Y5 Battery Saver

[Guest Paul]

Welcome to 'Paul's App of the Day', where I pick one of my favourite apps as featured app of the day! Today's app is...

Y5 Battery Saver

What they say

Light and fast app which turns Wifi off when no known network is around and turns it on in locations where you were already connected before.

The app remembers the locations automatically. All you have to do is to turn the Wifi radio on at each new Wifi spot.

What we say

Ahhhh, good one this... it's so simple, but it works great. Do you forget to disable WiFi when you leave home? Do you find your battery being depleted by the phone searching for WiFi networks when it's in your pocket and you're walking round town? No more! This app simply runs in the background and notes which mobile cells are in view when you are connected to WiFi. When you leave those cells, WiFi gets turned off. When you return, WiFi gets turned on. :angry: All you need to do configuration wise is enable WiFi and connect to a network once!

Permissions

ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION / ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE / ACCESS_WIFI_STATE / CHANGE_WIFI_STATE / RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED / WAKE_LOCK

Download

View Y5 Battery Saver at AppBrain

QRcode

To use, install 'Barcode Scanner' from the Android Market.



Price

FREE! We like that! :D

Market star rating at time of writing

4.13 (743 ratings)

Version at time of writing

1.5.1

Similar / Alternative apps

Other similar apps in the market generally add complexity. There are other very similar apps, but most are paid. If you're looking to take configurability to the next level, check out Locale.

Suggested improvements for the next version

This app is just fine how it is IMHO... simple but effective! :D

Have your say

Fan of Y5 Battery Saver? Found something better? Just wanna share your experiences? Post below! ;)

[Guest K69]

Sounds good.

I would recommend Tasker as an alternative app.

Its much better than Locale.

And it should be a app of the day. :angry:

[Guest Paul]

A Twitter friend also suggested JuiceDefender as an alternative...

P

[Guest bewA]

Just installed this and i'm liking its simplicity and FREEness :angry:

I get concerned that these sorts of apps do more harm to the battery life than doing it manually :S

[Guest miker71]

cool app, though I think it becomes redundant in Froyo (I can't check though cos I traded my Froyo'd N1 in for a Samsung Galaxy S) ... pretty sure it was in there with advanced WiFi settings "Deactivate WiFi when not in range" or similar.

[Guest dbdkmezz]

A Twitter friend also suggested JuiceDefender as an alternative...

JuiceDefender is great, but AFAIK doesn't turn off wifi based on location. What JucieDefender does is turn off data when your screen is off, turning it on again for a minute every 15 mins (or whatever timing you set it to) so that the phone can grab emails / sync. According to it's own calculator it's currently extending my battery life by around 2.25x, and I believe it, battery lasts for ages with that running. Highly recommended, and well worthy of a slot in this forum sometime soon :angry:

Cheers for the tip on Y5 though, will be nice not to have to remember to turn on and off wifi

[Guest Kilack]

Nice app, simple but good.

[Guest _Mace_]

Y5 is the easy version of auto WIFI disabling/enabling. You can do the same with Settings Profile but requires a bit more "clicks".

Still Y5 is limited to only that while Settings Profile can do a pretty bunch more. I went for Settings Profile :angry:

[Guest Kilack]

Y5 is the easy version of auto WIFI disabling/enabling. You can do the same with Settings Profile but requires a bit more "clicks".

Still Y5 is limited to only that while Settings Profile can do a pretty bunch more. I went for Settings Profile :angry:

I looked at this on market after reading your comments, sounds interesting, though a lot of people questioning its reliability....

I have no problems paying for good apps but with that kind of app the 24 hour trial isn't really enough.

How have you found it?

[Guest _Mace_]

I looked at this on market after reading your comments, sounds interesting, though a lot of people questioning its reliability....

I have no problems paying for good apps but with that kind of app the 24 hour trial isn't really enough.

How have you found it?

There is a Lite version available too, which only allows 1 profile but gives you a good idea of what the app can do.

I tried it out after reading a post mentioning it on XDA a while ago.

An example how I use settingsprofile:

When I put my Desire in my Cardock a profile is started to switch on Bluetooth.

I have another profile looking at Bluetooth connection with my Parrot car kit. (which is connected now with the previous profile).

This starts my music application and plays over BT to my car audio.

When I remove my phone from the cardock, Bluetooth is disabled and the music stops playing. The music app remembers the last song and position.

edit: Just reading the comments there now and I really have no idea why they are so negative. The app works flawless, even the last version.

Edited July 16, 2010 by _Mace_

[Guest Noonski]

The Wifi Location function on Ultimate Juice isn't that precise and takes some times to go down from the initial 1000m Radius.

It sometimes even makes the radius bigger.

I tried Tasker a few weeks ago but it kept crashing on me trying to add tasks :D

Currently I just have Wifi of as it looks to suck more power then APN ATM.

But i will sure give Y5 a spin to compare to the Ultimate Juice Defender function for this.

I also found that setting up Settings Profile Free was a bit less user friendly.

I even went for a bike ride away from my Cell >500M but it did not kill the Wifi, but it might also be i set it up wrong :angry:

Edited July 16, 2010 by Noonski

[Guest Paul]

Yeah, I installed this on the missus' Nexus One. She doesn't need all the stuff the other apps provide, she just wants to save battery away from the house. :angry:

P

[Guest RatSon]

JuiceDefender is great, but AFAIK doesn't turn off wifi based on location. What JucieDefender does is turn off data when your screen is off, turning it on again for a minute every 15 mins (or whatever timing you set it to) so that the phone can grab emails / sync. According to it's own calculator it's currently extending my battery life by around 2.25x, and I believe it, battery lasts for ages with that running. Highly recommended, and well worthy of a slot in this forum sometime soon :angry:

Cheers for the tip on Y5 though, will be nice not to have to remember to turn on and off wifi

Juice Defender DO have a location trigger which enables/disables your wifi based on location, and this works really well with all other scheduler/night/... etc triggers it has.

AFAIK Location trigger is only available in Ultimate Juice which is well worth to pay for.

[Guest de_shepherd]

When does Y5 turn off Wifi ... is it

- when it loses contact with a base station which is associated with a known wifi location

- or when it switches to a base station which isn't associated with wifi use?

Issues is that mobile coverage is a bit patchy in my house at times so if it toggles wifi off/on every time it lose/regains mobile connection then this wouldn't work for me ... otherwise sounds an excellent app. (I seem to recall reading about this when I was researching buying a Pulse 6 months ago but it had completely slipped my mind until reading this today!)

[Guest Paul]

- or when it switches to a base station which isn't associated with wifi use?

That one. :angry:

P

[Guest Yod-b]

and does anyone know about an app which turns 3g to less battery hungry 2g when the screen is off? i kinda like the push features of the phone, so juicedefender is not the perfect app, cause it switches net access totally but this 3g/2g thing seems to be a good compromise.

[Guest de_shepherd]

That one. :angry:

P

Great ... I'll give it a spin as it seems to do exactly what I need (i.e. switch wifi on when I'm at home and off elsewhere)

[Guest Paul]

Heh, we heated it up! :angry:

P

[Guest Kilack]

wonder what the count was before you posted about it...

careful with the power you wield :angry:

[Guest Kilack]

and does anyone know about an app which turns 3g to less battery hungry 2g when the screen is off? i kinda like the push features of the phone, so juicedefender is not the perfect app, cause it switches net access totally but this 3g/2g thing seems to be a good compromise.

oooh that seems like a good idea too......

Edited July 17, 2010 by Kilack

[Guest Paul]

If the handover is seamless and instant that does sound like a good idea indeed! Wonder how that would work when a call was coming in tho?

P

[Guest appelflap]

LOL, another app I was looking for when using WinMo.... Thanks again. Please keep us up to date. I like your picks.

[Guest mrsimes]

Hi there,

I've installed this app on my HTC Desire as it sounded really good, however, I found that it's not able to enable or disable the wifi whilst the phone is in "standby" ie locked with display off (in pocket).

I set it up at work (with wifi), and then wandered out for lunch. 15 minutes into my journey (a good way from the office), I popped the phone out of my pocket and unlocked it and wifi was still enabled. I then went into the system settings->wireless & networks and as I did this, the tick disappeared from wifi and the wifi was turned off. I put the phone back in my pocket and headed back to work. Put the phone on my desk and left it 10 minutes. When I unlocked it, wifi was disabled, until I then went into the settings, where it woke up again.

I thought this was a fault of the app, so I installed wapdroid which is essentially the same thing, however that exhibits identical behaviour.

I've tried it all over the place this weekend and it only ever toggles the wifi when the phone is unlocked and never whilst it's in standby.

Any ideas why this would be?

Simon

[Guest subvertbeats]

Hi there,

I've installed this app on my HTC Desire as it sounded really good, however, I found that it's not able to enable or disable the wifi whilst the phone is in "standby" ie locked with display off (in pocket).

I set it up at work (with wifi), and then wandered out for lunch. 15 minutes into my journey (a good way from the office), I popped the phone out of my pocket and unlocked it and wifi was still enabled. I then went into the system settings->wireless & networks and as I did this, the tick disappeared from wifi and the wifi was turned off. I put the phone back in my pocket and headed back to work. Put the phone on my desk and left it 10 minutes. When I unlocked it, wifi was disabled, until I then went into the settings, where it woke up again.

I thought this was a fault of the app, so I installed wapdroid which is essentially the same thing, however that exhibits identical behaviour.

I've tried it all over the place this weekend and it only ever toggles the wifi when the phone is unlocked and never whilst it's in standby.

Any ideas why this would be?

Simon

Even more problematic for me is that it disregards any manual toggling of wifi.

If you disable wifi manually, Y5 will just immediately re-enable it (assuming you're in range of a hotspot it knows).

[Guest shadwell_lad]

and does anyone know about an app which turns 3g to less battery hungry 2g when the screen is off? i kinda like the push features of the phone, so juicedefender is not the perfect app, cause it switches net access totally but this 3g/2g thing seems to be a good compromise.

exactly what I am looking for