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
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
ONE MILLION Downloads!
We are very proud to announce that earlier this month, Battery Notifier BT Free, formerly known as Battery Notifier (Big Text), reached ONE MILLION downloads! If you have followed this blog you would know that we reached 500,000 as recently as February of this year, and we were very impressed by that number. We are blown away by how popular our free app has become in such a short amount of time, especially with all the competition that is out there.
So once again, to all of you who have downloaded Battery Notifier BT Free, or under its previous name Battery Notifier (Big Text), and to all of you who have purchased Battery Notifier Pro BT to enjoy the extra custom features it provides, a great big THANK YOU!!!
Thanks again for your continued support!
So once again, to all of you who have downloaded Battery Notifier BT Free, or under its previous name Battery Notifier (Big Text), and to all of you who have purchased Battery Notifier Pro BT to enjoy the extra custom features it provides, a great big THANK YOU!!!
Thanks again for your continued support!
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Suggested cure for phone problems
Updated: 4/3/2013
Sometimes you may notice something odd happening on your phone or tablet, and our app may not be operating like it was before. Sometimes a simple reboot of the phone or tablet will clear up the problem, but sometimes it doesn't.
Problems very often arise after the Android OS has been updated. Also be aware that while an upgrade to the next new shiny Android OS such as Jelly Bean may be an improvement, many times there might still be a few bugs that remain.
You should also make sure that you have all the latest updates for your phone or tablet. If you have an option to send error reports to the manufacturer, I highly recommend you turn it on and keep it turned on. I previously had mine turned off. After I turned it on, and it sent an error report to HTC, it detected the problem with my phone not reading 100% when fully charged, downloaded a "battery level update" from HTC, and ever since my phone has been working fine.
If you have upgraded to a new Android OS, our app will need to be reinstalled. But even if you haven't updated the Android OS, when problems arise, taking the steps below can often get things working the way they were before.
Doing a clean install:
1) Uninstall our app, and before you uninstall, clear data, clear cache, and anything else you can clear before uninstalling.
2) Check for an option in your settings (it might be under"privacy" or "Backup and reset") and called "Automatic restore" or something similar. This puts back the settings you had when reinstalling an app. To do a clean install you must make sure this option (if you have it), is unchecked first. Then later when you have reinstalled our app and things are working properly, you can go back and check it again.
3) Go to "Developer Options" under Settings, scroll to "Apps" and make sure "Limit background processes" is set to the default "Standard Limit".
4) Do a soft reset of you phone or tablet instead of just a reboot. If your battery is removable, to do this shut off the phone and take out the battery for about 30 seconds before putting it back in and turning it back on. If your battery can't be removed, an alternate way to do a soft reset that many phones have, is to hold down the power button for 10 seconds. (Check the manual for your device.)
5) Reinstall our app from Google Play.
People who e-mail me usually have a wide variety of different problems with their phones. Sometimes the problem is difficult to narrow down. But we need to remember that we are all carrying around little computers these days. And while taking the above steps certainly isn't a cure-all for everything, it does seem to clear up a great many problems and get our app back to working as it should.
Sometimes you may notice something odd happening on your phone or tablet, and our app may not be operating like it was before. Sometimes a simple reboot of the phone or tablet will clear up the problem, but sometimes it doesn't.
Problems very often arise after the Android OS has been updated. Also be aware that while an upgrade to the next new shiny Android OS such as Jelly Bean may be an improvement, many times there might still be a few bugs that remain.
You should also make sure that you have all the latest updates for your phone or tablet. If you have an option to send error reports to the manufacturer, I highly recommend you turn it on and keep it turned on. I previously had mine turned off. After I turned it on, and it sent an error report to HTC, it detected the problem with my phone not reading 100% when fully charged, downloaded a "battery level update" from HTC, and ever since my phone has been working fine.
If you have upgraded to a new Android OS, our app will need to be reinstalled. But even if you haven't updated the Android OS, when problems arise, taking the steps below can often get things working the way they were before.
Doing a clean install:
1) Uninstall our app, and before you uninstall, clear data, clear cache, and anything else you can clear before uninstalling.
2) Check for an option in your settings (it might be under"privacy" or "Backup and reset") and called "Automatic restore" or something similar. This puts back the settings you had when reinstalling an app. To do a clean install you must make sure this option (if you have it), is unchecked first. Then later when you have reinstalled our app and things are working properly, you can go back and check it again.
3) Go to "Developer Options" under Settings, scroll to "Apps" and make sure "Limit background processes" is set to the default "Standard Limit".
4) Do a soft reset of you phone or tablet instead of just a reboot. If your battery is removable, to do this shut off the phone and take out the battery for about 30 seconds before putting it back in and turning it back on. If your battery can't be removed, an alternate way to do a soft reset that many phones have, is to hold down the power button for 10 seconds. (Check the manual for your device.)
5) Reinstall our app from Google Play.
People who e-mail me usually have a wide variety of different problems with their phones. Sometimes the problem is difficult to narrow down. But we need to remember that we are all carrying around little computers these days. And while taking the above steps certainly isn't a cure-all for everything, it does seem to clear up a great many problems and get our app back to working as it should.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Phone/App Compatibility - Disappearing from status bar
Updated 3/31/2013
Since the icons in our apps appear in the normal Android status bar, if you have a phone or an app which has a custom UI (user interface) or an "enhanced status bar", sometimes we "disappear" from the status bar and then our app gets blamed for not working right.
Phones with custom or enhanced status bars know how to reset their own custom features, but they sometimes don't know how to reset us since they are playing by different rules. This is one of the reasons we put in a quick reset option in the Action Bar. Please be aware of this if you have a phone that already has extra fancy status bar features.
Another reason I have discovered lately for our app disappearing from the status bar, is users changing some setting in the "Developer Options" section. Under "Apps" in the "Developer Options" section under "Settings", one option you should not touch and leave at its default setting is "Background process limit". The default is "Standard Limit". Setting it to anything else might have the effect of shutting our app down and wiping us from the status bar if your phone gets low on memory.
Update: 3/18/2013
I notice now that in Jelly Bean 4.1.1, the developer options are all grayed out by default, and you have to turn on a separate switch to even get access to the developer options. Very good idea.
There are also some devices which have some strange quirks. Here is one...
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
Great tablet, and it works great in landscape mode, but in portrait mode with ICS 4.0.4 it does something that is really annoying. In portrait mode it will only show ONE notification at a time, so our battery level number will constantly be disappearing from the system bar at the bottom if you have other notifications coming in. The solution is to NOT use it in locked down portrait mode only, and if you do use it in portrait mode, if we happen to disappear, to turn the tablet to landscape mode to see the battery level number. Like I said, really annoying.
Update: 3/18/2013
The update to Jelly Bean 4.1.1 cures the "only one notification in portrait mode" problem, and puts the status bar back at the top similar to the Nexus tablets.
There are also so many apps available from so many different sources that it is literally impossible for us to make sure that our app works alongside all of them. All we can really do is play by the Android rules, and hope that others do the same. Unfortunately, there are some apps that don't play by the rules. Some want to take control of other apps. Still others want to completely replace the Android status bar with their own improved version of the status bar.
Here are some examples of apps that seriously mess with us...
Any task manager or app killer/manager
In the newer Android versions you shouldn't need these to control your phone's memory, but if you do use one, make sure that Battery Notifier (Big Text) or Battery Notifier Pro BT are excluded from memory management, otherwise the "manager" might just manage to shut us off.
Handcent SMS / Go SMS
Handcent SMS and Go SMS both can take control of notification sounds. If you let them, then our alarms will not work right, and odd things may happen. Fortunately they allow you to turn this feature off and let the phone handle the sound notifications, which is the way it should be.
StatusBar+
StatusBar+ is more than just a custom status bar. It comes with its own MIUI-style battery bar, the ability to change any and all indicators...
When you see MIUI, think of someone laying a colorful electronic tape over the standard Android status bar. Are you going to see us? Probably not. More on MIUI below...
Chargebar - MIUI battery bar
From Wikipedia:
MIUI (pronounced "Me You I", a play on the common abbreviation of the words user interface as UI), developed by Xiaomi Tech, is an aftermarket firmware for cell phones based on the open-source Android operating system. It features a heavily-modified user interface that does away with the Android app drawer...
"Heavily-modified user interface that does away with the Android app drawer" is all you need to know. If it does away with stock Android features, it might also do away with us.
ICS StatusBar
Start by reading the numerous permissions this app asks for. Also note that Avast is reporting them as malware. Then there's the privacy agreement... "We may disclose your personal information such as an individual's name, postal address, or telephone number, ...Unique identifiers such as email address, site user name and password."
Swipepad: Hyperspace Jump
Last time I saw it, Swipepad had one of the scariest user agreements I've ever read, basically saying it's not their fault if you get a virus, and that you use it at your own risk.
I can't say this enough... Please, take time to read those permissions and user agreements.
Since the icons in our apps appear in the normal Android status bar, if you have a phone or an app which has a custom UI (user interface) or an "enhanced status bar", sometimes we "disappear" from the status bar and then our app gets blamed for not working right.
Phones with custom or enhanced status bars know how to reset their own custom features, but they sometimes don't know how to reset us since they are playing by different rules. This is one of the reasons we put in a quick reset option in the Action Bar. Please be aware of this if you have a phone that already has extra fancy status bar features.
Another reason I have discovered lately for our app disappearing from the status bar, is users changing some setting in the "Developer Options" section. Under "Apps" in the "Developer Options" section under "Settings", one option you should not touch and leave at its default setting is "Background process limit". The default is "Standard Limit". Setting it to anything else might have the effect of shutting our app down and wiping us from the status bar if your phone gets low on memory.
Update: 3/18/2013
I notice now that in Jelly Bean 4.1.1, the developer options are all grayed out by default, and you have to turn on a separate switch to even get access to the developer options. Very good idea.
There are also some devices which have some strange quirks. Here is one...
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
Great tablet, and it works great in landscape mode, but in portrait mode with ICS 4.0.4 it does something that is really annoying. In portrait mode it will only show ONE notification at a time, so our battery level number will constantly be disappearing from the system bar at the bottom if you have other notifications coming in. The solution is to NOT use it in locked down portrait mode only, and if you do use it in portrait mode, if we happen to disappear, to turn the tablet to landscape mode to see the battery level number. Like I said, really annoying.
Update: 3/18/2013
The update to Jelly Bean 4.1.1 cures the "only one notification in portrait mode" problem, and puts the status bar back at the top similar to the Nexus tablets.
There are also so many apps available from so many different sources that it is literally impossible for us to make sure that our app works alongside all of them. All we can really do is play by the Android rules, and hope that others do the same. Unfortunately, there are some apps that don't play by the rules. Some want to take control of other apps. Still others want to completely replace the Android status bar with their own improved version of the status bar.
Here are some examples of apps that seriously mess with us...
Any task manager or app killer/manager
In the newer Android versions you shouldn't need these to control your phone's memory, but if you do use one, make sure that Battery Notifier (Big Text) or Battery Notifier Pro BT are excluded from memory management, otherwise the "manager" might just manage to shut us off.
Handcent SMS / Go SMS
Handcent SMS and Go SMS both can take control of notification sounds. If you let them, then our alarms will not work right, and odd things may happen. Fortunately they allow you to turn this feature off and let the phone handle the sound notifications, which is the way it should be.
StatusBar+
StatusBar+ is more than just a custom status bar. It comes with its own MIUI-style battery bar, the ability to change any and all indicators...
When you see MIUI, think of someone laying a colorful electronic tape over the standard Android status bar. Are you going to see us? Probably not. More on MIUI below...
Chargebar - MIUI battery bar
From Wikipedia:
MIUI (pronounced "Me You I", a play on the common abbreviation of the words user interface as UI), developed by Xiaomi Tech, is an aftermarket firmware for cell phones based on the open-source Android operating system. It features a heavily-modified user interface that does away with the Android app drawer...
"Heavily-modified user interface that does away with the Android app drawer" is all you need to know. If it does away with stock Android features, it might also do away with us.
ICS StatusBar
Start by reading the numerous permissions this app asks for. Also note that Avast is reporting them as malware. Then there's the privacy agreement... "We may disclose your personal information such as an individual's name, postal address, or telephone number, ...Unique identifiers such as email address, site user name and password."
Swipepad: Hyperspace Jump
Last time I saw it, Swipepad had one of the scariest user agreements I've ever read, basically saying it's not their fault if you get a virus, and that you use it at your own risk.
I can't say this enough... Please, take time to read those permissions and user agreements.
Friday, June 1, 2012
AppEggs.Com Editor's Pick Award
AppEggs.Com has a webpage that is devoted to the Best Android Apps. They just reviewed Battery Notifier Pro BT, and they have given us their Editor's Pick Award.
Here are just some of the things they say...
"Fantastic app"
"powerful battery manager"
"clean and simple user interface"
"easy-to-use"
"definitely worth your time and money"
The full review can be found here: Battery Notifier Pro BT Review at AppEggs.Com
And to celebrate the news Battery Notifier Pro BT now has an even lower price!
So a big THANK YOU to AppEggs.Com and thank you to everyone for your support!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
New sound notification loop feature
In the latest version of Battery Notifier Pro BT we've added a user requested feature to play the sound notification (for either low or full battery notifications) in a loop over and over and over again until the user stops it. This option is disabled by default.
IMPORTANT: Use this new feature with caution, and only if you will be with or near your device when the alarm will go off, because only you can stop the sound. If you are away from your device and you use this feature, it has the potential to severely irritate anyone who is near it when it goes off. Also, if you use it for a low battery alarm, if left unattended, it has the potential to drain the rest of your battery rather quickly.
IMPORTANT: Use this new feature with caution, and only if you will be with or near your device when the alarm will go off, because only you can stop the sound. If you are away from your device and you use this feature, it has the potential to severely irritate anyone who is near it when it goes off. Also, if you use it for a low battery alarm, if left unattended, it has the potential to drain the rest of your battery rather quickly.
Friday, March 30, 2012
More FAQ
Update: 1/21/2017
For the latest FAQ, go to our new webpage at: BNProBT: Frequently Asked Questions.
Original post: 3/30/2012
Take the default battery off! Would you guys be able to update it to take the default battery notification off? That will bring you a worshiper lol great app
I guess you didn't read our first FAQ. We get this request all the time. Unfortunately, they only allow us app developers to put something in one area of the Android status bar where notifications are allowed. They do not allow us to alter, change or remove icons that your phone or device comes with, and that includes the default battery icon.
I just wish you could have the batt lvl in the pull down menu from stat bar, without having to have the icon in the notification area. Mine is getting ridiculously cluttered, it'd be nice to have that option. 5 stars if this happens!
Yes, it would be nice. However, the status bar numbers in Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT are ongoing notifications, and per Android rules "Ongoing notifications cannot be manually removed from the notification drawer." We include an option in both versions to not use the number in the status bar and just use the alarms if you wish. But what you see in the expanded notification area is required if you want to see a battery level number in the status bar. Beginning with Android 4.1, you will have the option with each app to not display notifications from that individual app even if that feature was not included with the app. Hitting "Clear" every so often to clear out the "event notifications" you get can also help to keep the notification area from getting "ridiculously cluttered".
Lovely app. Only improvement would be option to STOP CHARGING when hit battery HI (say 95%). Then it could be used for battery conditioning!!!!
Sorry, but we can't disconnect or stop the power that is applied to your phone or device from the charger. The Android OS simply doesn't give us the "power" (sorry for the pun) to do that. The best we can do is notify you when it reaches 95%, and then it's up to you to pull the plug on the charger.
I have set the full battery notification in your app's settings to off, and Quiet Hours is set to all day long, but the full battery notification sound still goes off! How do I stop it???
Many phones and tablets have their own full and low battery notifications, so that even if you have notifications in Battery Notifier BT Free or Battery Notifier Pro BT set one way, your phone or tablet's notifications may be set the other way. Read the manual for your device and check to see if it has its own built-in notifications for the battery. See if it has settings for you to turn the notifications on or off so you can be sure you aren't getting a notification you don't want, or a second notification in addition to the ones that are in Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT.
(Some phones and tablets don't allow you to turn their default notifications off. If you have one of these devices, send us an e-mail and we'll try to find a solution for you.)
Verizon Galaxy Nexus Works great, well worth the purchase! The only thing that bugs me a tiny bit is that the blue Roboto ICS color seems a little off, a touch too dark/dim. Are you using Hex:33B5E5 / R:51 G:181 B:229?
Yes we are. For more information on why they are dim and somewhat smaller in the status bar on some devices, please see our post on Automatic Shrinking And Dimming.
For the latest FAQ, go to our new webpage at: BNProBT: Frequently Asked Questions.
Original post: 3/30/2012
Take the default battery off! Would you guys be able to update it to take the default battery notification off? That will bring you a worshiper lol great app
I guess you didn't read our first FAQ. We get this request all the time. Unfortunately, they only allow us app developers to put something in one area of the Android status bar where notifications are allowed. They do not allow us to alter, change or remove icons that your phone or device comes with, and that includes the default battery icon.
I just wish you could have the batt lvl in the pull down menu from stat bar, without having to have the icon in the notification area. Mine is getting ridiculously cluttered, it'd be nice to have that option. 5 stars if this happens!
Yes, it would be nice. However, the status bar numbers in Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT are ongoing notifications, and per Android rules "Ongoing notifications cannot be manually removed from the notification drawer." We include an option in both versions to not use the number in the status bar and just use the alarms if you wish. But what you see in the expanded notification area is required if you want to see a battery level number in the status bar. Beginning with Android 4.1, you will have the option with each app to not display notifications from that individual app even if that feature was not included with the app. Hitting "Clear" every so often to clear out the "event notifications" you get can also help to keep the notification area from getting "ridiculously cluttered".
Lovely app. Only improvement would be option to STOP CHARGING when hit battery HI (say 95%). Then it could be used for battery conditioning!!!!
Sorry, but we can't disconnect or stop the power that is applied to your phone or device from the charger. The Android OS simply doesn't give us the "power" (sorry for the pun) to do that. The best we can do is notify you when it reaches 95%, and then it's up to you to pull the plug on the charger.
I have set the full battery notification in your app's settings to off, and Quiet Hours is set to all day long, but the full battery notification sound still goes off! How do I stop it???
Many phones and tablets have their own full and low battery notifications, so that even if you have notifications in Battery Notifier BT Free or Battery Notifier Pro BT set one way, your phone or tablet's notifications may be set the other way. Read the manual for your device and check to see if it has its own built-in notifications for the battery. See if it has settings for you to turn the notifications on or off so you can be sure you aren't getting a notification you don't want, or a second notification in addition to the ones that are in Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT.
(Some phones and tablets don't allow you to turn their default notifications off. If you have one of these devices, send us an e-mail and we'll try to find a solution for you.)
Verizon Galaxy Nexus Works great, well worth the purchase! The only thing that bugs me a tiny bit is that the blue Roboto ICS color seems a little off, a touch too dark/dim. Are you using Hex:33B5E5 / R:51 G:181 B:229?
Yes we are. For more information on why they are dim and somewhat smaller in the status bar on some devices, please see our post on Automatic Shrinking And Dimming.
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