Google did publish guidelines saying, in short, "don't poll too often: it kills battery life". Unfortunately, it didn't seem to occur to anyone at Google that the users are at the mercy of developers who ignore common-sense guidelines like this one.
However, there is a company that has done something about it. I don't understand the details that well myself yet (concerning how it works, so what it really accompishes), but Seven Networks has a product that seems to 'spoof' these polls so that the application software thinks it got the poll it wants, but the radio actually gets turned on/off MUCH less frequently. On Mar 14, 3:23 pm, wnpixel <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello There. I am writing to inform you of an alarming trend and a > request. > > Because Android is an open OS, app developers are free do develop apps > in any way they want. Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that > most app developers take absolutely zero care in developing apps for > good battery life. > > This is one of the reasons Android handsets get much shorter battery > life even though they use the same exact chips as other phones such as > iPhone, blackberry, etc. > > The MAJOR problem isn't cpu usage, but data usage. 3G radios are being > turned on literally hundreds of times an hour! What's worse is that > this is happening even with apps that use the C2DM push notification > service from Google. > > I have done a real world test with a network analyzer. You can do it , > too. Just download "Shark for root" and "Shark reader" from android > market. Turn it on and notice how your average android device, even > when seemingly doing nothing, is constantly polling the network: > > - Words With Friends (Wildly Popular): By default checks for new moves > EVERY 5 MINUTES! > - Official Twitter App, Tweetdeck: Check for new tweets every 15 > minutes, BY DEFAULT. > - Tweetcaster from Handmark: Checks for new tweets every 3 minutes(!) > by default! > - BeejiveIM polls network and downloads packets at least once a > minute. This is an app that supposedly has push notifications. > - Fring: Uses a third party push notifications that is also constantly > downloading packets > - FOX news: Uses an alert system that is on by default and doesn't > even seem to be push. Noticed activity dozens of times an hour. > > This is just a VERY short list to illustrate my point. Notice how some > of the apps are wildly popular? It's not hard for an average user to > have ALL these apps installed. Imagine what all that collective > polling is doing to their batteries... > > App developers don't seem to mind the impact of such settings on > possibly millions of people's handsets. This is quite a big deal. As > long as their apps work.. Why bother? The fact is, these apps are > killing a LOT of peoples batteries. Really high defaults also punish > the average users who won't bother going to settings menu or simply > don't know the effect of such a frequent poll on the battery. My > request is, Google, you strive for innovation and customer > satisfaction.. Please do something about it. > > But don't just implement a fix on the next version of Android. Do it > now. Require this from developers. Actively talk to them. Please > realize this is something really important. There are millions of > Android users who need their phones for mission critical jobs, and > just don't know why they can't make through a day without an empty > battery.... And not even using the damn thing. > > Thanks > Eli -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
