Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
curity measure, right? If not, you should have a read through the Android
Access Protection section.
Problematic Applications
Although some apps like games drain your battery pretty fast while you have them active,
the majority of applications are written so that when they take a minimal amount of system
resources while they're not in use. A typical app might have a background service that re-
ceives signals from Android or an online server to information the user with a notification
but that's about it. If you think that an app itself is draining your battery then you can check
the list below the battery history chart on the battery screen. If you do run into something
high on the list, then you might want to consider uninstalling that app and switching to an
alternative.
Disabling Features for Battery
Very rarely would you ever need to go as far as to disabling core features to save battery
life, but it's possible to hit a few areas in this regard.
•
Wi-Fi
- While enabled, your phone will be searching around for WiFi net-
works constantly whether they do or do not exist. The act of receiving data
from other sources takes up a good chunk of power. It would be a pretty
crafty idea to turn it off if you were going to a wilderness hike where there
is no WiFi and every battery % counts.
•
Bluetooth
- Some people really like to use Bluetooth but others don't bother
with it. If you need the power or fit the 2
nd
camp, then you can toggle
Bluetooth off to help.
•
Location
- As I briefly mentioned in the talk on location settings, having
GPS, WiFi, or Mobile Networks try to pinpoint your location all the time
does hit your battery life. You can turn this off to help with battery life.
•
Account Syncing
- Android is a very convenient OS and can grab data like
your emails and contact lists very easily once you tie in your accounts like
Google, Skype, and Facebook. If you disable some of the unneeded or un-
wanted synchronizing between your phone and your online accounts then
they'll be less background processing for your phone to do. You can find and
