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Is it necessary to use a Task Manager?

My OG EVO is still running strong with Gingerbread. The USB port is failing, but the OS is smooth.

I don't use task managers, but I do manage when apps sync, if I let them sync at all. Also if an app gets hung up and is wake locking, I'll kill it, that's the only time I'll do that.

Biggest thing for me to keep my setup snappy is regularly clearing the caches in the phone. These data stores can accumulate over time and either become large enough to bog stuff down, or accumulate small errors that compound.

As long as I keep these in check, the phone runs fine. :)
 
Hi Folks,

What a fantastic response!

I was fully aware that this topic has been discussed many times and I have read a good few threads on this subject.

The essence of what I'm reading here is that the OS (2.3.5) is not to blame. Instead, the hardware is where the problem lies. But, is that really the case? To my mind, the OS knows what resources are available to it. For me on my lowly Desire S, that's 768MB of RAM. No more, no less. Therefore, it is the job of the OS to manage this resource in a way that does not impact on performance. If performance suffers (laggy, etc), is that not the fault of the OS? And, if that's the case, is there not a need for task managers or indeed something else to help the OS manage resources more effectively?

In raising the above questions, I am not intentionally trying to be controversial. I simply want to better understand what's going on beneath the hood.

JPC
 
No, it's not the OS's fault. if anything, the apps often muck with the OS's priority-based memory management. if the device has very little RAM to begin with, and you download say six apps that try to set themselves at a priority of level 1 (never kill) then Android doesn't have any say in the matter if they hog more than 3/4 the RAM available and you try launching Angry Birds. that would be the Developer's fault.
 
nickdalzell said:
No, it's not the OS's fault. if anything, the apps often muck with the OS's priority-based memory management. if the device has very little RAM to begin with, and you download say six apps that try to set themselves at a priority of level 1 (never kill) then Android doesn't have any say in the matter if they hog more than 3/4 the RAM available and you try launching Angry Birds. that would be the Developer's fault.
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Hi Nick,

Thanks for your reply.

OK, I understand. So, how do I flush out these problem apps? Is there a way of finding out what priority level the apps set for themselves? I get the impression that Angry Birds would fall into this category but it's not my cup of tea and is not installed on either of my devices.

JPC
 
actually, when you back out of Angry Birds it fully closes since it's a later priority level and a huge game memory footprint. Priority level 1 is normally reserved for system apps like Maps, G+ and Play Store, which often remain running to check for updates, notifications, etc. as far as i know, unless rooted you cannot view or change priority levels and most of it is in the build.prop file in /system.

some nefarious free apps love to set themselves as a priority level 1 or 2 to remain running, often to pop ads up in your notification area. this is one reason i prefer to pay for them to avoid finding out later on, as most don't even alert you to having such things inside of them. paid apps never issue unwanted advertising and are often far more polished and stable.

Since that is done within the app's individual code, unless you know how to decompile and such, i do not believe you can change how they set their priority level, sorry.

A proper developer would allow Android to modify the app's priority based on how often or how little you actually use it to allow it to function most efficiently. Unfortunately, some apps even in the Play Store don't always conform to that, and that is one reason i'd advise reading the reviews to find out if it's crap or worth having.
 
Many thanks, Nick. That's very helpful. As it appears to be difficult, perhaps impossible, to tweak priorities, I guess we are left with the only option of uninstalling suspicious apps. And, in order to determine which are the rogue apps, we could use a process monitor to see which apps are hogging the CPU.

JPC
 
It would actually be great if google or say cyanagon gave us a nice easy way to prioritise apps the way we want them
 
funkylogik said:
Luckily my first android ran eclair out the box lol. Maybe off topic but does anyone whose spent time with an iphone know if users use/ever need 3rd party task managers?
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I actually had one back when I had a Jailbroken iPod Touch 2G (I think that was almost five years ago). Back when they had 128 MB of RAM (for the OS AND Apps), so even iOS 2/3 had appreciable problems with lag. Mind you, the animations and such were smooth, but you often waited at a white screen for several seconds for apps to start. It definitely helped when it came to the web browser though.
 
My iPhone 4 had issues mostly with large games that occasionally dumped me back to my home screen and when reloaded lagged to unplayable states. i had to reboot it so often that it brought me back to Android again. besides enough time with iOS it gets repetitive and rather boring to go back to home, find icon, click icon, hit home, find other icon, click other icon, etc over and over again. it made me finally see the point of widgets.

the bad part is that Android still lacks games i miss.

1. Sky Gamblers: Air Surpremacy
2. Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders (you HAVE to play this one!)
3. BlackShark Helicopter Sim
4. Apache Sim
5. Infinite Flight


These five have ZERO Android ports.
 
funkylogik said:
Greenify is pretty well respected but its root only. For shutting off system functions when you arent using them, doesnt Juice Defender do that? havent used it but ive read people say it turns data off when the screen is off.
Does GPS actually drain your battery when enabled but not in use mate? I always keep it enabled and it uses nothing unless an app needs it. Aparently bluetooth is the same but im still in the habit of switchin it off lol :)
EDIT oops i didnt notice this page lol i was replying to DB
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Greenify is 4.0+ only. I wish it was compatible with 2.3.5, I really want it.
http://androidforums.com/android-lo...d-tips-you-should-know-about.html#post6006764

funkylogik said:
Luckily my first android ran eclair out the box lol. Maybe off topic but does anyone whose spent time with an iphone know if users use/ever need 3rd party task managers?
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iDevice users tend not to need it because of the expensive high-spec hardware involved and probably can't anyway. Apple would probably not allow such a thing in their app store, and you can't sideload unless you jailbreak. Jailbreaking, I'm told, requires you to keep a somewhat resource-hungry suite of stuff running all the time to stay jailbroken, slowing the device significantly.

I have an iPad provided by my work and have experienced only excellent performance. It also cost something like 20 times as much as my Android phone.

Granite1 said:
These is a script that was developed by a dev called ZeppelinRox, that reset the priority values for apps. Not sure if this would help here or not, but it only works on rooted devices.

If you want have a look at the devs thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=991276

I used it on my OG evo, and it helped. :)
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Sounds like an interesting script and I love the dev's name.
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