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APPraisal and APPrisal: Carat
- July 2, 2012
- on 7/2/2012
- MoJo: Amanda Haddaway
If you’re having battery performance problems with your iPhone, you will want to download a new free app called Carat. The app, developed by the AMP Lab at UC Berkeley, collects data about the programs that are running on your iPhone and then creates reports about changes you can make to increase battery life on your device.
The app interface is pretty simplistic, but it does what it’s intended to do. There are four main screens – My Device, Actions, Hog Report and Bug Report. The first screen provides information including average battery life and the amount of memory currently being used. This screen is primarily informational about your device. The actions screen shows users how they can make their battery last longer and how much improvement will result from each suggested action on the list.
The bug and hog reports are somewhat similar. The bug report lists apps that use a lot of energy on your device, as well as a small number of other devices that are being monitored by Carat. Sometimes this is the result of an app not functioning properly and a restart for that particular app is advised. The hog report is similar in that it also reports apps that use a lot of battery life, but these apps are being used by a larger population of Carat users.
The data collected is anonymous, according to the app designers, so users shouldn’t be concerned about their personal information being shared or made available to other Carat users.
Don’t expect to download this app and get instant results. During my test, it took about a week for results to populate on the actions screen and in the reports.
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