Ever since I got my HTC Desire, I’ve been obsessed with Android and all the wonderful apps that is has in the market place. But as you all may know, when you buy a new device, it doesn’t come optimized and that is where all the third-party apps come into play. Ive been testing apps for a good two months now and the experience has been really great.

Each week, I will review a new Android application here so you are updated with the best apps that Android has to offer.

JUICE DEFENDER

Smartphone’s suck up a lot of juice, especially the ones with HD screens and EDGE, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi connectivity options enabled to give users the best user experience and keep them constantly updated. Juice Defender constantly monitors your smartphone’s status and makes the necessary changes to its status to optimize battery life.

The app is extremely customizable and allows the user to tweak everything according to their unique needs and uses. Once the user has made all the tweaks that they want, Juice Defender  will transparently run in the background to improve the battery life of your smartphone. The best part of this app is that its full-automated.

Its a feature packed application

• 5 preset profiles (from default mode to full customization)
• easy and intuitive user interface (ads free!)
• 2 home screen widgets
• mobile data toggle automation
• 2G/3G toggle automation
• WiFi toggle automation + auto-disabling option
• location-aware WiFi control (e.g. enable WiFi only at home/work, disable it otherwise)
• battery consumption optimization (e.g. when screen off, battery under threshold, etc.)
• comprehensive connectivity scheduling (regular schedule, night time/peak time, week days/weekends)
• connectivity control for specific apps (e.g. when Pandora is running, leave connectivity on no matter what)
• CPU scaling when phone is idle
• full activity log

Of course not all the features are completely supported by all Android versions and not all of them are free. But buying the application will be well worth the few dollars spent.

Juice Defender can control

• Mobile data and AutoSync - the main ingredient in the recipe for effective battery saving, JuiceDefender can enable and disable mobile data (and AutoSync) for you, following the rules you specify (see triggers below); this also works on Verizon and Sprint (CDMA) phones!
• 2G/3G toggling – automatically switching to 2G only when your phone is not in use can save a ton of juice! (only available on certain ROMs due to Android limitations)
• the WiFi and 4G radios* – other slow but steady battery drainers; why keep them powered all the time, and not just when they’re actually used? The Location feature (see below) is particularly useful for fully automated WiFi management (soon for 4G too!)
• screen off/screen lock timeouts* - modern, large smartphones screens drink your precious juice like there was no tomorrow; it’s important to have a short auto-screen-off timeout interval, but having to enter the unlock pattern/pin every time becomes quickly annoying. JuiceDefender lets you specify a longer timeout interval for locking the handset, thus keeping you sane and your phone secure.
• minimum and maximum CPU frequencies* – knock down on your thirsty CPU’s juice consumption while the phone is sitting idle in your pocket; unleash its full power the moment you start using it (only available on certain ROMs)

* requires UltimateJuice

And then there’s the triggers

• Schedules – the heart of Juicedefender! Let it enable connectivity briefly on a regular interval (every 5 minutes to 2 hours), to let background data sync occur (email, Twitter, Facebook, stock quotes…) A schedule interval of 15 minutes is sufficient in most situations; a longer one is useful to minimize distractions when you need to get something done . Moreover you can choose the times of the day when you want connectivity to remain disabled (Night*) or always enabled (Peak*), and set a completely different schedule for the weekend*.
• Battery – it disables the connectivity when the remaining battery charge goes below a specified percentage; better save these last drops of juice for that urgent phone call!
• Traffic – it keeps the connectivity enabled while there is an ongoing data transfer; this makes sure that syncs (or large downloads/uploads) are completed successfully.
• Apps – select which apps are allowed to keep connectivity enabled (Pandora, last.fm, online radios…) and which ones will disable it (games, ebooks, offline reading…)
• Screen – keep the connectivty enabled while the screen is on to allow browsing, tweeting, procrastination and generally internet-powered enjoyment
• Location* – automatically keep WiFi disabled when not in range of known WiFi networks

*requires UltimateJuice

It comes complete with widgets for your home screen to monitor your mobile performance and toggle events when needed. Ive just started using it and I am quite impressed with the level of control it provides and how efficiently it works. Its working perfectly and I’ve seen a significant increase in my battery life even with the constant tweeting and gaming.

It is a must have app for all Android phones! Get it now, Just scan the QR Code