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best task killer

mach1man

mach1man

Android Expert
What is the best task killer. I was using ATK but it would start out at like 60 know free then with in hours be down to 30 with no running apps showing and with the phone just sitting there. Also how do they work and why do some apps keep reappearing like footprints.
 
I'm using one called "Task Killer" (I think .... will double-check) that I'm liking. It has a widget option that you can simply hit and kill apps without opening the program. That same widget also has an overlay of the current free memory.
 
The os is designed handle memory on its on. Of course using a task killer is personal preference but you might want to read articles about "properly" using them since they can be beneficial in some instances. My phone runs awesome and the battery life is good and I don't run a task killer. I use the built in app manager to shut down games and other apps i download from the market that don't have any benefit to be run constantly (dictionary, toss it, bettercut). You get used to just letting it go and the phone starts to smooth itself out.

Footprints and other apps automatically launch so you might as well just leave them be. The phone will be fine. Task killers bring out the OCD in me.lol I don't like that.
 
he was asking which was best not wheter he needs one if you are going for a free one advanced task killer free is good and another one is the same name without the free part which is a dollar.
 
I had advance task killer but it kept going down in memory without even using the phone. My phone says that I have 73 mb free but my task killer only says I have 50 mb free. I'm trying to get the most out of my battery bc these eris's suck at battery life.
 
If you are going to use one.....


System Panel










What? You expected a lecture? ;)



The only thing I will say, is that a task killer (in most cases) is not going to help your battery life. If you are using one with an auto kill feature you will, more than likely, kill off Sense. Learn what something does and how it affects the system before you kill it.
 
Ok thanks. But still no one has told me why my task killer shows 45 mb memory free while the phone shows 74 mb free. Question for ofthedamned, can you check out my postings on optimize battery life. My post are on the last page no one has been able to help me. Thanks
 
mach1man said:
Ok thanks. But still no one has told me why my task killer shows 45 mb memory free while the phone shows 74 mb free. Question for ofthedamned, can you check out my postings on optimize battery life. My post are on the last page no one has been able to help me. Thanks
Click to expand...

Where are you seeing 74 Mb free? Are you looking at the free app memory? The memory for apps is listed as ROM and the memory used to run them (what you are probably seeing in a task killer) is RAM. That may be the reason you see a difference.
 
i would suggest advanced task manager.
it even comes with a widget you can sit on your home screen to just push to kill apps (without going into the program).
you can exclude apps also, shake to kill apps, set it to kill apps in a specific interval of time. THEE best.
 
i dont want to start a debate about it because this has been discussed a LOT

i still don't understand what ppl say when they say the eris actually manages it memory due to android doing this because it seems like without the task killer its horrible

but its just my opinion.

Personally, I use to use ATK but now I use task cleaner pro
 
carmendiva said:
i dont want to start a debate about it because this has been discussed a LOT

i still don't understand what ppl say when they say the eris actually manages it memory due to android doing this because it seems like without the task killer its horrible

but its just my opinion.

Personally, I use to use ATK but now I use task cleaner pro
Click to expand...

To understand what the phone should be doing on its own, doesn't happen for everyone, take a look at the link in my signature.
 
I was using ATK free at first because I am an old, long time windows user. But after I did a restore on my phone I did not install it again just to see if it really had made an improvement. And to tell you the truth my phone runs exactly the same (speed and battery life) without it and I have a lot of apps running along with wifi and gps always on. The one thing it did do I liked was killl an app after I used it so that the next time I used the app it would start fresh and not exactly where I had left off the last time.
 
I'm in full agreement with those who feel that automatic task-killing apps are not only unnecessary, but a bad idea; however, I can definitely see situations where it would be handy to keep an eye on one's list of active tasks, and occasionally kill ones that seem to be out of hand. One piece of software that does that is the web browser xScope, which I can definitely recommend.
 
TasKiller free used to be my favorite

Advanced Task manager is much more technical, and I liked that a lot too

and REALLY like ES Task Manager
that's what I use right now.


I've tried 7 or 8 others, and these 3 are my reccomendation.
 
I read some where that one of the more well known people on this forum said some thing along the lines of " if a task killer was needed it would come with the OS.", the 2.1 comes with it. So maybe it is helpful..?
 
hallstevenson said:
Can you explain why please ?
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Well, this has kind of been beaten to death here already, but here's the short version of what I think.

The Android OS is basically designed to handle task management by itself, terminating tasks on its own as needed ... and I think it does a fairly good job of that. If your device is running slowly, the odds are that the real problem isn't the way that Android is handling task management -- it's just the fact that you have too many apps installed, or that you're running an app or two that's a memory hog. Take care of those problems, and you shouldn't need a task manager.

And remember that in most cases, the tasks that were left running were running for a reason -- so people who use a task manager aggressively run the risk of hindering performance by forcing tasks to repeatedly restart. Get too carried away, and you could also screw up things like notifications and stuff.

I know that some people claim that task managers improve their phones performance, but if they haven't overloaded their phone with memory-hog apps, I'm convinced that the vast majority of the time it's a placebo effect at work. People just like to feel that they're in control.

And that, as they say, is what I have to say about that. :)
 
It's been almost two months since I removed my task manager. Never looking back. Performance has been stellar.
 
Pitamakan said:
Well, this has kind of been beaten to death here already, but here's the short version of what I think.

The Android OS is basically designed to handle task management by itself, terminating tasks on its own as needed ... and I think it does a fairly good job of that. If your device is running slowly, the odds are that the real problem isn't the way that Android is handling task management -- it's just the fact that you have too many apps installed, or that you're running an app or two that's a memory hog. Take care of those problems, and you shouldn't need a task manager.

And remember that in most cases, the tasks that were left running were running for a reason -- so people who use a task manager aggressively run the risk of hindering performance by forcing tasks to repeatedly restart. Get too carried away, and you could also screw up things like notifications and stuff.

I know that some people claim that task managers improve their phones performance, but if they haven't overloaded their phone with memory-hog apps, I'm convinced that the vast majority of the time it's a placebo effect at work. People just like to feel that they're in control.

And that, as they say, is what I have to say about that. :)
Click to expand...


lol well how do you know if u have many apps thats slowing it down?
 
The Linux kernel is not perfect in regards to memory management. It's good, but not perfect, and the developers are constantly working on it.

Many apps don't have a "close" option. The camera is a perfect example. It's a battery hog and if you use it, when you're done, well, guess what ? It's still running... How long do you wait for the kernel to decide it's not needed and close it ? I guess the camera is one we should just do without.

Apps like "Footprints" and "Settings" and "People" do NOT need to be running all the time but they do because of decisions that HTC / Verizon / Google have apparently made. There are others too. Fact is, I can feel when my phone is getting sluggish and when I launch a task manager, it tells me I'm down to ~24mb free RAM. How long do I leave it "sluggish" while I wait for the kernel's mm subsystem to do it's job ? I have it kill the aforementioned apps, along with Handcent (leave "messaging" running), GMail, etc and I get back close to 100mb free RAM.
 
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