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How to allow user to use my app?

Android App for battery usage/management for older, non-technical user

  • I'm helping an older gentleman get going with his first smart phone. He is traveling without a car, camping without power, battery consumption management on the phone is CRITICAL. The app needs to FIRST be simple to setup and use, second allow him to easily see what is using the battery, and third have tools to kill wasteful usage. Free would be nice, but willing to pay for a SIMPLE app that does what he needs without confusing him with bells and whistles. He is traveling without a car, camping without power. He has a solar charger which he uses when camped, but not while moving. The solar charger has a battery pack. He can charge the phone from either the solar charger or battery pack. But it's not a fast process, therefore it's critical that he can properly manage battery consumption on the phone. He is using PDANet to tether via wifi his table to the phone and from there to the internet, so he can use the larger screen on the tablet to read and type. (Remember, he's an older gentleman, reading small type is difficult, and he's not a great typist so needs the largest keyboard.) Needs a simple way to both shut off wifi and kill PDANet when he's done using them, to prevent unnecessary battery drain. Secondary to the battery management app, is there a single "kill wifi" app we can put on his home screen? He does not need the standard "day and night" options because unlike a typical user who will plug in their phone to charge at night, that's not how he works. Programming a custom option to work with his different lifestyle is beyond his capabilities, what he needs is a way to just launch the app, see what's excessively using his battery, and kill it. Ideally the battery management software will run in a cumulative fashion so it records battery usage over time even when he totally shuts the phone off (when he's not using it, to save power). Otherwise he won't really be able to gather long-term usage info to help him manage his battery usage. Key criteria: Android Battery Management SIMPLE Free or low cost Ideally having cumulative data records. (Please avoid talking about places he can stop and charge the phone (e.g. Starbucks) - he knows how to do that but it doesn't work when he's out in the wilderness. Obviously the phone won't work in the wilderness when he's out of cell range, but he will be IN cell range off-and on and needs to be able use the phone without needing to find AC power to charge things. With proper battery reporting and application killing tools he should be fine.)

  • Answer:

    Second, considering the main use is tethering, well, that's a serious battery drain, and I think your friend might be very happy with an external battery. The ones designed for tablets are around $60, available at places like Staples and Office Max, connect via usb, and can recharge a smartphone three to four times (or make it run for a long time).

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Turn off all things that aren't necessary. I have a smartphone that I could get away with charging only once every 3 days because I do this. The main things to look for are the data connection - wifi, 3G, bluetooth, GPS, etc - and things that run in the background. If he's not using a data connection, then it doesn't need to be on. I think Android comes with a widget that runs on the home screen and will show you what data connections are turned on and let you press a button to turn them off. Quickpanel comes with one if not. A little box on the home screen lights up when the data connection is enabled, which you can press to turn it on and off. I only turn on 3G or wifi when I absolutely need them. If he has a cable, he might be able to use a physical tether. I don't know whether this uses less battery or not, but it might be worth testing. The only things that are actually running and consuming battery in the background on my phone are Settings, My Data Manager and Android Keyboard. My sister has a similar phone and has various Google bits and bobs, Twitter, Facebook, Outlook, etc, running. All of these are consuming battery energy, something that she often complains about. The less RAM that is used the better, as keeping things in RAM uses up energy. If his phone is rooted, you can use apps like App Quarantine to temporarily disable various things. Tick a box, press the padlock and things are prevented from running until you enable them again, by the same process. If he doesn't need Google Backup running while he's out in the sticks, disable it before he goes. He can have everything running like normal when he gets back in just a few key presses, but while he's out there most things can be disabled. Might be worth doing this before he goes, in case he disables something necessary by accident and then can't get the phone to connect. Another thing to consider is the screen brightness. If he's just using this phone as a tether, could he handle having the brightness turned way down? Also, look into how an app gets its data for battery usage. If it's just reading Android's batterystats.bin, it's not necessarily going to be accurate. Wifi will kill my battery overnight, despite the battery stats saying it used only 7% of the battery. It's obviously using more than that.

Solomon

Another option for providing a little more power: I have one of these http://www.biolitestove.com/campstove/camp-overview/tech-specs/#sub. It weighs about as much as the usual MSR fuel stove and bottle, runs on twigs so you won't run out of fuel, puts out about as much heat as a fuel stove (50g of twigs will boil a litre of water) and it charges phones. I like it a lot.

flabdablet

1. Configure power control widget to show WiFi, BlueTooth, and whatever else he wants to turn on and off. This widget both displays what's on (using power) and allows you to toggle that thing on/off. 2. Put widget on home screen. 3. Done.

zippy

Those things are included in Android automatically. On my phone, I open the settings, select the "battery" choice, and then select Usage and it give me a list of everything that's been using power, and tells me how much. It resets when you charge, however. No long term data. But for any app except basic functionality, there's also a control allowing you to enter configuration for that app (which includes the ability to shut it off).

Chocolate Pickle

If this is a critical safety issue, I would get him a second battery, charge it and have him take it with him. Two apps I have are Battery Doctor by KS MObile and Easy Battery Saver by 2easyteam

JohnnyGunn

http://www.juicedefender.com/ - the free version has ads and isn't as customizable as the "ultimate" version, which is about $5 USD. It goes above and beyond the built in stuff mentioned above by turning network connectivity on/off on a timer. To the apps, it looks like the phone is roaming in and out of network range; some apps deal with this more gracefully than others.

kovacs

You might want to look into a PowerPot which uses heat to charge electronics as you cook. They run around $150 and work with any stove or campfire. They charge faster than solar.

fshgrl

A "power bank", such as http://www.yoobao.com/en/product.asp?lgy_b=143 which I have, might help. I can get 3 full phone charges out of it on my HTC One, and I have one of the low-end power bank models. It's great. It has USB power in and out, so I can charge my phone at the same time I'm charging my re-charger.

Diag

Instead of or in addition to the battery pack, consider extra batteries. They're surprisingly cheap for most phones. Buy them, charge them up, then go to town.

Mo Nickels

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