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Help multi-tasking question

J

JCtheOT

Lurker
I'm new to Android from webOS, & I'm having a hard time figuring out how to multi-task on my new phone. For example, when reading Twitter feeds on the Twitter app, I click on a website & it goes to the tweet in a separate page. Then I click on the link again & it opens up the internet. I'm used to clicking on the links to let them load & going back to read the rest of the tweets so I can read the links all at once. On my GS2, I have to click on the home button after the link starts to open & go back to the twitter widget, then I have to press the back button to get back to the twitter feed. To read the links, I push the home button to get out of Twitter (what's up with no end app or exit option?!?), click on the applications icon, then scroll to find & eventually click on the internet icon to open up the websites. So many steps! I'm so used to just flicking the cards back & forth quickly, so this seems to tedious & time-consuming. Is there a quicker way? Please tell me there is! I went to the Sprint store & the girl there didn't seem to know if there was any way to make things faster on this phone. Is there an internet widget at least, to eliminate one step? I hope this makes sense how I'm describing my problem, because it's incredibly frustrating! Not even knowing which apps are open on the main screen is so confusing to me.

Please bear with me for the near future, as I have so many questions I'm having trouble finding answers for. I promise I'll do my best to figure things out before bombarding the forum with my silly questions! Hopefully I'll get this new OS figured out soon... :)

--J.C.
 
JCtheOT said:
I'm new to Android from webOS, & I'm having a hard time figuring out how to multi-task on my new phone. For example, when reading Twitter feeds on the Twitter app, I click on a website & it goes to the tweet in a separate page. Then I click on the link again & it opens up the internet. I'm used to clicking on the links to let them load & going back to read the rest of the tweets so I can read the links all at once. On my GS2, I have to click on the home button after the link starts to open & go back to the twitter widget, then I have to press the back button to get back to the twitter feed. To read the links, I push the home button to get out of Twitter (what's up with no end app or exit option?!?), click on the applications icon, then scroll to find & eventually click on the internet icon to open up the websites. So many steps! I'm so used to just flicking the cards back & forth quickly, so this seems to tedious & time-consuming. Is there a quicker way? Please tell me there is! I went to the Sprint store & the girl there didn't seem to know if there was any way to make things faster on this phone. Is there an internet widget at least, to eliminate one step? I hope this makes sense how I'm describing my problem, because it's incredibly frustrating! Not even knowing which apps are open on the main screen is so confusing to me.

Please bear with me for the near future, as I have so many questions I'm having trouble finding answers for. I promise I'll do my best to figure things out before bombarding the forum with my silly questions! Hopefully I'll get this new OS figured out soon... :)

--J.C.
Click to expand...

Pressing and holding the home button will bring up a list of your last 6 used apps, making it easy to switch between twitter and the internet site from the link you clicked using twitter. No need to go back through applications and finding the app.
 
repinphilly247 said:
Pressing and holding the home button will bring up a list of your last 6 used apps, making it easy to switch between twitter and the internet site from the link you clicked using twitter. No need to go back through applications and finding the app.
Click to expand...

Thank you! While it's still nowhere near as easy to switch back & forth as it was with my Pre, this will definitely help a lot. I'm sure I'll get the hang of my new phone soon, but the learning curve is steep. I appreciate your help.
 
Also the back button is your friend and really intuitive, much more so than you would think. For example, when I click web links in pulse, Opera loads my page. I press back, and I'm back in Pulse, reading my original article. It may behave like that with Twitter (I don't use Twitter and don't know your browser to confirm). Some browsers, like Dolphin, assign the back key for exit, though
 
JCtheOT said:
Thank you! While it's still nowhere near as easy to switch back & forth as it was with my Pre, this will definitely help a lot. I'm sure I'll get the hang of my new phone soon, but the learning curve is steep. I appreciate your help.
Click to expand...


Try wavelauncher for some webOS nastalgia

Its very well done and free. It will make you feel a bit warm and fuzzy as you / I continue to miss the best (closest to true) multitasking mobile OS to date. Come on Ice Cream Samich! .... but really, still no pinch to zoom in gmail? This boggles the mind.
 
Ahh ... another webOS refugee like myself :).

I also have found an app called SwipePad eases the transition. Lets you "swipe" up from the bottom (or a side or corner) and gives you a screen full of apps to select. Add to this screen an app called MoreRecent (which gives you the last 15 apps used instead of just 6) and you have pretty quick access to all of your running apps.
 
I came at it the other way -> started with Android, then picked up a TouchPad tablet during the firesale, and, after using it for a short while, my only thought was: This is what Android shoulda been!

After using WebOS, nothing else quite measures up in the task-management area, and you can even root it without actually rooting it! Now they just need some more apps...

Meanwhile, I'm hoping some WebOS features get absorbed into Android so we can get some real interface functionality in here. Too bad Itching Thumbs only works on rooted phones now.
 
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