soren wrote:This is suspicious. Do you know why it does that? I can't think of how turning on WiFi/GPS has anything to do with power saving.
According to the writeup at the store and on the Xiam website the app uses WiFi and GPS for different reasons that seam to make sense. As mentioned, it learns your usage patterns and tries to connect with WiFi whenever possible because that uses much less juice than 2g or 3g. The algorithm it uses is set to always prefer that signal and to turn off data whenever possible. In order to have a smooth transition from data to WiFi the app turns turns it on whenever you're in the vicinity of a known access point. Then as you leave and the signal weakens it instantly turns data back on, so there is no interruption. It only turns on GPS briefly to get an exact fix.
The only reason these are annoyances for me is that most of my WiFi access points are at public establishments like Starbucks, the library, and MacDonalds. All of them require some form of manually accepting their terms on a landing page, so my handset can't connect automatically like it can when I'm in someone's home.
The problem is the app isn't smart enough to know this. So if I go to a buddy's house and the WiFi turns on and data cuts off it's no big deal, I can seamlessly stream or surf without missing a beat. But if I'm listening to Pandora while I walk towards my Starbucks, I've got to keep the WiFi turned off until I'm fully in range so it won't cut off the data before I've had a chance to log in. As a corollary, if I'm connected to WiFi my phone is setup to use internet calling with T-Mobile, but if there are too many other patrons there sharing the bandwidth, the calls get choppy and unlistenable.
So there are times when it's crowded that I have to stay on data or maybe miss an important call. The app doesn't know this is the case. It just knows I'm in range of an access point and tries to connect to save battery. It will keep trying as long as I'm in range every half hour or so. These are the times it gets annoying
It's a minor inconvenience, however. It's been a month since I installed it and my battery life keeps getting better. Prior to installing the longest I went without needing a charge was 10 hours of very light use, 4 of moderate use, and 2 of heavy use. Yesterday I got 14 hours. Thats a 40% improvement!
Like I said these are only minor annoyances I'll gladly accept for the increase in uptime.