• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

So its impossible to completely QUIT a program??

I'm sure this is posted somewhere else, but is there a way to monitor all apps running on the phone or will we need another app to do that?
 
yea i got the task killer. just worried that having so many programs running in the bg will kill battery. my battery was almost dead by 11pm tonight and i got it at 11am and didnt even use it THAT much
 
ricky ross said:
wouldnt this drain tons of battery life/hog resources>
Click to expand...

Android manages apps itself and closes them when it thinks it needs to. As far as using a 3rd party task manager, you can do that but it is debatable whether it is really needed or not. Functionality wise you should let Android close the apps for you when it feels it needs to to better manage memory and such (there was an article somewhere explaining it better). There are certain battery savers like Juice Defender and another that will prolong your battery by not letting certain programs start up while you aren't using them but it mostly stops apps you have installed and want. In the end it is really up to you and results vary widely between users as everyone uses different combination of applications.

Hope that helps!
- Scincidae
 
ricky ross said:
yea i got the task killer. just worried that having so many programs running in the bg will kill battery. my battery was almost dead by 11pm tonight and i got it at 11am and didnt even use it THAT much
Click to expand...

Depends on how many apps are "active".

Again, google Android Task Killers and you'll see many discussions on this subject.
 
Hitting the Back arrow all the way out will kill most apps. The Home button will not.

2.1 does a great job of managing memory. I've killed a task maybe twice since I installed the 2.1 leak on Eris, and have much better battery life than I did on 1.5.

2.1 does have a built-in task monitor. Go to Settings > Applications > Running Services. I'd recommend SystemPanel though, it's really nice.
 
Rubik76 said:
Hitting the Back arrow all the way out will kill most apps. The Home button will not.
Click to expand...

Not true. Doesn't make a difference about home vs. back button.

I'm not sure why this concern and confusion exists about Android apps staying around.

By default, Android apps are stopped when that app is no longer visible on the screen. The process associated with the app is kept around to make it faster if you decide to switch back to that app or run it again. This may confuse users who think the application is still running using CPU time. Eventually the system runs out of memory and will remove the process for the stopped applications. This frees up memory, but doesn't free up CPU since the app was stopped anyway.

iPhone OS 4.0 has a new pseudo-multitasking feature that is very similar to Android's approach but not as seamless as what Android has today.

In other words, Android manages the apps for you. If you don't see them, usually they're gone. Android manages it so you can restart them quickly.

These task killer apps are a waste of time and resources and can complicate or confuse the operating system because things are being removed when Android thought they were still around.

In general, let Android manage it for you.

I've said "usually" several times, because Android does allow apps to be written so that they have a service which can run in the background. Most apps don't do this. If they do, its supposed to be helpful. You should configure those apps to limit background activity rather than spend your time killing them off. Things like Pandora to stream music, IM programs, email clients which periodically download mail, etc.
 
Rubik76 said:
Um... for most apps it does, but I'll give you the rest.
Click to expand...

Show me in the SDK where it says that. I write Android apps. My apps have to understand the rules. There's no distinction I've ever read or seen between back and home. In either case your 'activity' is told to stop. Thats all an app gets to see. The app isn't even notified about the state of the process.
 
Well, I can't quote the SDK, and I've been wrong before, but if I am wrong, there are a lot of other people with the same misunderstanding.

I realize that appeal to majority is a weak leg to stand on, so if I'm wrong I apologize for perpetuating a myth.

Now I really want to know for certain... Because I'm a tool if I've been hitting the back arrow over and over for no reason :p.

EDIT: Well a scientific study (i.e. a quick Google search) shows that most assertions that the back arrow is the correct way to exit an application are anecdotal, so yeah, my understanding is probably wrong.

Oh, and the big words aren't an attempt to sound intelligent - but rather a byproduct of too many drinks. Just ask my wife - I've probably told her I love her a lot in the last 20 minutes.
 
Rubik76 said:
Well, I can't quote the SDK, and I've been wrong before, but if I am wrong, there are a lot of other people with the same misunderstanding.

I realize that appeal to majority is a weak leg to stand on, so if I'm wrong I apologize for perpetuating a myth.

Now I really want to know for certain... Because I'm a tool if I've been hitting the back arrow over and over for no reason :p.
Click to expand...
I've seen other people have the same confusion. But I'm not sure where it originates. I have some theories. At the risk of causing more confusion, some of my theories for the misunderstanding include:
- When you long press the home button you see a set of applications. Users may interpret this as currently running programs. Thats not what is displayed. Its simply the last 6 applications which were started.
- If you do run a task manager you'll see all sorts of applications you thought you stopped listed. Users naturally assume they're still active. The idea that they are stopped and only there in case of quick restart is not intuitive.
- Android has another unique concept. They encourage developers to split up applications into small usually one screen sized slivers called activities. When you're doing something you move between activities of one or more applications. Android manages moving between activities using the back button.
Users might assume that when they press the back button and it displays an activity (screen) from a previous application, that means it was still running. That is not true. Android tells the previous activity to restart and passes it whatever information is needed so that it looks like its always been running.
Independent of that, there may or may not have been a process for that activity (application) that was still occupying memory but not consuming CPU time.
 
wow coming from winmo this blows my mind. It sounds really cool, but I think it will be hard to shake the habit of killing tasks with a task manager "just in case" it's still using CPU cycles. For winmo this was a must.

Anyone know of a good winmo vs android site that can explain these issues? I am a power winmo user that will be jumping ship to android and would love to learn these differences.
 
I have a task manager installed on the Eris but I do not use it unless a program is giving me a major issue, with 2.1 a Task Manager is really not necessary. The Incredible and 2.1 will manage your process and applications just fine
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom