HTC Incredible - Task Managers and Batteries

Image via WikipediaThis all started because I wanted to save some battery. I was doing everything I could think of to make my Droid use less battery and the especially included using task managers to kill unneeded running tasks.

I started out with Advanced Task Killer, which Verizonwireless had already put on my phone. It worked really well, although I didn't always know which tasks I could "kill" without affecting the operating system. After a short while it occurred to me that it would be a lot easier if this was automatic. So I looked for and found an app to do just that, Automatic Task Killer. This seemed great it automatically did what Advanced Task killer did. Sometime later I started getting an error on my device. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from and wasn't sure of the best way to go about finding out. I spoke to VerizonWireless Support, they eventually bounced me to HTC support. I was told it was probably some application I downloaded and to reset my device and then reload each application until I started getting the error again. Luckily it was an "A" application - Automatic Task Killer. So I got rid of that and went back to using Advanced task killer.

I eventually tried Juice Defender, it seemed like a good idea, but the log from JuiceDefender showed it was turning on my device at night. I may not have had it configured correctly, but I decided to uninstall it. The next app I tried was Power Manager Full. I tried the free version first and it looked really promising. This app comes with predefined profiles that kick in under predefined circumstances (when plugged in turn on wifi and brighten screen, for instance). The paid version lets you define your own senarios. I liked it a lot and went ahead and bought it. After some time using it I found it was taking up more battery than it was saving, so I uninstalled it (your mileage may vary, this was my experience on a non-rooted phone).

I finally got fed up with trying to extend the life of the HTC battery. If I used absolutely nothing, I could make it last for about 15 hours, but what's the use of having the phone if you aren't going to use it?! So I bought a better battery with the same exact footprint so it fit in the case. It was like going from a gas guzzler to a fuel efficient car, my battery now lasts 12 hours with regular usage. The battery I got was a Seidio. I recommend it highly.

Verizon Wireless / HTC - Another phone debacle

Image via WikipediaMaybe it's just me, but I got kind of miffed when I found out the I had been misled by the Verizon Wireless saleperson when I bought my HTC Incredible. I was in the store looking at the various droid phones and the salesperson was pushing how much more memory the Incredible had (8gb internal compared to 2gb internal on the Droid from motorola). He said the difference I would see was so great that the HTC only came with a 2gb SDHC card while the Motorola came with a 16gb card to make up for the lack of space. This seemed to make sense at the time and from all I had read I really wanted the Incredible anyway.

I started out without any problems and then after downloading way too many applications, I started getting an error message - something to the affect of "Your application area is getting full. Please delete some applications or move them to the card." The first thing I did was check the phone and card space and found that there was 6gb of space left on the phone and a couple of 100mb of space on the card (books and music mostly).

At this point I'm not sure what is going on, so I called Verizon Wireless support. They eventually told me I would have to call HTC support. When I spoke to HTC, they told me something I should have figured out already. Of the 8gb internal memory less than 2gb were available for use by the user. The rest was reserved for use by the OS and the built-in apps (at the time I was using a 3rd party mail application that was restricted to the user area, by switching to the built-in mail app I saved a significant amount of space and was able to use some reserved space).

I felt used to say the least. I really only had 4gb, at best, of usable space. At the same time I bought my phone they had been offering the Droid with a 16gb card (16+2 vs 8+2 was okay, but when you factored in the reserved space it was a different story). I decided I not only wanted to complain, but wanted to go back to the store and voice my dissatisfaction in the hope that they would comp me more memory. I did exactly that and, after some back and forth in which the Verizon rep kept saying it was HTC's fault not theirs, the manager agreed to give me an 8gb card.

I'm much happier now. I believe they should have figured this out from the beginning, but that what I get for getting the phone sooner rather than later.

Android IT Apps - Part 5: Disk Space

Image via WikipediaAlthough not strictly an IT app, I felt this was appropriate to include here. It is generally the IT people who end up using or recommending apps like this. These apps help you look at and manage the space on your Android phone and SDCard.

DiskUsage - I like this first app probably more because it is like WinDirStat than because of its' own benefits. DiskUsage provides a graphical view of your storage on phone or card. Within the app you can zoom in and delete files if you wish. I like being able to keep track of what is taking up space.

ES File Explorer - This is a really nice app. It lets you see the structure of your phone/SDCard. The GUI is very nice. EStrongs puts out components that work with this app - a bookmark app, a task manager, and a security app. They are all free. ES gives you the opportunity to backup your phone to your card - very handy! There is a tab for LANs and one for FTP (also very nice and integrated well). You can customize the app easily with wallpaper, custom folder icons, etc.

All in all, I would recommend using ES File Explorer

Android IT Apps - Part 4: WiFi

Image via WikipediaWiFinder - This app is a basic scanner of WiFi networks. It has a New Scan button and you can check the box to show only open APs. You can connect to any of the APs listed by tapping on it, and if need be entering the password. Otherwise you are given the options to Connect, Forget, or Cancel. The app lists the SSID, Channel Signal Level and whether or not it is encrypted (with type of encryption supported). WiFinder offers to turn on WiFi when it starts and prompts you on whether you want it to stay on when you exit.

WiFi Analyzer - This app is ad supported. It has a couple of handy views: Channel Graph, Time Graph, Channel Rating, AP List, and Signal Meter. Channel Graph is good for showing relative strength of signals of the networks nearby. You can change the settings to either display SSIDs with the same name as one or separately. Time graph gives a slightly more confusing look of the same info (you can change the sampling time of any of these in the settings). Channel Rating shows you the strength of the signal on a particular channel. The comparison is a good one and handy if you are trying to determine the best channel to set your AP to. Ap List shows a list of the APs their MAC address, the channel they are broadcasting on, and the signal strength (with a lock over the signal strength icon if it is a locked network). The signal meter is very handy. You can have the sound on or off (like a geiger counter sound), there is a blinking light to as well. The screen shows the SSID with MAC address in parentheses and a signal meter showing the strength of the signal - coded from grey to yellow to green. On any of the screens you can take a snapshot of the screen. You can also send the current scan results. This app also prompts to start wifi, or you can set it to automatically start wifi on start of app and stop it on exit. I liked the setting to stay on while the app was active, otherwise my phone would keep turning the screen off.

WiFi Manager - WiFi Manager is exactly what it says, a manager. There is nothing particularly spectacular about this app. It shows the SSIDs, whether they are open or not, if not what type of encryption, State (connected, favorite, etc), Channel, Signal Level. You can choose to show only the live networks or all known networks. It can sort by Signal, Name, or Open First. There is a button to auto update (the update interval is set in the settings), and a button to update now. Like the others this has a popup that asks you to enable wifi if it isn't active and the exit selection from the menu is "Exit and Disable WiFi".

I like WiFi Analyzer best. It seems to have everything that the others have plus more. What's even better are all the settings it has to make things easier. The export feature is handy as is the screen capture feature.

Android It Apps - Part 3: Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)

Image via WikipediaMany times I need to remote into my server or workstation to make changes or check on something (less and less as more and more stuff is either in the cloud or on my phone). I looked around for a preferably free Android app to do this. What I found was mostly junk. There are many apps, but most of them require that you either run something on the computer you are remoting into, or are web interfaces that are somewhat lacking.

I finally settled on Remote RDP Lite 3.0.6. The lite version has some capabilities disabled and allows only one saved connection (with the pay version you can save many RDP connections in the list and just tap on one to connect). But even the lite version is fairly robust. All my computers that allow RDP using port 3389 worked fine with this app.

Any IT professional with an Android device will like this app, and find it very useful.

The other app that is very nice for RDP/VNC is PocketCloud from Wyse. It also will only allow one profile unless you purchase the full version. It has audible feedback and everything is done through the touch screen without a mouse pointer (Remote RDP has a mouse pointer which you move around). I personally found it harder to move around in PocketCloud. A definite pro for the Wyse product is the better GUI and the ability to choose between installing a local client on machines you wish to remote into or not. If you do choose to install the local client the app has the ability to autodiscover.

It is my personal preference, but I find the Remote RDP product easier to use.

Related articles

• Best Free Remote Desktop Applications for iPad (crenk.com)
• The Android Sysadmin: Remote Administration in the Smartphone Age (zdnet.com)
• Remote Desktop App PocketCloud Reaches 250k Users, Updates Android Application (geardiary.com)

Android IT Apps - Part 2: Dell Service Tag

Image via CrunchBaseI found 2 apps in the market that semi-fit my requirements for this type of app.  I needed an application on my phone that could get information about a system by inputing the Dell Service tag (most of my systems are Dell, since we have a contract with them).

Dell Service Requester - This app requires you to enter the service tag and tap the query button in order to retrieve the information from the dell website.  It worked the first time I used it and subsequently, whether because of my phone configuration or some other reason, it quit (force close with a report option) every time I tapped the query button.

Dell Service Tag Scanner - There are 3 buttons available when you open the app: Save, Scan Barcode, and Fetch Warranty Info. This app allows you to enter the Service Tag manually, use your phone to scan the bar code (although I had some trouble with this feature - maybe because my hands are not steady enough), and even save the tag by giving it a name.  If you save the tag you then only have to tap the tag name to automatically enter it again (very nice feature).  I find I use this one much more often than the requester app (especially since that one usually crashes itself).

Android IT Apps - Part 1: Ping

I have been playing around with a few applications on my android (Froyo on HTC Incredible) for my job.  I was looking for a good ping app.  I looked at a few.  All the one here are free.  But I only found one of them especially useful.

Net Status - does a bunch of things well but I didn't find it extremely useful.  also the typeface is too small on my android

Ping and DNS - Okay but not intuitive or very useful

Network Ping - easy to use, ping count is configurable

Ping - This, IMHO, is the best of the bunch.  It is ad supported.  You easily enter any number of single computers either in IP form or domain name.  Once entered the program can ping them all with a readout of the ping time in milliseconds, or ping any one separately.  There is a color indicator next to each entry which is green - for good connection, darkening shades of orange - as the connection time takes longer, red if the app cannot ping the destination address.  When pinging a single address you can export the results (csv).  One of the things that sets this app apart from the rest is that it keeps your list of computers so you can easily tap "Ping All" to get an instant read of your network.

Computers were a breeze to add and the app is easy to use and helpful.