What is HTC Power To Give?
HTC Power To Give is a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative from HTC that has been jointly developed with Dr. David Anderson at University of California, Berkeley. Using the HTC Power To Give, owners of Android OS smartphones can choose to ‘give back’ by supporting key research projects around the world. Scientific research often requires a vast amount of processing power for data modelling and analysis. HTC Power To Give, supported by the world’s largest single distributed volunteer computing platform BOINC, lets users donate their unused smartphone computing power to science programmes across diverse fields as astronomy, environment, medicine and physics.
How does HTC Power To Give work?
HTC Power To Give, connects a smartphone to different research projects through BOINC, the world’s largest distributed volunteering computing platform. The result is a global network of smartphone computing power to support scientific research. Research projects are broken down into many small tasks and distributed across the network.
When HTC Power To Give runs, it downloads the required project software which manages the calculations required to process the individual tasks provided. Once a task is complete, the result is uploaded to the project server and a new task is allocated.
How do I get started?
Download HTC Power To Give from the Google Play Store. It is also pre-installed on a wide range of HTC smartphones – simply search for HTC Power To Give on your HTC device.
Open HTC Power To Give, register for an account and select the project(s) that you want to support.
HTC Power To Give only runs when the phone is idle, connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data and plugged in to an external power source (e.g. wall socket, PC and wireless chargers). Only then will the phone’s processing power be used.
What are the technical requirements for installing HTC Power To Give on my Android device?
HTC Power To Give runs on Android devices that meet the following requirements:
- Android 4.4 KitKat or above
- 1.5 GHz dual-core, 1 GHz quad-core processor or better
- 1 G RAM or better
- Plugged in to an external power source
- Connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data
- Battery level at 90% or above (default setting)
- Default maximum battery temperature set at 40°C
Will my device get overheated?
Similar to normal usage, the device will get warm when in use. However, by setting the default maximum battery temperature to 40°C, HTC Power To Give will stop running when the device reaches that temperature.
Will participating consume minutes in my mobile data plan?
By default, HTC Power To Give transfers data when your device is connected to a Wi-Fi network. You also have the option to use mobile data in the app’s settings.
How much memory does HTC Power to Give use?
The default memory setting is at 10% if your device has 1 GB RAM, and at 25% if your device has more than 1 GB RAM. However, you can change the amount of memory to be used by the HTC Power To Give if you feel that your phone’s system performance is being affected.