Least Battery Drain Verified Again!

In our last post, the Norton Mobile Security - App Resource Hog Widget and the site at Norton Mobile Security - Battery Apps, verified that both Battery Notifier Pro BT and Battery Notifier BT Free have the lowest drain on your battery of any Android battery app.

Now, thanks to an excellent app for measuring battery use called Battery Stats Plus by
Root Installer, we were able to find battery usage stats for numerous battery-related apps that users had uploaded to their website.  We were also especially happy to find that an app we recommended before, BitDefender Antivirus Free, had battery usage of only 0.06%.

We then found the most popular battery-related apps, both paid and free, in the Google Play Top 500 apps for the Tools, Productivity or Widgets categories.  We wrote down the battery usage for each app from the Battery Stats Plus website.  After seeing the list of battery savers when we finished, we decided to add one free app which wasn't in the Top 500 in any category, but which we felt deserved to be included, BatteryFu battery saver.

We felt compelled to share this list, in particular so our Battery Notifier Pro BT users with the less than 0.01% battery use can brag to all their friends who have some other battery app installed on their phones.  BTW, both versions of Battery Stats Plus by Root Installer are also very good, and if you feel so inclined, we encourage users of both our apps to download that app, and then upload stats to the Battery Stats Plus website.

Here then is the list of 57 battery-related apps, 56 found both in the top 500 paid and free apps on Google Play, in the Tools, Productivity or Widgets categories, and at the Battery Stats Plus website.  In addition to the battery usage percentage, we also list the number of permissions for each app, whether or not they have a permission to access the Internet, and whether or not they display ads.  Finally, we list if the apps have any privacy concerns.

Google Play

August 12, 2013

Battery-related apps in Top 500 Tools, Productivity or Widgets categories
Battery usage stats from the Battery Stats Plus website

Paid

Internet	Permissions	Battery Use
	3	< 0.01%	Battery Notifier Pro BT - Shkil/larryvgs $2.19
	1	0.06%	Battery Percentage Pro - Wagwan Apps $1.36
Yes	15	0.06%	Battery Saver Pro - Protutu - An Tu Tu Pro $3.99  L
	3	0.14%	Battery Monitor Widget Pro - fsinib $1.99
	12	0.20%	Bataria Pro - Battery Saver - Jappka $1.99
	2	0.25%	Battery Solo Widget Pro - Pedro Maicas $1.99
	2	0.26%	Battery Widget Plus - JINASYS $1.30
Yes	8	0.27%	Battery Stats Plus Pro - Root Uninstaller $2.67
	7	0.29%	Battery Widget Pro - JH Jeong $1.22
	20	0.32%	Deep Sleep Battery Saver Pro - Root Uninstaller $2.59 A
Yes	11	0.42%	BetterBatteryStats - Sven Knispel $2.89
	6	0.43%	BatteryBot Pro - Darshan Computing, LLC $2.49
Yes	24	0.44%	DU Battery Saver&Widget - Du Apps Studio $2.99  A
Yes	19	0.49%	GreenPower Premium - Binary Mango AS $4.80  A
Yes	6	0.57%	GSam Battery Monitor Pro - GSam Labs $1.99
	7	0.66%	Battery Monitor Widget Pro - 3c $3.88
Yes	17	0.72%	Battery Widget Reborn - Tomas Hubalek $1.99
Yes	17	0.79%	Battery Booster (Full) - IMOBLIFE Co. Ltd $0.99
	3	0.86%	Battery Widget+ - Elvison $1.29
Yes	10	0.86%	Battery HD Pro - smallte.ch $3.95
Yes	31	1.13%	Juice Defender Plus - Latedroid $1.99  A,L,M
Yes	31	1.36%	Juice Defender Ultimate - Latedroid $4.99  A,L,M

Privacy concerns:
A - Can discover accounts and get your e-mail address
L - Can determine your current location and send it
M - Can read your e-mail and messages

Free

Internet	Permissions	Battery Use
	3	< 0.01%	Battery Widget - geekyouup
	3	0.02%	Battery Notifier BT Free - Shkil/larryvgs *
Yes/Ads	24	0.03%	Battery Master-Save power! - Power Apps Tools  A,L
	1	0.05%	BatteryBot Battery Indicator - Darshan Computing, Inc.
Yes/Ads	6	0.07%	Gauge Battery Widget - Tomas Hubalek
	8	0.09%	BatteryFu battery saver - Toby Kurien
Yes/Ads	17	0.10%	Battery Saver - AnTuTu  L
	2	0.13%	Battery Widget - Elvison
Yes/Ads	15	0.18%	Bataria - Battery Power Saver - Jappka
Yes/Ads	3	0.21%	Battery Solo Widget - Pedro Maicas
Yes	29	0.23%	NQ Easy Battery Saver FREE - NQ Mobile  A,L
Yes/Ads	22	0.23%	Battery Dr saver+a task killer - aipopDev  A,B
Yes/Ads	4	0.25%	Battery Monitor Widget - fsinib
	2	0.25%	Battery Widget - JINASYS
	2	0.27%	Wakelock Detector-Save Battery - UzumApps
Yes/Ads	3	0.27%	Battery - MacroPinch
	0	0.28%	Circle Battery Widget - Cedric Depoortere
Yes/Ads	6	0.30%	GSam Battery Monitor - GSam Labs
Yes	16	0.32%	Battery Widget Reborn (Beta) - Tomas Hubalek
Yes/Ads	24	0.38%	2x Battery - Battery Saver - Sam Lu
Yes	18	0.40%	AVG Battery Saver & TuneUp - AVG Mobile
Yes	24	0.44%	DU Battery Saver&Switch Widget - Du Apps Studio  A
Yes/Ads	24	0.48%	One Touch Battery Saver - TACOTY CN  A,L
Yes/Ads	7	0.49%	Battery Monitor Widget - 3c
Yes	26	0.49%	Battery Doctor (Battery Saver) - KS Mobile
Yes/Ads	4	0.53%	Beautiful Battery Disc - Thalion
Yes/Ads	25	0.69%	Easy Battery Saver - 2Easy Team  L
Yes/Ads	16	0.75%	Battery Booster Lite - IMOBLIFE INC.
Yes/Ads	7	0.77%	Battery Stats Plus - Root Uninstaller
Yes/Ads	25	0.78%	GO Battery Saver &Power Widget - GO Launcher EX  A
Yes/Ads	10	0.87%	Battery HD - smallte.ch
Yes/Ads	3	0.90%	Battery Percentage - Wagwan Apps
Yes	30	1.01%	JuiceDefender - battery saver - Latedroid  A,L,M
Yes	19	1.12%	Deep Sleep Battery Saver - Root Uninstaller  A
Yes/Ads	23	1.35%	Super aTool Box-cache battery - aipopDev  A,B

* Listed at Battery Stats Plus site under its previous name, Battery Notifier (Big Text)

Privacy concerns:
A - Can discover accounts and get your e-mail address
B - Can access the list of web sites you visited in the browser
L - Can determine your current location and send it
M - Can read your e-mail and messages

Least Battery Drain Verified!

It's always nice when users simply believe what you tell them because it's the truth.  But what is truly special, is when we completely by accident come across a page that has third-party independent verification from a well-known company with the reputation of Norton Mobile Security.  Yes, what we have been saying now for the past two years is true.
Both Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT have the lowest drain on your battery of any Android battery app for your Android phone or tablet!

First of all, a big thank you to Norton Mobile Security so we could provide these links.
The versions of both our apps that they tested are each slightly outdated, (the renamed Battery Notifier BT Free is Battery Notifier (Big Text) 2.1.6, and Battery Notifier Pro BT is version 2.1.8) but they tell you all you need to know.

The first place to visit is the Norton Mobile Security - App Resource Hog Widget.  If you enter the name of our apps, the App Resource Hog Widget will also tell you about our low memory use, but the thing to look at here is the power rating, which according to Norton Mobile Security is "The impact of this app on your smartphone’s battery life, calculated over time to eliminate discrepancies."  That's right.  We got a big fat zero.  Now we realize you might be thinking, "Well, those other popular battery apps probably have zeroes also."
Our only response to that would be, go ahead.  We want you to test those other popular battery apps at the App Resource Hog Widget.  Please do.  You might be surprised.  :-)

Battery Notifier Pro BT

Skhil/larryvgs Version 2.1.8

LOW POWER - Tools

Power Score 0 - Category average 12

Memory Score 0 - Category average 9

Shared Memory 5MB - Category average 8MB

Effective Memory 12MB - Category average 19MB

Battery Notifier BT Free

Skhil/larryvgs Version 2.1.6

LOW POWER - Tools

Power Score 0 - Category average 12

Memory Score 0 - Category average 9

Shared Memory 4MB - Category average 8MB

Effective Memory 12MB - Category average 19MB

Norton Mobile Security - Battery Apps is another great link to compare battery apps if the App Resource Hog Widget doesn't have the battery app you are looking for.

Enter the name of any other battery app.  (Yes, there are a lot of them.)   Even if you are lucky enough to find an obscure app that nobody has heard of that matches our zero power rating in the App Resource Hog Widget, they will either want to connect to the Internet, have "madware" issues, or they will require many more permissions.  In short, they can't match the strings of 100's you will find for us at the second Norton Battery Apps link.
appview.mobilesecurity.com - Battery Notifier Big Text

Once again, here are the links that verify we have the least battery drain:
Norton Mobile Security - App Resource Hog Widget
Norton Mobile Security - Battery Apps

Now go look up all those other popular battery apps you thought used less battery than us.
Go ahead.  We'll wait...  :-)

Battery Notifier Pro BT Personalization Update

With our 2.5.3 update to Battery Notifier Pro BT, we have tried to respond to many of the visual status bar requests that we have gotten from users.  And you know who you are. :-)

PERCENT SIGN
We've had requests for the percent sign many times before.  However, every time we tried to squeeze in the percent sign before in the space that Google gave us, we were never really happy with the results.  We also weren't impressed with the look of many of the percent sign icons that were out there in other apps.  When we created our own percent sign icons this time, we took our time trying out different things, and made certain this time that they met our standards.  We believe that they are the easiest to read compared to the competition, and we hope that you agree.  We also believe they are easier to read than the tiny optional percent sign that many of the Samsung phones provide, and we think we also compare favorably to the recent updates many of the HTC phones have released, that also include the percent sign as an option.  And the HTC and Samsung phones have just one color and one size only.

NEON COLORS
We've also had many requests for all red or the color yellow before, and we finally decided to give in.  So now if you want all yellow or all red, you can have it!  But we didn't stop there, and ever since we got that one request for purple, we decided, why not?  So now all our Neon add-ons have fuchsia, purple, yellow, orange and red that extend all the way from 100 to zero, so all you users with the new clear status bars can go nuts!  Be creative!  Just remember who came out with these colors first.  Who loves ya, baby?  :-)

ANIMATED CHARGING ICONS
Animated charging icons is another feature that was requested, that few apps have without the use of an extra intrusive overlay which requires system permissions in order to work.  Again, thanks to Dmytro's hard work, there are now five different animated charging options in Battery Notifier Pro BT that require no extra permissions, and which make it easy to tell now at a glance if your charger is properly connected.

We are not done, however.  In future updates we will be continuing to improve and add features to Battery Notifier Pro BT that our users have requested.  We'll get to them soon.  Just be patient...  :-)

New Google+ Page

We have a new Battery Notifier Pro BT Google+ Page for those of you who would like to keep on top of the latest Android news and links that there just isn't room for here on our FAQ blog page.  In particular, since the issue of privacy has pretty much exploded here in the U.S. with the amount of government surveillance it has been discovered has been taking place with U.S. citizens, we will be on the lookout for privacy-related Android stories to post about.  A recent post deals with a massive leak of phone number and e-mails that Facebook admitted to a few days ago.  We warned you about Facebook before, didn't we?

We can never say this enough.  Before you download that next app, and allow some company total control over your phone, check those permissions first!  And it wouldn't hurt to take a few minutes to scan those user agreements either.  And while you are much better off getting your apps from Google Play, you really can't blame Google if you still download "Fart Sounds Machine Version 2.2" after reading the long list of permissions they want.

Anyway, our Battery Notifier Pro BT Google+ Page is a work in progress and will take some time to get followers, but if you would like to read more privacy-related Android stories, know more about "Fart Sounds Machine Version 2.2", and read other Android stories we feel are important to our users, visit our brand new Battery Notifier Pro BT Google+ Page
at the link below and FOLLOW us.

In return, we'll do our best to keep users of Battery Notifier Pro BT informed, as well as giving you all the latest information on Battery Notifier Pro BT itself.  Thanks!

Battery Notifier Pro BT Google+ Page

Battery Saving Tips

Updated: 8/13/2013

Part One - Do I need a battery saver?

Many users who load up their phones with a lot of apps, many of them free, will soon start to see their battery levels start to drop a lot faster than they did before.  Then they will download a battery saving app in an attempt to fix the problem, and many times will only wind up making things worse.  Many of the free ones will want to show you ads constantly, which may drain your battery even faster.  Some may trick you into keeping your Internet connections open all the time when the screen is on, under the guise of saving you battery when the screen is off.  In addition, there are a number of apps out there which are just viruses which users are being tricked into downloading through "scareware".  There is even one which is a known virus which you can still download at Amazon.Com last we looked.

Also, make sure you read our blog post on Recommended Antivirus And Privacy Apps which recommended Clueful Privacy Advisor from Bitdefender.  We had a perfect 100 Privacy Score in Clueful on our phone.  However, after downloading a very popular battery saver with a rating almost as high as Battery Notifier Pro BT, our Privacy Score in Clueful dropped from a perfect 100 to 46!  Just by installing this one app!

Many battery saver apps these days are also just task managers in disguise, which will turn off or stop all apps running in the background unless you specifically tell them which ones you don't want them turning off.  We are certain use of these so-called "battery savers" are why we are disappearing from users' status bars more frequently these days, and then we get blamed when the battery saver turns us off.  A battery saving app we tried from a well known manufacturer had a phone only mode which did this, but even worse, they falsely identified many of the apps on our phone including ours as being "power hogs".

And we hate to sound like a broken record, but it still shocks us today when we find very popular battery apps that want so many permissions.  One we found had over 30 permissions.  Do you really want a battery app having that much control over your phone?

If you want to know how much battery your "battery saver" is using, go take a peak at our post Least Battery Drain Verified Again! and then come back here for a battery saver I will mention in a bit that I do recommend for those users that need one.

Doing tests on our own phone using SystemPanel by NextApp inc., we found that keeping the Internet connections on all the time when the phone was just sitting with the screen on, drained our battery at about 6% per hour.  Turning off the Internet dropped the battery drain to 3% per hour.  When the screen turned off and it was put to sleep, battery use dropped to about 1.5% per hour.  So obviously to save battery you want to keep the Internet off and the screen off as much as possible.  Set your screen timeout to two minutes or less, and you will have solved half of the problem.

We still believe most people don't really need all those extra controls or an extra battery saver app running in memory constantly in order to save battery.  Just do number one in the list below and keep all your Internet radios off and only turn them on when you need them.  However, if you are one of those people who have to be constantly in sync with the Internet all day long, but don't want the battery drain associated with keeping the Internet on all day long, there is one battery saver we can recommend.  It's called BatteryFu battery saver by Toby Kurien.  It uses little battery or memory, and has just enough permissions to work properly.  Best of all, it's free and it has no ads.  It got many one star ratings when it first came out for being buggy with early versions of Android, but the bugs are gone now and the app has gotten mostly 4 star or above reviews for the past year.  If you really feel you need a battery saver, it's the one we recommend.

For most people who don't need constant contact with the Internet, it's easy enough to just make some simple adjustments yourself to save battery, and here are the tips we've found that we believe from experience help the most.


Part Two - Battery Saving Tips

Radios
1) Turn off all radios you aren't using
This means switching off the WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and 3G/4G when you don't need them.  If you don't have an option to turn off 3G/4G, put the phone in Airplane Mode.  Turn off all the apps that are using GPS or location; many of them will keep using the GPS to determine where you are and feed you information based on your location.
2) If all signal strengths are about equal, to use the least battery use WiFi first, then 3G, then 4G.  If you have a strong 4G signal, 4G may be best not because it will use less battery, but because it can download more efficiently.

Display
3) No live wallpapers.  Darker wallpapers are preferable to light ones on some screens.
4) Put the screen timeout or sleep to the lowest setting that doesn't annoy you.  Two minutes or less is best.
5) Turn off auto-brightness and instead drop the screen brightness to 20%, or the lowest you feel it still looks good to you.
6) Get rid of excess screen widgets, or else severely limit how often they update.
7) Turn off unnecessary display animations  (Auto-rotate is OK).
8) If you have Power Saving options, turn them on and leave them on.  The only exception here is if you find your Android status bar is particularly dull and hard to read, then turn the power saving off for the screen only.

Notifications
9) Limit notifications.
Notifications are useful, but frequent ones tax your battery.  Be smart about which app notifications are enabled.  Make sure those apps that are always busy, like Twitter or Facebook, aren't always refreshing with new updates and notifying you of them.  With email, make sure you don't have notifications enabled for every new message.
10) Control background syncing
The more often apps sync, the more battery they use. And there are dozens of apps that sync: email, calendars, contacts, Dropbox, weather widgets, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Google Talk, and more.  Each app has its own settings, so go into each one and set the sync interval for the longest you can stand, or to manual or never for ones that don’t really matter.  Facebook can ignore what is set sometimes and turns automatic syncing back on by itself.  Likewise, Skype and Google Talk like to keep connections open and sync behind your back.  Sign out of them when not in use.
11) Turn off automatic updates in the Google Play Store
You can leave the Notifications option checked to have Google Play notify you when updates are available, but we found the reminders got annoying after awhile, and now we just check for updates once a week or so.  Download the updates when your battery has plenty left, and use WiFi when possible.  Or plug in your charger, and then download the updates you want.  Be sure to check to see if any updates have any added permissions.
Do a scan with Clueful when you are done to see if any privacy issues have changed.

Location, location, location
12) Control location services
This might be under Google Maps - Menu - Settings - Location Settings, or Google Settings - Maps & Latitude.  Uncheck all of the following: "Report from this device" or "Location reporting", "Enable location sharing", "Automatic check-ins" and "Check-in notifications".

Battery Draining Apps
13) Eliminate unnecessary battery draining apps
We still feel the best battery monitoring app to eliminate apps that are draining your battery is the paid version of SystemPanel by NextApp, Inc.  It's relatively simple to understand once you get used to the menus, and it can monitor apps over hours or days while still taking up little battery itself while it does the monitoring.   We were able to eliminate some apps that we previously liked, but which we found were taking up over 3% of the battery each.  Another option but a bit more complicated is Battery Stats Plus by Root Uninstaller.  You can also share stats with other users of the app by uploading your stats to their website.  It can show you "draining apps" which are above a certain threshold which you can tweak (default is 1%).  One advantage over SystemPanel is they also have a fully functioning free version with ads.  However, once we bought the paid version, we think they go a bit too far still pushing their other apps for our tastes.


Things that in my opinion don't matter much, that others say you should turn off:
1) Haptic feedback
2) Vibration
3) HTC sense

Status Bar Number or Battery Widget?

When I got my first Android phone, I loaded my screen with free widgets.  A widget for this, a widget for that.  It didn't take long for me to realize my battery was draining quicker than it was before.  I then bought the paid version of SystemPanel to discover which apps were draining my battery the most.  I discovered that some battery widgets I had, while pretty, were definitely draining more of my battery than another app I had installed, Dmytro Shkil's Battery Notifier.   In fact, Battery Notifier was using next to nothing.  The more I tried other apps with battery levels in the status bar, the more I was impressed with Battery Notifier.  Dmytro would just say it was "lightweight", but since I ran tests with other battery apps, I knew it used less battery than the others.  Fast forward to today...

I can understand why someone would want an app like SystemPanel to eliminate the apps causing battery drain on someone's phone.  But why would you want a battery monitoring app running all the time if you want to use the least battery?  All those fancy screen graphs monitoring other apps have got to be using more battery if you ask me.

And while a simple battery widget may not use much battery, which screen do you put it on?  All of them?  Three of them?  And if you're watching a movie, or playing a game, or texting like mad or talking on the phone, why would you put a battery widget on your home screen out of view, when you could just look up and see the battery level you had left in the status bar?  And many apps that allow full screen will still allow you to swipe down to the extended notification area and tell you the current battery level without having to return to your home screen.

For me, a status bar number makes a lot more sense than a battery widget on my screen.
And since I got rid of my other battery monitoring apps, battery savers, and the fancy widgets, and just use Battery Notifier Pro BT, my battery life has never been better.
I often go for days now without charging my phone or tablet.

For my own battery saving tips, and why you should be cautious of battery savers,
see my post on Battery Saving Tips.

larryvgs

Recommended Antivirus and Privacy Apps

Malware
Just yesterday I was having a conversation with a security guard, and as soon as I mentioned Android, he said, "Do you know there are places you can go on the Internet where all the paid apps are free?  And I sadly replied, "Yes.  But do you think the people that offer these paid apps for free do it because they just think everyone should get free apps?  Or do you think it is more likely they alter it, and then give it to you for free so they can steal information from your phone?"  "Huh." was all he could say.

How serious is malware on mobile phones?  If you only download apps from the legitimate sites like Google Play, the risk of getting a virus is significantly lower to be sure.  However, sadly, I did find a known virus you can still download at Amazon.Com.  

Malware On Mobile Grew 163% In 2012, Infecting Around 32.8M Android Devices
Despite the somewhat alarming headline of the report above, if you follow the link above to a companion story, you will find that "mobile malware affects only one percent of apps."

So what's the real risk?  Well, almost all malware is showing up on Android these days, and the problem is not likely to get better before it gets worse.  And even though only 1 in 100 apps are affected by malware, how many apps do you have on your phone and where did you get them from?  Do you have at least one app from a "friend" who is sharing his app with you?  In that case, I'd say your odds are higher than one in a hundred.  Hopefully using one of the antivirus apps I've recommended below can help our users rid their phones of these risky and potentially dangerous apps.


Recommended Antivirus Apps
Bitdefender Antivirus Free, VirusTotal

With the dramatic increase in malware for Android in the past year, I recommended that everyone have an antivirus app on their phone or tablet these days.  I've tried quite a few of them, and I don't like to put an app on my phone that requires too many permissions, even if it is an anti-virus.  I also don't want them to be too complicated, and I don't want them to be expensive.  I also want it to be a name brand that has been around for awhile.  As you can imagine, this narrows things down quite a bit.  Most of the paid ones from known antivirus companies cost $29.95 a year.  Then I came across a new app from Bitdefender that came out just last month.  It's called Bitdefender Antivirus Free.

It has the same antivirus protection as their Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus, but without all the extras.  If you decide you want the extras and want to upgrade, Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus has a 14 day trial period, and is only $9.95 a year.  Bitdefender has always had one of the best detection rates for antivirus software and PCMag.Com gave Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus their Editor's Choice award this year.

But the reason I really like Bitdefender Antivirus Free is because of how lightweight it is, and because of how few permissions it needs compared to the other name brand antiviruses.  It uses definitions in the cloud, so you need Internet access to run a scan, but it also scans much faster than the others in my opinion.  It also has options to scan storage, and to automatically scan all new apps, and that's about it.  But if you want something lightweight and simple that isn't going to slow down your tablet or phone, this is it.

A great backup antivirus app that also is totally free is VirusTotal.  VirusTotal checks the applications installed in your device against VirusTotal (http://www.virustotal.com).
It will inform you about malware (virus, trojans, worms) on your phone by having your applications scanned by more than 40 antiviruses, flagging any undesired content.  Please note that VirusTotal for Android does not provide real-time protection and, so, is not a substitute for any antivirus product, just a second opinion regarding your apps.


Spyware / Privacy
How serious is spyware on mobile phones?  Well, believe it or not, as far as privacy is concerned, it seems Apple phones are worse than Android phones.
iOS apps leak more personal data than do Android apps

In a study of the top 50 free apps on both Apple and Android, 60% of the Apple free apps tracked users' location whereas 42% of the Android free apps did.  What's even worse is a majority or 52% of Apple free apps had access to a user's contacts and addresses, whereas only 20% of Android free apps did.  But how do you know if you have one of these apps that accesses your contact list?  Well, you could take the time to look up each app on your phone and scroll down to read the list of permissions for each app, or you could use Clueful.


Recommended Privacy App
Clueful Privacy Advisor

For users concerned about their privacy, another app from Bitdefender that I highly recommend is Clueful Privacy Advisor which is also free.  Bitdefender says "Clueful doesn't show you clues based on the permission only.  It provides clues resulted from a static analysis of the binary and the auxiliary file part of the application packet, without running the app, and clues resulted from a dynamic analysis: the normal execution of the app."

AndroidPolice, one of my favorite sites, recently did a review of Clueful.
Bitdefender's Clueful Spots Privacy Leaks, Keeps Your Apps Honest

Many times I'm wary of "sponsored reviews", but in this case I agree with everything that's said.  Clueful reads each app's set of permissions and which SDKs they may be using, but it takes this approach a step further, as each app's activity is checked in Bitdefender's labs (i.e. the cloud), and a detailed report of what the app is capable of doing is provided to the user.  It's then up to you to decide if the app should be allowed to do what it's doing.

I especially liked this next part of the review, which verifies what I have been warning our users about some Android battery apps out there...

"Once you've found the applications that make you shake your head in disgust, a tap of the name will tell you why Clueful gave it the ranking that it did  For example, there is one "high risk" app on the Nexus 7 we used to test the application, and naturally, we want to know why.  Turns out it's not so pretty.  We actually weren't aware that BatteryDash was using Airpush.  Thankfully, we were able to uninstall the app directly from Clueful.  You can also share your findings and publicly shame potential privacy spies, which is actually a nice touch.  Immediately after removing BatteryDash from the system, the Privacy Score jumped by 29 points.  Instant gratification!"

After the first scan of my HTC phone, it had a Privacy Score of 70 out of 100, and my Samsung tablet had a privacy score of 59 out of 100.  I had only a few moderate risk apps on both my phone and tablet, but after uninstalling just the updates to some factory installed apps, both devices now showed a perfect privacy score of 100!  I suspect Clueful therefore only is able to test the apps you yourself install or update, and not the apps which come pre-installed with your phone or tablet, because I've read some not very nice things about the Facebook app that is still on my phone, factory version or not.  But I can always disable the Facebook app again if I choose to.  

As I mentioned in my Battery Saving Tips blog post, I suggest that to save battery, you should never have apps auto update.  You can have Google Play notify you about updates if you choose, but do the updates yourself.  Always be sure to check to see if any permissions have been added.  Google Play will have "NEW" next to added permissions.  If you decide to accept the added permissions and do the update, and even if no permissions have changed, do a scan with Clueful afterwards to make sure nothing privacy-wise has changed.

Also, e-mail me at larryvgs@gmail.com and let me know if you've come across some particularly bad app thanks to Clueful, (especially if it's a battery app).  Even if achieving a perfect 100 is not possible unless you uninstall updates for many of your pre-installed apps as I have, Clueful Privacy Advisor is still a valuable tool to see what those apps you install yourself are capable of.

Getting battery charging or discharging time

With Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT, you can easily find out how long it takes to charge your phone or tablet's battery from any given point.  You can also find out how much time has passed since you last charged your phone or tablet, to let you know how long your battery lasted.

Swipe down to see the expanded notification area.  To display the "plugged in" information, plug your charger into your phone or tablet.  When the charger is plugged into your phone or tablet, the second line of the notification will change to say "Plugged in 0h 0m ago at (current battery level)."  Later, after the charger is unplugged from your phone or tablet after a full charge, the second line will change to say "Unplugged 0h 0m ago at 100%."

NOTE: This "plugged in" and "unplugged" information will be lost if you reboot your phone or tablet, or if you restart Battery Notifier.

1) To get the time it takes to charge your phone or tablet...

Turn on the full charge notification by going into Settings - Full Battery Charge Options -
and place a check next to "Notify when charged."

When the phone or tablet is connected to the charger, swipe down, and in the extended drop-down notification area the second line will say "Plugged in 0h 0m ago at 25%."
(In this example it is assumed you are charging your phone or tablet once it drops to 25%.)

NOTE: As a general rule, to extend the life of your battery, you should not let your phone or tablet's battery drop below 25%.  (A battery that is charged once it drops to 30% capacity will last up to four times longer than a battery that is repeatedly allowed to drop to zero.)
How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries

When you get the full battery alert, DO NOT UNPLUG THE CHARGER RIGHT AWAY.
Before unplugging the charger, swipe down, and look at the notification area.
It will now read something like "Plugged in 2h 45m ago at 25%."
Now you know how long it takes to charge it from 25%.  If you wish, you can write this information down somewhere to compare future full battery charges.

2) To get the time your battery lasted from the last charge...

Turn on the low battery notification by going into Settings - Low Battery Charge Options - Low Battery Level.  Move the slider and set the low battery level notification to 25%.
Press OK.

After charging your phone or tablet, when you unplug the charger the display will change to say "Unplugged 0h 0m ago at 100%."
As long as you do not plug the charger back in again or restart your phone, tablet, or Battery Notifier, this information will remain in the notification area, and when you get the low battery alert at 25%, it will then say something like "Unplugged 6h 30m ago at 100%"
Now you know how long your battery lasted before it dropped to 25%.

If the information text is not fully visible or runs off the edge of the screen,
you can make room for more "plugged/unplugged" text information by hiding the icon
in the extended notifications area.
Go to Settings - Configure Notification Area - Check "Hide icon".

This works in both Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT.

Some free apps aren't free

Two reasons why free apps aren't always free...


Reason #1 - Ads In Free Apps Drain Your Battery
This is a Mac page link, but the study was done on Android and Windows mobile phones...
In-App Ads Drain Up To 75% Of Your Phone's Battery
"Free apps that display in-app advertising are sucking the life out of your cellphone’s battery.  A team led by Abhinav Pathak, a computer boffin at Purdue University, Indiana, found around “65%-75% of energy in free apps is spent in third-party advertising modules.

The problems come when the apps switch on power-draining devices like GPS, the camera or SD card readers.  Pathak and his team found that Angry Birds, for example, spends just 20 percent of the energy it uses on the game itself.  The rest goes on tracking the user’s location and serving location-targeted ads.

Translation: Free apps may actually cost you more than paid apps in the end.

So instead of cheaping out and whining that a $2 app is 'expensive', why not just pay for it?  Because the alternative seems to be that you’ll be paying for it anyway, in terms of wasted electricity and annoyingly short battery life:  Some of these apps can drain your battery in just 90 minutes."

A humble suggestion from the developers:  Battery Notifier Pro BT  :-)


Reason #2 - Privacy Concerns
Giving Up Your Privacy For "Free" Apps
"Some popular 'free' smartphone applications come with a surprising price:  They tell marketers the users' locations and can legally snatch their contact lists and even their photographs, a pair of Carnegie Mellon University researchers found.

Jason Hong, an associate professor in CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, and Norman Sadeh, a computer science professor, studied the 100 most popular, free Android phone apps and found that more than half gather information about users.

They discovered users often were surprised to find popular apps gathered information from them, including their locations, the unique identification numbers of their devices, their contact lists and in some cases their photographs.

Over 90 percent of users are surprised that Angry Birds is getting their location data.  Likewise, users were unaware that Brightest Flashlight -- a free app that turns a smartphone into a flashlight -- collects the location of users fumbling in the dark.

"During my talks, I can actually see people deleting apps," Hong said.

A Pew Research Center survey of 2,254 app users last fall found 54 percent decided not to install an app because of privacy concerns, while 30 percent reported they deleted an app for the same reason.

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris released a report recommending app developers take steps to be more clear about the information their apps collect.

Sadeh said the researchers' findings make a case for clearer, concise disclosures on issues users find most important, rather than lengthy statements that pop up after a user has clicked to download an app."

So in an effort to be clear and concise...

Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT only require these two permissions:
Hardware controls
control vibrator
System tools
automatically start at boot

And we don't collect or share information from your device with anyone.


UPDATE 3/31/14 :
Both of our apps now require three permissions.
To find out why, see: New permission added