alt-tab and taskbar...

[InGearX]

I am so used to the Win Alt-Tab feature and / or the taskbar feature...

what is the equivalent of that in android?

I'm confused...

eg I open up 5 applications [say mail, Firefox, google maps, market] - are they still running in the background? how do I / can I switch from one to another?

thank you...

(PS I have droid 3 via Verizon)

 

[daveybaby]

Long press on the home key will let you switch to any of the 8 most recently used apps.

 

[chanchan05]

On some phones, you can only switch among the last 6. Depends on the unit.

Actually, I think of all the smartphone OS, only Winphone7 has it different (you hold the back key), while all the others use the main key (home for Android, menu for all others).

 

[mrqs]

eg I open up 5 applications [say mail, Firefox, google maps, market] - are they still running in the background?

they are left in ram, but aren't running like they would on windows - they may finish their downloads etc. but they are paused when you switch away from them
they are only released from ram when it's running low and the system needs more, but they're not using cpu time