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Hey everyone, I'm posting this to gather information about Android Multitasking.
I have used android since i had my G1, I am now on a g2, otherwise known as the HTC HERO.
In my opinion android multitasks beautifully when we talk about speed! It doesn't however manage it's open applications well at all. I mean switching to a application which is open in the background is tough. Pressing and holding the home button gives you a menu to RECENTLY open applications which doesn't conform to what IS open at that very moment. And the task bar notifications dont really give you a full list of all applications open..only apps that support it.
With the iphone really gathering it's bearings, and beginning to multitask [kinda better multitasking management then android imo] Im beginning to waver in my support for android.
I can imagine if holding the home button brought up a card view like webOS, giving you a preview of all the open applications in the background. Or something similar. I mean if HTC sense has a pinch gesture to view home screen in a hard view environment, i don't see what's stopping android from having a more polished and robust multitasking experience.
What are your thoughts on this?
the iphone 4 implementation looks to be exactly what you are complaining about with android. it offers a list of recently used apps. with iphone none of the apps stay running, they have background services that an app can start but the app will close. Android is similar. the ui for an app isnt necessarily running. it will be killed by the os and started again when you ask to see it.
WebOS does actually show you exactly what is running. I havent used a webos device for an extended period of time, but it dies seem their card metaphor is the easiest to understand for users. if your phone is slow just look at the cards you have open and flick some out.
I agree with your point though, i find the android app switcher inadequate. Far too often the app i want to get back to is no longer in the list. i think the iphone will have the same issue unless their list can grow very long.
It'd solve a lot if the android switcher had a button to pull up the app drawer.
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hexix said:
the iphone 4 implementation looks to be exactly what you are complaining about with android. it offers a list of recently used apps. with iphone none of the apps stay running, they have background services that an app can start but the app will close. Android is similar. the ui for an app isnt necessarily running. it will be killed by the os and started again when you ask to see it.
WebOS does actually show you exactly what is running. I havent used a webos device for an extended period of time, but it dies seem their card metaphor is the easiest to understand for users. if your phone is slow just look at the cards you have open and flick some out.
I agree with your point though, i find the android app switcher inadequate. Far too often the app i want to get back to is no longer in the list. i think the iphone will have the same issue unless their list can grow very long.
It'd solve a lot if the android switcher had a button to pull up the app drawer.
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Yeah I suppose you're right, but i cant help but think the iphone will just be better at it then android.
Other then that. Yes Android really needs to polish it's multi tasking system.
EDIT: Also, I have used WebOS and honestly it's a superior mobile platform to android [imo]. It's community however is not as enriched as the android one and there aren't as many apps available for the palm pre. Palm really screwed themselves over limiting it to one phone...it would have been a strategic move to stop manufacturing phones and start working on EXPENSIVE palm software like webOS
Or maybe you can try AppSwipe!
There's also a nice app (imo) from a user on here, he tried to mimic the webOS cards system, and is doing pretty well until now. No previews yet but its still a nice powerful task manager that views icon in a nice view and has launch on search / camera button press too!
It's called TaskOS!
I've tried both task os and app swipe and still...they are both very unpolished multitasking management systems =/
I hope eventually something will come along.
I came from the Palm Pre before I got my HTC Hero, and multitasking was wayyyy better than Android. In fact, if the Pre wasn't so slow, I would have kept it over the HTC Hero. It took me over a minute to open Google Maps... with nothing else running! (and the keyboard sucked)
hexix said:
It'd solve a lot if the android switcher had a button to pull up the app drawer.
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Dxtop has a second App Drawer that does just that. It works great.
tdusen said:
Dxtop has a second App Drawer that does just that. It works great.
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Eh, that shows background services like home and what not..
Personally I'd like to disable the drawer from showing apps on my ignore list
what would be nice is if you held home then cards poped up like in webos and showed your running apps with a preview pic of the app
blaboy51 said:
what would be nice is if you held home then cards poped up like in webos and showed your running apps with a preview pic of the app
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YEah thats something to look forward too.
XxsydenxX said:
YEah thats something to look forward too.
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but for that to happen google probley would have to add that in there rom in a update hopefuly it'll happen
nice idea. I wish i knew how to make it happen.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=668232
Wow i was just thinking the same thing today, (i used to own a pre) But check out TaskOS in the market guys!!! It's legit, almost exactly the same as cardview on webos except it just shows icons instead of real time view.
If you want a nice way to switch apps without the stupid home key crap just install advanced task killer and switch the default click option to switch too instead of select/unselect. Its one swipe down for the notifications, one click on atk, and one more click on the app you want. Its not as good as webOS but its the best method I can find for now. I also leave a shortcut to atk on my home screen.
there is also MultiTask Manager. Once again not as good as WebOS card view but its more like an Iphone multitask thing. I think I like TaskOS the best. Well I'm not allowed to post links because of new member thing so just look it up.
It wouldn't be hard if you can get live preview's of the application windows.
I've been searching google for "android sdk live preview" and the like for a while though and its not looking good
can the current state of multi-tasking allows, for example, one uses the phone with the speaker while trying to look up some info/or do something with another application(eg, look up notes that you have written down from an application)?
cheers
Probably not the first thread on the subject but nevertheless: Which home screen replacement are you using and what do you like about it?
I developed a home screen replacement called "Simple Home" and it is all about simplicity. Feel free to try it out (search for "Simple Home" on Android market). I'm interested to hear what features people really want to have in their launcher!?
I use launcher pro. my favorite feature is having the scrollable dockbar.
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At least you were somewhat up front about spam, if misleading in the title.
I am genuinely interested due to fact that I've developed an app in a certain way, not out of any commercial reasons! If it was an unsolicited post then I would a) not answer you b) not ask questions or c) not promote a free app. My post is meant as a basis for a discussions. Yours on the other hand is not!
regarding the scrollable dockbar in launcher pro: hmm yes, it is very nice feature to have some kind of menu bar with pinned apps. Strange though that it disappears when you go to the app drawer. On the other hand there needs to be some kind of icon for the return button some how.
something to try could be developing a way to organize the app drawer using sections, folders, etc. if I knew anything about app creation that's what I would be working on haha.
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You can enable/disable the return home button in preferences. I particularly like the extended froyo theme dock for pinned apps. Keeps my desktop clean. I don't care for multiple dock rows as I just use 4 icons, but I like the options. I recently paid for the paid program of launcher pro.
The best part is you can make it simple or complex in options. Theme support is also nice... and its speed is wonderful.
I think launched pro has it figured out. If you are building a launcher perhaps try to think out side the box instead of trying to compete with such an already complete launcher.
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ADW all the way on my X10
infernox51 said:
something to try could be developing a way to organize the app drawer using sections, folders, etc. if I knew anything about app creation that's what I would be working on haha.
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Funny thing you mentioned it, because this is exactly what I've done for my app and of course using frecency sorting (frequency + recency). This is exactly what I want to have for my app drawer plus filtering to narrow down the list (which is also in there).
player911 said:
You can enable/disable the return home button in preferences. I particularly like the extended froyo theme dock for pinned apps. Keeps my desktop clean. I don't care for multiple dock rows as I just use 4 icons, but I like the options. I recently paid for the paid program of launcher pro.
The best part is you can make it simple or complex in options. Theme support is also nice... and its speed is wonderful.
I think launched pro has it figured out. If you are building a launcher perhaps try to think out side the box instead of trying to compete with such an already complete launcher.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
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I am, I think the ones that are out there really do the Android style launchers to perfection. My approach is simplicity and speed. I personally don't believe in arrangeable desktops. It works fine when you have a few apps but when you have a fair amount installed it becomes tedious to do rearrangements..
ADW. But I like eye candy. If your going for simple you could have a niche to yourself.
One feature I'd like, played with a few programs last night as was not happy with any, is a task SWITCHER.
Double tap home and bring up a nice screen, if it can use a wall then even better.
No killing just switching.
Yes, I agree! Ubuntu- or mac-style task switcher would be truly great. I don't think that exposé will work as good on a mobile phone as on a PC
My approach was to add an indicator on top of app icons in my app drawer for apps that are running (according to the ActivityManager) together with the ability to sort the list on running apps. I find that simple and very useful..
I tried ADW, Helix, LauncherPro, Simple Home, and PandaHome. I like Panda's side docks & app hiding, and ADW's hidden dockbar & screen swipes to launch apps (though it still FCs on my Droid 2.1R) . I'd prefer something simple. I don't need more than 3 screens and usually go to 2. I don't need a task switcher because long-pressing Home shows my last six apps. I don't need flash, I just want it to work. ADW works for me now because I have four quick action buttons (so it replaced Helix) and six more in the dockbar, though I can scroll for more. Just my .02
I have used Stock sense, ADW, and LuncherPro in the last 3 days and I like LuncherPro by far the best. I like having the 4 icons on the bottom to clear icon clutter on the screen and the menu system is nice.
What is your absolute favorite application/game? The one you just cannot live without. I am excepting to see a lot of mainstream apps being called out, so to go along with that question, what is your favorite non mainstream app/game?
My fave mainstream app would have to be Facebook (lots of friends from england)
My fave non mainstream app would have to be SwingGame
I am hoping that we will all be able to find some apps that we have never heard of before through this thread.
Netflix and before that came I would say YouTube app impressed me.
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Reddita. I don't think I've ever wasted more time in my life than the period of AR (after reddita).
gReader. Looks, feels and works great
Pulse. Never have I wasted so much time during work cause of this app. Best RSS reader!
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fliparsenal said:
Pulse. Never have I wasted so much time during work cause of this app. Best RSS reader!
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I agree. Pulse is really quite amazing. The UI is beautiful
Pulse. Great app.
I would have to agree with Pulse as well. Was recently introduced to this app and absolutely love it.
+ on pulse. Save sooo much time with it.
Multipicture live wallpaper.
1- because I was going out of my mind when honeycomb cropped my pics
2- runs great with adw ex
Feedly :
Love it the away it allows me the add the feeds, read the same feeds on my phone and on the tablet , and also on my desktop (Firefox addon).
Beautiful interface on both android and desktop. Another nice feature is the suggestions of other feeds that I would like. Stopped using pulse once I found Feedly
The browser is my fav. Its the one app I couldn't live without.
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I'm greedy, I have two ~ Evernote & Dropbox
Both serve me exceptionally well on all my devices; allowing data to be shared simple and easy.
Evernote: Totally useful - not a timewaster - your information available transparently on every device you own, simply awesome.
It used to be Pulse, until I found News360.
Honestly though, the browser gets 99% of the usage on my tablet. I use the default browser cause I;m a chrome user on PC and having synced bookmarks is a necessity. Opera Mobile would be great if I could add more than 9 speed dial buttons
If I may ask my own question about "Your absolute favorite app"
What is your favorite sports app?
I'm trying to find a good one for tablet. All the amazing sports apps, Score Mobile, Fox etc suck for the tablet... they wont even go into landscape mode!
For those who use Pulse, try out Taptu, its very similar but somehow cleaner and faster in my opinion. (news 360 is awesome though.)
But my favorite app is... either Dropbox or Youtube
I love Pulse.
Can't help but think that if you could hide the window which slides out from the left when you click a story by sliding it back, instead of hitting the back button it would be so much better.
Going to d/l Taptu & check it out as well. Cheers for the suggestion
fliparsenal said:
Pulse. Never have I wasted so much time during work cause of this app. Best RSS reader!
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Have you tried d9 reader? XDA creation, very good.
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For all of the folks that like Pulse - Check out News Republic - it's a really nice (and free) news app (I like it better than Pulse)!
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Besides the browser and Facebook (Friendcaster for tablets) the app I keep coming back and spending lots of time in is Age of Zombies. The Survival mode is addicting. It's the only game I've found on the Android Market that I keep coming back to play. Everything else I get bored of after 5-10 minutes.
Still can't replace console gaming though.
Have to agree with Pulse. Its just so clean and epic...and epic.
Entire app widget, a lot of you will be confused what im talking about and to be ohnest so am i lol. What i am after is something unique that would make life a whole lot easier for me and imo for others, this type of setup may be around but most likely isn't and a possible reason for why.
What i am after is something that can make a whole entire app run as a widget on one of the many screens for the desktop, so what i mean is when you flick through the screens on the desktop you have all you many cool widgets there that are easy to use and accessable but what im wanting is something that will allow a entire program to fit on the desktop so you can easily flick through from one program to another like facebook and then flick to another screen that has possible another program such as emails or messages. Without having to exit the app and then go to the app launcher and then select the program vice versa.
This would be in my way the best way to flick between programs and would be something i would pay for if it were possible, i understand the conflict with the screen transition when swiping between programs thats why you would probably need to use a swipe bar or just touch the screen indicator at the bottom.
Any way any insight or information would be appreciated go hard people.
***Offer for devs*** if you can develop something like this i am willing to pay $200 for contribution to its construction.
for the most part, it really depends on the app, how much resources it uses, and what kind of ui/gfx are standard use for it...i know exactly what youre asking for, ive wanted it myself, but it all comes down to mem/cpu usage, and if its a significant drain on battery when its constantly on...
there different kernels come into play, and if you are using ocdaemons or the like, with restrictive processing speed when the screen is off, could freeze your fone...
lots of challenges with this request, but like i said, depending on the app, someon might be interested
Yea its just really annoying for me not having something where selected apps can run in a foreground like windows in PC, having apps run in the background is a bit disturbing as i am one to like to know what my system is doing and have more control over the enviroment.
Iv just looked for things like app switcher which is the closest thing iv found yet for it but nothing close to what i am really looking for.
DANOFDANGER said:
Yea its just really annoying for me not having something where selected apps can run in a foreground like windows in PC, having apps run in the background is a bit disturbing as i am one to like to know what my system is doing and have more control over the enviroment.
Iv just looked for things like app switcher which is the closest thing iv found yet for it but nothing close to what i am really looking for.
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I.ve been dreaming of TABS for ages. I mean all the programs running in the foreground would be like tabs in Google Chrome, how cool would be that.
Regarding PC, there are many more processes running in the BG than in foreground, so analogy doesn't work here.
tinky1 said:
I.ve been dreaming of TABS for ages. I mean all the programs running in the foreground would be like tabs in Google Chrome, how cool would be that.
Regarding PC, there are many more processes running in the BG than in foreground, so analogy doesn't work here.
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I just got an idea. How about a tab-based app switcher instead of a notification bar? I know it's unrelated, but awesome
¤Violets are red,
Roses are blue,
Wait, what?¤
Yup, exactly what i meant. And it could be done, as third party apps can use notification bar. Basically it would be a task manager which would place a tab (icon which looks like tab) for every foreground process. I'd buy it.
idavid_ said:
I just got an idea. How about a tab-based app switcher instead of a notification bar? I know it's unrelated, but awesome
¤Violets are red,
Roses are blue,
Wait, what?¤
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agreed would make life so much easier .
Ok, so I have been looking for a while a way to give back to this great XDA community. So I'm deciding to put up some great apps that I have been using for a while, and really make MY Android experience a lot better. They are all GB based and the only reason I am adding them is because I have personally update tweaked them and they are great "hidden gems".Unfortunately it looks like they have lost future updates from their original developers... It would have been awesome to see these updated to a Holo style interface but since that is not the case I have done a small update to change some visuals.
NOTE: My point here is not to take credit for anything or make ANY type of fraud! I am NOT the original developer and I will be posting the original Play Store links, all I have done is make these awesome functionality apps look better for me since I use them every day. Also I NOT changed any type of function to these apps or modified any permissions to make them considered as "malware" every function code comes from the original developer not me. If you already use any of these apps you MUST uninstall them first as they are still the original version and you will get an error upon installing. Here they go:
Invenio Wire:
First up it is my face lifted version of "Invenio Carmen". This app is TRULY the best music downloader for me PERIOD, it has been on the Play Store a couple of times but has been quickly taken down. Most likely because of its ability to download YouTube videos and music from many hosts, (including YouTube). So obviously there is no Play Store link (here is their webiste though www.inveniocarmen.net) for this and if you have used it before you can recognize the difference from this one. I have changed all of the ui icons to Holo and logos!
iOS App Store:
This is my version of the awesome "Apps Explorer". I was really excited when I found this App because it pretty much lets you see all of the top apps from the iOS App store. I have matched up the rankings on an iPhone and they are pretty much spot on. I have changed the "refresh" and app icon and updated to "Play Store" and not "Market" wordings.
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Apps+explorer
App Terminator:
This is my tweaked version of "Task Manager". Now I know a lot of people say task killers aren't necessary on Android, but I know sometimes when multitasking things can get a little overwhelming. The cool thing about this one is that it "ACTUALLY WORKS". It has very cool features like Auto-Kill on screen off and the ability to take you directly to your "Running" apps just to make sure the tasks have ended. I found it buried in a pile of other "Taks-Killers" and trust me I have not changed to another ever since!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...9tLnRvcG5ldDk5OS5hbmRyb2lkLnRhc2ttYW5hZ2VyIl0.
And last but not least its beastaudioEQ
Now this one is based on the infamous AwesomeBeats which is based on the infamous DSP Manager that can be found here!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1732763
It actually brings out some of the best sound on any phone when used with the right drivers. For some reason though it doesn't seem to work with the Beats audio drivers found on the Play Store. A while back they updated theirs and now it forces this to close every time, so DON'T use the Beats Drivers from there. You are free to use any but I recommend the AC!D Audio from here, trust me when I say it is the best out of any:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1923630
So in this app I have updated the icon and changed some of the wording to say beatsaudioEQ instead of Awesome Beats. It truly looks like a genuine beatsaudioEQ now! As an added bonus I have also included the AC!D mod directly from the OP with my new beats app already integrated, so you can flash away!
Well I hope you enjoy these apps as much as I do, now with a much better look! This is my way of saying thanks to everyone her for making Android the BEST OS in the world!
P.S: Also if you use the Chrome Browser I am posting links to two AWESOME themes made by me! The are an iOS Linen Style & Nexus 4 Jellybean style. Check them out It took me a while to perfect them.
iOS Linen Chrome Theme by Nex Unit:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...ajafompaok/related?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon
Nexus 4 Jellybean Chrome theme by Nex Unit:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...dhgfjjkkbiphblamna?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon