First App Suggestion - Setting Profiles

Ok. This post is for my sister whose battery on her EVO seems to drain faster than gas in a Suburban. If you are having this problem, I suggest getting a profile manager. My first one was G-Profiles by Ageye on my Windows Mobile phones, but they have yet to port it to Android. I wish they would because they make great apps.

So I've tried 3 on the Android system - Tasker, EasyProfiles, and Setting Profiles. Tasker is clearly the most powerful, but the learning curve is steep. If you love to play with your phone and apps, go for it! You won't be disappointed. If you don't want to spend that much time with an app, my favorite due to ease of use is Setting Profiles. It does almost everything I would want it to.

Setting Profiles
APNDroid

The main option to use to save battery is to limit your data usage - the data transfer eats up the precious battery. I suggest starting with a rule that turns on the data connection for 5 minutes every hour and enables the auto sync. This will download email and allow any other app to update data only every hour. To achieve this though you will also need to download APNDroid. This program will allow you to switch off and on the data connection via Setting Profiles. Plus you can put the APNDroid widget on your home screen and turn the data on whenever you want to go surfing or manually sync mail.

The following is a list of all the rules I have set up on Setting Profiles to automatically initiate:

1. Data Sync 5 minutes every hour.
2. Turn on GPS for 5 minutes every hour.
   
3. Turn off ringer at night.
4. Turn off ringer during meetings and conference calls.
5. Turn on flight mode when I have a flight scheduled.
6. Turn down the ringer to about 30% when I'm in the office.
7. When I get a call from that important someone (my wife) then it will ring no matter the situation.
8. When I am at home and the phone is charging, turn on the Wi-Fi, keep the screen turned on, and turn on the GPS.
9. Change the wallpaper background on certain key words in my calendar.

#9 is fun because I can have my kids sports schedules on my google calendar and when they are starting, I can have a wallpaper for their team pop on. I also do this for my favorite sports teams, as most teams have importable calendars available. This all will take about 30 minutes to set up, but well worth it in the long run if you ask me.

The one feature that is not available on Setting Profiles that I wish were there, is the ability to change the HTC Scene. You could then set up one set of screens for the work place, and then have the phone switch to a personal setup when you left the office. How handy would that be!

Setting Profiles
APNDroid

First Post

Ok. I have a confession to make. I'm an app junkie. I've been a junkie for quite sometime now. My first smartphone was a Cingular 8125 also known as the Wizard by HTC. But even before that I had the Dell Axim 5x. So I've been collecting apps for a about 8 years. My first apps were of course for the Windows Mobile platform. The problem was that the few that were available were expensive. But I hung onto Windows Mobile as long as I could because it was very customizable.

So with the death of Windows Mobile (I'm not a fan of Windows Phone Metro), I moved onto Android as it was more customizable than iOS. Plus I find the widgets very useful. And the great things about Android is the apps are very inexpensive! More for me!

Currently I am using an HTC Vivid for my phone on AT&T and have an ASUS Transformer as my Tablet. I love them both, but don't tell my wife and kids.

Anyway, I hope to provide some insights into some very useful apps as well as the best apps in certain categories that I have tried.