Coldstreams

Some times smart phone batteries are depleted because of “energy bugs” in the software that cause the phone to use excess energy.

Researchers have proposed a method to automatically detect a new class of software glitches in smartphones called “no-sleep energy bugs,” which can entirely drain batteries while the phones are not in use.

via ‘No-sleep energy bugs’ drain smartphone batteries.

Have you ever installed an app and then noticed your battery life was worse than before so you uninstalled the app? End users are starting to discover these “e-bugs” although they are unlikely to be aware of the power issues lurking under the covers - but they do notice when battery life worsens.

Most app developers do not do energy analysis of their applications to learn how the app impacts battery life. My own research presently involves issues with application software and battery life.

Solving the short battery life problem of smart phones will require improvements to all aspects of smart phone technology, from the network, to the phone technology and battery technologies, to the operating system and applications that run on the phones. Solving the battery life problem is complex but, obviously, one that most people want to see solved!

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Unfortunately, the battery life of smart phones, relative to feature phones or plain old mobile phones, is very poor. Whereas my “feature phone” had a battery that typically lasted up to two weeks, most smart phone users re-charge their phone every day, and some times several times per day!

User research on smart phones finds most people use their phone for 4 to 10 hours before they need to recharge the battery. While many users recharge the battery overnight, every night, there are many users that recharge throughout the day, at every chance they get, such as plugging in when working at their desk.

There is not a single magic bullet to fix the problem of smart phone battery life. Batteries improve each year, but only by the low single digit percentages, while power demands rise much faster in new devices. The physical size of a smart phone or tablet also limits how large a battery can be used, putting a constraint on solving the problem by just adding a bigger battery.

It would be helpful if there were a single “Battery Saver” option that would enable a configured set of features for maximum battery life. But on most phones, no such feature exists. Instead, you need to consider disabling unused features manually. But most smart phone users are not going to know which features to select (and personally, I think this needs to be mostly automatic) to achieve best battery life.

• If your phone or software allows, disable software features that do background checks throughout the day, even while you are not actively using the phone. That is, avoid having Facebook or Twitter update constantly, or continually checking for email. Surprisingly, some studies have found that about half of the battery power is consumed during the nearly 90% of the time the phone is supposedly idle or sleeping!
• Choose a display theme (if available) featuring a dark background. Lighting up the LCD for, say, a black text on white background, uses much more power than white text on a black or dark background.
• If Wi-Fi is regularly available, say at home or your office, then use Wi-Fi instead of the cellular data link. Not only will your mobile service provider like you, but Wi-Fi reduces the power consumed for data transmission. Even though Wi-Fi uses a considerable amount of power, data transmission is typically 10 to 20 times faster than over a typical 3G link. That means the Wi-Fi transmitter is turned on for a fraction of the time compared to the 3G transmitter.
• If you know you will not be using Wi-Fi, then disable it. For example, while driving or walking, leave Wi-Fi disabled to avoid constantly searching for available Wi-Fi hotspots.
• Location services can also use a lot of power quickly. GPS, in particular, uses a considerable amount of power. Many smart phones use a variety of methods to determine your location including knowing where a currently used Wi-Fi access point is located, or using the known location of a cellular servicer tower site, or GPS. But if you are not using location services, disabling this feature will cut power needs. However, avoid turning it off and back on frequently as it can take 30 seconds (or so) for GPS to re-acquire location data rather than just referring to a last known, good location reference.
• Turn off Bluetooth if you are not using Bluetooth.
• Use audio alerts instead of vibrate alerts.

There is a lot of research being done on ways to improve battery life. This work includes the development of new battery technologies, but also improvements to the radio network and communication protocols, smarter operating system features that attempt to predict when software or hardware can be set for reduced power modes, or which limit big data downloads (such as app updates) to when plugged in on charge or connected to a Wi-Fi network. There are also tricks that app developers can incorporate to reduce their app’s power needs. But for now, these are all for the future.

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NoiseTube.

Provides a fairly accurate measurement of sound, in decibels (db(A)), using your smart phone. Android version available now; iPhone version has been submitted to the iTunes store but is not yet available.

Most people subject themselves to potentially ear damaging loud sound frequently. Several  years ago, I had a really bad ear infection that raised havoc with my ears for quite some time. Since then, I am pretty sensitive about the level of sound around me and generally carry and use ear plugs a lot when entering high noise environments.  This app can help you learn to recognize damaging high sound situation and take steps to protect your hearing.

Amazon Best Sellers: best Cell Phones With Service Plans.

Interesting to see which phones

[caption id=”” align=”alignright” width=”75” caption=”Graph showing global smartphone market share for Q2 2011 When updating this graph, please check its usage and update the captions and refs in articles which link to it. Thanks. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)”][/caption]

are the current top sellers. This list will vary over time, of course. Good idea to keep this on a bookmark if you are interested in following the smart phone market place.

“And I think it is really difficult, especially from a consumer perspective, because it causes consumers to devalue completely the hardware they are using … It is amazing hardware, but it has become kind of throw away. So, it is unfortunate, youve got dual-core, multiprocessor devices with amazing HD screens that get thrown away at 18 months.”

via T-Mobile CMO blasts device subsidies, but says they wont go away - FierceWireless.

Due to subsidies, consumers have no idea the value of the devices they are throwing away.

Yes, but we installed compact florescent bulbs and drive our Prius to the store to pick up organically grown fair trade fruits and vegetables flown in from South America on energy intensive air transport. So throwing away our smart phone after 18 months is good for the environment! (Not)

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This echoes what I wrote a few days ago!

• How to Fix Microsoft With Marketing. Features and benefits is pragmatic, not sexy or emotional. Microsoft is pitching the Windows Phone to consumers the same way they sell to business customers. The product is great but the marketing might not yet be connecting…
• See also “Why Stunts Drive Clicks for Gen-Y Auto Marketers”.  May be they need to skydiving out of airplanes while texting :)

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Analysys Mason surveyed 7,485 consumers about purchasing smarphones and cellular services and finds significant marketing confusion among consumers. About half of iPhone 4 customers think they have a “4G” cellphone (they don’t) because of the 4 in the name.  Consumers find prices and packages confusing and wish that companies would focus on useful product differentiation and be honest about full contract costs, which can run $2,000 or more over two years.

See the press release on the study.

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Since this is from Mashable, you’ve probably already seen this:

For the first year ever, total PC sales around the world were outpaced by total smartphone sales, in units at least, according to data released Friday by market analyst firm Canalsys. Nearly 488 million smartphones were shipped, compared to just (just!) 415 million PCs

via Global Smartphone Sales Overtake PCs for the First Time [STUDY].

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After looking at the top 200 free iPhone App Store for December, the average cost to get someone to run an app more than three times is $1.81. This is up significantly from $1.41 in November.

via Top free iPhone app devs paying $1.81 in marketing per loyal user | iMore.

The problem: It’s hard to get an new app discovered in a sea of a million apps.

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In that study, 68% of users only use five or fewer apps at least once a week. Furthermore, 17% don’t use any apps on a regular basis while only 42% of respondents even have apps on their phones. Those are certainly interesting numbers and what it suggests is people are downloading lots of apps but rarely use them on a regular basis.

via Study: Apps not that important to smartphone users | wpcentral | Windows Phone News, Forums, and Reviews.

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