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Amazon App Store Thread - Daily Free Apps

I haven't used the app, but from the description it sounds like it's saying "You don't need task killers... but you do need THIS task killer!"

Am I missing something? I mean it's nice that it allegedly keeps an eye out for rogue apps, but it's still just a task killer, right?
 
It's not a task killer like ATK where you constantly kill apps. With watchdog you only kill bad apps that are hogging your cpu. I've only used it for one app so you aren't going to be constantly killing apps.
 
Yes, it tells you how much CPU power each app is using, and an alarm will go off if any app uses "too much" (you set the threshold). It's nice for pinpointing battery drain issues from apps. Once you've got your phone to where you're not adding apps (yeah right, that day will come)... you really don't need this one.
 
I went against my gut and tried out watchdog yesterday...wow was that horrible. Within 1 hour it had alerted me of apps above the threshold. The only thing I noticed on my phone was that when watchdog alerted me it caused my phone to freeze for a moment. Uninstalled and no more issues, just more proof that a task killer, no matter how it is described, is worthless and a waste.
 
Odd, I've used Watchdog off and on for several months and alerts me to apps that use a lot of CPU... so I usually delete those apps (or figure out what the problem is within the app). I never use it as a task killer (although you can manually kill a task). I just use the killer within GO Launcher to kill stuff that bothers me. It has helped me get 3-4 days of battery life. Not really worth keeping on your phone once you're happy with the apps you have (and know they're not sucking battery).
 
The apps it alerted me about were apps that needed that CPU at the time. Hell it told me a game I was playing was using too much CPU
 
Yeahha said:
I went against my gut and tried out watchdog yesterday...wow was that horrible. Within 1 hour it had alerted me of apps above the threshold. The only thing I noticed on my phone was that when watchdog alerted me it caused my phone to freeze for a moment. Uninstalled and no more issues, just more proof that a task killer, no matter how it is described, is worthless and a waste.
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It depends upon the user.

If you are just a end user, and not interested in playing and/or mucking around with the phone at a deeper level, sure.

But if you are a Programmer or IT kind of person, this application is just the same as keeping an eye on your Linux box by using "top(1)" and "ps(1)".

I am not sure why there is such a hate for system monitoring applications here, but I find this application quite interesting because it appears he has basically taken "top(1)" and wrapped it into a GUI for use under Android.

Don't you care that if you load a misbehaving application, that you will be able to find out, and report back to the developer that they have an issue/bug?

Even some of the more respected applications have bugs/issues, and if you can help them out by reporting a set of certain circumstances caused their application to eat cpu or memory, that is a good thing, for both you and the rest of us users!

I am a programmer and a geek, and thus by my nature, I find it interesting to keep an eye on my systems, whether it is my Linux or Solaris boxes at work, my Windows box at home, or my Android running Linux on my phone.
 
How safe is Seekdroid? Has very good ratings and lots of downloads. Just giving "the cloud" permission to wipe your phone seems real scary to me. Yeah it's password protected... but you send them the log-in info... Looks good for finding a lost phone, even if you don't activate the wipe option. Hopefully the developer won't have a bad day and decide to wipe everyone that signed up. :eek:

Amatherly said:
SeekDroid is free today, though its not the Free App of the Day.
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drdoom said:
Warning! The application "Watchdog" is using too many CPU cycles.
:D
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Don't laugh, I really did see me alert that Watchdog was using 51% (or some such) of CPU. It does give an occasional unnecessary warning, but you can whitelist apps that routinely need a lot of CPU, and I'm content with it.

It does generally alert when I run one of those cool live wallpapers, btw.
 
tcat007 said:
How safe is Seekdroid? Has very good ratings and lots of downloads. Just giving "the cloud" permission to wipe your phone seems real scary to me. Yeah it's password protected... but you send them the log-in info... Looks good for finding a lost phone, even if you don't activate the wipe option. Hopefully the developer won't have a bad day and decide to wipe everyone that signed up. :eek:
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Anyone got any insight into Seekdroid vs. Lookout?
 
I activated it and went to website to "Locate" my phone... it's about half mile off. Also would not send me "phone info", got stuck on "sent message, waiting". I don't get a cell signal at home, don't get GPS indoors, and WiFi is half mile off... how can this app do anything for me if my cell is stolen? I also read somewhere that background Sync has to be active, which mine is almost always turned off. Any thief serious about steeling a cell phone is going to know to put it in airplane mode and leave WiFi off... he's got your memory card at the least.

OK, I see if you tend to leave your phone places, this might be handy. So you only have to search a half mile radius ;) or you can set the alarm off that would let any potential thief know where you phone is... or an irritable person might throw it against a wall to stop the alarm. Seems the app could be more of a risk than a help.
 
tcat007 said:
I activated it and went to website to "Locate" my phone... it's about half mile off. Also would not send me "phone info", got stuck on "sent message, waiting". I don't get a cell signal at home, don't get GPS indoors, and WiFi is half mile off... how can this app do anything for me if my cell is stolen? I also read somewhere that background Sync has to be active, which mine is almost always turned off. Any thief serious about steeling a cell phone is going to know to put it in airplane mode and leave WiFi off... he's got your memory card at the least.

OK, I see if you tend to leave your phone places, this might be handy. So you only have to search a half mile radius ;) or you can set the alarm off that would let any potential thief know where you phone is... or an irritable person might throw it against a wall to stop the alarm. Seems the app could be more of a risk than a help.
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What phone do you have? Some phones, like my TB, have issues with GPS.
 
SeekDroid solves two problems for me. The BH puts the phone on silent during a meeting and forgets to turn the sound back on. Now I can ring through the silent mode on the phone with SeekDroid and send a message with a reminder to un-silence the phone. When using Latitude, I sometimes see the last location of the BH's phone many minutes or hours old, and not very accurate, as it is based on tower triangulation, not GPS. With SeekDroid, I can get an up to the minute, accurate location based on GPS.
(BTW, we are not snooping on each other. Using Latitude is a mutually agreeable way for us to keep in touch, and preferable to calls or texts asking "Where are you?").
 
Optimus V. And yes, GPS issues indoors (don't all phones?). It's indoors 90% of the time, so I don't bother turning GPS on very often (unless I'm outdoors and looking for someplace on a map). Is the thief going to take it outdoors for me so Seekdroid can find it? I have the app stashed at Amazon, but probably won't install it again. Haven't lost a phone in 60 years (but then I've only had a small one for maybe 6 or 7).

Yeahha said:
What phone do you have? Some phones, like my TB, have issues with GPS.
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I downloaded Kona's Crate yesterday (something like 15meg) and it wouldn't install on my phone (Galaxy Prevail) no biggie, but I want to delete the download to save the space. I cant find where it downloaded to..
does anyone know where I can delete the file from?

thanks!
 
GrooveIP is "on sale" for $1.99 today. This will be the 1st app I actually buy.

Question: Amazon shows I have 2 devices LG VM670 and LG VM670-1... any clue how that could happen? Can I just delete the -1 and not worry about apps disappearing?
 
tcat007 said:
GrooveIP is "on sale" for $1.99 today. This will be the 1st app I actually buy.

Question: Amazon shows I have 2 devices LG VM670 and LG VM670-1... any clue how that could happen? Can I just delete the -1 and not worry about apps disappearing?
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GrooveIP has been on sale for at least the last week. And I do not think the apps are tied to just one device, so you should be fine. Today's app is Pocket Ants; I uninstalled it after a few minutes.
 
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