Develop Bugs

SMS-like or SMS replacement software options

My wife and I both now have WM phones (mine is a Tilt 2, hers a Pure) and we don't want to spend money on text messages to each other, since each text message would count twice... once for her receiving and once for me sending. (on a pay per use plan it would be $0.40 each!).
I was looking for other options. Push email is o.k. but often times there can be a minute or more delay, and my early tests of push gmail are not producing any confidence that it would push reliably.
So then I was thinking IM. It looks like IM programs would be battery hogs, and have to stay running in the background, and could easily be accidentally closed. Also, when the phone goes to sleep it seems like they then switch you to "offline".
So am I missing something? What are my sms like, non sms options?
Also does anyone have any small programs that would set up a auto-soft reset on a repeating schedule, it would be great if I could start the morning with a fresh phone. Thanks.

boufa said:
My wife and I both now have WM phones (mine is a Tilt 2, hers a Pure) and we don't want to spend money on text messages to each other, since each text message would count twice... once for her receiving and once for me sending. (on a pay per use plan it would be $0.40 each!).
I was looking for other options. Push email is o.k. but often times there can be a minute or more delay, and my early tests of push gmail are not producing any confidence that it would push reliably.
So then I was thinking IM. It looks like IM programs would be battery hogs, and have to stay running in the background, and could easily be accidentally closed. Also, when the phone goes to sleep it seems like they then switch you to "offline".
So am I missing something? What are my sms like, non sms options?
Also does anyone have any small programs that would set up a auto-soft reset on a repeating schedule, it would be great if I could start the morning with a fresh phone. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, any non-sms messaging app for your phone would obviously use data (3G or EDGE connection) to communicate, and would need to be left on all the time to be able to receive incoming messages and notify you in real-time...so battery drain would be in direct proportion to that.
The best solution I've ever seen for that is Palringo, a free IM-integrator app that can connect you through most of the common IM networks (yahoo, AIM, Google talk, etc), or just direct through it's own (if I remember correctly)...meaning that as long as you and she both have the palringo client installed, you don't necessarily have to use any of those services to be able to IM each other. It's also free, and I seem to recall that it can be set (but isn't by default) to stay connected even when the phone goes to sleep, but don't quote me on that part.

It would be great if one of these programs had a "listening" service that would run in the background and then notify you of the "call" similar to an email.
I have seen a few online, (my research has just begun) that indicates "push notifications". Sound interesting, the data connection would remain active all the time that does not bother me.
I seem to have lost the setting to switch the "x" button from close to minimize. That would solve the issue with accidental closing the program. It would have to be managed via the task manager.. no biggy.. and then if I can find a soft reset scheduler it would keep the open programs from overwhelming the phone.

boufa said:
It would be great if one of these programs had a "listening" service that would run in the background and then notify you of the "call" similar to an email.
I have seen a few online, (my research has just begun) that indicates "push notifications". Sound interesting, the data connection would remain active all the time that does not bother me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you'll find one, please let me know
lost the setting to switch the "x" button from close to minimize.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's the other way around. default for winmo is minimize, there is
an htc bundled app called taskman. it's in settings - task manager which is making apps close when you click X
plenty of other apps can change that too
and then if I can find a soft reset scheduler it would keep the open programs from overwhelming the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i made myself app doing change on backlight settings every morning and evening, I changed it for you to do reset
give it a try tell me if it's working for you and if error will pop up let me know what's it saying, at least line number

Solution to "Android OS" consuming battery

Ok its been pointed out that "solution" is a poor choice of words but rather I have pinpointed the culprit mmaking android os drain the battery. I would like to first start off by saying that the reasn I chose to make a new thread was because the "Android OS" consuming battery thread is pretty much all over the place. Its not very informative if this bug is plaguing your battery life. Way too much random talk about wifi and other things. I dont think I saw one mention of adb or a logcat in that thread. No one is really doing any testing and sharing information so that we can get to the bottom of this. I would prefer if this thread was more informative where you posted what you did and what the result was. Mods if you feel as if my post should be in that thread then so be it. Enough with my rant here goes.
The problem I have found is that something in the google account is making the suspend function go bonkers. When the phone attempts to sleep it ends up spiking the cpu pretty hard for a good amount of time too. This is why some of us are not getting the phenominal battery life others are boasting about. The temporary solution I have found is to do a reset and not put any google account information in. This is why when some people have reported they did a reset and they still have the problem that its still there. Dont use your gmail. I know I know... the solution kind of sucks but its temporary until a real fix can be pin pointed. I am trying to get to the bottom of this as fast as I can. Thanks to Sprints new return policy I would like to do so as fast as possible. I have tested this on 3 phones so far. On all of them I did a reset, and then only installed the amazon appstore and watchdog. The amazon appstore was so that I could get watchdog. No cpu spikes alerted by watchdog on any of the 3 phones for the whole day. At the end of the day I added the gmail account that the user had been using to one of the phones and watchdog began to alert shortly after the screen timeout kicked in when the phone was attempting to sleep. Reset the phone again without adding a gmail account and the problem was gone again. Yesterday I began gradually installing other apps that I use day to day to continue my testing such as maildroid, twitter, etc. I got through the whole day on 1 charge with no problems. I cant remember how long I was on wifi but lets just estimate it was between 4-6 hours. This is with two accounts pushing to maildroid using IMAP idle so it doesnt have to poll a server which is better on battery. The official twitter application also uses push. I also have groupme installed which I use for my business to communicate with team members throughout the day. It is a chat application and it also uses push to send messages. Also I have left all the stock widgets in tact during this whole period of testing. The weather widget is set to refresh at 4 hours i think and the news widget is on manual refresh.
My next steps are trying to figure out why certain gmail accounts making suspend peg the cpu so hard. Today I plan on using one of my backup gmail accounts that doesnt have any contacts or apps purchased. I will be posting my findings later. I do apoligize for being so long winded but I hope this post helps someone out there and helps the community get to the bottom of this bug. Thanks for your time!

You call that a solution? Not put any Google Account information in? Thanks!
/sarcasm

I have a better solution. Don't turn the phone on! I haven't turned my phone on in 3 days and my battery is still fully charged! It's amazing!

Don't troll people least he is tryng
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

Lol glad to see my efforts are so well recieved... Ive pinpointed the problem. Maybe you can find the solution yourselves.

Ill admit the "solution" defeats the whole purpose of these phones however at least it kinda narrows down the problem and can possibly help work towards a solution.
Im not going to remove my google account but instead I mail turn off mail sync and contacts sync and see how that goes for a day.

clamknuckle said:
I have a better solution. Don't turn the phone on! I haven't turned my phone on in 3 days and my battery is still fully charged! It's amazing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please post pics

As another poster said, no need troll. He pinpointed the problem for us. Thanks op.

You can set up the built-in email client to still sync your google email. You just will get your email through the email client rather than through the gmail app. You will also not be able to download apps, but you will at least be able to check your gmail.

gall0249 said:
Please post pics
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope to god this was a joke otherwise I demand some form of an IQ test before being allowed membership here

Thanks for the testing and post OP, personally I would rather deal with worse battey life until a better fix is discovered, but I appreciate your time.
Sent from my Galaxy Tab 10.1

clamknuckle said:
I have a better solution. Don't turn the phone on! I haven't turned my phone on in 3 days and my battery is still fully charged! It's amazing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works for me. Lol
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I run mine @ 1.6ghz performance. Here's a better solution, invest in a backup battery =)
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Yeah I'm going to troll a thread like this everytime.
It's not a "solution" it's a "work around" A solution to a problem is not stop doing something that is supposed to work. It's fixing the problem so that everything works like it should.

Buying a top of the line smart phone and expecting great battery life, is like buying a Hummer for great gas mileage
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

SAShady said:
Buying a top of the line smart phone and expecting great battery life, is like buying a Hummer for great gas mileage
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One tank of gas can last 3 years in a hummer, just keep the keys in your pocket

Is anyone else trying to figure out what this bug is? While his work round is not that great at least we can find out what is causing the bug and maybe someone can fix it. Thanks op.
The Evo3D Killer!!!

Thanks for this thread!
I am far from being able to provide in depth troubleshooting, but if it helps anyone, here's my progress so far. Two things:
1. Before seeing this thread (without changing anything) I had the phone in airplane mode for about an hour in my pocket and when I checked the battery stats, for the entire time the phone was in airplane mode it was also awake. Screen off.
2. After reading this thread, instead of disabling the Google account, I just un-checked "sync" for everything except gmail in Accounts and Sync (so calendar, contacts, books, etc. doesn't sync unless I manually do it)
After about 2 hours with this setup, android OS battery usage has dropped way down.
Hope this helps someone!

Good grief, you people are so ungrateful it is amazing. The OP is not suggesting you will never be able to set up your Google account. He is trying to narrow down where the problem exists so effort can be focused there rather than other places mentioned like WiFi. This thread is for us to work together to find a solution.

MoMatt said:
Thanks for this thread!
I am far from being able to provide in depth troubleshooting, but if it helps anyone, here's my progress so far. Two things:
1. Before seeing this thread (without changing anything) I had the phone in airplane mode for about an hour in my pocket and when I checked the battery stats, for the entire time the phone was in airplane mode it was also awake. Screen off.
2. After reading this thread, instead of disabling the Google account, I just un-checked "sync" for everything except gmail in Accounts and Sync (so calendar, contacts, books, etc. doesn't sync unless I manually do it)
After about 2 hours with this setup, android OS battery usage has dropped way down.
Hope this helps someone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worked for me. I also re-enabled all of the syncs on google account and the problem has not returned, yet.

[Q] Twitter app

My twitter app settings has a minimum of 5 minutes sync interval, why can't it be instant? Why would anyone set it to say 1 hour. They would miss the opportunity to reply in good time.
Is there a way to edit this setting and give a new value of 0?

aaaaaaahhhhhhhh said:
My twitter app settings has a minimum of 5 minutes sync interval, why can't it be instant? Why would anyone set it to say 1 hour. They would miss the opportunity to reply in good time.
Is there a way to edit this setting and give a new value of 0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny you asked that because I have my sync disabled. I wanna save my battery and make it last through the day. If people want me to reply in good time, they should send me a text message or better yet call me and not tweet a message to me. Besides that, if I have a limited data plan, every minute of refresh would mean data usage...

I only have my sync on when I'm at home and my wireless is on. If only tweeting was instant like txt messaging.
I'm looking at twitter in root explorer to see if there's anything I can change.

Facebook contact sync, battery hog?

Hello everyone
I thought i should share what i just discovered. I disabled the syncing of facebook contacts, and my battery usage seems to have dropped significantly.
I have deactivated the autosync and notifications in the facebook app ages ago. The only change now was that in "Accounts and sync".
The first ~8h of my battery history is during the night (see attached screenshots)

Probably because Facebook sync doesn't work with ICS. I would be asking to snyc and continually failing.

I would recommend using this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/...axsync&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd
It also syncs at a much higher resolution.

Just from that picture, it looks like your phone was holding wakelocks like crazy until you made your change. Was that the only change you made? Do you have better batter stats installed?
I'm on AOKP b31 with facebook sync enabled and I definitely don't see that kind of behavior. As of right now my facebook sync has held a wakelock for 70 seconds for the past 12 hours (push notifications working via the blackberry trick, notification updates set to never). Are you on a different ROM that might have a different method of enabling fb contact sync? I know AOKP's trick was turned down by a number of other devs but I forget what the exact reason was, might have been that it opens a potential security hole.

RTContent said:
I would recommend using this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/...axsync&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd
It also syncs at a much higher resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always +1 Haxsync, its a great app! However, afaik it does not sync contact phone numbers, only contact pictures.

WiredPirate said:
I always +1 Haxsync, its a great app! However, afaik it does not sync contact phone numbers, only contact pictures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haxsync syncs my phone numbers ...
you shouldn't use contacts sync that have been hacked into roms because it makes your contacts unsecured that's why google and other roms like CM9 and Buggless Beast won't implement this feature ... fb needs to update its apis to allow secure native contact syncing

blowtorch said:
haxsync syncs my phone numbers ...
you shouldn't use contacts sync that have been hacked into roms because it makes your contacts unsecured that's why google and other roms like CM9 and Buggless Beast won't implement this feature ... fb needs to update its apis to allow secure native contact syncing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So haxsync will add the phone # of your FB friends that you don't have on your phone?
For me it just syncs the profile pic and their latest status. It doesn't seem to pull any more data like their phone numbers that they posted on their profile.

Haxsync doesn't sync fb phone numbers for me either. I remember reading somewhere that phone numbers weren't available to any 3rd party apps via facebook. .... and I just removed my facebook sync account and all the numbers I only had via facebook disappeared with it.
I use both haxsync and facebook contact sync because some of my friends have 3rd party app access turned off in their facebook settings, which blocks haxsync from syncing their picture. Can't blame 'em, but it's annoying that the official fb app works this way and the only reason haxsync(which does just about everything better) can't is because it's 3rd party.

that looks like
1) you seem to be losing signal very often (red parts in the signal graph) so apparently you are affected by the signal bug in 4.0.4 and that potentially affects battery life
2) all signal is lost from a certain point midway through (as if airplane mode was enabled) so the battery use went down
so, facebook sync is probably unrelated to what you're seeing

spamlucal said:
that looks like
1) you seem to be losing signal very often (red parts in the signal graph) so apparently you are affected by the signal bug in 4.0.4 and that potentially affects battery life
2) all signal is lost from a certain point midway through (as if airplane mode was enabled) so the battery use went down
so, facebook sync is probably unrelated to what you're seeing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hah, funny what things get your attention and which things slip by. I can't believe I looked at that picture and didn't process that aspect of it.

spamlucal said:
that looks like
1) you seem to be losing signal very often (red parts in the signal graph) so apparently you are affected by the signal bug in 4.0.4 and that potentially affects battery life
2) all signal is lost from a certain point midway through (as if airplane mode was enabled) so the battery use went down
so, facebook sync is probably unrelated to what you're seeing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, i thought it looked strange in the graph, but i had no problems using 3g, sending/receiving sms or calls during the whole day. I figured the graph just messed up or something.
The extremely frequent wakelocks are probably the reason to why i have to recharge my phone every 24-36h, but i thought it was the notorious bad battery of the galaxy nexus.
I've bought better battery stats now following JoeSyr's advice, hopefully i'll get to the bottom of what is causing my frequent wakelocks.
2 min later:
Seems like its RILJ who is responsible for the wakelocks, 6861 in 13h.. A new rom, radio and kernel might be in order

Push Notification: what is it? usefulness and battery impact?

Hi,
My daughter said that she prefers to avoid Viber because it uses push notification. Which she said will consume more battery. I was puzzled and wanted to lookup further on push notification. But most what I found was related to development. Can you please help me to clarify?
Q1- What is push notification?
Q2- When is push notification required (or become useful)?
Q3- Is it true that increase battery usage and why?
Thanks for any help.

2LoT said:
Hi,
I have suggested my daughter to install Viber on her iPhone 3GS. She said that she prefers to avoid because Viber uses push notification. Which she said will consume more battery. I was puzzled and wanted to lookup further on push notification. But most what I found was related to development. Can you please help me to clarify?
Q1- What is push notification?
Q2- When is push notification required (or become useful)?
Q3- Is it true that increase battery usage and why?
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I remember correctly, It was basically a sync system. It syncs any new emails, notifications etc. Like the android sync system. But called push notification
Your wifi usage or data is almost "on" for it to work. So it's useful imo but also a battery hog.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_technology
So, if you would recieve 2 emails per day, the server initiates a push 2 times that day. Compared to having your phone constantly polling the mail server for new mail every hour or 30 minutes, what sounds more battery friendly?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

2LoT said:
Q1- What is push notification?
Q2- When is push notification required (or become useful)?
Q3- Is it true that increase battery usage and why?
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, why are you asking in the Galaxy Nexus forum about push notifications on the iPhone 3GS?
Push notification means that as soon as a message or data is available, its "pushed" to the device, rather than being "synced" on a timer interval. It uses more battery often because there's more data being transfered and the app needs to have a service running at all times to receive push notifications. It depends on the app and how its managed though. It can be more efficient than a frequent polling sync interval.
Push is useful for important email, messaging applications, and other apps that have time sensitive data. (Just think about it...)
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

2LoT said:
Which she said will consume more battery. I was puzzled and wanted to lookup further on push notification.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Er.. no. Pushing uses less battery. The service provider just needs to "wake up" the respective background process and send the push to it. In contrast, with a pull, the background process has to wake up and send data everytime it wants to poll the server. And then it has to stay awake long enough to receive a response back, which is what it would've had to do anyway in a push.
(True, if you set polling for once a week, it might save more battery, but that kinda defeats the purpose of all this.)
Warning: the above contents are complete BS that I made up 5 minutes ago.

Warning: the above contents are complete BS that I made up 5 minutes ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am lost, did you mean I should discard your reply? Well, as your ranking is "Senior Member", I assume that you know what you are talking. So I hope your reply was not a joke, so let continue.
thebobp said:
Er.. no. Pushing uses less battery. The service provider just needs to "wake up" the respective background process and send the push to it. In contrast, with a pull, the background process has to wake up and send data everytime it wants to poll the server. And then it has to stay awake long enough to receive a response back, which is what it would've had to do anyway in a push.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If so, can you make sense of this support page which advises to disable push notification to save battery
http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/667853/3
Excerpted here the related paragraph:
Turn off Push Notifications – Apple
Some applications from the App Store use the Apple Push Notification service to alert you of new data. Applications that rely on push notifications may impact battery performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could "Push Notifications" has a different meaning in an iOS?

Because disabling any data based notifications, push or otherwise will save battery, bug the above is true. Push notifications will use less battery than a pull/sync. It can depend on a few things, though, like how many notifications get pushed, how often, and whether with those two factors if the app is set to push for every new notification, or groups them together periodically.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

2LoT said:
If so, can you make sense of this support page which advises to disable push notification to save battery
http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/667853/3
Excerpted here the related paragraph:
Could "Push Notifications" has a different meaning in an iOS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disabling push notifications from the general settings menu of an iPhone disables the notifications completely. The app will no longer give you notifications unless you enter the app or setup a sync interval (if the app supports it). That's why it'll save battery. You can universally across the entire OS turn off notifications for specific apps, groups of apps, or all apps.
This again quickly highlights the point though: Why is this thread about an iPhone 3GS and notifications in iOS in a Galaxy Nexus forum?
Might I recommend one of the hundreds of iPhone forums? You'll surely get better answers there from people who actually use the device. Seriously.

2LoT said:
I am lost, did you mean I should discard your reply? Well, as your ranking is "Senior Member", I assume that you know what you are talking. So I hope your reply was not a joke, so let continue.
If so, can you make sense of this support page which advises to disable push notification to save battery
http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/667853/3
Excerpted here the related paragraph:
Could "Push Notifications" has a different meaning in an iOS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Push is push. But when you are comparing push notifications against having no nofitications at all, then yes push notifictions will take some battery.

IMAP IDLE (push) protocol requires your phone re-establish IDLE connection to server at regular interval (usually < 30 minutes) before server time-out and terminates the IDLE connection. Eg. K9 email client refresh IDLE connection at 20-minute intervals.
If you have lots of emails, not sure if battery use is better. Difference with Sync is that you get email notification right away with Push.

With all due respect,
You have the terms wrong.
In android 2.2 and up to 4.0.x the push notification system is called C2DM (Cloud to Device Messaging). It's a protocol where a server sends a notification to the device and can wake the app it's meant to. It saves a LOT battery because the app doesn't need to poll anything. In fact, the app doesn't need to be running, only the google services framework needs to be running in background and it will wake the app, thus, saving battery.
In Jelly Bean, the system is now called GCM (Google cloud messaging).
For iOS users the system is very similar and apple handles those notifications.
In conclusion, push notifications save a lot of battery because the app doesn't need to be running and no polling period is needed. Also is faster: if you receive an email, you'll be able to see it right away and don't wait for the next server poll. The same happens with the twitter for android app and even Whatsapp.
In iOS something curious happen. In the iDevices, WiFi turns off few moments after the screen is off, and those push notifications are handled by the carriers data connection. In my case, I find that using my carrier's data instead of wifi, consumes more power because my cell signal quality is very poor in my country and a wifi connection is more stable, thus, I get a better battery life with WiFi always on. Maybe that's why on iOS devices the Push notifications are more power hungry.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Cloud_to_Device_Messaging_Service and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_technology
Cheers!