ShopSavvy starting up on its own?

[jbsangel]

I have ShopSavvy installed, but normally don't leave GPS enabled in the settings. Yesterday I decided to leave it on and I've noticed 3 times now when I check my GPS usage that ShopSavvy has started up and is using my GPS for about 1 minute each time. When I check running programs, ShopSavvy is NOT running any more.

This last time it happened, I "caught it in the act." I flipped on my screen to check something and saw the GPS dish in the notification bar and was like, wtf, what is using GPS, nothing that I leave running is supposed to use GPS. When I checked the usage, ShopSavvy was the only app that had tried to use GPS, again for about 1 minute. I bring up ShopSavvy, then back out of it, and the dish is still there for a few more seconds and then goes away, and ShopSavvy isn't running in the running applications list at this point.

I know ShopSavvy has a location feature, which I will next uncheck and see if it still keeps doing what it's doing. But just curious if anyone knows why the app starts itself, tries to get my location, and then exits. Has anyone else noticed this? I want to use the location when I'm actually using ShopSavvy, but an app randomly starting up and using GPS for no reason might not be an app i want to keep on my device.

 

[amuse]

Pre-fetch and background processes

Lots of users/developers assume that if you enable the GPS you will drain your battery more quickly than if you don’t. While this may be true on the iPhone, on the Droid it is actually not true.

Your GPS is simply a radio receiver (L band). On some devices the radio needs to be enabled to get a ‘fix’, but on the Droid the radio is ALWAYS on. The Droid uses the radio for several phone features instead of using another band. As a result regardless of whether or not you have your GPS on the radio that receives the sat signals is on – the battery life of your phone won’t be different. This is great news for developers.

There is an open source project that provides a service that location dependent applications can use to ‘pre-fetch’ location data so that it is ALWAYS available regardless of whether or not you can get an immediate GPS fix. It also fixes another problem – the time it takes the GPS to obtain a fix (30-60 seconds). Whenever you use ShopSavvy to scan an item we need to figure out where you are to give you a local price. Even if you can get a GPS fix when you scan a barcode, we might not be able to get the GPS coordinates before we provide the pricing results – as a result you won’t get local results. By prefetching your location regularly we can use the last known result which is likely very close to your current location.

You can turn the privacy feature on inside the ShopSavvy settings and we won't check your location - but you also won't get local results. Email support@biggu.com for more information.

 

[drowe]

What a great answer! This just struck me as THE way software support should be handled. When the devs watch for problems and answer quickly and honestly they go up many notches on my personal respect level!

Cheers,
David

 

[jbsangel]

Thanks for the response. I know about GPS not using any more battery by just having it checked in settings, but that an app has to actually be using it. I just wasn't sure why ShopSavvy was using my GPS when the program wasn't even running nor has been running for days so it bothered me. Pre-fetch makes sense and good to know.

I won't disable location based search in ShopSavvy, I will use that feature when I use shopsavvy and don't want to have to remember to turn it back on. What was more important to me was just to know why it was starting up on its own.

Thanks.

 

[Flomaster]

shopsavvy used 4% of my battery up since unplugged and I don't even open the app this should NOT be happening. yeah maybe if I am using the app and its pulling my location via GPS, but when the app isn't even opened. I am going to uninstall unless there is a fix for this.

when looking at my GPS settings for (TOTAL in all time) using "Battery Left" ShopSavy is the number one user of my GPS at 41 minutes 19s. while my browser is 2nd at 38 mins 13s this is

-=Jason=-

 

[jbsangel]

well, it's not a bug so there won't be a 'fix' because it's not a bug, it's a feature, LOL. But I agree, I dno't wnat an app "helping me" by fetching my location a few times a day. I hardly ever use the app and I can wait a few seconds for it to find me the next time I open it. There should be a setting to disable the fetch without having to completely disable location search and have to reenable it when you actually want to get local results.

 

[Flomaster]

I just disabled the "find my location" setting and I will just enable it when I use the app.

-=Jason=-

 

[jbsangel]

yes that is what i'm going to probably end up doing too, but just saying we shouldn't *have* to do that. Now i have to remember to reenable location when I use the app, and remember to disable it when I'm done.

This fetch feature should be optional, so that the OCD people like myself can sleep better at night, LOL.

 

[jasonb]

i ended up deleting it because i saw is was using battery even though i never opened the app. i never use the app anyway. i do have the app called "barcode scanner" installed. it never tried to use GPS on it's own like shop savvy.

 

[aaf709]

i ended up deleting it because i saw is was using battery even though i never opened the app. i never use the app anyway. i do have the app called "barcode scanner" installed. it never tried to use GPS on it's own like shop savvy.

I may end up doing that. Last night I was looking at battery usage and it showed Shopsavvy using 12%. This is a program I only used once or twice when I first installed it. I've got the location part turned off, but why would it run without me using it? I'd prefer it to find my location when I use it and then turn off.

 

[hookbill]

I got rid of shop savvy. Nice app, but a battery hog for sure.

 

[jsh1120]

I've had Shop Savvy installed for awhile and never noticed it was trying to access GPS on its own. However, I updated the app a few days ago and have noticed my GPS searching has suddenly started to turn on unpredictably when I'm sitting in my house.

This thread makes me suspect Shop Savvy as the culprit.

 

[cisco0910]

I hardly ever used the feature battery usage. I've owned Droid since November and prob only used 3-4 times. So just out of boredom 3 days ago i checked it. I was at like 30%. The number one culprit was ShopSavvy at a wopping 61%!!! I had to double take, cause i was like wtf, there's no way. But yup, shopsavvy was number one with the display at like 30 something percent. I haven't opened the app up in weeks. I'm uninstalling now. when i need it, i'll just reinstall and uninstall when i'm done.

 

[jbsangel]

I recently factory reset my Droid and didn't even bother to put ShopSavvy back on my device. I guess I'm just not ok with an app doing it's own thing like that, regardless of why and especially when I can't tell it that I don't want it to do that.

 

[techguru]

ShopSavvy uses about 3% of my battery life. I also didn't realize it was doing this pre-fetching until I got a "force close or wait" message today after a reboot for other reasons and then saw this thread so checked my battery usage.

I don't use it often, but when I do, I am likely in a mall or store with a metal roof so location data is probably not available, so in concept, I don't mind this pre-fetching, but I think it could be set to just do it a few times a day and would serve the needs of most people.

Alan