Ad-driven Apps Killing Smartphone Battery Life

This is a common problem with not just Android smartphone and device users…ad-driven apps are probably eating the life out of the battery and that is why we are facing drained-batteries by the time lunch rolls around. People are reduced to carrying their phone chargers to work everyday and plugging it in in the middle of the day, and then switching the phone or device off before bed. Gone are the days when we enjoy fully charged batteries for days on end. Those were the days when the phone’s sole purpose was to be a phone and a mobile phone meant one that was the size of a water tumbler. Now, it is everything from a GPRS to a recipe finder.

A study found that ads are one of the main reasons why our batteries are dying on us so soon. Apparently, developers of free apps have not put much thought into how to conserve energy when not in use. The study was conducted by a team of professionals at Purdue University and Microsoft. The study also reveals that free apps and games downloaded to Android apps like Angry Birds, Chess, Bubble Bubble and even the New York Times app are battery-draining.

Not to mention that most tech-savvy folks would have at least one instant messaging system installed into our phones; it could be anything from MSN to Whatsapp. If you are anything like me, you would ALSO have Facebook and Twitter running in the background too, so, can you really blame the battery for dying with so many applications pulling battery life in every which way?

Instead of forcing phone users to charge their phones more, developers should be more responsible when they are coming up with the programs. Sure, as users, we don’t mind the ads much considering that the software is free and we also don’t mind seeing those ads because we might see something that we are interested in but facing a dead phone when you are stuck in the jam or in a meeting just isn’t just a great thing.

One of the ways that you can conserve battery life on your smart phone is to focus on doing one task at a time. When you are done, kill the app. Modern people are accustomed to checking and replying their emails while organizing the next day and they could also be looking for a restaurant on ANOTHER app while Angry Birds is running in the background. Refusal to focus on doing one thing at a time can result in extreme battery drainage. Once you are done with whatever that you are doing, kill the tasks and apps…and then put the phone down and come back to reality.

For more ideas on how to make your smartphone’s battery last longer, Yahoo ran this story some time ago, hope you find it helpful.