Extending battery life by disabling apps?

[pattikate]

I'm a newbie to the world of Droid X. I would appreciate tips on how to conserve or extend battery life. I've heard some people say that installing a task killer app is pointless and will only use more battery than extend it.

Assuming this is true, and I do not have to install a task killer app, what advice can you offer on how to be sure my battery doesn't drain unecessarily? I am totally clueless on how to STOP apps from running on startup or in the background. How can I diable apps on startup?

Also, I've heard about a Power Management or Power Control Widget. What does this do, and more importantly, how do I access it???

Please help!

Thank you.

 

[harrellj]

The only way to prevent items from running at startup is to root the phone (gives you access to system files).

To access the power control widget, if you long-press on the home screen, it should be a widget option (I hadn't heard that it was stripped from the X), though there are several 3rd party apps you can get as well like Extended Controls - Android app on AppBrain or SwitchPro Widget - Android app on AppBrain. All power widgets do is let you access a one-touch method of turning on/off wireless/bluetooth/sync and generally adjust the brightness settings.

For the overall question, if you go to settings > about phone > battery usage, pay attention to what the uses the battery the most. Generally your display is going to be tops, but after that is based off of how you use the phone. Any apps that you don't use often but that rank on there are ones you'll want to notify the developer about as well as possibly think about replacing.

JuiceDefender - battery saver - Android app on AppBrain is another popular app, but it primarily puts your phone into airplane mode at night and turns airlpane mode off only long enough for data to sync.

As for task killers, auto-killing is what is heavily frowned on (and covered very extensively in http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/65483-task-killers-answer-google-developers.html). However, using one to manually kill an out of control app is acceptable, though usually a reboot does that as well.