Managing power automatically and with widgets on the Motorola Droid X

How you use your Android mobile device and how you manage it's power consumption will determine battery life.

The battery would last forever with one app running, but a phone that multi-tasks many apps and pushes notifications is far more useful. Add several email accounts and social networking apps all running at the same time, updating, and you have high power demand.

The Motorola Droid has a built in power management, "Smart Mode" which by default turns off data transfer during off peak hours. You can customize this to suit your usage.

This function also drops screen brightness when battery capacity drops below 30%

Power management is available for the original Droid by using apps from the Android Market.

Another way the Droid X helps you get a handle on battery life is with power control widgets.

The widget at top comes preloaded on the phone and can be loaded via widgets. It controls WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, data and screen brightness. The screen brightness toggles between auto, full bright and very dark.

The idea here is that you may not need all of these functions at a particular time, each consuming power, running at the same time.

In the middle are separate widgets for WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS that are also included on the phone and can be installed separately.

Using the power widgets can also be used to allow calls and nothing else.

Another useful widget is Airplane mode. This shuts off all data functions and calls. I like using airplane mode when I'm shooting video, as a random audible Facebook notification or phone call can wreck a sound clip.

Although data plans on Verizon are unlimited at this time, there is also a total data usage widget available if the My Verizon app is installed.