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Help Newbie Questions

R

rphox2003

Lurker
Hi,

I just got the Galaxy S and have few questions:

  1. What is the diff between a task and an app? I downloaded a task manager that shows running tasks/apps (such as Daily briefing) that I've never used. Plus, if Daily briefing is an app, why does it show up in the task mgr?
  2. Why is so much of my RAM always being used? Do I have to manually manage my RAM?
  3. When I'm done with an app, do I have to manually close it? Or can I just hit "Back"?
Thanks.
 
Think of it like your Windows PC, programs that are running will appear in your task manager. From here you can kill processes and thus end the program. The Android OS had been developed in such a way that you shouldn't need to end apps. Applications that are open but aren't being actively used, will remain in an idle state in the background. Apps that appear in your task manager are ones that are currently being used. Task killers are frowned upon in the Android world because frankly, they aren't needed and if anything, cause problems anyway.
 
I'm also a new user, Galaxy S Vibrant, running 2.1 (pre-Froyo). I have been alarmed by high RAM usage indications as well. Even when I have no active apps apparently running, rAM meter under the summary tab of the task manager reports numbers like 253MB/326MB, or an astonishing 77.6%!

I haven't noticed any performance degradation, but am bewildered by the high RAM usage when I'm not doing anythinf with the phone. Oh yeah, wifi, gps and bluetooth all turned off.....
 
Thanks, RyanLupin.

Believe it or not, I work as a technical writer and have a programming background. But I still don't understand why apps, such as Daily briefing, show up in my task manager when I've never run them. If the phone runs the app during startup - OK. But I don't think Daily briefing or Taskos are system apps essential for the the phone to run.

Like I said, I'm new to smartphones and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it when I have the time to invest.
 
First don't worry about RAM usage on your phone, the system will adjust the ram usage as needed.
Second about applications that are running in the background, if you see an app in a task manager but you did not start the app often some apps have a process that is always running, especially with some of the built in apps that come with the phone.

I would personally stay away from task managers because they don't do a lot, the os should mange application.
 
The phone should manage the Ram automaticly. the problem with using a task manager to kill an app is that sometimes the app will be running multiple processes in the background and by only killing one of them you did not close the app and sometimes the app will restart the closed process and thus consuming more battery. I don't use any task manager on my phone and the phone has been running fine no problem.
 
2.1 was quite bad on task management, hence the prevalence of task manager. 2.2 was a huge improvement. You shouldn't need task manager any more. In fact, task managers don't work in 2.2 since Google disabled the function necessary in 2.2.

RAM usage is meant to be high. The OS will automatically clear up the RAM when running memory heavy tasks.
 
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