A major weakness of the Froyo distro of the Android is that it lacks a proper battery indicator. The official Froyo OS that I upgraded my Cherry Mobile Nova to, and the stock Eclair OS that it came with, out of the box, both had battery indicators that didn't indicate how much of the battery was still left. All you saw was just this generic battery icon that leaves no clue as to how long you have till you need to connect your Android to the AC Power supply. And given that the Android is a power guzzler, this is an annoying feature, or lack of it.
Enter the Battery Indicator.
While there is a whole genre of apps dedicated to battery indicators alone, I didn't want to just randomly try and install a few apps then decide which to keep. After having my time with Battery Booster, I knew what I needed:
- Light resource usage
- "Thin" filesize footprint
- Pretty, clean looks
I found it in Battery Indicator by Darshan Computing, LLC.
- Its resource usage: I didn't even feel it.
- Its (actual) filesize: 512kb
- Its looks: simple, clean, "pretty"
It was the perfect indicator of how long I had until I needed to dig up my charger and plug my Cherry Mobile Nova back into the juice source.
Why was it perfect? Because it was simple, it didn't feel like it even ate any resource, and it was small enough to help keep my phone's internal storage at its happy 28MB to 35MB of late.
Though I deleted it today because I noticed that Firetrap Lollipop actually came with a battery indicator already. So no need for this one. Although the battery indicator on Firetrap Lollipop looks awful, just seeing the percentage of "juice" left right there is good enough for me.
All in all, if you're not going to root your Android and your battery indicator is the same generic useless non-indicating icon that I experienced, then this is the app to download.
Enjoy!
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Photo Credits: Battery Indicator Android Market Page
Yesterday, we discussed how the Android needs for you to use battery saver and task killer applications. We discussed great multi-function app killer and battery saving apps in the previous post. Most apps available for the Android are standalone, however, so it takes a while to bump into good multi-function apps with the specs we discussed yesterday. Most of the time, you have to install and run quite a few apps to get what you need.
For dedicated battery savers and managers, this is what we require of them:
- Connectivity Toggle functions. WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth and other connectivity functions are the biggest resource and battery hogs. If the app has a function to toggle these off when your screen locks, better.
- System Tweak functions. Through the app's interface, you should be able to manage your phone's settings: sound volume, display brightness, as well as connectivity functions. Usually, you have to go to the Settings to tweak this. Your battery saver should let you have an easier time tweaking these settings.
- Status Bar icon. The Android's native battery indicator does not show how much power is left in your battery. Ideally, your battery saver should have a Status Bar icon indicating the percentage of power in your battery.
Battery Booster. This app has all three functions we mentioned. Not only that, it also comes with a great widget which you can use to toggle your phone's bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, brightness, and even set the display light's dimming/shutoff delay. The Android's native Power Control dock/toolbar/widget only has the WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sync and backlight brightness buttons. If you can live without having a Sync button on your home screen and would find a backlight delay timer toggle more helpful, then we recommend you replace the native Power Control bar.
Aside from Battery Booster, no other app has all the functions we required. Most of the battery managers are similar to the apps we featured yesterday. If the apps are not like that, they have simple controls for their settings tweaks that we wonder if the developers should have put more effort to developing their apps. It seems as if the apps are but mere frontends to the Settings area that comes built into Androids.
Only one other battery-saving App is worth installing on your Android: the ShutUpBatterySaver. Its only function is to schedule AutoSync during intervals you can set: you can have it turned off every hour, 2 hours, 5 hours, or at a customized interval. Then you can set the time that AutoSync is turned on for 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and so on. Keeping your phone's Sync actions will help save the battery. If you're the type who'd love to get away from your email anyway, this may be a good idea for you. Notifications for your email may come delayed; if you're expecting urgent emails, you can turn ShutUpBatterySaver until you can put up with Sync at set intervals (ergo email notifications coming in delayed).
These are the only battery-saving apps worth installing, in our opinion. If you want to know what the Android Community thinks, however, here's a note about more famous battery-management apps.
Smartphones are power-mad devices. Well, not exactly power-mad. Rather, smartphones are power-sapping gadgets. With the exception of the Blackberry and the iPhone, most other smartphones sap batteries quickly. And some models of the Android are not an exception.
Android, being an Open Source platform, will have differences across devices, depending on how the manufacturers decided to implement the OS. Thus, if you've noticed that the Android you purchased seems to be draining too quickly, maybe it's time to find battery-saving apps.
Aside from battery savers, a good practice for the Android would be to keep Task Killers. A Task Killer is an app that will allow you to force applications to shut down. This not only saves your battery life, it also frees up CPU and memory usage, making your Android faster to use.
If there are a few functions that an Android user has to look out for in a good batt-saving, task-management app, it should be:
- Task Killer function, to free up resources.
- Autokill function, to regularly schedule task-killing.
- Startup Manager, to kill apps upon startup. Most Android apps turn on upon the gadget's startup, so you'd have to set an autokill for the phone's startup.
- One-click task kill or resource-boost widget.
These are the apps we highly recommend for task-killing and battery-saving:
Android Assistant. It has a Startup Manager, task killer, and you may tweak your phone's performance settings using this. You can also give your phone a "quick boost" through its widget or "Quick Boost" button, which you can mount on one of your home screens. With one click, you can free up your phone's resources. The startup manager will let you set the app to kill other apps that startup automatically on login. It also has a Cache Cleaner, System Cleaner, Batch Uninstall function, File Manager, and even detailed charts for your battery and resource use. It's a comprehensive app that only has the autokill and the one-click task killing functions missing.
Battery Saver - PowerDefender. This one has a task killer, autokill (lets you schedule a regular "killing" of your apps), as well as lets you tweak your phone's settings to maximize battery life. Don't let the app's theme put you off. It may look a little kitschy, but this app is useful, powerful and does the job, too. It also comes with a cute one-click-to-kill-power-sapping-apps widget. Taking up only 939kb, if you don't particularly care about having your apps killed on startup, this will suffice.
Battery Dr Saver (+Task Killer). It has a beautiful interface and interesting, practical battery use graphs. Instead of just giving you percentages of what's left on your phone's battery, the Battery Dr. Saver gives you the time you have left if you listen to music, use WiFi, 3G, and other processes. And it has a task-killing widget as well. The only thing missing is the startup manager function.
There are other task killers and battery savers out there, but these are the apps that we've seen that pack more power into its punch, so to speak. When we come across one "super app" that has everything: Task Killer, Autokill, Startup Manager, one-click widgets, you'll be the first to know!
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