Hack your Android Phone: Increase your Battery Life
Overclock your phone
If you want to eek out every last bit of power from your phone then you need to overclock it. Overclocking is the act of telling the processor to run at a faster speed than it was initially intended to and you can often gain 10%-15% extra speed without any problems. Download and install SetCPU from the Play Store. Under the Main settings you’ll see the maximum and minimum possible speeds (you will need to be running a ROM that supports overclocking). Just move the sliders to your desired speeds and tick the Set on Boot option. Use small steps at first to find the setting that is best for your needs.
Get longer battery life
The latest breed of dual and quad core processors in our Android phones do a good job of power management but you can squeeze a little more power out of your phone’s battery by taking the multi-core management into your own hands. CPU Sleeper Dual Core and CPU Sleeper Quad Core are two apps that shut down the extra cores when the device is in standby mode and they aren’t needed. Some processors will handle this by default, so your results may vary.
Force Chrome into desktop mode
Chrome is a fantastic browser but it has one serious limitation – there’s no global setting to force the app to always download the desktop version of a website. On a tablet such as the Nexus 7 this is especially annoying. There is a simple fix: create a blank file called chrome-command-line (make sure there’s no file extension) and drop it into the /data/local/ folder. Then use ES File Explorer with root access turned on to change the permissions of that file (tap and hold on the file and select Details) to RWE RE RE. A quick restart will finish the job.
Remove bloatware
Almost all Android phones come with a boatload of additional apps installed, some that you use, and usually plenty that you don’t. If your phone is rooted you can blitz those unwanted apps. Get the Titanium Backup app from the Play Store, view your full list of apps and identify the ones you want to remove. By tapping and holding on the app name you can choose to Freeze the app – this prevents it from running and removes it from the app drawer – or to uninstall it. Freezing is the best first step, if only to ensure there are no adverse side effects. Note that if you choose to freeze or remove the launcher, such as TouchWiz on a Samsung phone, you will need to have another launcher installed, or your phone won’t boot. To be on the safe side make sure you’ve got a Nandroid backup to roll back to.
Speed up boot time
When you turn on your phone many handsets will scan the system for new media content that has been added. It speeds up your access to that media but slows down the boot process. The app Rescan Media ROOT prevents media from being scanned at boot, which in turn enables your phone to start up quicker. You need to be rooted for it to work, and remember that your media apps will have to scan for new content when you open them.
