Blackberry Connect versus Exchange - Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III General

Does anyone know if the battery life on the Tilt is better when receiving emails on Blackberry Connect versus Exchange? A lot of offices have the ability to connect either way and I was wondering if there was a more efficient way. I currently connect over Exchange and I know moving to BES is a pain but everyone with a Blackberry seems to have rediculous battery life so I'm wondering if it lies in the way it syncs. Thanks

Blackberries have ridiculous battery life because they're not 3G. I have not heard of any battery life difference on the Tilt between using blackberry connect and Exchange.

bugsykoosh said:
Does anyone know if the battery life on the Tilt is better when receiving emails on Blackberry Connect versus Exchange? A lot of offices have the ability to connect either way and I was wondering if there was a more efficient way. I currently connect over Exchange and I know moving to BES is a pain but everyone with a Blackberry seems to have rediculous battery life so I'm wondering if it lies in the way it syncs. Thanks
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Click to collapse
I compared blackberry connect vs exchange on two different carriers with my tilt. I found that blackberry connect on tmobile lasted at least two (Edge) days where exchange sync or blackberry connect on at&t results with poor battery life. I tried disabling hspda and the battery life was extended. Unfortunaley disabling hspda does not disable 3g which is how the ATTWS service continued to connect. I could disable 3g, but that disables Edge as well and GPRS is too slow.

I am using BB Connect because my company doens't allow Exchange sync. The battery life is aweful! I cannot use my phone all day without having to charge it whenever I get a chance. I'm not sure how it compares to exchange sync but if I disable BB Connect I can use the phone all day without worries of a dead battery.

I've defaulted to Edge only and there is a noticable difference but it's still nowhere near a blackberry (which can go a weekend without a recharge and a Tilt cannot).

Is is possible to set BB connect to only connect every 'x' number of minutes? I currently use Exchange but I'm changing jobs and have a feeling they only support BB and I want to keep my Tilt.

Related

horrible and i mean horrible battery life..

so im running dutty no. 3 final rom with directpush enabled as items arrive.. now im constantly in H and my battery only lasts 2.5hrs in H mode.. compared to the hermes this is HORRIBLE! any one have any ideas? i know H means highspeed pda.. so im wondering if thats why.. i kno the hermes switched back between 3g/H..H only when downloading but the tilt seems to be H non-stop.. whats going on?
I am still on the stock rom and mine lasts 20-24 hours on average.
Well, you answered your own question. You're using DirectPush, which forces a constant data connection. You're using HSDPA, which is a notorious power hog when transferring data, and you're now using it constantly.
If DirectPush is that important to you (i.e., if you get mail so often that you might as well be in constant communication with the e-mail server, or if the mail is so important that you have to have it now), you'll need to find a way to switch off HSDPA in favor of EDGE or GPRS.
There's really no other option.
i like to feel important thats why i use direct push.. the job doesnt require it.. but they do require to check at least once a hour during normal business hours lol. i suppose to could set it to check every hr... shucks. why would it last all day on my hermes but under 3hrs on my tilt?
I've never got more than 35 hours battery life, with gprs (UMTS disabled), pushemail, and 1-2 hours of music playback...
The battery life is VERY BAD, my wizard's time was about 50-60 hours with same use...
SuperRob said:
Well, you answered your own question. You're using DirectPush, which forces a constant data connection. You're using HSDPA, which is a notorious power hog when transferring data, and you're now using it constantly.
If DirectPush is that important to you (i.e., if you get mail so often that you might as well be in constant communication with the e-mail server, or if the mail is so important that you have to have it now), you'll need to find a way to switch off HSDPA in favor of EDGE or GPRS.
There's really no other option.
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Click to collapse
I installed Duttys Comm Mgr with a 3g on off switch and when I am not surfing the web I am on edge. It has helped dramatically with my battery life. My job requires "as items arrive" Direct Push. I can go a whole day without charging on Edge.
3G was recently enabled in my area and I do not get more than 7hrs of batt life with DirectPush active. Before with EDGE I was good for the whole day (>12hrs).
HSDPA is the problem not DirectPush.
Twenty4 said:
I am still on the stock rom and mine lasts 20-24 hours on average.
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Click to collapse
can you give a little more detail on your settings with 3g off hdspa off bluetooth on and moderate usage of wifi (less than 20mins a day) and only about 30min of calls i only get between 14-16 hours, any info on how to get the extra battery life would be apreciated
I have 3G, direct push, bluetooth on all day and my Tilt outlasts my TyTN by about 30%. I generally charge every other day with normal use.
well....post ur rom maybe? are u in 3G or H all the time? im constantly in H and havent seen the 3G icon at all..
jakeypoo said:
why would it last all day on my hermes but under 3hrs on my tilt?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When did AT&T enable HSDPA in your area? It's relatively recent to many metro areas, so it's entirely possible that the Hermes was on Edge 24x7 and what you're seeing is the additional drain of HSDPA and not the change in platform.
But if you're only getting 2.5 hours, there's something else going on. You've an app that's keeping it from going to sleep, you get e-mails every 5 minutes or so, or your battery is bad to begin with.
Sleuth255 said:
I have 3G, direct push, bluetooth on all day and my Tilt outlasts my TyTN by about 30%. I generally charge every other day with normal use.
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Click to collapse
Sleuth your running your own cooked ROM for your Tilt aren't you? I loved your ROMS when I had my Hermes.
-McMex
people seem to forget that the mechanism for mobile data is the same as for voice - when you are talking, the phone is just digitising your voice and sending it over the wireless link. Nobody seriously expects 18 hour talk time out of a pocket sized phone, so why do we seem to expect 18 hours of heavy duty data on-line time.
Ok - I know that is a bit simplistic - when you are talking, the data transfer is continuous whereas for ordinary web browsing etc. it is short bursts - but if you are running something which is holding your data link active a lot of the time, you are incurring a similar battery drain to talking - the Kaiser is rated for just over three hours talk time - don't expect 18 hours of push email! And don't forget that the battery drain is simply for running the transmitter in your phone, not for sending the data - sending one byte will consume as much battery as sending a hundred or more - once it decides to send a packet, it is committed to burning charge even if the packet only has one byte in it...
Martin
Just an observation...
I live in the DFW area and my battery life is not up to par with the 8525. I traveled yesterday to a EDGE only area and I noticed a dramatic increase in battery life. Are they related? I dunno at this point, just an interesting observation.
mcmexican said:
Sleuth your running your own cooked ROM for your Tilt aren't you? I loved your ROMS when I had my Hermes.
-McMex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
v1.0 Sleuth General Availability for Kaiser is very close....
jakeypoo said:
well....post ur rom maybe? are u in 3G or H all the time? im constantly in H and havent seen the 3G icon at all..
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Click to collapse
That is for sure your issue. The data connection is not only live, but is being used constantly. Turn off direct push and see if it reverts back to 3G. If so, make sure you are not set to use MediaNet as your primary network. Also, be sure to uninstall the hidden proxy (look for the cab that does this in the Cabs thread).
With direct push enabled, my 3G icon only changes to an H when mail is actually coming in.
On my Nokia N95, constant HSDPA connection too chews through the battery as opposed to "plain" 3G; that is, the Kaiser isn't an exception either... It's the best to fall back to GPRS (EDGE) whenever possible.
PerfAlbion said:
When did AT&T enable HSDPA in your area? It's relatively recent to many metro areas, so it's entirely possible that the Hermes was on Edge 24x7 and what you're seeing is the additional drain of HSDPA and not the change in platform.
But if you're only getting 2.5 hours, there's something else going on. You've an app that's keeping it from going to sleep, you get e-mails every 5 minutes or so, or your battery is bad to begin with.
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Click to collapse
well on my hermes i had 3G ever since i got it.. but it only went to H when downloading.. so ive had my tilt for 2-3 days now and its always in H.. i know H causes more drain then 3G standby and by far G/E ..funny this is.. i disabled htc home and battery isnt to bad... bout 3% drain every 3mins when connected to H and idle internet connection.
Sleuth255 said:
That is for sure your issue. The data connection is not only live, but is being used constantly. Turn off direct push and see if it reverts back to 3G. If so, make sure you are not set to use MediaNet as your primary network. Also, be sure to uninstall the hidden proxy (look for the cab that does this in the Cabs thread).
With direct push enabled, my 3G icon only changes to an H when mail is actually coming in.
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Click to collapse
ive turned off direct push and it still remains H.. ill try disabling the proxy. good call.. will post my results
ok disabled the proxy, turned off push, still have a big H but no more tiny H on the signal bars which means its not connected to the internet but when i soft reset it automatically reconnects.. whats the deal here lol.
ok forgot i had kaiser tweak set to always on.. fixed that, but now im still displaying H havent seen a 3G icon yet.. whats going on lol

Kaiser and Exchange Server

hi guys,
I've synched my device up to my companies exchange server and the kaiser uses 3G to connect the device to exchange. However, i've realised that the battery is severely killed off...can someone tell me if they share the same issue?
I'll get from 100% to 80% in 2 hours.
Do you have any suggestions?
Can i edit/change any settings to make the battery last longer AND still keep mobile web connectivity?
Hmmm...
Me and my collaegues have the same problem. We sync our Kaiser/MDA VArio III over the Inernet using EDGE. Using Active sync over the air in HTTPS. batter is dead in 2 days. Some calls, some SMSs, synchronizing every hour and in 2 days is dead. You can make some configurations like via KaiserTweak Function in user defined timeout kill EDGE/3G, or synchronize every hour or 2 hrs, not using direct push (long TCP conection etc). But in finale, battery can alive about 2 or 4 hrs longer but no more. Battery in Kaiser is little bit ****ty.
P.S. if you are often on the road, always use car charger
its a known problem that 3G drains the battery a lot. you will get much higher battery life if you turn it off when not needed. there are several threads about battery life already
Are either of you on ATT? I have posted several times about losing the ability to sync over the air to my exchange server after a rom flash. I fixed a previous rom flash with proxy settings, but its not working now. Can you provide me with the exact settings for your connection (to the internet) i.e., My ISP or MEdia net? I would appreciate it. Thanks,

Battery life?

Dear all,
With a small 900mAh battery, What is the real world usage time? I mean making up to 2 hours of calls per day does it last at least 12hours before the need to recharge battery and this is assuming that 3G is on all the time. Thanks.
French network technical support say 60 hours with GPS on !!!!
I think it's joke.
Well, I've been watching the battery life on mine for a couple of days now in a reasonably scientific way and here are the early rather speculative results:
With just GPRS and nothing else on and very light use the battery drops from 100% to 80% very fast - less than an hour of light use.
Leaving it running on these settings will run it down to about 20% by the end of the working day - the drain seems to ease off aftert he first sharp drop
Powering up wifi and music for short time doesn't seem to make much difference.
Turning 3G on also doesn't seem to make the difference you would expect either.
So basically I would feel the need to take a charger with me if I left the house for the day, which will probably mean that I have to send the thing back. I've seen the coolsmartphone video review and mine isn't performing anything like that one - I would say I am loosing charge at about twice the rate.
Now the only issues that could be at work here is that I live in a lousy reception area. But could this really make such a difference?
What I would find really useful is a list of other tweaks you can make to cut power use so I can try them out. But at the end of the day it's looking like too many compromises would be needed to make this thing practical for me.
Reception would make a reasonable difference if normal network messages are being sent/received (general scans of BCCH channels, authentication with the network) - i.e. the radio isnt being used for data/voice, and only to keep registered to the network. But during those times the rest of the phone would also be in low power mode, so i would say an absolute max of 5 to 10%.
It would make a significant difference if you are transmiting data/making calls in a low reception area. I would say easily upto 20%.
It sounds to me like if you plan to use the phone much at all during the day you need a second battery. Then that turns into the hassle of how to charge the second battery every night, and i bet the desktop stand can't charge a second battery
My conclusions exactly. Impractical to say the least.
The puzzle then is why my last phone, a Nokia E51 with a 1050 mAh battery, under the same conditions, managed to last 2-3 days?
Is WM6 really that much of a power grabber compared to S60?
moonlanding said:
My conclusions exactly. Impractical to say the least.
The puzzle then is why my last phone, a Nokia E51 with a 1050 mAh battery, under the same conditions, managed to last 2-3 days?
Is WM6 really that much of a power grabber compared to S60?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Short answer - yes.
There's all these power saving features in new app processors like being able to leave the screen on while powering down the main CPU. You can use an interupt from the radio to wake up the processor etc.
Windows doesnt support half of these features, thats why find windows phones save all their power by turning the screen off. Other phones with screens just as big are alot less regimental about turning the screen off at any opertunity.
I was involved in a project once to design a smartphone and it was a really surprising how much difference there was between the windows version they suplied and an ARM version of linux.
I have HTC Touch Crouse and i have problems with battery (GPRS always on and Bluetooth) ... now with Diamond i have VERY BIG Problem. Battery Keeps less than one day ...
The experiment continues.
Disabling "GPRS auto attach" in Advanced Configuration Tool has made a big difference - still 90% after 6 hours now.
Now this is a surprise to me because I thought that you did this when you set the network seek to GSM only and not hunt for 3G. Or maybe I'm getting my GPRSs and GSMs mixed up...
Next step - leave this setting in place and turn push back on. Watch this space.
GSM digitises your voice and slots it into a time divided channel on a frequency, and marks it as voice. On the network side, it converts this back to voice and sends it on the PSTN network (for a landline call).
GPRS takes data you want to send and inserts it directly in the same time divided channel and marks it as data. On the network side the network transfers this onto the internet (or other network) through the GGSN (its essentially a router).
So GSM and GPRS use the same technology. Setting the phone to GSM only, just stops it connecting to 3g networks.
Anyway, when you turn your phone on, the tower tells it its capabilities eg GPRS. This give you a GPRS available icon. When you actually want to send data, you need to 'attach'. This is like logging into the network.
To do that you need to open a data channel and send your login details.
Normal phones will do that i.e. attach, and then go idle. The network will only log them off if they move to a new cell and do not reauthenticate.
Anyway, if you are not attached:
- When you send data, the phone will need to attach first (milliseconds delay) - unoticable.
- You will NOT have an IP address so incoming data can not reach you.
If you use pop3 with regular pull of email, it'll make less difference the more frequently you pull your email - because every time you do, the phone will attach.
If you use PUSH email, it'll make no difference because you have to remain attached (have an ip address) for push to work.
I'm sure most people didn't care to know all that but i'm sure some did!
Wow. Thanks. Impressive.
Let me try to summarise. With auto attach off the phone isn't trying to attach to the 3G network all the time which saves power. But it is also disconnected from GPRS and data networks. However this won't affect push email because it will attach when it needs to, ie when the network tells it that there is mail or I send something out. Is this right?
What about internet? Will the phone automatically attach to the data netowrks when I fire up Opera? Presumably to attach to 3G I will need to reset to automatically seek WCDMA.
moonlanding said:
Wow. Thanks. Impressive.
Let me try to summarise. With auto attach off the phone isn't trying to attach to the 3G network all the time which saves power. But it is also disconnected from GPRS and data networks. However this won't affect push email because it will attach when it needs to, ie when the network tells it that there is mail or I send something out. Is this right?
What about internet? Will the phone automatically attach to the data netowrks when I fire up Opera? Presumably to attach to 3G I will need to reset to automatically seek WCDMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're still a bit confused i think. Ok on a phone you have voice or data. Data covers mail, internet, weather updates etc etc, voice covers phone calls.
There are two distinct protocols here, and we need to talk about them diferently...
GSM:
With GSM calls are sent over 1 timeslot and singalled as voice.
To make a call you need to have a signal, that takes a very short few messages which are sent every 20 minutes or so, or if you move around between towers. The Radio in the phone can do this all by itself without waking the phone up.
If you want to send ANY data (emails, internet, anything) you need to use GPRS. GPRS uses the same channels but inserts data into them instead of voice. Before you can send or receive any data you need to 'login' to the network. To login you need to actually open the channel and make a connection. Logging in is called 'ataching'. When you attach you get an IP address and the network can send stuff to you and u can send stuff to the network. Attaching needs to wake up the phone.
Once attached the phone can go into a sleep mode saving power, but any data send or received will wake up the phone.
UMTS/3G
UMTS is different in that everything is sent code divided. There is no 'login' or attach as such. In this mode all your voice gets converted to data and sent across.
---
With auto attach on:
If you use 3G mode, every time you switch between a 3G and GPRS area the phone will atach (GPRS) again, this will drain power.
Every time you move out of GPRS and come back into GPRS the phone will attach, even if you have nothing to send.
With autoattach off:
The phone will only attach if it has something to send AND is on GPRS (no 3G available or 3g turned off)
The upside is that you save power when you move between cells. The downside is that you can't receive any data from the network untill you decide to attach.
For push email for example you would never end up detaching as it would hold the connection open.
Anyway i hope that clear, but i'm quite sleepy so it might not make any sense lol
That makes sense to me. When I get my Touch Diamond, I'm definitely turning 'GPRS auto attach' off, because I don't think I need it on.
someone1234 that`s really useful info.I guess autoattach off is the best option for me too. WHEN the phone arrives.
Thanks again senior1234. I'm getting there. But this is more complex that I thought so I've gone back and checked what really makes a difference to the battery life.
The big difference for me is having the phone band set to GSM only (phone, options). Disabling auto attach makes a difference but not as much as I thought. I had changed both of them at the same time, thinking that they were more or less the same thing. Sorry folks. Very unscientific.
But if you feel like trying these bear in mind that I don't move between cells very much and have awful reception. I'll leave it to others to explain whether this is important.
HTC told me that with the screen on full brightness and phone turned on the GPS would only last about 2 hours befre the battery died, looks like we'll need the extended battery or several normal ones!
moonlanding said:
Thanks again senior1234. I'm getting there. But this is more complex that I thought so I've gone back and checked what really makes a difference to the battery life.
The big difference for me is having the phone band set to GSM only (phone, options). Disabling auto attach makes a difference but not as much as I thought. I had changed both of them at the same time, thinking that they were more or less the same thing. Sorry folks. Very unscientific.
But if you feel like trying these bear in mind that I don't move between cells very much and have awful reception. I'll leave it to others to explain whether this is important.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GSM will use alot less power, so that is whats definatly making the difference
Why? Well.. GSM uses time division, which means the phones in an area take turns 'speaks'/'listening' with the tower. This ensures that no two phones are talking at the same time, and the tower can 'hear' what was sent. Because of this the power the phone transmits with can be controlled to be just high enough for the tower to listen, but not too high as to waste battery.
The down side of this scheme is that even if a phone has nothing to 'say', the other phones will wait in case it does. This means you're wasting bandwidth - or time that could be used by another phone to send data. Bottom line, data throughput is slower!
With 3G, all phones can talk at the same time. The data they send is tagged with a code, so that the data doesnt get mixed up. The advantage here is no time is wasted waiting for phones that may have nothing to send. The down side is that you need to be 'talking' loud enough to 'talk' over other people sending. This is why the data rate over 3G drops off really rapidly as you move away from the tower.
The disadvantages are a phone far from the tower using 3G will use more power than one using GSM because its having to 'talk' louder to get over other phones 'talking'.
Also, signals that get lost because they were drowned out by other phones have to be retransmited, which doesnt happen with GSM as much.
Yeah 3G or CDMA based channel access methods are a real power hog!
As for Auto attach you would expect it to only make a real difference if you have programs holding channels open.
With regards to low reception, it will make a significant difference because power disipation is not linear. Like all radiation it follows the inverse square law. For every meter distance the power drops of by a square of the distance.
Don't forget, when comparing uptime with other phones, with the diamond you have 4x the amount of pixels. VGA (640 x 480) devices will always chew up more Battery that QVGA (320 x 240) . This is one of the main reasons that HTC and the others delayed shipping VGA devices until now.
If you want longer battery life, you are going to have to stop using the display so often.
There is no way a vga machine can compete with a qvga machine on battery life... when all other factors are equal.
I think if you discount 3G, the battery is a little too small for the phone. With 3G its wholy inadequate.
The screen does make a huge difference, but these screens are more efficient, and HTC have used every opertunity to turn the screen off - a bit excessivly if you look at how fast it turns off when you make a call.
I don't understand why they don't use the iphone method of turning it off when the light sensor shows its dark (in a call).. i.e. the earpiece is next to your head!
moonlanding said:
The experiment continues.
Disabling "GPRS auto attach" in Advanced Configuration Tool has made a big difference - still 90% after 6 hours now.
Now this is a surprise to me because I thought that you did this when you set the network seek to GSM only and not hunt for 3G. Or maybe I'm getting my GPRSs and GSMs mixed up...
Next step - leave this setting in place and turn push back on. Watch this space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've disabled gprs auto attach and set my band to GSM. When i connect to net with opera will it still turn on 3G etc?
nokmond said:
I've disabled gprs auto attach and set my band to GSM. When i connect to net with opera will it still turn on 3G etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good question.
i only use my phone for normal phone stuff ans sometimes for some internet browsing.
should i turn anything on or off?

New to HTC tilt, can someone recomend some settings for wifi use only?

I have a HTC tilt with Ultimate-X2.V11 -23017 unlocked. I got this phone so I could get my emails from gmail via wifi so I would not have to get a new more expensive mobile network plan. I figured since my school has total wifi coverage over campus this could work. I am hearing that the solution is not that simple though since I would have to have wifi on constantly and that would eat the battery too fast, or that I could set some sort of scheduler to check wifi. So does anyone know how to set this up?
I figured that I would use noData.cab to disable other signals but that is only part of the solution.

Froyo excessive network traffic

Ever since i upgraded to Froyo, i am seeing excessive exchange traffic, about 500mb/day if i leave the 3g on.
using tcpdump on the Nexus1, it looks like its exchange active-sync traffic, anyone seen something similar ?
tried switching to not-push email sync, but i get the same results, currently i use APNDriod to turn off 3g most of the day, or my plan will dry out soon.

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