxes are checked. Then, additionally, in the phone's "Settings" area, in the "Accounts" sub-section, in the area accessible by pressing on your GMAIL address (or it may be called "Google", as in your Google account; and then, once you've pressed on that, then by pressing on your GMAIL address), a checkmark next to that you want GMAIL to sync.
NOTE: No matter what, in order for the Google Play Store app to work in the backgroun (which must be allowed on all Android phones), you must have a checkmark next to "Sync App Data." However, putting a checkmark next to any other Google apps -- including GMAIL -- is entirely optional, at the user's discretion. And so, harkening back to the previous paragraph, if you want GMAIL to be able to sync, constantly, in the background, you would put a checkmark next to at least the GMAIL app in that sync section of your phone's "Settings" > "Accounts" area.
So, then, by your now seeing how you'd set things if you wanted your phone to constantly sync, and to notify you in real time whenever you get a new email message, all you need to to not have it so do would be to not check those things. Simply unchecking the "Notifications" box inside the GMAIL app isn't enough. You also need to stop GMAIL from syncing all the time in the background... which happens not only by unchecking the "Sync Gmail" box inside the GMAIL app, but also by removing the checkmark next to the GMAIL app in the sync section of the phone's "Settings" > "Accounts" area. And your reason for wanting to disable syncing as well as notifications is because syncing uses battery... lots of it. And it also slows-down the phone, truth be known.
"But, wait," you ask, "won't I miss messages?" And the answer is "no, of course not!" And the reason is because whenever next you manually enter the GMAIL app to manually check your email, all you have to do is press the phone's MENU key, then press "Refresh," and it will get all caught-up in just a moment or two. And, in fact, the shorter you set the...
Phone's MENU key > Settings > [your GMAIL address] > DATA USAGE > Days of mail to sync
...setting, from within the GMAIL app, the quicker it will refresh. I have it set only for 7 days because it's unlikely that I'd ever care -- at least while I'm using my phone -- about anything older than that. Anything requiring me to be able to see something older can just wait 'til I'm at my notebook in my Windows browser, where I can see everything which ever passed through my GMAIL account in its web interface. Or, if I'm on the phone and really and truly need to go back further, then I can simply go to that setting, change it to the necessary longer period, then "Refresh" again... but it would have to be something really important for which I could not wait 'til I was back at my notebook, in order for me to do a silly thing like that.
If you don't need to be notified, in real time, as it happens, of new incoming emails, then turning sync completely off, and then manually refreshing and getting caught-up when entering the GMAIL app, has no downside... except, maybe (and I stress that word), that if GMAIL had been staying in sync in the background, then you wouldn't have to "refresh;" or, if you did, it would take two seconds to refresh (because it had so recently refreshed in the background) instead of 5 or 8 or however many seconds more than two it would take to make a slightly bigger refresh. For those extra few seconds, it's not worth it to at least me to waste all that battery on all that background syncing.
Pretty much all other of Google's apps work basically the same way... though some, like... um... let me think... oh, yeah... maybe Google's "Now" service, will be more aggressive and make you work harder to bygod get 'em turned-off and not sync anywhere. If you're like me, you allow none of them to sync all by themselves in the background; and you'll manually refresh them if you have to have to, whenever you actually use them. Only the item, in the phone's (not any of the apps's, but the phone's)...
MENU key > Settings > Accounts > Google > [your GMAIL address]
...area, called "Sync app data" must, no matter what, have a checkmark next to it, and be allowed to sync... basically so that the Google Play Store app can check for updates however/whenever it wants to. If you don't allow app data to sync, then the Google Play Store app will kick little toast error messages, so you pretty much have to let at least that one sync all the time.
Other, non-Google apps may or may not work the same way; though if they, by your logging-in to them, cause an account to be created in...
The phone's MENU key > Settings > Accounts
...then it's likely that you'll need to turn off syncing in both the app, and in the phone's accounts area, just like with the Google apps. It all depends, though, on the app.
The Facebook app, though, is a sneaky little ******* (there... I
MENU key > Settings > Accounts > Facebook
...area. The proof of that is that even after you turn-off all syncing in both the app and the phone's accounts area, a little red circle on the Facebook app's upper-rightmost corner, with a number in it, will appear to indicate that there's however many (as indicated by the number) Facebook notifications waiting for you. Hmm. No wonder the Facebook app has only three-point-something stars on the Google Play Store! That so infuriated me that I deleted the Facebook app from my phone. The reason that's not an in convenience is because, if you'll notice, the Facebook experience in the phone's browser is nearly identical to in the Facebook app... so why even use the Facebook app, I say; especially because, if you buy-in to my whole battery conservation mindset, you only look at Facebook when you want to, manually, on your terms! As long as that's all you're doing, then why not just do it in the browser, where you don't have to worry about the Facebook app sneaking behind your back and phoning home, I say. If you cannot delete the Facebook app, then just go into...
Phone's MENU key > Settings > Application manager > Facebook
...and then, in the App-info area, force close Facebook, then clear its both cache, data, and any "launch by default" association it may have, if any, and then press the phone's BACK key however many times it takes to return to the homescreen. Then go to...
Phone's MENU key > Settings > Accounts
...and see if there's still a Facebook account listed there. If there is, then go into it, and into its sync area, and press the "Remove Account" button near the bottom. Doing those things will sufficiently disable the Facebook app, and deny it knowing your Facebook credentials, that it will have nothing with which to sync behind your back, and so will stay quiet, not using any battery.
There will be a lot more than that, regarding background syncing, that you'll need to first hunt down, and then turn off; but at least those examples will give you the idea. From there, go have at it, yourself. You may, sadly, need to enter nearly every app, go into its settings or configuration or preferences or whatever the app calls it, and make sure that the app's not syncing or updating on anything; or, if it is, that it only does it whenever you enter the app and actually use it. If it won't do that, then just turn off syncing/updating in the app altogether (if you can), and simply do it manually, using a "Refresh" or whatever similar button in the app, whenever you use the app.
The ideal situation is an app like BEWeather & Widgets Pro that will background sync/update and use all kinds of battery if you want it to; or will only do it only whenever you unlock the phone, so that the weather information on its widget can get caught-up from whenever last you were using the phone and it was allowed to sync/update; but won't keep background syncing/updating when the phone's screen is off and locked. For absolutely maximum battery savings, it will also let you you set it to update/sync only when you enter the weather app, itself (which you shouldn't use if you're using its widget on one of your homescreens, else said widget would only update if you entered the weather app), or even not at all, automatically (thereby forcing you to manually refresh/update it).
That BEWeather & Widgets Pro weather app, then, is just about perfect for use by someone who has a battery conservation mindset; and even someone using Juice Defender (since unlocking the screen also tells Juice Defender to turn on everything for however long it's needed... thereby allowing the weather app's sync/update). The reason, by the way, and I'm proud to say, that that weather app has those features is because the dev and I worked through it a couple years ago after I reported to him that the way he had things configured, his app was just sucking battery like crazy. He was very cooperative and knowledgeable, and eventually got the configuration capabilities just about perfect. Everyone reading this should use and pay for his app, and support him, which, as it happens, isn't really as big a favor to him, at your expense, as you might worry because, as it happens, that little weather app is one of the best out there... in part because it uses the Weather Underground network of online amateur weather stations, and will, if you so configure it, try to read its data from the one geographically nearest you (and if it can't find one that's closer than wherever you are to the nearest airport, then it uses airport data, like any other weather app) so that whatever are the temp and other readings really and truly are local to you. In my case, I have several amateur weather stations on that network within a few blocks of my home, so whenever I'm at home, the weather information via that app on my phone is as good and accurate to me as if I had spent a thousand dollars on a backyard weather station of my own! Trust me, it's a great weather app... with lots of cool icon and widget and animation and weather mapping features, too. Seriously, it's best-of-breed.
So, then, anyway... we've now covered the first of the things to do to make your phone as battery conservative as mine: Stopping as much as you can of, or all of, your phone's background syncing. And, of course, since at least "App data" must sync, in order to make the Google Play Store app happy, one can't really and truly stop all background syncing. Plus, who knows, there may be at least a few things that you actually want to sync, and that's fine. It's your phone... do what you want. Just know that every little thing you allow to sync, while you're phone's screen is off and locked and you're not using it, uses unnecessary battery; and can also slow-down the phone. So just keep that in mind.
SECOND, turn off all wallpapers... especially "live" ones. Live wallpapers, with all their animation, suck battery like crazy. But remember that battery is needed to light-up pixels on the phone's screen; and so every pixel on the screen that isn't black is using more battery than is necessary if you really and truly want to become fully immersed in the battery conservation mindset thing. Therefore, even static wallpapers use too much battery, in my opinion. A black background -- preferably using no wallpaper at all, not even a black one -- is best. But even just a black wallpaper is better than nothing. I make that distinction because the two freeware apps out there which allow one to make one's homescreens and app drawer backgrounds totally black do so via different means. This one (that I use) actually removes the wallpaper, altogether; and this one displays a black wallpaper. Technically, the former uses a tiny bit less battery; but the truth is that the difference is so negligible that it almost matters not which one you use. If displaying a black wallpaper is acceptable, then not only is the latter okay, but so, too, would be any of the (usually freeware) apps out there that will display any solid color as a wallpaper, as long as the color you choose is black.
That said, really dark colors -- like a super-dark hunter green, or a super-dark blue, or a super-dark red, for example, just to name three -- use a lot less battery than bright colors; and so I suppose if you insisted on using at least some color as a homescreen and app drawer background, then you could go with one of the apps that can make any color as a background (like this one, for example; or maybe this one, just to name two (I prefer the latter because of the interesting little patterns that can be inflicted on whatever color you choose)), and just be sure to select a really dark color.
All that said, though, if you really want to wring every last bit of battery life out of your phone, then go with a black background... preferably the one where there's literally no wallpaper -- not even a black one -- being used. That's what I was doing before I got my phone so fine-tuned that I actually kinda' had battery to spare each day, at which point I went back to a beautiful old wallpaper that I've used for years which is super-dark hunter green, with a gradient black irregular frame sort of thing around the edges, and a sort of grunge pattern throughout... very pretty. That, truth be known, is what I now use, since I actually have enough battery each day to easily display it. However, if you're cutting it close, then you really do need to just go with black. Period.
THIRD, keep your screen as dim as you're able, at all times, whether indoors or out. My Galaxy Note II, with its Samsung SuperAmoled screen, boasts such black blacks, and white whites, and brilliant colors in between (you should see it next to an iPhone... makes the darned thing look downright pale, by comparison); and is capable of such near-blinding brightness (at least when indoors), and such more-than-adequate brightness even at only 75% when outdoors (at least if in the shade; and more than enough even in the sun at around 95%), that I can, believe it or not, set my phone's brightness to only around 15% when indoors (no more than 25% even if bright windows are nearby). And so that's what I do. As with dark wallpapers, the dimmer the screen, the better. As it uses battery to light-up a pixel, it uses even more battery to light it up brightly. So keeping brightness as low as you can stand is key; and then...
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Adopting a battery-conservation mindset - Part 2 of 2
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...only setting it brighter, as needed, and only for as long as needed, and then returning it to as dim as you're able to use it, is what you need to do. Do not use the "auto" brightness setting; in addition to it and its jumping the screen bright then dim then bright if you happen to tip it wrong as you're using it being irritating, the "auto" brightness setting tends to keep the phone too bright indoors. So just avoid it.
I use Elixir2 on my phone -- the paid version, with all its add-ons -- as a general utility and control app (along with a couple or three others which, yes, have tiny bits of overlap, here and there; but which, when all combined, help me cover absolutely every utility contingency); and Elixir2 has very cool widgeting capability, not only on homescreens, but also on the notification pulldown shade. Using it, then, I can put both screen brightness toggles, and volume profile selector buttons, on my homescreens and my notification pulldown shade, thereby allowing me to be able to get at a brightness toggle (or control any volume item) from pretty much anywhere, at any time. And so if I'm using the phone and move into a bright area, I can, without breaking out of the app I'm using, just pulldown the shade and toggle the brightness to 15% or 25% or 50% or 75% or 100% or back to "auto" and then 15% with each successive press. And I can do that same thing from duplicate toggles on each homescreen. Using those, I can control brightness with ease, and in an instant; and using those I make sure that I keep the screen as dim as I'm able, at all times, to preserve battery. There are some other apps, though, that can help you achieve nearly the same thing... at least regarding brightness and volume (though not anything else that Elixir2 does) like, for example, this suprisingly nice (and ad-free freeware) one, just to name one. There are others.
FOURTH, keep the screen on only when it's needed. Never let it just sit there, on, while you turn away from the phone for a while to do something else, even if you'll soon be back to the phone. Don't become so obsessive about it, though, that you're turning it off and on and off and on like a crazy person. It's perfectly okay to keep it constantly on while you, for example, read a book using your Kindle app. I mean, if you can't actually use the phone, then what's the point!?! All I'm saying is that if you're going to be looking away from the phone for more than just... oh... I dunno... maybe minute or two or three, then discipline yourself to turn off the screen. Every minute, after all, counts!
To do that without wearing-out your phone's power button (the normative screen on/off button on most phones), get and use this Screen Off and Lock app. Seriously, only that one: look no further. I've tested them all, and that one is best-of-breed... er... actually, preferably, the paid version is. Read my review of it here to learn why.
Configure it to put an off-and-lock button on the pulldown shade (so you can always get at it from there); and then drag the off-and-lock icon button (not the control/settings button, but the off-and-lock button) down into the dock (the bottommost row of icons on the phone's screen, down where the dialer icon and the apps icon is normally located) so you can always get at it from there, too. Then, whenever you want to turn off the screen, use that button from either the dock or the pulldown shade to so do... thereby keeping you from having to press the phone's electro-mechanical hardware power button for at least all your screen-off functions. That, right there, will cut the wear and tear on that electromechanical hardware button by half, over the life of the phone; plus it's about a gabazillion times easier to turn off the screen with the screen-off-and-lock icon than by using the phone's electromechanical hardware power button.
Of course, you'll still have to use the phone's electromechanical hardware power button to wake-up the screen (or, if you've got a phone like my Note II, the electromechanical hardware HOME key will do it, too... you can reduce wear on them both by splitting the screen-on function between them, over the life of the phone. If you get sick of constantly swiping the lock screen all the time whenever you turn the screen back on, then simply turn it off in the phone's settings, if such a feature is present; or, if it's not, then just download and install this freeware badboy and set it to disable the lockscreen; and by so doing you'll find yourself right on the homescreen (or wherever you were when you last turned-off and locked the screen), rather than on the lockscreen which you would then have to swipe to unlock. Of course, this eliminates the security of the lockscreen; and so if you need that, then forget what I just wrote about downloading and installing the badboy app that turns off the lock screen, and then just endure always having to swipe it to unlock it every time you light the phone's screen back up.
Once you've disciplined yourself to always hit that screen-off-and-lock button to turn off the screen whenever you're done with it (so that your phone virtually never just sits there, and has its screen finally turn off from the default timeout), you can go into the phone's Setting and set the screen timeout to its longest possible setting... 10 minutes, or 30 minutes... or even never, if the phone will allow it. And the reason is because you've by then so disciplined yourself to turn off the screen when you're done with it that you can then let the screen just stay on for long periods whenever you need it to, without having to keep touching it to reset the timeout period.
FIFTH, turn off phone features that just aren't needed. On my Note II, there's all kinds-o'-cool-stuff that, if turned on, will make the phone almost stand-up, dance around, sing a tune, and kiss me square on the mouth... not a bit of which interests me... not even the kissing part. These things, on my phone are all turned off: Tethering, and NFC, and S-Beam, and VPN, and AllShare Cast, and KIES via WI-FI, and Blocking mode, and vibration (both vibration while ringing and haptic feedback), and and touch sounds, and screen lock sounds, and the LED indicator, and multi-window, and Page buddy, and auto-rotation, and smart rotation, and Smart stay, and display battery percentage, and encyption, and SIM card lock, and Trusted Credentials, and all the one-handed operation features, and the Quick Glance feature, and the Direct call feature, and the Smart alert feature, and the Double-tap-to-top feature, and the tilt to zoom feature, and the pan to move or browse feature, and the shake to update feature, and the turn-over-to-mute/pause feature, and the palm swipt to capture feature, and the palm touch to mute/pause feature, and the pen attach/detach sound (remember that my Note II has an S-Pen), and the open pop-up note when pen is detached feature, and the air view feature, and the quick command gesture settings feature, and the dock sound, and the desk home screen display, and the speak passwords feature, and special verbal answering/ending calls features, and the accessibility shortcu feature, and the TalkBack service, and the text-to-speech and driving mode features, enhanced web accessibility features, and the camera flash notification feature, and the developer options... all turned off...
...and not, in most cases, because I'm trying to save battery but, in reality, because most of them, when it comes right down to it, are stupid, useless gimmicks... er... well... obviously if a person's disabled, certain of them aid in both accessibilty and usability. And not every cool feature is turned off... for example, the thing that makes the phone alarm if it gets 30 feet or more away from its S-Pen (so I won't forget it somewhere) is turned on. And there are two or three other things. But my point is that if you don't need a thing, then turn it off. Period.
SIXTH, turn on things intended to save battery... but only if they don't inordinately impede usage. Don't turn-on battery saving features, for example, if they do irritating things like dim the screen if you don't touch it often enough, or throttle everything down to unusability if the battery level gets too low... stuff like that. Carefully look through all the phone's settings and figure out what everything is; and if anything could help -- like, for example, in my phone's case, shortening the key light duration to only 1.5 seconds, or auto-adjusting screen tone (not to be confused with brightness), or disabling pen detection whenever the S-Pen is out of its holder, etc. -- then, by all means enable it. However, also in my Note II's case, the very feature that one would think would help -- the overall battery saving system -- so slows and chokes down and dims things that it's just not worth having turned on. Drives me nuts! All my other battery saving strategies, combined, obviously work, yet the phone, whenever I use it, runs at full bore rather than at some weird battery-saving crippled rate and brightness...
...and so my point is that sometimes what should and shouldn't be done seems counter-intuitive. Only you know your phone (or at least you should), and so I cannot tell you how to configure it to turn on or off only that which you really need, and which isn't a silly gimmick, and which will ultimately support the end-goal of saving the most battery, yet giving you the full and unfettered use of your phone whenever you really need it. And which will also cause you to not actually miss anything, even if some of it, maybe, is delayed until you either manually check for it, or, in the case of using something like Juice Defender, which is briefly delayed during one of the brief periods when Juice Defender has everything turned-off (which, again, can be fined-tuned in Juice Defender so that stuff that must timely get through, always can.
This whole thing that I'm describing in the FIFTH and SIXTH steps, here, is kinda' the hardest part. It requires the most analysis and decision making on your part; which can't be done unless you really and truly both understand your phone and its features, and also honestly assess which of them you actually need. My battery conservation strategy is not to so strip the phone of its various features that you could have saved money and gotten a lesser one with fewer features. Rather, my strategy is to be really honest with myself about what is and isn't actually useful, and that I'll actually use, and then only turn-on that specific stuff... turning-off everything else. I mean, c'mon... some of this stuff is just stupid... do I really need to go into my whole stand-up comedy routine about what kind of numbskull actually needs the feature wherein the phone mutes or pauses when it's turned over onto its face? Really? Gimmee a freakin' break.
As with all things that I write like this, I won't leave anyone hanging. If there are questions about features on your phone, and/or whether you should turn them on or off, I'm happy to help. Just ask... either here, or by emailing me. But the bottom line is that, for the most part, you're kinda' on your own a little regarding these FIFTH and SIXTH steps because every phone is different, and so I can't tell you, with sufficient specificity, exactly what you should do. Just remember that the goal is to find the happy balance of turned-on versus turned-off features so that a reasonable compromise between ease-of-use and usability and battery savings is found. Err, initially, toward battery savings; and then if you find that a feature you need isn't working, then think long and hard about whether the battery needed to run it is worth having it, and turn it on if it is. Simple as that. But the converse, as well... don't forget that, too.
SEVENTH, be careful about running too many things at once, and, especially, not leaving an app properly and, by so doing, accidentally leaving it running even after you've screen-off-and-locked. Many people don't really understand how to properly use their phones, especially when they leave apps. Many make the mistake of using the HOME key to leave an app; and they think that's the right way to do it because it lands them on the homescreen, and so they think they've properly exited the app. But what they don't realize is that leaving an app by pressing the HOME key is actually part of invoking the Android phone's multi-tasking capability. Whenever one is in an app and presses the HOME key to get out of it, all one is doing is multi-tasking out of it, so that another app may be launched, all while still leaving the one left using the HOME key still running in the background. The HOME key allows the leaving, yet still-leaving-running, whatever app is HOME-keyed out of; and then, while it's still running, another app may be launched, thereby leaving the phone now running two apps simultaneously. One then moves back and forth between the simultaneously-running apps by long-pressing the HOME key until the task switcher pops-up, and then pressing on whatever app one wants to return to... back and forth like that, multi-tasking. See? Multi-tasking is more than just for Windows!
However, multi-tasking uses lots-o'-battery. When it's necessary, of course, do it... without hesitation, or worrying about using too much battery. Again, if you can't actually use the phone, then what's the point. But you should also make sure that you do not unintentionally multi-task; that you do not unintentionally leave and app the wrong way (using the HOME key), thereby leaving it running, yet thinking that you left it in a manner that actually closed it... which, if you HOME-keyed out of it, truth me, you didn't do.
The proper way to leave an app, and actually close it, is to either use the phone's BACK key, pressing it however many times are needed to finally "back" all the way out of it; or, to use an "Exit" menu item, if there is one; or, if there's an "Exit" selection word or button on the screen. A lot of apps which began life on iPhones, and were then ported over to Android, have "Exit" buttons somewhere on their screens. The Android native standard, though, is for the user to check for an "Exit" option on the little menu that rises-up from the bottom of the screen if one presses the phone's MENU key; or for the user to just repeatedly press the phone's BACK key until one finally backs all the way out of the app, and is dropped to a homescreen.
If one HOME-keys out of an app, and lands on a homescreen, then one has actually not exited from the app in a way that fully closed it... like using an "Exit" choice from within the app, or using the BACK key repeatedly to back all the way out of it, does. If one HOME-keys out of an app, then one has left said app running in the background so that, presumably, one can go do something else for a moment, or maybe launch a second (or even third or fourth app) so as to multi-task, using long-pressing the HOME key to toggle back and forth between the simultaneously-opened and running and multi-tasking apps. Ultimately, if that happens, then when one is finished with them all, one must either go, one at a time, to each, app and then either use an "Exit" menu choice, or press the BACK key however many times are necessary fully close the app; then use long-pressing the HOME key to go to the next app and repeat, etc., etc., until all apps are closed. A definitely more time-saving method (but one which could theoretically damage an app's data or configuration information because it's so abrupt), is to long-press the HOME key, and then select the task manager, and then just end all the simultaneously-running/multi-tasking apps' tasks. That's what most people do when they multi-task and have bunches of things simultaneously open... but, again, so doing could, at least theoretically, damage date or configuration settings because it's the equivalent of turning-off a car's engine by sticking a crow bar into the cooling fan and just abruptly stopping, cole, right mid-stroke. Any mechanic would tell you that that's not a good idea.
Using the task manager to occasionally forcibly end the browser, though, may be necessary, since smartphone browsers have a nasty habit of not fully closing even if you back out of them properly using the BACK key; and sometimes even if you use the "Exit" item on the browser's rise-up-from-the-bottom menu. Browsers are weird that way. And so if you really want to make sure that everything's off whenever you're done using the phone for a given little session of it, then you'll definitely want to learn how to get into the task manager by long-pressing the HOME key.
So, then, bottom line: In addition to being mindful and disciplined about things like screen brightness, and remembering to turn-off the screen, and all that other stuff which converts you from a passive, close-is-good-enough user of your phone to one who's truly in charge of it, and controlling it...
...you need to keep track, in your mind, of what's open, and whether or not you've properly closed it when you're done with it so that you don't leave it running and using battery for hours while the phone's presumably off and idle, in your pocket or briefcase or purse or wherever.
EIGHTH, task killing and system cleaning. Don't use task killers or soft rebooters if you don't really need to; and with most of the most modern phones, you pretty much almost never really need to. Task killers do, indeed, kill tasks and, in the process, free-up RAM and stop runaway processor cycles; but, especially if the phone's not been ROOTED, the killed tasks all just start-up again -- and some of them in ways that those who tend to personify things in life will swear are "angry" -- and all that initialization uses lots-o'-battery... and sometimes bandwidth, too. Plus, for as long as said initialization is going on, the phone is slowed, to boot.
If you think task killing is called for (and always operate from the position that it's likely not... again, not, at least with these really modern, OS version 4.x phones), then use an app like this one (though preferably the paid-for version) to first figure out if task killing is even necessary; and then, if it is, what should or shouldn't actually be killed, and how. Since in the end, with these newest phone models, it'll be unlikely that task killing is even called for, it might just all be a waste of time. But you just insist on getting your geek on, and visiting the task of task killing, then please at least do it responsibly, using the app I just recommended.
System cleaning, though, is definitely a good idea. The more temp and other files that are sitting in the phone's general cache, and the more history files sitting in its history cache, then the more the phone must keep track of every single millisecond, which requires processor cycles, which uses battery; and so it pays to do a quick system cleaning at least daily. For pure system cleaning capability, it's difficult to imagine anything quite as good as the free -- and also ad-free -- Clean Master. But be careful because it's actually capable of erasing real and needed data, or media files, if you're a little too overly zealous about what you put checkmarks next to to be removed. Just stick, at first, with Clean Master's recommendations; but even then, be careful about letting it delete empty folders, because some empty folders are created by apps on first start-up, and then if you don't actually use said apps, said folders sit empty; but then, whenever you finally do use the app for something, because it knows it was once initialized, it presumes that the folders it created on initiallization are there and doesn't try to re-create them if they're not; and so if Clean Master has deleted them, just because they're empty and some ***** at Clean Master thinks, therefore, they should be deleted, then you could screw-up your phone a little. So just be really careful about how you use the almost-too-powerful Clean Master!
A better choice might be ZDbox, which -- don't be misled by its containing "ROOT" in its name -- doesn't require a ROOTED phone in order to be terribly useful (though touts that it's even more useful if the phone's ROOTED... which I don't recommend, in any case). ZDbox is another of my must-have apps for any phone I use. It not onlly performs the cache and history cleaning function with both ease and aplomb, but it also does several other cool things, including displaying the phone's battery level as a percentage up on the notification bar and pulldown shade, App2SD, uninstallation, app locking, battery monitoring, data monitoring, and all kinds of other cool stuff. And it's invokable from the pulldown shade, so it's really easy and fast to get to, anytime you need it. It's simply not possible to goof-up system cleaning with ZDbox... even if the means by which it achieves such safety is to maybe not be quite as thorough as Clean Master; but it's still thorough enough.
NINTH, calibrate the battery to the phone so that when the phone says there's a certain percent battery level, it's actually true and accurate. You wouldn't believe how many people get this wrong; and so they end-up believing that their battery is almost dead when there's actually a lot left in it, and vice versa. Calibration's important. Trying to have a battery conservation mindset, when the phone can't really even figure out precisely what either "full" or "empty" actually means for a given battery, because there's been no calibration, is just silly. It's like going on a diet and using a scale that you know is inaccurate -- and probably by a lot -- but you just don't know by precisely how much.
The phone will need an indicator up on the status/notification bar, of battery percentage. A graphic showing a half-full battery won't do... not accurate enough. If the phone has a built-in ability to display battery percentage on the status/notifcation bar, then turn it on. If it does not, then simply download a free battery-percentage-on-the-status/notification-bar app... something like this one, for example, just to name one. However, if you agree with me that the aforementioned ZDbox is a must-have app, and you're planning on using it anyway, then its little percentage battery indicator is perfect for our purposes, here.... the best choice, in fact... get it, instead. Install and do whatever you have to do to the battery percentage indicator so that it's working and shoing battery percentage up on the status/notification bar.
FIRST: Preferably using the charger and cable that came with the phone (but if that's not available, then fine; at least make sure the charger and cable meet the same specs as the ones that came with the phone) plug the charger into the phone, with the phone on; and then charge the phone to what the battery percentage indicator says is 100%.
SECOND: Once it's charged to 100%, unplug the charger from the phone, and then turn the phone off... all the way off... completely off. Some phones' screens go blank/black before the phone is really and truly off; owners of Samsung phones, for example, who've experienced the screen going off, and the phone appearing to be off, but then suddenly hearing/feeling a little vibration spurt from it as it finally actually did go off, know exactly what I'm talking about. Make sure the phone's really and truly all the way off.
THIRD: Once you're certain the phone is completely off, plug the charger back into it, with it off. On most phones, the screen will light-up and indicate that it's charging while off; and then it'll go black again. On most phones, when the phone reaches a 100% charge while off, the screen will light-up again, indicating that it's hit 100%, and then will go off yet again. Keep the phone in your eye view so you see it come on when it hits 100%; or, if you think you missed it, then give just one quick press and release (don't press and hold, 'cause that'll turn the phone on; just one quick press and release) of the power button to light-up the screen again, with the phone off, to see if the battery's finally at 100% charge.
FOURTH: Once the phone reaches a 100% charge while off, unplug the charger from it, and turn on the phone. Be patient and let the phone boot all the way up, and finish loading whatever apps and other things it normally loads on boot-up, and then calms down and has really and truly finished booting up.
FIFTH: Once the phone has really and truly finished booting up, immediately turn it off again.
SIXTH: Once the phone's really and truly off, plug the charger into it once again, and charge it, again, while off, to 100%.
SEVENTH: Once the phone's charged, while off, to 100%, unplug the battery charger for the last time, and immediately turn on the phone. Once it is fully booted-up and has calmed down, its battery is calibrated, and the phone and battery are ready for use with one another.
Because it's the first calibration, repeat the process in a few days... maybe a week, at most... especially if it's a new battery. In fact, if it's a new battery, then repeat it a third time a week after that. Then, thereafter, repeat once every three months (once per quarter).
If you're using more than one battery, do not charge one in the charger, and keep one in the phone; and then when the one in the phone seems dead, put the one in the charger into the phone, and the one in the phone into the charger; and then keep swapping back-and-forth like that as the one in the phone dies and the one in the charger gets fully charged, etc. Don't do that! It shortens the life of the battery precipitously, and also ensures that the phone never really has any accurate idea just exactly how much battery is left at any given moment.
If you're using more than one battery, the the way to do it is to use one for three months in the phone, while you store the other one in a cool and dry place for said three months; and then, at the three-month mark, swap the batteries and put the one that's been in the phone for three months into the cool and dry place, and put the one that's been in the cool and dry place into the phone. Then, calibrate it! Then, because the battery by then in the phone has been just sitting around for three months, calibrate it again a week or so later; then don't worry about it after that because three months later you'll be swapping the batteries yet again, at which time you'll calibrate yet again... and then a week after that... and then not again 'til the next battery swap three months later... back and forth, back and forth, 'til you finally aren't using that phone anymore; at which point you'll begin the whole process on your new phone!
Simply calibrating your phone may make it seem, just from your having done it, that you're getting better battery life; but what's really going on is that the phone's finally accurately reporting the battery's true level; and since its previously wrongly reporting it (because there had been no calibration) usually included showing the batter as nearly dead when it probably really wasn't, it's at least going to seem like you're getting better batter life. If you are, though, it'll more likely be because you did the other 9 steps, here, and not so much, most likely, because of the battery calibration. All that calibration really did was finally make the aforementioned analogous diet scale accurate.
TENTH, slow-charge the battery if and when you can, as often as you can. In other words, if the phone came with a 1 amp charger, go find a .7 amp charger (which is still compatible with the phone, of course) and use it, as much as you can, instead. Or, if the phone came with a 2 amp charger, like my Note II, then use a 1 amp or, better yet, a 1.5 amp charger as much as you can, instead. I've got both a .7 and a 1.5 because my oldest phone came with the former, and my second-most-recent (before the one I have now) phone came with the latter... and since they're all Galaxy family phones, all chargers work in all phones.
The theory, as most auto mechanics will attest, is that a more slowly-charged battery will want to resist the kind of rapid discharge that produces waste and spilloff. It will, allegedly, discharge more evenly, and the phone will, allegedly, sense its level more accurately. Don't get me wrong, the difference is not profound; but it's not insignificant, either. If you have no choice other than to charge the phone at full speed with the charger that came with it, don't worry about it: it'll likely make little noticeable difference...
...though, that said, I've definitely noticed a difference when I've done it. Yes, it'll mean that when you slow-charge, it'll take longer; and so you should obviously only slow-charge overnight, while you're sleeping, and there's enough time to fully charge even if the battery, when you plugged the charger into the phone when you went to bed, was nearly dead. During the day, though, when time is likely of the essence when/if you do an interim charge, then, yes, of course, use the charger that came with the phone and charge, therefore, at full speed. I'm just saying that if you can get away with overnight slow charges, then by all means try it. You might actually notice a difference.
CONCLUSION: It's late, as I write this, and I'm tired... so I can't help feeling like I left something out. Maybe I'll be more clear-headed in the morning. Gonna' go, now, and plug my Note II into its slow charger, and go to bed.
Hope that helps!
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...only setting it brighter, as needed, and only for as long as needed, and then returning it to as dim as you're able to use it, is what you need to do. Do not use the "auto" brightness setting; in addition to it and its jumping the screen bright then dim then bright if you happen to tip it wrong as you're using it being irritating, the "auto" brightness setting tends to keep the phone too bright indoors. So just avoid it.
I use Elixir2 on my phone -- the paid version, with all its add-ons -- as a general utility and control app (along with a couple or three others which, yes, have tiny bits of overlap, here and there; but which, when all combined, help me cover absolutely every utility contingency); and Elixir2 has very cool widgeting capability, not only on homescreens, but also on the notification pulldown shade. Using it, then, I can put both screen brightness toggles, and volume profile selector buttons, on my homescreens and my notification pulldown shade, thereby allowing me to be able to get at a brightness toggle (or control any volume item) from pretty much anywhere, at any time. And so if I'm using the phone and move into a bright area, I can, without breaking out of the app I'm using, just pulldown the shade and toggle the brightness to 15% or 25% or 50% or 75% or 100% or back to "auto" and then 15% with each successive press. And I can do that same thing from duplicate toggles on each homescreen. Using those, I can control brightness with ease, and in an instant; and using those I make sure that I keep the screen as dim as I'm able, at all times, to preserve battery. There are some other apps, though, that can help you achieve nearly the same thing... at least regarding brightness and volume (though not anything else that Elixir2 does) like, for example, this suprisingly nice (and ad-free freeware) one, just to name one. There are others.
FOURTH, keep the screen on only when it's needed. Never let it just sit there, on, while you turn away from the phone for a while to do something else, even if you'll soon be back to the phone. Don't become so obsessive about it, though, that you're turning it off and on and off and on like a crazy person. It's perfectly okay to keep it constantly on while you, for example, read a book using your Kindle app. I mean, if you can't actually use the phone, then what's the point!?! All I'm saying is that if you're going to be looking away from the phone for more than just... oh... I dunno... maybe minute or two or three, then discipline yourself to turn off the screen. Every minute, after all, counts!
To do that without wearing-out your phone's power button (the normative screen on/off button on most phones), get and use this Screen Off and Lock app. Seriously, only that one: look no further. I've tested them all, and that one is best-of-breed... er... actually, preferably, the paid version is. Read my review of it here to learn why.
Configure it to put an off-and-lock button on the pulldown shade (so you can always get at it from there); and then drag the off-and-lock icon button (not the control/settings button, but the off-and-lock button) down into the dock (the bottommost row of icons on the phone's screen, down where the dialer icon and the apps icon is normally located) so you can always get at it from there, too. Then, whenever you want to turn off the screen, use that button from either the dock or the pulldown shade to so do... thereby keeping you from having to press the phone's electro-mechanical hardware power button for at least all your screen-off functions. That, right there, will cut the wear and tear on that electromechanical hardware button by half, over the life of the phone; plus it's about a gabazillion times easier to turn off the screen with the screen-off-and-lock icon than by using the phone's electromechanical hardware power button.
Of course, you'll still have to use the phone's electromechanical hardware power button to wake-up the screen (or, if you've got a phone like my Note II, the electromechanical hardware HOME key will do it, too... you can reduce wear on them both by splitting the screen-on function between them, over the life of the phone. If you get sick of constantly swiping the lock screen all the time whenever you turn the screen back on, then simply turn it off in the phone's settings, if such a feature is present; or, if it's not, then just download and install this freeware badboy and set it to disable the lockscreen; and by so doing you'll find yourself right on the homescreen (or wherever you were when you last turned-off and locked the screen), rather than on the lockscreen which you would then have to swipe to unlock. Of course, this eliminates the security of the lockscreen; and so if you need that, then forget what I just wrote about downloading and installing the badboy app that turns off the lock screen, and then just endure always having to swipe it to unlock it every time you light the phone's screen back up.
Once you've disciplined yourself to always hit that screen-off-and-lock button to turn off the screen whenever you're done with it (so that your phone virtually never just sits there, and has its screen finally turn off from the default timeout), you can go into the phone's Setting and set the screen timeout to its longest possible setting... 10 minutes, or 30 minutes... or even never, if the phone will allow it. And the reason is because you've by then so disciplined yourself to turn off the screen when you're done with it that you can then let the screen just stay on for long periods whenever you need it to, without having to keep touching it to reset the timeout period.
FIFTH, turn off phone features that just aren't needed. On my Note II, there's all kinds-o'-cool-stuff that, if turned on, will make the phone almost stand-up, dance around, sing a tune, and kiss me square on the mouth... not a bit of which interests me... not even the kissing part. These things, on my phone are all turned off: Tethering, and NFC, and S-Beam, and VPN, and AllShare Cast, and KIES via WI-FI, and Blocking mode, and vibration (both vibration while ringing and haptic feedback), and and touch sounds, and screen lock sounds, and the LED indicator, and multi-window, and Page buddy, and auto-rotation, and smart rotation, and Smart stay, and display battery percentage, and encyption, and SIM card lock, and Trusted Credentials, and all the one-handed operation features, and the Quick Glance feature, and the Direct call feature, and the Smart alert feature, and the Double-tap-to-top feature, and the tilt to zoom feature, and the pan to move or browse feature, and the shake to update feature, and the turn-over-to-mute/pause feature, and the palm swipt to capture feature, and the palm touch to mute/pause feature, and the pen attach/detach sound (remember that my Note II has an S-Pen), and the open pop-up note when pen is detached feature, and the air view feature, and the quick command gesture settings feature, and the dock sound, and the desk home screen display, and the speak passwords feature, and special verbal answering/ending calls features, and the accessibility shortcu feature, and the TalkBack service, and the text-to-speech and driving mode features, enhanced web accessibility features, and the camera flash notification feature, and the developer options... all turned off...
...and not, in most cases, because I'm trying to save battery but, in reality, because most of them, when it comes right down to it, are stupid, useless gimmicks... er... well... obviously if a person's disabled, certain of them aid in both accessibilty and usability. And not every cool feature is turned off... for example, the thing that makes the phone alarm if it gets 30 feet or more away from its S-Pen (so I won't forget it somewhere) is turned on. And there are two or three other things. But my point is that if you don't need a thing, then turn it off. Period.
SIXTH, turn on things intended to save battery... but only if they don't inordinately impede usage. Don't turn-on battery saving features, for example, if they do irritating things like dim the screen if you don't touch it often enough, or throttle everything down to unusability if the battery level gets too low... stuff like that. Carefully look through all the phone's settings and figure out what everything is; and if anything could help -- like, for example, in my phone's case, shortening the key light duration to only 1.5 seconds, or auto-adjusting screen tone (not to be confused with brightness), or disabling pen detection whenever the S-Pen is out of its holder, etc. -- then, by all means enable it. However, also in my Note II's case, the very feature that one would think would help -- the overall battery saving system -- so slows and chokes down and dims things that it's just not worth having turned on. Drives me nuts! All my other battery saving strategies, combined, obviously work, yet the phone, whenever I use it, runs at full bore rather than at some weird battery-saving crippled rate and brightness...
...and so my point is that sometimes what should and shouldn't be done seems counter-intuitive. Only you know your phone (or at least you should), and so I cannot tell you how to configure it to turn on or off only that which you really need, and which isn't a silly gimmick, and which will ultimately support the end-goal of saving the most battery, yet giving you the full and unfettered use of your phone whenever you really need it. And which will also cause you to not actually miss anything, even if some of it, maybe, is delayed until you either manually check for it, or, in the case of using something like Juice Defender, which is briefly delayed during one of the brief periods when Juice Defender has everything turned-off (which, again, can be fined-tuned in Juice Defender so that stuff that must timely get through, always can.
This whole thing that I'm describing in the FIFTH and SIXTH steps, here, is kinda' the hardest part. It requires the most analysis and decision making on your part; which can't be done unless you really and truly both understand your phone and its features, and also honestly assess which of them you actually need. My battery conservation strategy is not to so strip the phone of its various features that you could have saved money and gotten a lesser one with fewer features. Rather, my strategy is to be really honest with myself about what is and isn't actually useful, and that I'll actually use, and then only turn-on that specific stuff... turning-off everything else. I mean, c'mon... some of this stuff is just stupid... do I really need to go into my whole stand-up comedy routine about what kind of numbskull actually needs the feature wherein the phone mutes or pauses when it's turned over onto its face? Really? Gimmee a freakin' break.
As with all things that I write like this, I won't leave anyone hanging. If there are questions about features on your phone, and/or whether you should turn them on or off, I'm happy to help. Just ask... either here, or by emailing me. But the bottom line is that, for the most part, you're kinda' on your own a little regarding these FIFTH and SIXTH steps because every phone is different, and so I can't tell you, with sufficient specificity, exactly what you should do. Just remember that the goal is to find the happy balance of turned-on versus turned-off features so that a reasonable compromise between ease-of-use and usability and battery savings is found. Err, initially, toward battery savings; and then if you find that a feature you need isn't working, then think long and hard about whether the battery needed to run it is worth having it, and turn it on if it is. Simple as that. But the converse, as well... don't forget that, too.
SEVENTH, be careful about running too many things at once, and, especially, not leaving an app properly and, by so doing, accidentally leaving it running even after you've screen-off-and-locked. Many people don't really understand how to properly use their phones, especially when they leave apps. Many make the mistake of using the HOME key to leave an app; and they think that's the right way to do it because it lands them on the homescreen, and so they think they've properly exited the app. But what they don't realize is that leaving an app by pressing the HOME key is actually part of invoking the Android phone's multi-tasking capability. Whenever one is in an app and presses the HOME key to get out of it, all one is doing is multi-tasking out of it, so that another app may be launched, all while still leaving the one left using the HOME key still running in the background. The HOME key allows the leaving, yet still-leaving-running, whatever app is HOME-keyed out of; and then, while it's still running, another app may be launched, thereby leaving the phone now running two apps simultaneously. One then moves back and forth between the simultaneously-running apps by long-pressing the HOME key until the task switcher pops-up, and then pressing on whatever app one wants to return to... back and forth like that, multi-tasking. See? Multi-tasking is more than just for Windows!
However, multi-tasking uses lots-o'-battery. When it's necessary, of course, do it... without hesitation, or worrying about using too much battery. Again, if you can't actually use the phone, then what's the point. But you should also make sure that you do not unintentionally multi-task; that you do not unintentionally leave and app the wrong way (using the HOME key), thereby leaving it running, yet thinking that you left it in a manner that actually closed it... which, if you HOME-keyed out of it, truth me, you didn't do.
The proper way to leave an app, and actually close it, is to either use the phone's BACK key, pressing it however many times are needed to finally "back" all the way out of it; or, to use an "Exit" menu item, if there is one; or, if there's an "Exit" selection word or button on the screen. A lot of apps which began life on iPhones, and were then ported over to Android, have "Exit" buttons somewhere on their screens. The Android native standard, though, is for the user to check for an "Exit" option on the little menu that rises-up from the bottom of the screen if one presses the phone's MENU key; or for the user to just repeatedly press the phone's BACK key until one finally backs all the way out of the app, and is dropped to a homescreen.
If one HOME-keys out of an app, and lands on a homescreen, then one has actually not exited from the app in a way that fully closed it... like using an "Exit" choice from within the app, or using the BACK key repeatedly to back all the way out of it, does. If one HOME-keys out of an app, then one has left said app running in the background so that, presumably, one can go do something else for a moment, or maybe launch a second (or even third or fourth app) so as to multi-task, using long-pressing the HOME key to toggle back and forth between the simultaneously-opened and running and multi-tasking apps. Ultimately, if that happens, then when one is finished with them all, one must either go, one at a time, to each, app and then either use an "Exit" menu choice, or press the BACK key however many times are necessary fully close the app; then use long-pressing the HOME key to go to the next app and repeat, etc., etc., until all apps are closed. A definitely more time-saving method (but one which could theoretically damage an app's data or configuration information because it's so abrupt), is to long-press the HOME key, and then select the task manager, and then just end all the simultaneously-running/multi-tasking apps' tasks. That's what most people do when they multi-task and have bunches of things simultaneously open... but, again, so doing could, at least theoretically, damage date or configuration settings because it's the equivalent of turning-off a car's engine by sticking a crow bar into the cooling fan and just abruptly stopping, cole, right mid-stroke. Any mechanic would tell you that that's not a good idea.
Using the task manager to occasionally forcibly end the browser, though, may be necessary, since smartphone browsers have a nasty habit of not fully closing even if you back out of them properly using the BACK key; and sometimes even if you use the "Exit" item on the browser's rise-up-from-the-bottom menu. Browsers are weird that way. And so if you really want to make sure that everything's off whenever you're done using the phone for a given little session of it, then you'll definitely want to learn how to get into the task manager by long-pressing the HOME key.
So, then, bottom line: In addition to being mindful and disciplined about things like screen brightness, and remembering to turn-off the screen, and all that other stuff which converts you from a passive, close-is-good-enough user of your phone to one who's truly in charge of it, and controlling it...
...you need to keep track, in your mind, of what's open, and whether or not you've properly closed it when you're done with it so that you don't leave it running and using battery for hours while the phone's presumably off and idle, in your pocket or briefcase or purse or wherever.
EIGHTH, task killing and system cleaning. Don't use task killers or soft rebooters if you don't really need to; and with most of the most modern phones, you pretty much almost never really need to. Task killers do, indeed, kill tasks and, in the process, free-up RAM and stop runaway processor cycles; but, especially if the phone's not been ROOTED, the killed tasks all just start-up again -- and some of them in ways that those who tend to personify things in life will swear are "angry" -- and all that initialization uses lots-o'-battery... and sometimes bandwidth, too. Plus, for as long as said initialization is going on, the phone is slowed, to boot.
If you think task killing is called for (and always operate from the position that it's likely not... again, not, at least with these really modern, OS version 4.x phones), then use an app like this one (though preferably the paid-for version) to first figure out if task killing is even necessary; and then, if it is, what should or shouldn't actually be killed, and how. Since in the end, with these newest phone models, it'll be unlikely that task killing is even called for, it might just all be a waste of time. But you just insist on getting your geek on, and visiting the task of task killing, then please at least do it responsibly, using the app I just recommended.
System cleaning, though, is definitely a good idea. The more temp and other files that are sitting in the phone's general cache, and the more history files sitting in its history cache, then the more the phone must keep track of every single millisecond, which requires processor cycles, which uses battery; and so it pays to do a quick system cleaning at least daily. For pure system cleaning capability, it's difficult to imagine anything quite as good as the free -- and also ad-free -- Clean Master. But be careful because it's actually capable of erasing real and needed data, or media files, if you're a little too overly zealous about what you put checkmarks next to to be removed. Just stick, at first, with Clean Master's recommendations; but even then, be careful about letting it delete empty folders, because some empty folders are created by apps on first start-up, and then if you don't actually use said apps, said folders sit empty; but then, whenever you finally do use the app for something, because it knows it was once initialized, it presumes that the folders it created on initiallization are there and doesn't try to re-create them if they're not; and so if Clean Master has deleted them, just because they're empty and some ***** at Clean Master thinks, therefore, they should be deleted, then you could screw-up your phone a little. So just be really careful about how you use the almost-too-powerful Clean Master!
A better choice might be ZDbox, which -- don't be misled by its containing "ROOT" in its name -- doesn't require a ROOTED phone in order to be terribly useful (though touts that it's even more useful if the phone's ROOTED... which I don't recommend, in any case). ZDbox is another of my must-have apps for any phone I use. It not onlly performs the cache and history cleaning function with both ease and aplomb, but it also does several other cool things, including displaying the phone's battery level as a percentage up on the notification bar and pulldown shade, App2SD, uninstallation, app locking, battery monitoring, data monitoring, and all kinds of other cool stuff. And it's invokable from the pulldown shade, so it's really easy and fast to get to, anytime you need it. It's simply not possible to goof-up system cleaning with ZDbox... even if the means by which it achieves such safety is to maybe not be quite as thorough as Clean Master; but it's still thorough enough.
NINTH, calibrate the battery to the phone so that when the phone says there's a certain percent battery level, it's actually true and accurate. You wouldn't believe how many people get this wrong; and so they end-up believing that their battery is almost dead when there's actually a lot left in it, and vice versa. Calibration's important. Trying to have a battery conservation mindset, when the phone can't really even figure out precisely what either "full" or "empty" actually means for a given battery, because there's been no calibration, is just silly. It's like going on a diet and using a scale that you know is inaccurate -- and probably by a lot -- but you just don't know by precisely how much.
The phone will need an indicator up on the status/notification bar, of battery percentage. A graphic showing a half-full battery won't do... not accurate enough. If the phone has a built-in ability to display battery percentage on the status/notifcation bar, then turn it on. If it does not, then simply download a free battery-percentage-on-the-status/notification-bar app... something like this one, for example, just to name one. However, if you agree with me that the aforementioned ZDbox is a must-have app, and you're planning on using it anyway, then its little percentage battery indicator is perfect for our purposes, here.... the best choice, in fact... get it, instead. Install and do whatever you have to do to the battery percentage indicator so that it's working and shoing battery percentage up on the status/notification bar.
FIRST: Preferably using the charger and cable that came with the phone (but if that's not available, then fine; at least make sure the charger and cable meet the same specs as the ones that came with the phone) plug the charger into the phone, with the phone on; and then charge the phone to what the battery percentage indicator says is 100%.
SECOND: Once it's charged to 100%, unplug the charger from the phone, and then turn the phone off... all the way off... completely off. Some phones' screens go blank/black before the phone is really and truly off; owners of Samsung phones, for example, who've experienced the screen going off, and the phone appearing to be off, but then suddenly hearing/feeling a little vibration spurt from it as it finally actually did go off, know exactly what I'm talking about. Make sure the phone's really and truly all the way off.
THIRD: Once you're certain the phone is completely off, plug the charger back into it, with it off. On most phones, the screen will light-up and indicate that it's charging while off; and then it'll go black again. On most phones, when the phone reaches a 100% charge while off, the screen will light-up again, indicating that it's hit 100%, and then will go off yet again. Keep the phone in your eye view so you see it come on when it hits 100%; or, if you think you missed it, then give just one quick press and release (don't press and hold, 'cause that'll turn the phone on; just one quick press and release) of the power button to light-up the screen again, with the phone off, to see if the battery's finally at 100% charge.
FOURTH: Once the phone reaches a 100% charge while off, unplug the charger from it, and turn on the phone. Be patient and let the phone boot all the way up, and finish loading whatever apps and other things it normally loads on boot-up, and then calms down and has really and truly finished booting up.
FIFTH: Once the phone has really and truly finished booting up, immediately turn it off again.
SIXTH: Once the phone's really and truly off, plug the charger into it once again, and charge it, again, while off, to 100%.
SEVENTH: Once the phone's charged, while off, to 100%, unplug the battery charger for the last time, and immediately turn on the phone. Once it is fully booted-up and has calmed down, its battery is calibrated, and the phone and battery are ready for use with one another.
Because it's the first calibration, repeat the process in a few days... maybe a week, at most... especially if it's a new battery. In fact, if it's a new battery, then repeat it a third time a week after that. Then, thereafter, repeat once every three months (once per quarter).
If you're using more than one battery, do not charge one in the charger, and keep one in the phone; and then when the one in the phone seems dead, put the one in the charger into the phone, and the one in the phone into the charger; and then keep swapping back-and-forth like that as the one in the phone dies and the one in the charger gets fully charged, etc. Don't do that! It shortens the life of the battery precipitously, and also ensures that the phone never really has any accurate idea just exactly how much battery is left at any given moment.
If you're using more than one battery, the the way to do it is to use one for three months in the phone, while you store the other one in a cool and dry place for said three months; and then, at the three-month mark, swap the batteries and put the one that's been in the phone for three months into the cool and dry place, and put the one that's been in the cool and dry place into the phone. Then, calibrate it! Then, because the battery by then in the phone has been just sitting around for three months, calibrate it again a week or so later; then don't worry about it after that because three months later you'll be swapping the batteries yet again, at which time you'll calibrate yet again... and then a week after that... and then not again 'til the next battery swap three months later... back and forth, back and forth, 'til you finally aren't using that phone anymore; at which point you'll begin the whole process on your new phone!
Simply calibrating your phone may make it seem, just from your having done it, that you're getting better battery life; but what's really going on is that the phone's finally accurately reporting the battery's true level; and since its previously wrongly reporting it (because there had been no calibration) usually included showing the batter as nearly dead when it probably really wasn't, it's at least going to seem like you're getting better batter life. If you are, though, it'll more likely be because you did the other 9 steps, here, and not so much, most likely, because of the battery calibration. All that calibration really did was finally make the aforementioned analogous diet scale accurate.
TENTH, slow-charge the battery if and when you can, as often as you can. In other words, if the phone came with a 1 amp charger, go find a .7 amp charger (which is still compatible with the phone, of course) and use it, as much as you can, instead. Or, if the phone came with a 2 amp charger, like my Note II, then use a 1 amp or, better yet, a 1.5 amp charger as much as you can, instead. I've got both a .7 and a 1.5 because my oldest phone came with the former, and my second-most-recent (before the one I have now) phone came with the latter... and since they're all Galaxy family phones, all chargers work in all phones.
The theory, as most auto mechanics will attest, is that a more slowly-charged battery will want to resist the kind of rapid discharge that produces waste and spilloff. It will, allegedly, discharge more evenly, and the phone will, allegedly, sense its level more accurately. Don't get me wrong, the difference is not profound; but it's not insignificant, either. If you have no choice other than to charge the phone at full speed with the charger that came with it, don't worry about it: it'll likely make little noticeable difference...
...though, that said, I've definitely noticed a difference when I've done it. Yes, it'll mean that when you slow-charge, it'll take longer; and so you should obviously only slow-charge overnight, while you're sleeping, and there's enough time to fully charge even if the battery, when you plugged the charger into the phone when you went to bed, was nearly dead. During the day, though, when time is likely of the essence when/if you do an interim charge, then, yes, of course, use the charger that came with the phone and charge, therefore, at full speed. I'm just saying that if you can get away with overnight slow charges, then by all means try it. You might actually notice a difference.
CONCLUSION: It's late, as I write this, and I'm tired... so I can't help feeling like I left something out. Maybe I'll be more clear-headed in the morning. Gonna' go, now, and plug my Note II into its slow charger, and go to bed.
Hope that helps!
That was the longest post in history, but anyways I don't see how an app that hasn't been updated in two years could possibly be beneficial to this phone.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4 Beta
That post was way too long...and, therefore, I didn't even bother to read it. Can anyone summarize it in an appropriate (concise) paragraph or 3?
Not rooted, Stock rom, just Awesome (NSA)
Not rooted, Stock rom, just Awesome (NSA)
- Apr 17, 2012
- 32,273
- 23
- 38
msndrstood
Well-known member
- Oct 2, 2011
- 1,618
- 7
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Juice defender has not updated in two years! This app has zero benefits to the htc one plain and simple. The last time it was updated was when gingerbread was the OS.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Anyone try GreenPower on the HTC One? That one seems to stay up to date. However, is such an app even necessary with the HTC power saver mode?
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
I really don't think any of these apps are needed with a JB base system. They use more resources then they are saving trying to control other apps. I'm running a rooted system with a custom kernel running at 1836 mhz. And I still can get quite a bit of battery life without having to use any of those battery apps.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4
Been using Snapdragon BatteryGuru for a while and am very happy with it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xiam.snapdragon.app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xiam.snapdragon.app
Is there any way to keep the Whatsapp On in the Juice Defender or Deep Sleep Battery. It tried to see that in Custom profile but didn't find such an option.
Sent from my GSIII
Sent from my GSIII
Can someone please confirm whether or not juice defender is still being developed?
The same sent directly to the developers have never been answered.
The same sent directly to the developers have never been answered.
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