BlackBerry battery booster app launched

Duncan Alfreds

Cape Town - Research In Motion announced on Friday the launch of an app to reduce battery drains in BlackBerry devices.
While BlackBerry phones remain popular, some users have complained that running applications often drains the battery faster than devices on comparative platforms.
"The Application Resource Monitor (ARM) is designed to identify and alert you to idle apps that are draining battery life and automatically close them," RIM said.
There are tools that seek to alert users to battery drains on BlackBerry smartphones like Battery Booster Pro, but the ARM is able to kill applications that are idle, but still consume power in the background.
Unfortunately, the app is only available for the latest BlackBerry phones running the BlackBerry 7 operating system (OS).
"The ARM app is part of a family of apps that are already accessible on BlackBerry 7.1 devices, including Battery Saving Mode and Application Manager, which help users to optimise battery and memory usage," RIM said.
The company is determined to protect its market share in developing markets despite significant growth of smartphones running Google's Android OS.
Android has a battery and data monitor built into the OS to help users reduce their data costs, but BlackBerry users usually exploit the benefit of the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) offered with the devices.
According to statistics from independent ad network InMobi, BlackBerry devices dominate the South African market with the BlackBerry Curve 8520 at 41.3%.