Smart Action/Battery Tips

[ddfuji]

Thanks ddfuji. Might you answer another question?
I want to connect ny xoom via bluetooth my unlimited data Razr. When I had a Dorid X, I had to put the phone in airplane mode. When it was paired and connected, I got a big bluetooth icon. When I tried this with my Razr, it WON'T connect in airplane mode and while it connects to the internet I'm afraid its using the xoom data plan (yes I have one and I thought using the airplane mode was what turned that off). Their is no big bluetooth icon which makes me suspect it's running off the xoom data plan. Any thoughts?

ooooooooooo thats a toughy. i dont feel comfortable answering that cause i dont know all that much about bluetooth. but if the xoom is in airplane mode it shouldn't be using its data. airplane modes suspends many of the device's signal transmitting functions, except Bluetooth, gps, and WIFI. unless the airplane mode is broken then it should be getting the data from the razr. i dont know anything about the Bluetooth icon cause i rarely use bluetooth. maybe check the forums for others doing this or having this similar situation. or try it on a laptop with Bluetooth maybe.

 

[ddfuji]

Apps in memory are not the same as apps using up processor resources. This is a Linux device, not Windows; the same rules don't apply.

If an app is sitting in memory, it's not necessarily taking up any resources/battery. If you kill such an app and it starts back up, though, you're definitely using up processor and battery resources. It's best to let sleeping apps lie.

Sliced from my RAZR

that makes sense. but thats only if the application is designed to auto restart correct?

 

[NoBloatware]

that makes sense. but thats only if the application is designed to auto restart correct?

Correct, and many of the stock apps/bloatware apps do restart so if you auto-kill tasks it is very easy to set up something that actually wastes resources.

As for other tasks that do not restart, there is no reason to auto-kill those as Android will do this by itself when needed. Idle tasks sitting in memory are not using resources so having some auto-killing app running in the background to kill apps is wasting resources. The exception to this would be a poorly designed app that starts a service that uses resources without benefit to the user. For example, an app that phones home with your location every 10 minutes for marketing purposes. But in this case, the best solution is to uninstall the app--not to use an auto-killer.

Experiment with and without auto-killing tasks. That's the only way to find out what is best for you. I suggest that the ideal solution is not to auto-kill apps, but to uninstall crap apps that you've installed.

 

[michelle4439]

Thanks ddfuji.....
I appreciate all of your help. Before your help i could only get about four hours out of my battery. It is up to like six now. I know it will get better with some use of my smart actions. i have not even tried it yet. I have only been using the stock task manager, I don't know alot about the smart actions. I am going to do some research. Thanks again for your help.

 

[mtnvictory69]

Always trying to get more battery. The only smart action i currently have on my razr is when my home wifi or campus wifi is detected, data is disabled.

What else are people using that has produced beneficial results on the battery? I have been thinking about setting up time frames (ie 1215-3, 315-6, 615-9 etc) and having these timeframes be triggers (along with display off) to shut off the data. essentially allowing my data to be on only 15 min every few hours to sync. have people tried this with success? just unsure how quickly the data will be able to turn back on and sync stuff and if this really makes a difference.

Thanks for any input!

Awesome, so how did you create the smart action to disable your data when connected to WiFi? I am new to Droid phones.

 

[ddfuji]

Thanks ddfuji.....
I appreciate all of your help. Before your help i could only get about four hours out of my battery. It is up to like six now. I know it will get better with some use of my smart actions. i have not even tried it yet. I have only been using the stock task manager, I don't know alot about the smart actions. I am going to do some research. Thanks again for your help.

Your welcome. You will get more as you manage your usage more wisely. I get 11 with music streaming almost the whole time.

The smart actions is pretty user friendly. I found it easy to use.

Best of luck

Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

 

[ddfuji]

Awesome, so how did you create the smart action to disable your data when connected to WiFi? I am new to Droid phones.

So open smart actions, hit the green + button to add a new action. Then choose start from scratch. In the trigger category hit the + and add "wifi connection", its towards the buttom, for me it showed a list of all networks that I have connected to. Select the networks you want this action to apply to. If you want it to apply to all wifi connections select all the networks listed. After adding that you will want to go into the actions by hitting the +. Scroll down to button you want to select cellular data. it will pop open a menu with on or off option. Select off. What this makes is. When connected to whatever networks you selected it will turn of cellular data. If you add new networks later on you might have to make these changes in smart actions.

And remember you can't send or receive mms (i.e. picture messaging) when connected to wifi.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums