Apr 5, 2012

Free, Ad-Supported Mobile Apps Are Killing Your Battery

Filed under "you get what you pay for": Researchers at Microsoft tested the energy consumption of various apps on Android and Windows Phone (iOS restrictions kept them from testing the iPhone) and found that up to 75% of an app's energy use goes to power the advertisements in free, ad-supported apps. The numbers may not have much of an impact without tying them to an app you actually use, so what about an extremely popular game like Angry Birds:
In the case of Angry Birds, research suggested that only 20% of the total energy consumption was used to actually play the game itself.
Of the rest, 45% is used finding out your location with which it can serve targeted advertising.
The lesson: Next time you're choosing the ad-supported version of an app over, say, its $1 counterpart, you may want to consider whether you're willing to pay extra just to keep your ACER Aspire 5715Z battery going longer. Yet another way free stuff isn't always worth it.

It would need to much in privileges. Jail breaking allows installation from other places, and tweaks, etc. but ad-block requires re-routing the traffic for certain sites, interfering with the DNS lookup. Way out of Jail-breaking's league. But possible on a rooted Android.
Just mod the hosts file.
Congratulations! Another person spreading misinformation out of ignorance!
I don't know what you're on about as far as privileges, jailbreaking's biggest negative is security because applications installed through Cydia and other sources can do as they'd please. Change your bootloader and install Android as a dual boot, or block ads, either way the jailbreak allows it.
As per the original issue:
AdBlocker - Blocks ads in Safari and other applications, does a pretty good job of it but misses some ad sources. For example IM+ and Pandora
Firewall iP - Allows one to block connections to individual hostnames and IP addresses and apps, with easy options for length. (Once, session, always, etc...) I use it to block the ads in IM+ without issue, as well as a few other applications.
Pandora Skip Hack - While it allows overruling the skip limits, its best feature is the fact that it blocks the text and audio ads while listening.
promoted by luckycharms
thanks for the refs. I tried AdBlocker, but felt like it was really gumming up the works and slowing things down (when the opposite is the goal!). Firewall IP sounds ok, except, which hostnames/IPs do you block?
BTW, is your name a killing word?
Edited by luckycharms at 03/19/12 2:29 PM
and block which IPs? Found this, not sure if it's reliable: [modmyi.com]
Edited by luckycharms at 03/19/12 2:32 PM
update: modded with the file linked in the link above. seems to work like a charm! thanks for the tip, CamJN!
I'd trust a hosts file tutorial from modmyi. Worst case scenario it MIGHT block something legitimate, but that's a pretty small possibility. The steps are correct for getting it there, so you're fine on that route.
There are two Cydia packages for AdBlock. AdBlock which I had some problems with, and AdBlocker which I've enjoyed using thus far, and haven't had any issues with. Ensure you're using the right one.
Firewall iP brings up a prompt every time a network connection is attempted. It's then a matter of blocking the ones that look like ad sites and allowing the ones that look legitimate. Generally if an application contacts the developer's domain, I allow it, and if it says ads I'll block it. I'll also block any plain IP addresses. Once you've done this, make sure the application works if it does anything online. If it doesn't, go to Firewall iP's settings and remove denials until it works for you. It's a lot of upfront effort every time you install a new application, but it works well and I think it's worth the effort.
Good luck!
Oh, and no. It's my two favorite characters from fiction. I'd link to descriptions of them but all the encyclopedic entries I find are poorly done and look like gibberish if you aren't familiar with them already.
promoted by luckycharms
Not to get all preachy, but by going through all the effort to block ads, you're denying the developer a paycheck for all the hard work and time they put into making an app and offering to you FOR FREE. Just buy the app and quit whining about the $1. Seriously!
promoted by CamJN
Meh if a dev doesn't want their app stolen/ads disabled it's not hard to detect a jailbreak and refuse to start the app. I've done it before.
@David Nurbin
Uhm... Jailbreaking is a root of the device, with access to everything, including all system files. Not to hard to reroute traffic. That's like saying an administrator of a PC cannot modify the hosts file.
@TechDaddyK Eh, I just leave the app running all night while I'm syncing to my computer (Hooray for Synchrocity) then kill all ads while working with my iOS device in the day. They get their paycheck (much more that they normally would too) and I still keep my Dell XPS M1730 Laptop Battery life intact.

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