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Fixing the Battery Problem your Android Smartphone Seems to Have

Posted on May 31, 2010 ·
Android and cupcake at the Googleplex

Image via Wikipedia

I shared some of my recent Android experience here, with the two leading phones, Verizon’s HTC Incredible and Sprint’s EVO  now it’s time to share a trick (actually two) that makes or breaks your experience with these two mobile powerhouses. Matt Burns @ MobileCrunch loves the EVO but considers the battery a deal-breaker:

Simply put, the battery sucks. It’s a deal breaker. I’m really sorry to say that, too. In fact it hurts me because I wanted this phone so bad, but the battery life is horrible. The phone will lose a third of its battery sitting overnight with the GPS, WiFi, and 4G turned off. Even with Advanced Task Killer set to aggressive and auto killing apps every hour, the most I can get out of the phone is about ten hours.

I know – been there, done that and could not believe how bad it was.  In fact with everything (Wifi, GPS, Mobile Data) off and without activity, in Sleep mode the battery died in 6 hours.  So why have a Smartphone if I have to turn everything off to be able to make a few calls?  I refused to accept it, searched, searched, experimented, and found the two tricks that can dramatically improve battery life.  They are actually simple: start with more, and don’t lose it 🙂

Start with more juice

No, I don’t mean buying a bigger battery pack. Get more out of what you already have. Charge with Power OFF.  Seriously.  If you charge your phone turned on, it will reach full charge status very fast.  The problem is, it’s not really full, only  Android thinks so.  Turn it off,  and recharging will last hours longer, but it will truly be full.  Since it appears to be a software glitch, we can hope an OTA update will fix it … one day.

Don’t lose your juice

Keep your Apps under control.  No, Task Killer and similar tools won’t help, some programs do get restarted no matter what you do.   Here’s what you need to check:  After power on, keep the phone in Sleep mode for a few hours.  If Uptime and Awake time are close to each other, or even 2:1  3:1 ratio, you have a problem.  An application does not allow your phone to go to sleep.  Keep on trimming your App list (and I don’t just mean shut down, but full uninstall) until you’ll see awake time less than 10% of uptime.

With those two tricks, your phone should last 2+ days in Sleep mode, and otherwise it will obviously depend on your actual usage.

Oh, and I am switching from the Incredible to the EVO 🙂

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Best Buy Smarter than the Apple Store

Posted on May 26, 2010 ·

apple store “There is an App for that” – is the mantra nowadays, and I really hoped for one,  to solve the major task of telling me where I can buy an iPad.  Anywhere, in any physical store along my long drive from San Francisco to Pleasanton. In the real-time, always-on age it should not be a big deal.  But it is.

Of the two potential sources Best Buy fares better: at least they have an online inventory locator, which tells you none of the stores have it 🙁

Apple stores (the best retail experience in any industry)?  Fuhhgedaboudit.  You can order online and wait two weeks for delivery, find retail stores, even make personal shopping appointments, but the online system can’t tell you availability in the individual stores.  But the Apple site certainly looks better than Best Buys.  Design without content. 🙁

So I am back to the Stone Age method: calling stores one by one.  At least my smartphone helps with that: Google Maps pulls up the stores in the area, and I can touch to call them one by one.   All Apple stores answer with this message:

Thank you for calling the Apple Store in …..  The magical and revolutionary iPad is now available…

Except it’s not. Available.  You have to get to a live salesperson, store by store, to get that information. The welcome message is a cheery lie.   Once again, Best Buy fares better:  the welcome message apologizes that they did not receive new shipments, and all their stores are out of iPad inventory.

So that leaves me with one choice: ordering the iPad online. Which I did.  And don’t get me started on how many things went wrong during the order process…

I know, I deserve it.  After all on the long ride from Google I/O @ Moscone to Pleasanton I had two gorgeous smartphones next to me, on the passenger seat.  Both Android. 🙂

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Filed Under: Business · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
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Does Sprint Limit Using Google Voice?

Posted on May 21, 2010 ·

(See update @ the bottom)
Well, this did not take long. I’ve just speculated that Google & Sprint wanted testers before the commercial rollout of the Android-driven HTC EVO on June 4th – a few hours later I see that theory proven.  I ran into trouble setting up Google Voice, and called the special number given to Google I/O attendees.  Apparently it’s a “discovery period” customer support group, and the rep I talked to was very (unusually!) courteous and helpful – at least she tried to, within the limits of information available to her.  Unfortunately it wasn’t enough.  Here’s the skinny:

I’m in the somewhat rare situation of being able to compare the HTC Incredible on Verizon and the EVO on Sprint, released a month apart, with essentially the same setup, same software releases.  Here’s part of the Google Voice configuration screen on both:

Google Voice Verizon vs Sprint

And yes, the shocking discovery: it appears that Sprint limits using Google Voice to international calls only.  Let me rephrase that: other parts (e.g. voicemail, transcription..etc) of the Google Voice service will still work, but if you can’t initiate calls using your GV number, than guess what, the other party will see your Sprint mobile number, that’s where they will call you back…etc – in other words the key concept of “One number to show”, which is what Google Voice integration is all about, is dead.

The Sprint rep told me she hoped it was a software glitch that would soon be updated, but frankly, the different wording suggests otherwise.  I’m afraid it’s a business decision by Sprint, and one that should be made very, very public.  Full Google Voice integration happens to be a key decision-making factor when switching to Android, for yours truly, forTechCrunch’s Mike Arrington and likely many others.  Not having it could prove to be a show stopper.

I hope it’s not final – Sprint, Google, HTC, whoever – please chime in here.  We need answers.

Update: The short answer, and it’s a good one, it’s not Sprint policy, just an installation glitch. Details:

All of a sudden I remembered that a few weeks ago when I set up Google Voice on the HTC Incredible with Verizon, it refused the accept my existing Google Voice number, so I tricked it: went ahead with the route of setting up a new number, but input y existing Google Voice number, then it worked.

I suppose something got fixed since then, as the Sprint EVO allowed me to link up with the existing GV account, albeit with the limitation shown above… so I started to wonder if I should try the same trick here.  I deleted the Sprint cell number from Google Voice, signed out on the EVO and even deleted the entire Google Voice app (probably an unnecessarily step, but who knows…).   Then I proceeded with the “new number” setup, but of course using the existing account information.  Got into a couple of loops with error messages, nevertheless following all prompts both on the mobile and the GV web side finally resulted in the perfect Google Voice installation, with identical results to the Incredible version (the phone shown on the left).  I’m a happy Google Voice user again.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Filed Under: Software, Technology · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,
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Fake Steve Jobs’s Split Personality

Posted on May 21, 2010 ·

fake-steveIt’s tough to be Fake Steve Jobs nowadays.

Continuing in his role as FSJ, he has to defend all-things-Apple, especially from ruthless attackers like Google. (As a sidenote, did Vic Gundotra just have a Steve Jobs moment yesterday?)

On the other hand Fake Steve is also the Real Daniel Lyons.  One who actually uses smartphones, wants to pick what he really likes and is sick of his alter ego’s “censoring content, ruling out material that he deems to be offensive”.  To the point that he ditched the iPhone and switched to Android.

Now, which Steve / Daniel should we believe?  🙂

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Filed Under: Humor, Technology · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
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On Those Android Superphones Again

Posted on May 21, 2010 ·

vic gundotra Wow, for not being a gadget-blog, we’re spending quite a bit of attention on Smartphones @ CloudAve. Are we turning into gadget-freaks? 🙂

Like Ben, I’ve also received an Android-powered Sprint HTC EVO at the Google I/O Conference, and unlike him, I will be able to use it on Sprint, if I so chose.  As a New Zealander, Ben is out of luck – the Sprint CDMA phone does not work there, so I understand his rant, but let’s make it clear: Google did not ignore international attendees.  All paid participants (we we, bloggers, were not)  had received a phone weeks prior to the conference: US attendees a Motorola Droid, International ones an unlocked Nexus One.

Which is why I was shocked to hear Vic Gundotra’s announcement on the second day that all attendees would receive the next HTC wonderphone (hey, was that Vic’s Steve Jobs-like “One More Thing” moment?).   Since this somewhat invalidates the previous phone giveaway, I can’t help but think that it was a last-minute addition to Google’s original game plan – and that leaves me wondering about the reasons.

I can only speculate, but perhaps Google and Sprint wanted to have a few thousand “testers” for the phone before it’s official launch on June 4th?  In fact not just any users, but developers – but that would make even more sense if they had early access to Froyo (Android 2.2) which is announced, but not yet available.  Both new HTC phones – Incredible on Verizon and EVO on Sprint  came with the HTC Sense flavor of Android, but the EVO will allow turning this off, switching back to vanilla Android.  I will turn it off today and keep an eye for a magic OTA upgrade to Froyo:-)

(Again, this is pure speculation, I have no official or leaked info on the matter whatsoever)

Now, a bit of follow-up on my previous rant regarding coverage.  Phone companies must have decided I live in a corner of the world  – home to PeopleSoft, Commerce One,  Oracle, Workday, Safeway, Kaiser Permanente – that does not deserve good coverage (OK, the surrounding mountains may have to do with that, too) . Getting sick of reading all the coverage map and the surrounding spin, I actually fell victim to the most dishonest map from the carrier with the best coverage, Verizon.  Unlike the others, they don’t indicate signal quality at all.   So now I am the proud (?) owner of both the HTC Incredible (purchased myself) and the HTC EVO (Google gift) and get to compare Sprint vs Verizon in my area – one weaker than the other:-(

And with all that said, my favorite phone is one I can not get my hands on: the Samsung Galaxy S. No writeup or video can do it justice.  You have to hold it in your hands.  I did.  It was hard to let go.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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Enterprise Software Strategy

Posted on May 21, 2010 ·

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Filed Under: Enterprise Software, Humor · Tagged: , , , ,
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What Happens When You Abandon Foursquare…Twitter… Facebook…etc.

Posted on May 21, 2010 ·

Missing | Agent-X Comics

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Filed Under: Humor · Tagged: , , , , , , ,
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NetSuite vs SAP … Round #n. A Game Changer?

Posted on May 18, 2010 ·

elephant-flea In my recent Suites post I said there were exactly 1.5 (one and a half) integrated full business solutions (SaaS Suite, SaaS All-In-One, SaaS ERP, SaaS SMB ERP – take your pick or  create a new one) offered as a service.   The one in that equation was NetSuite, and the half is SAP’s Business ByDesign.

The half is getting close to becoming full, bringing the total number of solutions to two.   SAP’s ByD, originally launched in 2007 was a functionally rich solution already at launch – in fact I called it the most complete SaaS Suite not available customers. And therein lies the rub.  Functionally rich, but a phantom product that only a few selected early customers could get their hands on.  And it wasn’t simply a marketing / segmentation blunder as some analyst thought, it was all about architecture: SAP missed out on the economics of multi-tenancy, and realized they could not profitably operate and scale what they referred to as “mega-tenancy” – so they went back re-architecting ByDesign.

The lost 2 1/2 years were a gift to competitor NetSuite, and they milked it every possible way.  SAP announced entry to the SaaS SMB space validated their market, and their own delay was an open invitation to NetSuite. As CEO Zach Nelson said at their recent earnings conference:

I’d like to thank SAP for being our IBM.

NetSuite never shied away from aggressive marketing (I guess that’s the Oracle blood in their veins), starting from pranks like the SAP for the Rest of Us Party during SAPPHIRE 2006 to staging a shootout at the anti-SAP Conference or releasing edgy videos a’la Mac vs Windows.  But the biggest coup, one with definite gains was the Business ByNetsuite program which we covered here:

The aptly named Business ByNetsuite program guarantees at least 50% savings to current SAP R/3 customers relative to  – watch this! – the annual maintenance fees they are now paying to SAP.  Yes, it’s not a price-to-price comparison.  With the perpetual licence model customers pay upfront, but are still forced to pay annual maintenance fees – with SaaS there is only a subscription fee, and now NetSuite proves it can be half of only the maintenance component of traditional software’s TCO.

Yes, NetSuite took deals from SAP and of course amidst all the chest-thumping they did not particularly emphasize the fact that that these were often divisional deals:  smaller divisions of large companies, often replacing legacy systems as a result of an acquisition with the parent company running SAP.  NetSuite even developed  NetSuite-to-SAP connectors for enterprise reporting, fully recognizing they won’t be replacing SAP on the corporate level.

Now of course these were relatively easy wins when NetSuite was the only game in town – and that’s about to change, as SAP is getting ready for General Availability of a new Business ByDesign in July.  And SAP CEO Bill McDermott fired a few salvos over to NetSuite in his announcement, as quoted by Reuters:

McDermott said he believes Business by Design’s sales will be able to quickly surpass those of NetSuite, which last year posted $167 million in revenue.

“When Business by Design is coming at them like a 99-mile-an-hour fastball, let’s see how tough they are,” McDermott said of NetSuite.

Winning against SAP when they had no relevant SaaS offering was one thing, going up against a functionally strong product will be another.  NetSuite is changing tone, comparing the two offerings, as show by this slide I received from NetSuite:

NetSuite SAP

This must be the first time SAP finds themselves on the wrong side of the David vs. Goliath equation (or is it the elephant vs flea?  – but who is the elephant and who is the flea in the long run?).   I have an issue specifically re. the functional shootout, which was rigged at best.

As for the rest of the comparisons, a fair summary is that neither side is a newcomer.   SAP is the granddaddy of business processes with 30 years of experience, but they are new to operating / scaling a cloud environment – something NetSuite has a head start on them.

I have reasons to believe (more on that in another post) ByD will not be a failure this time around, and NetSuite will have to adopt to competing with a real product vs. a phantom.  It will be a healthy change, with customers now having a choice of (at least) two well integrated SaaS offerings.  In the end, customers win.

(Keep an eye open for the next post on ByD and beyond…)

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Filed Under: Enterprise Software, SaaS, SMB / SME · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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The Care and Feeding of Industry Analysts – Take Two

Posted on May 18, 2010 ·

toiletSome analysts (?) spammers just won’t learn.  I ridiculed this “research report” a few months ago (quoting old post below):

The Care and Feeding of Industry Analysts

The Top 10 Questions The Care and Feeding of Industry Analysts Will Answer For You Include:
1. What are the ten deadly sins NOT to commit when working with an industry analyst firm?
2. What are the typical characteristics of an industry analyst that will enable you to more effectively work with them?
3. As a vendor, when should you be humble and when should you position yourself as an expert?
4. Does subscribing to an analyst’s research improve coverage of your products or company?
5. How is a research briefs created and what impact can a vendor have on its content?
6. What are the three highest-level benefits you can enjoy from an effective analyst relations approach?
7. How can you best capitalize on industry analyst ‘rules of engagement?’
8. Precisely what homework must you do before you brief an analyst?
9. How do vision and ability to execute relate to how an analyst sees your company?
10. During a briefing, how do CEOs, VPs of sales, PR firms and VPs of marketing impact how an analyst sees your company?

The actual report (PDF) costs EUR 316.   Is it worth?  I leave it up to you … but I promised entertainment. Look at the other “research” this paper is associated with:

Customers who bought this item also bought
Chinese Markets for Baby Care Products
Toilet Care Products – United Kingdom
Surface Care – United Kingdom
Chinese Markets for Laundry Care Products
Hair Care in the US
Laundry Care – United States
Long-Term Care Market Review 2006
The Future Of Personal Care Occasions

Wow.. .I especially love the pairing of Toilet, Laundry and Analysts 🙂

I thought I had originally made it quite clear I wasn’t exactly a fan of this puff piece.  Apparently one person did not quite “get it” – today I received an email offer from the original sender to buy the same study, for the same price.

Fuhgeddaboudit.  And stop spamming me, Amy Cole.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Filed Under: Marketing / PR · Tagged: , , , , ,
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OpenDNS? Google DNS? Comcast? Surprising Results.

Posted on May 15, 2010 ·

I’ve been a long time OpenDNS user (hardcoded in my router), but after installing a new router, I decided to run some tests before reconfiguring its DNS settings.  The results – using Google’s own Namebench tool – were surprising.

DNS benchmarks

Comcast wins!  (note: 68.87.76.182 resolves to cns.sanjose.ca.sanfran.comcast.net).  It is faster than UltraDNS, OpenDNS or Google Public DNS.   Surprise, surprise … I guess I don’t have to reconfigure my router after all.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Filed Under: Technology · Tagged: , , , , , , ,
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