Monday, October 31, 2011

Android Aeroplane mode

As you may know, Aeroplane mode shuts down all wireless communications for safe[r] air travel.
But there are times when you may wish to only shut down the phone component yet keep the other features (wireless and bluetooth) running.

For example when in another country/location where your phone doesn't work and/or to avoid the excessive battery drain.

I'm currently using a Samsung Galaxy SII with Gingerbread OS. If I go to Settings > About Phone > Battery Usage, I can see that "Cell standby" is the biggest drain on my battery.

To turn off just this feature you can dial "*#*#INFO#*#*" (info being 4636 so - "*#*#4636#*#*" to access a small menu. clicking/tapping on "Phone information" and you'll get a screen which has a "Turn radio off" button. This is the cellular transmission component. Once it's off, you're off the airways, as far as the dialling public are concerned, and saving on all that battery power used trying to talk to phone towers.

You can also install an app called "Any Cut" which will let you make a shortcut to "Phone information" in case you can't remember the dialling sequence above.

hth