Tim Bray's first six months of Android(tbray.org)
tbray.org
Tim Bray's first six months of Android
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2009/07/19/The-Android-G1-Six-Months-In
2 comments
I suspect that the battery life woes of the iPhone and Android is not because the batteries are worse, it's that the UI is so much better that you can actually use it more.
As a user: A lot of these issue are fixed in firmware updates. I've had my original iPhone for two years - originally it was a recharge-each-night job, now the battery life now is better than ever.
As a budding Android developer: you can be very conscious of battery consumption for your apps. For example, when you're displaying high scores in your 3D game, disable some of the 3D features you had for in-game mode. Use a particular sound codec rather than another to save CPU cycles and battery life. There are free videos on on developer.android.com covering battery life consumption.
Oh and as a user again: Mr Bray should try the HTC Hero next week. Faster, better-than-3G (7.2Mb HSDPA) networking. Screen isn't much bigger, but you do get Flash 10 and far more useful widgets, meaning you can get to data without waiting for apps to open.
As a budding Android developer: you can be very conscious of battery consumption for your apps. For example, when you're displaying high scores in your 3D game, disable some of the 3D features you had for in-game mode. Use a particular sound codec rather than another to save CPU cycles and battery life. There are free videos on on developer.android.com covering battery life consumption.
Oh and as a user again: Mr Bray should try the HTC Hero next week. Faster, better-than-3G (7.2Mb HSDPA) networking. Screen isn't much bigger, but you do get Flash 10 and far more useful widgets, meaning you can get to data without waiting for apps to open.
Well, the physical battery has never been the problem -- it's the drain from the software.
There are Windows Mobile phones that are so bad, the carriers ship them with a spare battery!
There are Windows Mobile phones that are so bad, the carriers ship them with a spare battery!
Ship with a spare battery?! That's a great idea - I wonder why Apple doesn't do the same with the iPhones...
;-)
;-)
Try using your phone to listen to music on headphones while charging it :)