These days it doesn’t matter how smart your smartphone is, when the battery dies it’s absolutely useless. It’s why RIM is so popular with the business crowd, it’s why the mainstream stayed away from the first generation of Android devices, and it’s why Apple iPhone owners buy those bulky slip on cases that have an extra battery secretly hidden somewhere. How are you supposed to find out what exactly is killing your battery without going through the painful process of trail and error, keeping one application on all day, then off the next, then somehow remembering the results? Most people just want to use their phone, not perform the scientific method.
Nokia, in partnership with the VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland, has released the aptly titled “Nokia Battery Monitor” for Symbian^3 devices (sorry just about everyone else) that gives users an incredibly detailed look at what’s going on inside their mobile phone. Instead of the activity monitor that’s bundled inside each and every Android device, which lists the exact applications that are consuming resources, Nokia Battery Monitor simply puts things in one of nine categories: talk, web browsing, music playback, home screen, messaging, GPS and navigation, gallery, camera and other. You’ll be able to look at how you use your mobile phone over the course of a week, and if you’ve got some will power, change the way you use your device so you no longer have to spurt out a long string of swear words at it when it kicks the bucket shortly after you’ve left the office.
Oh and on top of that you also get a widget that you can stick on your home screen that will tell you how much longer your battery will last based on the usage patterns the application has recorded. Talk about smart, all phones should do this!
[Via: All About Symbian]