OK, my battery lasts 4 times longer now. No joke!

[s54]

I am NOT exaggerating. Here is what I did:

(1) Upgraded to 2.1 (Phone is 100% stock right now. Not even rooted)
(2) Downloaded "Advanced Task Killer 1.5.6" by Apollo Software from the market (It's FREE)
(3) Went into "Settings" of Advanced Task Killer and set some apps to "ignore". Everything else is set to "auto-kill" one minute after the screen turns off.

It is 7 PM here in Chicago. Phone had a full charge yesterday morning at 8 AM, which is when I unplugged it from the charger. Currently the battery is a 50%!!! Normally, it would have been long gone by now. I can easily go another day on this battery.

I'm stunned. Normal use too. Talking to friends, texting, and of course browsing.

UPDATE: see post #151 for clarification on "Advanced Task Killer", which is now called "Apollo Task Killer"

 

[EmmVeePee]

Yeah. There was a sticky thread saying that its useless... but its actually really helpful when you use it properly. You need to add exception rules for things like clock, alarm, and whatever else... but for the most part it really helps battery.

I am NOT exaggerating. Here is what I did:

(1) Upgraded to 2.1 (Phone is 100% stock right now. Not even rooted)
(2) Downloaded "Advanced Task Killer 1.5.6" by Apollo Software from the market (It's FREE)
(3) Went into "Settings" of Advanced Task Killer and set some apps to "ignore". Everything else is set to "auto-kill" one minute after the screen turns off.

It is 7 PM here in Chicago. Phone had a full charge yesterday morning at 8 AM, which is when I unplugged it from the charger. Currently the battery is a 50%!!! Normally, it would have been long gone by now. I can easily go another day on this battery.

I'm stunned. Normal use too. Talking to friends, texting, and of course browsing.

 

[andjarnic]

You say ATK by Apollo software? I have ATK free, and it's not by apollo, nor is it the version 1.5.6. I've got the latest. What am I missing? I see from a search ATK, as well as a Pro version, also a ATCleaner program. More info would be helpful.. cause I am not seeing the ATK you are talking about.

I contributed to that thread about how ATK is not necessary, yet I use it all the time. Originally I agreed, ATK was of no use primarily because Android kills apps when necessary to make room for new apps that need memory to run. So, in that sense, you don't need to kill apps when you are low on memory, Android itself will do this for you. BUT, soon after, like many others, we discovered that most android developers don't really play nice with the framework rules, thus many apps continue to run in the background, sucking battery life away. Apps that are foreground apps but start threads, like games, will continue to run if they do NOT properly handle the lifecycle events that Android calls... for example if you are playing a game, hit the Home button... there is an opportunity for the game to pause all threads, save resources, and basically "shut down". But a lot of apps don't handle this properly and thus continue to run. I don't recall which apps, but I can say that my google maps runs in the background. There should be an option for google maps, especially when using the navigation/talking part, to pause/stop when you switch apps. It doesn't, and continues to run unless you exit out of it. I've had my battery drain a bit from that issue. So, I am now back to using ATK before I put my phone into sleep mode manually, and my battery will usually last all day unless I am using it a lot.

But this ability for ATK to detect the phone going to sleep and then kill apps.. I don't have that option in my ATK Free. Is it the paid version? You say the free one. Hence why I am asking...

Thanks

 

[s54]

You say ATK by Apollo software? I have ATK free, and it's not by apollo, nor is it the version 1.5.6. I've got the latest. What am I missing? I see from a search ATK, as well as a Pro version, also a ATCleaner program. More info would be helpful.. cause I am not seeing the ATK you are talking about.

I contributed to that thread about how ATK is not necessary, yet I use it all the time. Originally I agreed, ATK was of no use primarily because Android kills apps when necessary to make room for new apps that need memory to run. So, in that sense, you don't need to kill apps when you are low on memory, Android itself will do this for you. BUT, soon after, like many others, we discovered that most android developers don't really play nice with the framework rules, thus many apps continue to run in the background, sucking battery life away. Apps that are foreground apps but start threads, like games, will continue to run if they do NOT properly handle the lifecycle events that Android calls... for example if you are playing a game, hit the Home button... there is an opportunity for the game to pause all threads, save resources, and basically "shut down". But a lot of apps don't handle this properly and thus continue to run. I don't recall which apps, but I can say that my google maps runs in the background. There should be an option for google maps, especially when using the navigation/talking part, to pause/stop when you switch apps. It doesn't, and continues to run unless you exit out of it. I've had my battery drain a bit from that issue. So, I am now back to using ATK before I put my phone into sleep mode manually, and my battery will usually last all day unless I am using it a lot.

But this ability for ATK to detect the phone going to sleep and then kill apps.. I don't have that option in my ATK Free. Is it the paid version? You say the free one. Hence why I am asking...

Thanks

Yes, it's there in the free one.
Go to Settings. Inside, you should have "Enable Auto-kill" option. Then, below, you have "Auto-kill Delay" next to which is says "How long delay after screen turns off, Auto-kill starts executing". This delay is in minutes from 1 to 45.

 

[pyro6128]

I have the newest version of advanced task killer (v1.7.6 build 36) and I don't have that setting anywhere.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Yeah. There was a sticky thread saying that its useless... but its actually really helpful when you use it properly. You need to add exception rules for things like clock, alarm, and whatever else... but for the most part it really helps battery.

I am NOT exaggerating. Here is what I did:

(1) Upgraded to 2.1 (Phone is 100% stock right now. Not even rooted)
(2) Downloaded "Advanced Task Killer 1.5.6" by Apollo Software from the market (It's FREE)
(3) Went into "Settings" of Advanced Task Killer and set some apps to "ignore". Everything else is set to "auto-kill" one minute after the screen turns off.

It is 7 PM here in Chicago. Phone had a full charge yesterday morning at 8 AM, which is when I unplugged it from the charger. Currently the battery is a 50%!!! Normally, it would have been long gone by now. I can easily go another day on this battery.

I'm stunned. Normal use too. Talking to friends, texting, and of course browsing.

Where can I find the sticky thread? My battery life sucks

 

[R1Lover]

It's 2.1 that is saving the battery.... I have gone two days with 2.1 without charging whereas normally I have to charge daily.

 

[aaf709]

I'm still on 2.0.1, but my battery lasts about the same length of time as yours without ATK.

 

[searayman]

battery really depends on what widgets you have running etc.... try juice defender it will save you loads!

 

[whiddles]

It's 2.1 that is saving the battery.... I have gone two days with 2.1 without charging whereas normally I have to charge daily.

man im still waiting for 2.1

 

[searayman]

and do you mean automatic task killer? not advanced task killer?

 

[ttocsm]

search for " Apollo Task Killer"

 

[machineheadg2r]

2.1 was listed as having some battery life improvements.

 

[mtnbikerfred]

They apparently had to pull it and re-list it. It's in the mktplce now and I'm evaluating it. ATK didn't autokill as far as I know, so we shouldn't have eo plug in at night or wake up to a dead Droid in the AM.

 

[czerdrill]

i think its the radio update that's saving battery and not any task killer...task killers are useless on a linux based system just like antivirus...