I think I’m going to get a single-purpose GPS device for my bike. I’m so tired of having my phone run out of batteries part-way through an event, and then have either no data, or only some data recorded. It happened again this week when I tried to use my Motorola Atrix 4G to record the first day of riding the STP.<\/p>\n
I am extremely unimpressed with this phone. I spent many hours last month tweaking and optimizing it so that I wouldn’t have to recharge it every single night. I have it set to automatically kill every single app as soon as the screen turns off. I also have JuiceDefender set to disable Wifi, Cellular Data, and GPS when the screen is inactive. This makes for a less-than-desirable experience with the phone, since everything is dead each time I turn off the screen. I never get text messages, email, etc. until I manually turn on the screen. It’s pretty sad, but it’s the only way to get the battery to last more than 2 days. It’s more than a little pathetic. It’s definitely the worst overall phone I have ever had the displeasure of owning. After just 2 months, I don’t think I can keep using it. It’s that bad.<\/p>\n
I had to make an exception to allow the RunKeeper app and the GPS to stay active when the screen goes dark. I knew that would mean less time with the phone alive, I just didn’t realize how much less. I charged the phone fully before the start of the STP, then I enabled the GPS and started RunKeeper. The phone died just 6 hours later. I had planned on checking it at the 100 mile point, but it was already dead by that point. I was so upset. I thought about switching back to my iPhone 4, since the battery on it seems to last about 5 times as long on standby (without sacrificing texts, email, etc.), and about twice as long when in use, but I don’t want my GPS to prevent me from making a phone call if I get stranded. I think the real solution is to break down and buy a single-purpose GPS device like the Garmin bike computers you see on so many of the bikes these days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think I’m going to get a single-purpose GPS device for my bike. I’m so tired of having my phone run out of batteries part-way through an event, and then have either no data, or only some data recorded. It … Continue reading