Battery drain on the Samsung Jack

I’ve been having trouble recently with the battery life on my Samsung Jack. I have narrowed it down to a few culprits, and the answer is likely a combination of the following:

• Exchange Server patches at corporate HQ: it now allows for “real-time” push emails. I used to have this set to sync every 10 minutes. I didn’t expect there to be this much drain given that i used to sync more frequently manually anyway.

• Overclocking: I use an application called Omapclock to increase the processor speed from 252MHz (stock) to 276MHz when I need to do some serious work. This would be my number one pick for the cause of the drain if it wasn’t for the fact that I have been doing this for a while and only now is the power leak evident.

• Flexmail and Pocket Informant running constantly in the background: my most recent reorganization kick led to the installation of these two programs, and I keep them up in the bakground for the better part of the day. They’re not actively performing any functions, but the sense is that processes are still running that could cause a slight drain to the battery, however minimal (I’m not sure how much I believe that, but I’m not eager enough to investigate further).

• Smarttoolkit: This is a small application that runs on top of the regular today theme and gives you a ‘Start’ button functioning similar to how you would expect on a desktop. I’ll write up more about the utility of this in another post, but right now it’s worth mentioning as another potential culprit as it is the latest application to be added to the arsenal.

Fortunately, I have a second OEM battery as a backup, but I don’t have any meaningful way to charge it other than through the device. That means I have to somehow charge two batteries at night by swapping out, which also resets my phone minute tracker. Dilemmas.

I will continue to monitor this and troubleshoot as the annoyance level escalates. If you have any thoughts, I’m open to hearing them…

PSp

Productivity on your smartphone in transit

I find myself in transit for 12.5% of my conscious day. That’s a lot of time spent on a train, in a bus, or in a car. Some days I can’t help but close my eyes and daydream of more pleasant things. (Not usually while driving.) Other days I make the most of my commuting time by knocking off a few tasks directly with my phone. What, besides email, do I usually do? In no particular order:

• Back fill the rest of my day in my calendar. We track time for billing purposes at work, so it helps to keep this logged so it’s a straight transfer at the end of the week.

• Create tasks from emails. A combination of Flexmail and Pocket Informant allows you to do this quite easily by copying the body of regular text-based messages into the notes portion of your task to give you context. The only gripe is how many embedded menus you have to scroll through to get there. I have a quick snapshot of how below:

Screenshot of how to create a task from an email in Flexmail

• Organize inbox. Messages can be moved and filed very easily, even with the native Outlook mobile application.

• Backup my phone. It’s good to do this once in a while, particularly on the windows mobile platform. I’d be lying if I said I’ve never had my device lock up on me to the point that a hard reset was in order. With that said, the WM Standard (non-touchscreen) variants are far more stable than the Pocket PCs.

• Create meeting agendas. I’m in meetings for more than 50% of my work day, and I end up running half of those. Word processing on your mobile devices isn’t great on a 2.4″ screen, but it’s sufficient for simple things like meeting agendas or simple notes.

• Listen to podcasts. Ok, I know this one doesn’t necessarily imply productive work, but it is if you listen to more educational casts like TedTalks or GTD virtual study group.

I can do all of these things directly from the Samsung Jack, although the podcasts are much better suited for the iPod Touch. Some of these activities take longer than others. I’m planning on commenting about the platform and processor issues (i.e. it can be slow!) in a future post.

The list above isn’t comprehensive, so I’ll keep adding to it as other ideas come up. And of course, contributions are welcome…

PSp