App Review: BatteryBooster and MemoryBooster

Undisputed · Thread Author #1 04-28-2009, 04:50 PM

Last Friday I decided I was going to purchase some new applications for my BlackBerry. I've probably spent over $150 on BlackBerry applications so far and one of my biggest mistakes is that I don't ever use the trial option, I know I'm a ***** for not doing so. I read the product description check out some reviews on here and a few other sites and if the reviews are positive I get the application.

Well, on Friday I was checking out some apps and saw the BatteryBooster application for $9.99. I tend to run out of battery often so I figured this would be a good solution for me. Well once I selected the app I saw that I could get the MemoryBooster with the BatteryBooster for only $13.99. I don't really have a problem with my memory, even though I run a lot of apps, I decided to pick it up as well.

The installation for both programs was very simple. I downloaded the zip files ran the app loader and viola both apps were installed.

Now, I was disappointed with both applications by Saturday. Firstly, for the BatteryBooster I did not see any increase in battery life, my battery life actually decreased faster with even less usage. Usually, while I sleep I have my BlackBerry on and plug it into the charger until I wake up (usually from 2am until 10-11am). Besides reading and sending about 10-20 emails per day I usually use my BB to talk on Beejive, BBM, send about 10 SMS messages per day, use Viigo for maybe 20 minutes, about an hour of browser usage (using the BB browser), I have UberTwitter running in the background as well, and I check the weather once every few hours. With this usage I usually have about 20% of battery left by the time I get home. Just take into consideration that I have Beejive running in the background the entire time. Plus I have a few apps like BerryBuzz as well so that does drain out the battery as well.

Now, after I installed the BatteryBooster I decided to test it out by just using my BB to get emails, send SMS messages, and talk on BBM (about half an hour a day). I didn't have Beejive running in the background but I did have BerryBuzz working.

On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday that is all I did on the BlackBerry. And I didn't leave my BB in standby mode either. I turned off my BlackBerry and charged it overnight, from about 3am until 12pm, and left it running until I slept. On the 3 days that I used to test it by 6-7pm my battery was down to 35-45%. I wasn't expecting BatteryBooster to give me hours upon hours of battery life but I did think it would increase slightly.

Now I emailed their support and asked them if I was using it properly and they replied by saying that it works in the background and once I install the program I don't have to do anything else.

With that said I would avoid purchasing BatteryBooster. It doesn't help your battery life at all!

Now onto MemoryBooster. Well like BatteryBooster this application actually helps drain out your memory! The installation process was quick and simple. Once you install the app there is an icon where if you click it it shows: total memory, used memory, free memory, and java objects. If you click the menu button it gives you an option to boost memory. once you click it it will tell you how much memory it has recovered. Now, every time I have done this I wait about a minute and check the free memory, both using QuickLaunch's "device info" and going to options. And everytime I actually see less memory than before I used the MemoryBooster. I emailed the developer about this and he has not answered my email.

IN CONCLUSION: PLEASE REFRAIN FROM PURCHASING/USING EITHER OF THESE APPS!

I regret my choice because with the money I spent on these two apps I could have purchased Aerize's Optimizer and AutoStanby. And these two apps have received very good reviews.

Also, please learn from my mistake and before you purchase any app, even if it's just a few dollars, use the trail first. I know I made a completely stupid choice by not doing this before with any app. I know I have no recourse in getting a exchange from MobiHand. I still have both apps running because I feel since I paid for them I can't delete them, lol.

bluejelly · #2 04-28-2009, 06:40 PM

Thanks for the review. I was actually looking to purchase batterybooster, but now i know not to.

Undisputed · Thread Author #3 04-28-2009, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluejelly

Thanks for the review. I was actually looking to purchase batterybooster, but now i know not to.

Not a problem. In my opinion, if you want something for your battery either get a new battery from CB or pick up AutoStandby. It's on sale for $2.95 at MobiHand until May 5th and Tronyx wrote a great review on it.

thebignewt · #4 04-28-2009, 11:52 PM

Thanks for the honest review. The problem I had with BattBooster is they can't tell you what it actually does to improve your battery. It's sorta like a magic app. I'm not into magic. The memory thing I have figured out from BB forums in general.

Undisputed · Thread Author #5 04-29-2009, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebignewt

Thanks for the honest review. The problem I had with BattBooster is they can't tell you what it actually does to improve your battery. It's sorta like a magic app. I'm not into magic. The memory thing I have figured out from BB forums in general.

Not a problem. I guess I learned my lesson and from now on I'm not paying for an app until I use the trial - if they offer it. I think I'll post more reviews of apps and accessories since it does seem to help others when deciding to make a purchase.

cwong15 · #6 04-29-2009, 08:41 PM

I have often wondered how these memory boosting things work, yet they all have many positive reviews in their product descriptions. Real product reviews like yours will help us decide if they really work.

BlackBerry developer docs are publicly available: you can dig through them -- as I did -- to see what kind of memory operations an application can do. Best I can tell, RIM does not allow an app the kind of access that memory booster app would need. The 2 major kind of memory operations that I am aware of are:

1. The standard JVM System.gc(), which requests an immediate garbage collection. A BlackBerry automatically does garbage collection on its own anyway, so this doesn't gain you anything.

2. Memory cleaning: this is the same operation you can do from Options > Security Options > Memory cleaning.

When I wrote MemStats, I too toyed with the idea of throwing in a memory cleaning command. I tried both the operations I listed above, and they didn't seem to do much (much like your own experience). So I removed those functions.

There are apps out there that modestly offers to do memory cleaning for you, and that's perfectly fine. On the other hand when an app selling for big bucks vaguely claims to dramatically boost your memory, I can think of 2 possibilities. One is that the author knows some top secret Java kung fu. The other is that it's really a placebo possibly backed by fake positive reviews. Unfortunately, in either case it's highly unlikely that the developer will tell us what is really going on under the covers.

Undisputed, have you thought about requesting a refund and using your refund to try out a different optimizer? Then you can post another review!

Undisputed · Thread Author #7 04-30-2009, 11:41 AM

Well I just sent an email to them basically stating the same thing I posted here about the products not working. I must say I was very impressed with their customer service. They replied just a few hours later and here is what they said:

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 9:45 PM, S4BB Limited <support@s4bb.com> wrote:

Hello XXXXXXXX,

Though we have many customers who are very happy with the product, we cannot guarantee that it saves a significant amount power on everyone's device. So unfortunately, this might not be recognizable for some users.

However, we fully understand your position and it is company policy from ever since we started that every customer will get a full refund if he or she is not happy with one of our products. If you would like to, we offer you a full refund of your purchase.

PittsDriver · #8 05-02-2009, 10:23 PM

I am not at all happy with batterybooster. I didnt notice one ounce of extended life. if anything its worse.

fanofblackberry · #9 05-03-2009, 05:39 PM

The App World is very cool. There are tons of applications, I've downloaded quite a few already. But, you all know that BB's don't Vibrate and Ring at the same time. So, they have a good app called "BerryBuzz" it's pretty good.!

benzworm · #10 05-03-2009, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanofblackberry

The App World is very cool. There are tons of applications, I've downloaded quite a few already. But, you all know that BB's don't Vibrate and Ring at the same time. So, they have a good app called "BerryBuzz" it's pretty good.!

so is big tin can and its FREE

funkym · #11 05-07-2009, 04:39 AM

BatteryBooster works great for me. But may be it is a product of my imagination ...

Fact is that my battery drain was less when I used it. I also wrote a review on the product site a while ago check it out: "Honestly I wasn't too sure this software would really improve battery life much. I taking my Storm off the charger around 7:00am and the battery is usually below 25 by 8:00pm. After installing BatteryBooster my phone is STILL at about 80 and it is almost midnight!! Well worth the sub-$10 cost!!"

So I keep using it and am happy with it. Btw: what is wrong with offering full refunds to people who bought a product and don't like it. You can try to get a refund from Apple, Microsoft or Adobe after you bought some software from them. They will never refund you - even when you get blue screens every day

jsonnen · #12 05-07-2009, 08:11 AM

If it's true you do all that you say you do on a normal day, man, you really can't complain about your batt life. For me, just having beejive in the background for a while is a real drainer. My battery booster is a battery in my shirt pocket.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Neewbie555 · #13 05-08-2009, 10:20 AM

Made the mistake of buying this product without researching. Made an even bigger mistake by suggesting it to a number of friends. Stay away from this app.

Undisputed · Thread Author #14 05-10-2009, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsonnen

If it's true you do all that you say you do on a normal day, man, you really can't complain about your batt life. For me, just having beejive in the background for a while is a real drainer. My battery booster is a battery in my shirt pocket.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Beejive is the only battery draining app I have on my BB. Sucks because I liked to have it running in the background. Thankfully, you can get messages that were sent to you while you were offline so that's always good. But it's such a great app that even with the major battery drain I'm still happy with it.

Also, sorry I forgot to update this thread but I did send mobihand an email and they did give me a full refund. I guess this product is really hit and miss...Just seems some get great results and others experience the exact opposite.