Free Apps and the Dangers of Ad Support

Those pesky little ads at the bottom of your free app are very dangerous to you and your device. After reading that opening line, you may be thinking that this article is about the dangers of sharing your information with google about what you use your device for, where you are located or other personal data, but nothing could be further from the truth. In all honesty, this is more of a 5 second public service announcement about improving your battery life.

When you download that ad supported application from the market, you don't think about the fact that those ads have to access your GPS location, download and display while that app is running. It really is a pretty great little system, but it is also dreadful to the life of your battery. The average user will play a free game like "Solitare" or "Angry Birds" for about an hour a day. The ads cycle about every 30 seconds while in use. That means during a normal day's use, you might download 100-120 ads while playing your game. This doesn't even include the newer style "video ads" that chew up even more battery.

So, to make a long story short, if you have a favorite game that you play often that is ad supported, check the market for a full version if you want better battery life. The full versions make the developer happy since they are getting paid for their work. The full versions make you happy as they increase your battery life. The full versions are also backed up in your market should you ever have to wipe your phone and start over.

This ends our public service announcement about free apps and your battery. We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.