Newton tracker app for Android

[mir]

Hi John,
I recently bought a GPS tracker key for my PP and as part of buying this key I received an Android App named Newton Tracker and I was supposed to test this app today but the experience was not pleasant since the the app in less than 40 minutes completely drained my phone's battery - 90% power when starting the app. Under normal usage 90% power should be enough for 40-48 hours operation so 40 minutes is a dramatically power draw. I did notice when installing it that my phone notified me that the app was developed for a previous version of Android and might not function as expected - which is an understatement. My phone uses Android 10 which is not even the current version of Android - current stable is Android 11. I no for a fact that as of Android 9 Google introduced a completely new power save mode which is not compatible with apps developed for Android version < 9 so this could be the case.

To some it all up: If the app drains the battery of the phone in less than 40 minutes it is useless in its current state and should have an immediately major upgrade.
Regards Michael.

[Velocomp]

The NT app has been available for about 10 years now. This is the first report ever of a battery life problem, and I see no reason why the NT app should cause such a severe battery drain.

It is impossible for us to "chase" OS upgrades from Android/Apple; doing so would eat up all of our development resources, yet provide no meaningful benefit for our customers.

If you are convinced that the NT app is causing problems, I would uninstall the app and see if your battery life recovers. If so, then contact technicalsupport@velocomp.com for a refund of your key.

[mir]

Hi John,
I might should have been more precise. The problem is not cause by installing the app the problem is when click on the start button, eg when the app is recording your position via gps. Could you tell which versions of Android you have tried the app on?

[Velocomp]

Hi John,
I might should have been more precise. The problem is not cause by installing the app the problem is when click on the start button, eg when the app is recording your position via gps. Could you tell which versions of Android you have tried the app on?

I personally use iOS. We know someone who has Android 10, so we will see how NT works with this phone.

I don't know what versions of Android our customers use, but yours is the first report in 10 years, so this would appear to be an uncommon problem.

[mir]

I personally use iOS. We know someone who has Android 10, so we will see how NT works with this phone.

I don't know what versions of Android our customers use, but yours is the first report in 10 years, so this would appear to be an uncommon problem.

I have had the app running now for an hour (not riding of course ) and the app itself (or the OS) reports 2% battery usage so I am beginning to think it might be a problem with the phones built-in GPS device. I live near Scandinavia's largest airport and I have seen before when the humidity is high that the radars in the airport sort of jams gps devices eg. making them very unstable and therefore continuously hunt for gps signals. I have another ride Thursday with the club an this day the whether report shows clear sky and low humidity. I will report back.

[Velocomp]

Hi John,
I might should have been more precise. The problem is not cause by installing the app the problem is when click on the start button, eg when the app is recording your position via gps. Could you tell which versions of Android you have tried the app on?

We just checked with Android 10 running NT. After 1 hour the battery drain was about 3%; however, this user was also running Bluetooth headphones and a music app.

Something else is likely going on with your phone.

[mir]

We just checked with Android 10 running NT. After 1 hour the battery drain was about 3%; however, this user was also running Bluetooth headphones and a music app.

Something else is likely going on with your phone.

Yep, seems to be an observation identical to what I described in my latest post

[mir]

Hi John,

Found the problem
The problem was mainly due to temperature and packing my mobile differently. I recently bought a new top tube bag and the first time I used it was with the newton tracker running. Before I had my mobile in the back pocket of my jersey but it was placed in the new top tube bag and since the temperature was between -2 and 2 degrees Celsius the drain on my phone was extremely high. Putting it back into the pocket of my jersey and battery drain was back to normal Sorry for the noise.