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cnet
The culprit for this, it turns out, is a couple of "phone services"
baked into the Android OS. They have no business on a tablet, but there
they are, sapping the battery unnecessarily. (I'm referring to Android 2.3 and earlier; I'm not sure if 3.0 and/or 4.0 solve this problem. If you are, leave a comment!)
I arrived at this conclusion with the help of Dave Vinzant, owner of N2Acards, a nifty microSD card that quickly and easily turns Nook Color tablets into Android tablets.
His earlier version of the card, which is based on the popular
CyanogenMod, included the aforementioned phone services. And, sure
enough, the Nook Color, which has champion battery life when running the
Nook OS, barely lasted two days with the N2Acard installed.
The new version, however, strips the Android phone services, and now the Nook Color delivers that same great standby time.
With
some helpful instructions from Dave, I removed the phone services from a
Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi, and the results were similar: vastly improved
battery life. Your mileage may vary, of course, but if you own an
Android-powered tablet, I think this is definitely worth a try. (Side
benefit: the tablets start up and shut down faster, too.)
First
note of caution: this requires rooting your tablet. If you don't know
how, search for instructions in Google. For the Galaxy Tab, I found a very helpful YouTube video from theunlockr.com. There should be similar videos and tutorials for just about every other model.
Second:
if these instructions seem the least big vague, don't attempt this.
Monkeying with Android system files can seriously hose your tablet,
especially if you don't know what you're doing.
- To get started, you'll need to install File Expert on your tablet; it's available for free from Android Market.
- Run File Expert, making sure to allow Superuser access.
- Tap Menu, Settings, File Explorer Settings, and enable Root Explorer.
- Navigate to the /data/data folder (see above), then locate com.android.phone.
- Tap and hold on com.android.phone, then choose File Operations, Delete.
- Navigate back to the top-level directory (/), then go to system/app.
- Tap the tablet's Menu button, then choose Mount, Mount as Read Write.
- Scroll down until you find Phone.apk, tap and hold it, then choose File Operations, Delete.
- Power off your tablet, then restart it.
That's it! When
your tablet restarts, its phone services should be gone, and you should
notice much better battery life, especially when the tablet is idle.
If you're able to try this on a model other than the Galaxy Tab and Nook Color, hit the comments and let me know how it went.
By the way, if you're looking for a way too boost battery life on your Android phone, check out JuiceDefender.
thx
cnet
You willingly succumb to the seductive siren call of coffee, but all that bean shopping, grinding, and espresso machine twiddling is getting tiresome.
Never fear. Your morning pick-me-up is about to get a lot more portable when the caffeine-packing AeroShot hits the market in a few months.
Each AeroShot is about the size of a tube of lipstick and contains 100 milligrams of caffeine in the form of a fine powder. You can get between six and eight lime-flavored puffs from each cartridge. It's a little bit of molecular gastronomy in your pocket.
David Edwards, a professor at Harvard University, is the inventor of the AeroShot. He has already worked on off-the-wall projects like edible bottles and breathable chocolate. That makes the AeroShot a natural next step for him and his company, Breathable Foods.
I know what you're thinking. Can I snort the AeroShot? Well, you won't get the answer from me. If you try it, I don't want to hear about it.
Each AeroShot is expected to sell for $2.99. At least that's cheaper than a Starbucks Venti half-caf caramel macchiato. You'll also save about 300 calories.
The AeroShot's biggest selling points are its portability and strangeness factor. A cup of coffee might be cheaper, but you can't sneak it past the TSA and it won't make your friends say, "Cool, dude!" like an AeroShot will.
