Managing Battery Use with Shaker

This only applies to users who have set up shakers to work when the 'Screen is Off'.  For example, this would include the functionality to wake the phone up (i.e. 'Turn Screen On'). If there are no shakers defined for this scenario, then there should not be any battery issues and you can disregard the rest of this post.

For users who have shakers set up to work when the screen is off, Shaker version 1.1.1 and up should provide a significant improvement in battery life depending on how the phone is used. Basically, if the phone is in a pocket, purse, or even face down on a surface, the app will allow the phone to go into its low power state when the screen is off, without impacting the functionality of the Shaker app. As long as the phone is allowed to go into its low power state, which is its normal behavior, there should be minimal impact on the battery from this app.

It is using the proximity sensor on the phone to determine when the device is in a pocket, etc. So, when the phone screen is close to any object at all with the screen off, shakes will not be detected. This same sensor is used by the phone to turn off the screen when you bring it close to your face while on a phone call.

There are a couple of caveats:
1) The option on the settings screen to 'Disable in Pocket' must be checked.
2) I have noticed that sometimes the proximity sensor does not do well in detecting proximity when laying flat on a hard or reflective surface. So, if you put the device face down on a desk, for example, there is a chance it will not actually detect it. It seems to work better when the device is face down on something slightly more malleable, like a piece of paper, a couch cushion, or something else that is not as hard and flat as a desk. This may vary from phone to phone depending on the sensor that is being used and how well that sensor is working.

As always, please let me know what you think, whether it is positive or negative, and especially as it pertains to battery use on your device.

Change Log for Shaker 1.1.1 (Beta)

I will release version 1.1.1 of the Shaker app this evening. The primary change in this release is related to battery improvements. It should be a fairly significant improvement for many users. This will likely be the last major revision to deal with battery issues until Google changes how they allow apps to use the hardware sensors in the various devices.

I will be posting a separate entry shortly on how to best manage Shaker's use of the battery.

Change Log for Shaker 1.1 (Beta)

I am about to release version 1.1 of the Shaker app.  I focused heavily on the battery issues for this release.  The battery issues are by no means solved yet, but I introduced a few things to hopefully help manage the situation.

First, there is now a warning message displayed any time someone tries to save a shaker that could cause battery drain.  Obviously, this does not correct the problem, but hopefully it better informs the users about the problem and what specifically is causing it.

There is a new feature that allows shakers to be enabled and disabled by long pressing on the shaker in the list.

There is a new option for users to send anonymous usage statistics about the app usage and what is using the battery.  Please opt-in by going to the settings screen and checking the box to send stats!

There is a new option to disable wifi when the screen is off.  Chances are the phone will do this anyway by default, so this setting is also enabled by default.  Previously, wifi would not get disabled even if the setting on the phone was supposed to disable it.

The shake detector is more streamlined so that it will only listen for shakes when it needs to.

Other than that, there are a few minor bug fixes for shakers used when music is playing or when the screen is on.

Although I still don't have a perfect solution for the battery, I think I may be on to something that will greatly improve the situation.  I will be working on this over the next several days and hopefully this will work and I can get another update out soon.  Please continue to send me feedback!

Battery Issues for the Shaker App

People have been noting some battery issues resulting from the Shaker app, and I wanted to explain what might be causing this and what I am doing to reduce the battery use.

I just recently updated my Droid to 2.1 and for the first time today, I started noticing some battery issues as well.  Before that, it had always been fine on my phone and a couple of others I tested.  Not all users may be impacted by the battery performance.

Normally, when the screen turns off and the phone goes idle, the phone goes into a lower power state where apps basically stop running until the screen turns back on.  This is a problem for the Shaker app whenever a shaker is defined to respond when the screen turns off (for example, when the shaker is supposed to turn the screen back on).  The app needs to stay active to wait for the user to shake the phone.  Therefore, I am forced to prevent the phone from going into the low power state (using what is called a wake lock for anyone who might be interested).  I will admit that this is normally considered bad practice as it can have a bad impact on battery drain, as we are seeing.  I am looking for alternative ways of handling this, but it might take a bit longer to find an alternative to this with the current release of the Android Operating System.

I am working on some other ways of reducing the power as well.  The next version will have the ability to disable Wifi when the screen turns off, which the phone should do anyway.  Also, I may look into managing other applications I think may be using the battery while the shaker app is keeping the phone in its normal power state.  For example, I think the live wallpapers are having an impact, so I might look to stop it from running when the screen turns off, and then turn it back on once the screen comes back on.

The last thing I have to say about the battery issues is that I will be asking for users to agree for the app to automatically send usage statistics back to me for analysis.  Each user will be prompted in the next update to agree or decline.  I will be gathering stats about the shakers that are set up, what is using the battery (and how much), information about running processes and apps, and general phone version information.  Hopefully people will agree to send this information so I can continue to improve the battery situation.

If anyone out there has any tips, I am all ears!