Develop Bugs

[Q]Coming over from blackberry, what are the first things I should do?

Hey
I am an android noob. I am comng over from a bb 9800 torch. So my question is what should i do first with the phone. I am planning on rooting eventually, probably by next week. Are there any must install apps to install first?
A few things i am not a fan of so far are the lock screen and the keyboard.
Thanks everyone for your help.

Look up SwiftKey X or ICS Keyboard on the market. Both are excellent keyboards if you are not feelin' Swype.

I wasn't a Swype person when I first started, but just give it some time! Its worth it
The lock screen you can change by using an app called "widget locker." But if your going to root you should look into flashing a custom ROM, most of then have options to change the lock screen. Much simpler then having to do it through a constantly running app.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App

The biggest thing I found is that it doesn't support advanced sound profiles out of the box. Also you have to configure notification options from within each app instead of being able to manipulate them all at the same time. If this is at all possible without installing an app then I haven't found it yet. I used to use a 9630 tour. There's a lot more that you'll find different, I'm sure.
Sent from my SGH-T989

mintharis said:
The biggest thing I found is that it doesn't support advanced sound profiles out of the box. Also you have to configure notification options from within each app instead of being able to manipulate them all at the same time. If this is at all possible without installing an app then I haven't found it yet. I used to use a 9630 tour. There's a lot more that you'll find different, I'm sure.
Sent from my SGH-T989
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but that is easily fixed with 3rd party Sound Ringtones/Alert apps from Market, they are all free
gives you much much better control than stock

I am not really planning on installing a new rom yet, so i am going to have to look for a lockscreen app. I'll give widget locker a try and see how it goes.
A few things that i am noticing is that you cant customize alerts and and ringtones easily or at all. I spent 30 mins tryin to find it but couldnt. I guess i'll have to go 3rd party.
Apparently there is no battery indicator for battery level. I was try to find out how much vharge i have left but couldn't. I am assuming i am going to need a 3rd party app for that as well? Any recommendations?
I have read about juice defender. Is it worth the price for the ultimate edition? Juice defender is the app that automatically toggle my wifi, gps, 4g settings for me right?
And lastly i know people sais you can monitor your data usage but i cant find it on the phone. Some help navigating to it would be helpful.
Thanks to everyone for their opinions. Xda is probably one of the better forums for information and help i have been to.

New_here said:
I am not really planning on installing a new rom yet, so i am going to have to look for a lockscreen app. I'll give widget locker a try and see how it goes.
A few things that i am noticing is that you cant customize alerts and and ringtones easily or at all. I spent 30 mins tryin to find it but couldnt. I guess i'll have to go 3rd party.
Apparently there is no battery indicator for battery level. I was try to find out how much vharge i have left but couldn't. I am assuming i am going to need a 3rd party app for that as well? Any recommendations?
I have read about juice defender. Is it worth the price for the ultimate edition? Juice defender is the app that automatically toggle my wifi, gps, 4g settings for me right?
And lastly i know people sais you can monitor your data usage but i cant find it on the phone. Some help navigating to it would be helpful.
Thanks to everyone for their opinions. Xda is probably one of the better forums for information and help i have been to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can easily change custom ringtones when you click on each contact name and scroll down to ringtone and select a file.
Definitely get go launcher and go locker. It's the best homescreen and locker app Imo.
To monitor data usage, use an app like Watchdog dats monitor. Your provider should also have the usage on their website...
I bought juice defender ultimate and i dont regret spending a single cent. I want to squeeze as much juice out of my battery as possible. You could probably try out basic and judge it yourself.
Do you just mean battery charge %? Go to settings, about phone, status. Alternatively you can flash a battery mod so that you have the percentage on the battery icon on the status bar.
You will definitely enjoy android. I came froma blackberry too.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App

Zedge from the market works good for ringtones and such.
I would install go locker and go SMS for a much nicer lock screen and SMS client.
Sent from my SGH-T989D using XDA App

[BATTERY]Tips for better battery life

Here i would be presenting a thread in which i will be talking about how to get the most of your battery on our beautiful phones. It is a fact that at this moment of time battery is not that great on the HOX. But hopefully with the tips that i will present here, shall help people get the max out of their battery till we have some custom kernels drop our way. So without further or do i present a few things that you can do to get the most out of your battery.​​​​
Tips for better battery life​
1) Touch screen sounds and lock screen sounds untick them from Settings-Sound. That causes the audio_out1 wakelock and unfortunately it is here as well on the HOX and drains battery like hell. So untick those so you do not get that massive wakelock
2) If you are using stock rom and have not rooted yet you can use this option to disable bloatware. Go into settings-apps and go into all. There you can select the applications you want to disable. What that does it will not unistall them but freeze them like TB does for rooted phones. It will remove them from the background and from your app screen to. Pretty nice feature if you ask me. Mainly disable your carrier apps and the google ones as well like Play Books, Play Movies and Play Music if you do not use them. Just a small addition to be added thanks to (pnnorth)- If there have been any play store updates to the app, you will need to uninstall the update before it will show the option to disable the app (eg facebook)
3) If you are using Titanium Backup(i always recommend to get the Pro version) you can uninstall those apps or freeze them if you like. For me i personally would uninstall them as they do not have any use for me.
4) If you are at home and you want to browse the net on your phone always make sure you use Wifi. It is a no brainer that wifi drains less battery than 3G. So always have your mobile data in settings as off and just use wifi. When you are out and about though make sure you have wifi off and use your mobile data on your phone instead. Because if you have wifi on as well it will try and scan for the available networks it can pick up and that causes drainage on your battery. Have that off when you go out.
5) Regarding brightness. Make sure you either have it on low settings or auto. It is a fact that if you have max brightness for your display that is a battery killer as well. Settings-display-brightness and just adjust from there.
6) Regarding task killer apps or battery saving apps like Juice Defender i recommend to stay away from those. Those apps consume more battery than they are suppose to be saving. Regarding task killers it is NOT recommended to kill apps because Android does that for you anyway. Just make sure you the application that you use, you always use the back button to exit the app or just go into multitask and swipe it away.
7) If you are rooted make sure you fully charge your phone and then in recovery or from Leedroid tweaks if you are using that make sure you wipe battery stats. That always helps as well.
8) Regarding sync your accounts. Now i have mine on autosync. From reading around having to sync your email account and facebook and twitter and whatever account you have syncing that drains battery. Now you can do two things. One either set the option to have those on manual sync or if you do not use facebook then uninstall it. But to be honest i have everything on autosync and still get good battery so it is down to user preference really. But for those interested go into settings-accounts and sync and adjust to your choosing.
9) Switch to gsm/2g only instead of wcdma/3g in settings >mobile network >Network Mode. Specially if you're not planning to use any 3g internet/mms features. (thanks to Gdelrosario)
10) Try to avoid ad supported apps. A research showed that in apps where there is adds, 70% of the power use comes from downloading and managing those adds to your screen. 30sec use of an app that uses adds, might drain your fully charged battery 0.35%-0.70%. Research link found here (thanks to Tont0)
11) Settings > Developer options > Windows animation scale > "Animation is OFF".
12) Mentioned this above but will re-post here again with a bit more detail. (thanks to AndroidGX) If you have multiple mail accounts, turn off auto-sync feature to refresh them manually. Settings > Accounts & sync > Auto-sync : [UNTICK]
Note: this will works also for any app like Facebook, Twitter, Beautiful Widget, etc..
13) Disabling the options for louder ringtone when inside a pocket and stopping the ringtone when picking up the device might also help. (thanks to Hardstuffmuc)
14) Settings > Wi-Fi > Advanced > Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep : "Only when plugged in". That way wifi will not be on all the time and that means saving bit of juice in the process
LINKS:​
*Link to the thread for BetterBatteryStats is below. Please install that app as it will help you to identify what app consumes your battery when you have screen off.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
*Another great thread to have a look at is the Rom Cleaner by Patrics83. What it does it basically gives you this option : Will remove as much as possible without breaking HTC Sense Launcher and Widgets! This is the best way to come close to a no-sense ROM and still use HTC Sense!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1589949
That is it for now. I will be updating this thread when i come across more battery saving tips. For now if anyone has anymore please post them and i will add them to the OP and give a thanks to you by adding your name next to the tip.

Was going to compile a list of apps that are safe to disable (for non-rooted users) and what to freeze uninstall (for rooted users). But since there is Rom Cleaner thread by Patrics83 as i have stated above you are probably best to go to his thread here where you can use his script and follow the guide on OP. This is script is for rooted users.
There also you can find a list of applications that is safe to disable for all those who are non rooted. Settings-apps and then go into all apps. As pointed out in first post tip 2 first if the application you are trying to disable has been updated first uninstall the updates and then disable the app
That is it for now more will follow

6) Regarding task killer apps or battery saving apps like Juice Defender i recommend to stay away from those. Those apps consume more battery than they are suppose to be saving. Regarding task killers it is NOT recommended to kill apps because Android does that for you anyway. Just make sure you the application that you use, you always use the back button to exit the app or just go into multitask and swipe it away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not a task killer. Also the apps are not aktive in backgraound, they are hibernatet. If you want to kill a task go to task manager.

lokiderelb said:
This is not a task killer. Also the apps are not aktive in backgraound, they are hibernatet. If you want to kill a task go to task manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Juice Defender=Battery Saving App = Not so much of a battery saving app
And Maps, and even facebook are active in the background my friend. by disabling them you are kinda like freezing them anyway. And yes if you read above if you want to kill a task or terminate an app i did mention that you can do that through Task manager. Or even by going into multi tasking app and swiping the one that you do not use anymore exits the app my friend
Trust me i done my research before posting this thread. But i am also open to correcting something if i am wrong.

Just a small addition to point 2) - If there have been any play store updates to the app, you will need to uninstall the update before it will show the option to disable the app (eg facebook)
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

pnnorth said:
Just a small addition to point 2) - If there have been any play store updates to the app, you will need to uninstall the update before it will show the option to disable the app (eg facebook)
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Done added that to the OP. Thanks mate..Hopefully this thread will come to some use to people.

Nice effort. I wouldn't take it as gospel tho'. But plenty to try and see what works for you.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I already made another thread posting this one, but as I noticed there is one where to gather some common tips, I might as well add it here.
Try to avoid ad supported apps. A research showed that in apps where there is adds, 70% of the power use comes from downloading and managing those adds to your screen. 30sec use of an app that uses adds, might drain your fully charged battery 0.35%-0.70%.
Here is the link for the research http://www.androidauthority.com/ad-suported-android-apps-battery-drain-65716/

Very good thread. I tend to do most of what is mentioned anyway. As soon I got the phone I was busy tweaking the settings so that I could get the maximum power out of the battery. I'm not considered a heavy user anyway so it typically lasts 2-3 days.

you can also add to switch to gsm/2g only instead of wcdma/3g in settings >mobile network >Network Mode
specially if you're not planning to use any 3g internet/mms features

Cheers guys...Any tips that we can get i can add them all to the OP so that way we can have one thread which has everything. That way no need for clutter of threads regarding on how to improve battery life people can come here and read and discuss. Thank you guys i really appreciate your help

Added the new tips to the OP. Thanks

Qn: Are all battery saving apps not actually saving battery then? (E.g. Juice Defender)

NoobTerminator said:
7) If you are rooted make sure you fully charge your phone and then in recovery or from Leedroid tweaks if you are using that make sure you wipe battery stats. That always helps as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wiping battery stats is done when reaching 100% charge and holds nothing but the useage of apps and does nothing to calibrate or improve battery life.
heres a quote to back this up.
Deleting this file will basically wipe your battery usage reports, which is done anyways automatically when the phone is fully charged (hence you'll see a clear list when you reach a full charge). "Deleting it is not going to do anything to make your more device more fantastic and wonderful".
http://pocketnow.com/android/deleting-androids-batterystatsbin-wont-grant-more-jiuce

junialum said:
Qn: Are all battery saving apps not actually saving battery then? (E.g. Juice Defender)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i will be honest with you. When i had my galaxy s2 and i had juice defender on that drained more battery than it was suppose to be saving. I could find you posts from users and kernel developers that i know from the s2 forums that advice against it. It is down to you to try and test but from my own testings i would advice against using them

NoobTerminator said:
i will be honest with you. When i had my galaxy s2 and i had juice defender on that drained more battery than it was suppose to be saving. I could find you posts from users and kernel developers that i know from the s2 forums that advice against it. It is down to you to try and test but from my own testings i would advice against using them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. My question was more general. Do you mean that there are no good battery apps?

How can we tel which apps support ads? I keep getting notifications in my status bar from random sites how can I stop that.
Thank you
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA

treebill said:
wiping battery stats is done when reaching 100% charge and holds nothing but the useage of apps and does nothing to calibrate or improve battery life.
heres a quote to back this up.
Deleting this file will basically wipe your battery usage reports, which is done anyways automatically when the phone is fully charged (hence you'll see a clear list when you reach a full charge). "Deleting it is not going to do anything to make your more device more fantastic and wonderful".
http://pocketnow.com/android/deleting-androids-batterystatsbin-wont-grant-more-jiuce
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. You do have a point. but also on the other hand there has been people that saying by wiping battery stats that deletes the battery history makes everything start fresh as you mentioned above. What i am trying to get maybe it works maybe it does not. But one thing i know from my own experience by deleting those battery stats did help a bit on my battery. Hence why i posted that in the OP.
junialum said:
Thanks for the reply. My question was more general. Do you mean that there are no good battery apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like i said mate. In general i have not bothered with battery apps. For me they eat more battery than they are suppose to be saving. If you follow my guide and also search on xda to find more threads like mine most will say that battery apps really do nothing..But it is down to you at the end of the day.

Mzhaze3 said:
How can we tel which apps support ads? I keep getting notifications in my status bar from random sites how can I stop that.
Thank you
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is easy to figure out. Most of the times it will be all the free apps in the market. If you are rooted install ADaway and that will install the hosts on your phone and will block those ads.

I'm not rooted lol
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA

What this means?

Somebody knows what this option means?What if i check this "no background process"?
Tnx
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

Usually the advice is to leave most developer options alone, except usb debugging and show touches, or something like that.

This will cut out any background process like it says... for you it will cut data traffic counters, alarms (maybe), e-mail, any IM clients that you might have and anything that works in the background pretty much.
The positive side is that it will save you LOTS of battery.

BrokenPixel said:
This will cut out any background process like it says... for you it will cut data traffic counters, alarms (maybe), e-mail, any IM clients that you might have and anything that works in the background pretty much.
The positive side is that it will save you LOTS of battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
since it's positive what can i do for makin' it ticked permenantly??

This option was great for older phones that had 512MB ram, but with 2GB of ram, probably best if it is left alone.

BrokenPixel said:
This will cut out any background process like it says... for you it will cut data traffic counters, alarms (maybe), e-mail, any IM clients that you might have and anything that works in the background pretty much.
The positive side is that it will save you LOTS of battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
R U sure it will save battery? From what i know, when d program get kill, and later need to on back when the user want to use it, it will consume more power compare to program that running at background and once u want to on it, it will simply on n not consume much power to restart etc..
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

its up to you which option you want to choose, i have found it very useful. if you run a lot of apps, after quiting the apps it will stay in the memory as a background process. if the 'standard' limit is set your ram can even fall below 200mb. having standard limit will keep the ram and systm busy as well. hence i always go for ' 4 background process', i can easily get up to 1200mb free ram on average and it doesn't affect multitasking..
sent from: designed for humans

sohebq said:
i can easily get up to 1200mb free ram on average and it doesn't affect multitasking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't see the point of this myself - free memory like that is just wasted memory in my experience.
On my Note 1, I'd often find a process had been killed when I switched away for a while and had to wait for it to be reloaded. No such problem on the Note 2 where the process can stay in memory almost indefinitely. I find the Note 2 far more efficient productivity wise because of this.
Yes, it will use slightly more battery, but given the already epic battery life of the Note 2, it's a no brainer in my opinion.
Regards,
Dave

Tnx guys .
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

del
sent from: designed for humans

my battery saver app

Hello,
So I wrote my own battery saver app, which work for me I live in areas with weak signal
Maybe you can try also:
Zombie eat my battery - battery saver

Hi
Thanks for you're work
Any further info on you're app?
Is there an official page etc?
Does it play well with Franco / Greenify / Snapdragon battery guru?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Need more info please

kurtyyyyyy said:
Need more info please
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, me too. Users in Google Play will just download and use it, but here we like to know EVERYTHING!!! lol!

You'll have to give waaaay more info. A "turn me on/off" button and a pic of Mila Jovovich holding a gun won't cut it
And I mean not only here, people that find your app through the Play Store probably won't get interested in installing it due to the lack of information given. It will come across as rather shady to most people tbh
Give the people more info and your app might have a chance of making it!

Hahahaha
The app will turn off mobile data, started a few minutes after screen off. and then try to enable data, in incremental delays.
At night (started 0am), data won't be enabled again until 6am.
If you turn on screen, data will be enabled again.
Snapdragon battery guru: not compatible
Using my app, network location is not required
Greenify: compatible

Are there any plans to add wifi management as well? That would make it a keeper for me perhaps since i dont really get data where i am located. Just lousy E lol
Sent from my Nexus⁴ running latest AK/Faux hybrid kernel

Sounds like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootuninstaller.batrsaver&hl=no, been using that for ages and its great.

KerryWood34 said:
Are there any plans to add wifi management as well? That would make it a keeper for me perhaps since i dont really get data where i am located. Just lousy E lol
Sent from my Nexus⁴ running latest AK/Faux hybrid kernel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think wifi management is better in 4.2, and suck less battery even when connected.
But maybe.. I will add wifi management later

Thanks to happy 1300+ users for using my battery saver app
FYI now there is Ads free version, if you hate ads:
ZEMB Full

Zombie eat my battery Full (ZEMB Full) now support Android 5.0 (Lollipop). But you will need root.
Also many more features.. Check it out: http://goo.gl/LyhDdJ

link updated because violated of the intellectual property

Please check it out:
App updated to Version 1.7
fix: stop foreground app
Android M support: permission and app auto detection for hibernate
New tweak: don't manage data
Hibernate tab: bold: excluded, italic: hibernated
http://goo.gl/CSP2wQ

cosmıc os rom root access program not work root

Snapdragon(TM) BatteryGuru

Anybody tried this app from the appstore?
Would like to know how true is this app.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Friedtofux said:
Anybody tried this app from the appstore?
Would like to know how true is this app.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
used it - froze up my phone , un installed

The reviews on play store are quite mixed, some claim doubling the battery. Others say worsen.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Tried it wasn't impressed. I prefer green power to it.
Sent from my PantechP8010 using xda app-developers app

what this is app does is reduce bakground and hence will help you if you experience unexplained standby drains, once it's done learning your most used apps, it will control background activity sync
so yes you will notice great improvements if you you have lots of accounts draining your standby times

I currently am on day 6 using the app (actual use, its not including the 2 days of hiding in background watching me). Haven't really noticed a huge difference but I probably get another hour or so of battery life.
I think the trial was pretty lame. After it finally got the thing to start, I like how you can block apps from refreshing in the background. The list is not very big however and I am curious as to what other apps do the same thing but have more options.
All in all, I'd give it a thumb up as it is not hurting my phone's performance and a little battery savings
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda app-developers app

I have used this snapdragon app, their is a thread about it somewhere, i removed it as it was giving me thousands wakelocks with the app, i used wakelock detector to see them.
John.

It just blocks apps from syncing if you use your phone auto sync on all the time so it's not like greenify which completely stops background process of a specific app until you open it. If you don't keep auto sync on then it's a waste of time and makes battery even worse.

It's a placebo, don't use it.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

No, it is not a placebo. Yes, it does block apps from syncing in the background. So what? You guys are missing the point.
They are not claiming to possess some magical powers that will double your phone's battery life. The main difference from this app and similar others in the market, is their learning algorithm. It learns from "watching" you use your phone for a couple of days and then controls what is going on in the background to help you save battery without you doing much on your end. It's actually a pretty genius idea. I'm trying it out for the first-time (thanks OP for mentioning this app) and will post back with my results later this week. I'm not expecting wonders, but maybe I'll learn a thing or two about my daily use that I might be able to incorporate into my setups.

I would really appreciate you get back to use with your results, i pulled the plug after a couple of hours because of the high number of wakelocks.
John.
akarol said:
No, it is not a placebo. Yes, it does block apps from syncing in the background. So what? You guys are missing the point.
They are not claiming to possess some magical powers that will double your phone's battery life. The main difference from this app and similar others in the market, is their learning algorithm. It learns from "watching" you use your phone for a couple of days and then controls what is going on in the background to help you save battery without you doing much on your end. It's actually a pretty genius idea. I'm trying it out for the first-time (thanks OP for mentioning this app) and will post back with my results later this week. I'm not expecting wonders, but maybe I'll learn a thing or two about my daily use that I might be able to incorporate into my setups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

No problem. Honestly, people freak out too much about wakelocks. You can have 50 simple events waking your device that will consume 10% of a single wakelock event from another app. Google's new play services that have been announced at I/O are wakelock-fiends, but surprisingly, their effect on battery life is very minimal.
Basically, it's about quality and not quantity of the wakelock that matters.

akarol said:
No problem. Honestly, people freak out too much about wakelocks. You can have 50 simple events waking your device that will consume 10% of a single wakelock event from another app. Google's new play services that have been announced at I/O are wakelock-fiends, but surprisingly, their effect on battery life is very minimal.
Basically, it's about quality and not quantity of the wakelock that matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, 1500 wakelocks but less than two minutes awake time.

It doesn't work. plain.and.simple.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

A rep from HTC told me the battery Guru was bad and would mess up the phone

I was wondering if itll affect instant messaging app, like whatsapp.
Will I still receive the messages instantly or battery guru will refresh my whatsapp periodically based on my usage?
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

installed it. doesn't work. after a few weeks, installed it again, still doesn't work. it seems to just kill running apps. not great if you use whatsapp or viber, you won't be receiving any messages with the battery guru on.

I'm using this but I don't feel that the battery is very good anyway. Is this app working just like greenify?
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app