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Hello folks
I have just entered the world of smartphones, and I must say, Android has blown me away. I have no doubt that it has the potential to crush Apple.
Seeing as how I am a noob, I would like this thread to be informational not only to me but all other noobs out there looking to maximize their experience with their Android.
I've had my X10 for a few weeks now and have compiled a list of comments and questions that I feel would be best posted on this forum.
Let's get at it:
1) Advanced Task Killer: yay or nay? I've read that no self-respecting Android user would go without this app, but I've also read that it may in fact hinder battery usage. Any thoughts?
2) Dolphin Browser: This browser is my default and it is totally awesome. Skyfire has the potential to be great once the video issues for the X10 are figured out, but for now Dolphin is the shiz. I haven't tried OperaMini5, so I would love for anyone who has tried it to comment on how it is compared to Dolphin.
3) Texting: I downloaded the HTC keyboard which was great, but then I discovered Swype and I don't think I'll ever go back. Get your hands on it!
4) Astro File Manager. 'Nuff said.
5) MixZing: This is a high quality music player, much better than urMusic which comes with the phone.
6) Home replacement: Alright I know there are other threads on this, but I wanted to be specific. I need a replacement that can cater to my battery life woes. I've narrowed it down to Zeam, Helix, ADW, and Home++. Apparently people have gotten ridiculous battery gains with Helix; I'm using it now and still only managing approx. 12 hours. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
7) JuiceDefender: Is this the real deal? Is anyone finding this app to help battery life?
8) Moxier: Is there a way to get rid of this pest? I'm quite sure I'll never use it and it seems to waste a lot of memory. Is StartupAuditor a good option for this issue? Are there any other battery-consuming apps/components that I should watch out for?
9) I wanted to give a link, but since I'm a new user I can direct you to a site called xperiax10.net where you can find info on a great divx player.
Well I think that's all I want to say for now
I would love input from anyone who would like to share.
Cheers
(1) Well I've read up on alot of opinions about task killers but everyone has mixed views. I use it cause when memory goes low for me it goes bit sluggish.. don't know whether its freeing up memory during that time or what not!!
(2) not used opera in ages but I think i'd still pick dolphin browser.. its cool.
(3) swype is just amazing.. makes texting soo much easier and fun! I remember how annoying it was texting before!
(4) astro does the job for me an all ;-)
(5) don't used mixzing but I'm sure I tried it some time ago.. for me meridian music player does the job for me.. specially like the music control widget and the fact that it doesn't drain much battery!
(6) I've tried helix a while back.. it was ok, not tried the others tho except for adw launcher. for me adw lookz slick, has alot of options to customize & is good on battery.. Worth a shot!!
(7) some people find this app really useful.. unfortunately for me it didn't work.. lol honestly widget never showed any improvements to my battery life and instead used to drain little more..
(8) Ive not really used startup auditor so can't say 100% but most of the useless stuff still hapen to load here and there.. but I'm sure someone out there can give ya a better answer!!
(9) I've got it and I must say really impressive.. Puts yxflash to shame! lol
Extras
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You can try Countouch Launcher.. widget that does different things based on how many times you tap it! Has 25 slots!!
1 tap - open dolphin browser
2 taps - call john doe
3 taps - text john doe
And so forth.. The paid version allows for 4 widgets with 25 slots each!!
Dropbox - sync files between your computer and mobile device.. Useful for me cause allows me to backup files online, share with others, and more!!
Music Junk for music fans out there! really good at finding songs!! Preview & download songs, also possible to retrieve lyrics an all..
Hope it helps!!!
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1) the only reason I use atk is to see what's running. Since I turned off autokill and stopped killing tasks manually my phone works better. Ie. Not as laggy, all apps work properly.
2) I use dolphin and the default browser the most. I keep opera and skyfire on hand if need be.
3) I wasnt feeling swype so I'm using better keyboard. I would say its a little bit better than the HTC one.
5) I use mediascape. It looks pretty and I find it meets my needs. Although a shake to skip to the next track option would be nice.
6) adw.launcher all the way. I charge my phone every evening and my usage varies a lot so I'm not sure how it is on battery life. Imo its more stable than a lot of the other home replacement apps and its very customizable.
7) haven't tried juicedefender for above mentioned reason.
8) afaik not until root is available. I found trial and error to be the best way to optimize your battery due to what kind of apps you use. For me, I only use GPS when needed and if I'm not going to use an app for a while I keep hitting back until it exits the program. That's it.
9) leave out everything before and including www. But make sure you're not posting links to warez.
Cheers
Note on ATK..
Just a heads up that on linux/Android, there should be no difference whether you have 5MB of RAM or having 250MB of RAM free. Think free RAM = wasted RAM.
The real pain is the CPU usage on background apps. Unfortunately, ATK doesn't show CPU usage (or at least it didn't for me).
On the other hand, Astro File manager has a tool built in which lists every app, service and process running. It also lists full details on resource usage for each item (CPU%, kB of RAM etc).
As for auto-kill, it has been warned that this could only screw up key services and apps from working. Additionally, it could potentially decrease battery performance as services and apps use processing power when they are killed and again when they start up again (over and over).
Personally, I noticed an increase in battery life after uninstalling ATK.
Cheers
1. Despite many say "Don't need it etc" i still use it. If memory goes below 30Mb the Phone becomes unresponsive and laggy. Besides i don't use autokill.
2. Not surfing much on the Phone so the Standard Browser does the Job for me.
3. HTC Keyboard for me , i just can't handly Swype and i find texting (sliding) very complicated with it. Not for me :-D
4. Astro all the way until Root.
5. Standard Music Player does the Job.
6. ADW Launcher works best for me.
7. Uninstalled because frankly it does nothing. Despite it says that it has saved double amount of Battery but i honestly can't see a difference.
8. Sadly no way to remove that crap until we have root :-(
Hi dudes!
I just bought my first Android phone - Huawei U8150 IDEOS. It has Froyo on it and it is "with Google" on the back, which by the reviews means that is with bold Android 2.2 and not with some apps from the manufacturer.
But, as this is my first phone on Google, I would like some recommendations for apps, security maybe, what to do with it, and of course some basics about the Android itself because I don't know nothing about it. Don't be angry at me for that, and I know that this is not the COOLEST phone (by coolest probably means most expensive ) but it is enough (given the money amount spent on it). BUT THANK GOD, I FINALLY BOUGHT ONE!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, this may be some useful informations for the newbies also, not only for the IDEOS model.
And.....also I live on the Balkan so probably some apps for US region may not work for me.
Any tip and info will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Am.....sorry if there is some other thread like this one out there, I searched and - no results, but again, I may be mistaken. So if there is something like this, please let me know and then close the thread. THANKS!
Bye!
Congrats on the purchase.
Recommend Angry Birds, Guns 'n' Glory and Pocket Legends straight off for free games. Other good apps include Mini Info, LED me know, ES File Explorer, Foursquare, Bump and 8pen. You'll find some sort of barcode scanner essential (Google Goggles, Barcode Scanner, etc) as there's no App Market available on your computer, so many developers use barcodes that link to the marketplace on your phone instead. As you'll swiftly find out, most of the best apps are free, it's just a case of finding them.
Good luck!
Great
Glenbot3000 said:
Congrats on the purchase.
Recommend Angry Birds, Guns 'n' Glory and Pocket Legends straight off for free games. Other good apps include Mini Info, LED me know, ES File Explorer, Foursquare, Bump and 8pen. You'll find some sort of barcode scanner essential (Google Goggles, Barcode Scanner, etc) as there's no App Market available on your computer, so many developers use barcodes that link to the marketplace on your phone instead. As you'll swiftly find out, most of the best apps are free, it's just a case of finding them.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, thanks! Those birds are really fun . And that 8pen is crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaazy!
Is there any app for tracking the net traffic?
Thanks!
pepetrovski said:
Haha, thanks! Those birds are really fun . And that 8pen is crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaazy!
Is there any app for tracking the net traffic?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahaha. I use 3G Watchdog, as it gives you notifications when you approach your limit.
The current battery percentage (rather than just a simple graphic) is accessible in the Settings -> About Phone -> Status. The number of apps on the market to display the percent as a widget probably number in the hundreds.
But since that's not too amazingly helpful, there are 3 apps I know of that try and see your usage to predict number of hours remaining on the battery: JuicePlotter, Battery Snap, and my own new one Battery Diviner, which has its own thread in this forum.
Other apps I use often:
ASTRO File Manager, by Metago
Quick Settings, by Sergej Shafarenka
Tasker, by Crafty Apps (tons of automation)
Barcode Scanner, by ZXing Team (for the QR codes you see everywhere online)
FBReader, by Geometer Plus (an e-book reader)
WeatherBug
Winamp
Dolphin Browser
Games I suggest:
Solitare, by Ken Magic (includes Solitare, Spider, FreeCell, and Forty Thieves)
Robo Defense, by Lupis Labs Software
Trap!, by Matt Wachowski
EDIT: I just noticed you seem to like 8pen. I tried it out, probably will again, but in the meantime, SwiftKey is my favorite software keyboard.
Cong. Maaan
Try This Maann )
http://hotfile.com/dl/88704953/6d14b84/Android_APK.zip.html
Wonderful!
Thanks mates!
That's one cool app, swiftkey. Only one problem though that I forgot to mention, looking for free apps. Not that I wouldn't pay couple of bucks for it, but IF I had more money maybe. And I will try using it your own new one Izkata, just I must wait to go to WiFi area, as I already am near the end of the MB provided for free (300MB for the lowest cost package).
I like to do more with this Android phone, just more time to pass, to get use of it and know how the OS works.
pepetrovski said:
That's one cool app, swiftkey. Only one problem though that I forgot to mention, looking for free apps. Not that I wouldn't pay couple of bucks for it, but IF I had more money maybe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, SwiftKey does have a free trial version on the market that works for 2 weeks. I wouldn't have bought it myself if I hadn't used it for free during the Beta, but then again, I don't know your money situation
I apparently Thanked your post by accident trying to hit Quote. Oops. Oh well, Thanks for checking out mine, I guess?
Smart Keyboard Trial - Can't post links yet... lol
In my opinion, this is the best keyboard. I never really got good at swype, and this just lets me type so quick, and the auto correct feature is always spot on. You can change it so the long-press duration is shorter, so you don't even have to go to a second screen for punctuation and numbers, they're just alternates...
And the trial lasts forever, with a "bother" message that lasts 3 seconds that pops up like once a day.
Tennis11 said:
Smart Keyboard Trial - Can't post links yet... lol
In my opinion, this is the best keyboard. I never really got good at swype, and this just lets me type so quick, and the auto correct feature is always spot on. You can change it so the long-press duration is shorter, so you don't even have to go to a second screen for punctuation and numbers, they're just alternates...
And the trial lasts forever, with a "bother" message that lasts 3 seconds that pops up like once a day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't the smart key trial better for bigger screens? I have 2.8 inch, so maybe the swiftkey or the 8pen will be better for me, but I will have to try to compare.
And are you using some apps for the camera guys? Is it going to be better to use some app because I don't have flash and it is only 3 MP?
Thanks!
Cralin said:
Try This Maann )
http://hotfile.com/dl/88704953/6d14b84/Android_APK.zip.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are the apps up to date? And are they free to install them, and also secure?
I saw some interesting thing there but still didn't copied to the sd card.
Ok before anyone says this belongs in the other thread I disagree, the other thread has turned from talking about official froyo to custom ROM's. Anyone else disappointed with their new froyo? GPS still does not work, you have to back out of apps that dont have an exit button before you can close them with advance task killer, everytime I close apps with atk I open it back up seconds later and there are a list of apps open again and when i have an app open if the screen goes into sleep mode the app stops when I unlock the screen back up. Anyone else having these problems? (im sure most are still having the GPS problem) Or any thing else you dont like about the official froyo? Or any tricks on how to fix these problems?
agreed
first, delete advanced task killer, you no longer need it.
next add widget, there is a called program monitor, it is much better and more informative than atk.
last, wait for a custom rom
jgrnght said:
agreed
first, delete advanced task killer, you no longer need it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Delete ATK first. If u want to know why, read the first post in the thread 'android memory management' (link in my signature).
Where do I find this program monitor widget? Before I installed atk my batter would drain in about half a day now it last most of the day. Would the program monitor do the same?
So far I am happy and I am coming from Cognition 3.3. My phone feels more responsive and things like market open much more quickly. I believe the GPS issue is hardware based, I had a 1009 build and the gps was crappy, but after receiving a replacement through AT&Ts warranty exchange the GPS is much better. Overall I am pleased with the Update, but will eventually flash whatever Cognition Rom that is based on this update.
jgrnght said:
last, wait for a custom rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two custom ROMs based on KB1 that were released before KB1 was available. Cognition 4 and Torch, both are in the Dev forum.
poprocksncoke said:
Where do I find this program monitor widget? Before I installed atk my batter would drain in about half a day now it last most of the day. Would the program monitor do the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a i9000 2.2.1 ROM installed. My phone will last around 30 hours with medium usage (screen on 1hr, probably 20min of calls, 50-60 texts, some web browsing, music, and 15-20 min of gameplay)
Android automatically kills tasks that aren't being used, generally to free up memory for an app that actually needs it, or to free up other system resources (power and CPU included)
*EDIT: This applies to 2.2 as well as 2.2.1, which is the reason not to use a task killer.
poprocksncoke said:
Where do I find this program monitor widget? Before I installed atk my batter would drain in about half a day now it last most of the day. Would the program monitor do the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too would like to try the program monitor app, but I just checked the Market and its not there. I did however, find "Process" Manager. Is that it?
aicirt17 said:
I too would like to try the program monitor app, but I just checked the Market and its not there. I did however, find "Process" Manager. Is that it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should already be on the phone. It's a widget.
I gather that the official ROM is KB1. Is that 2.2.1?
ragincajun713 said:
It should already be on the phone. It's a widget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont see it
ewingr said:
I gather that the official ROM is KB1. Is that 2.2.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No just 2.2
ragincajun713 said:
It should already be on the phone. It's a widget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not seeing it on Serendipity.
program monitor can only use at tW launcher. i think...
tried go launcher, AWD, LauncherPro, all of them dont have proram monitor in the widget option.
Yeah I looked at it, doesnt seem to be avilable with launcher pro only tw launcher. I believe it is the same thing as the task manager in the app drawer?
I don't know why everyone is still complaining about the GPS, my Froyo 2.2 update did fix the GPS.
I used Google Navigator to drive from home to work for 30 minutes today - 20 minutes of it on freeway at 70 mph. It never lost me, it worked just as it should the entire way and I've never had that happen before.
Are people honestly still having issues with the GPS not tracking?
I had no problem with the gps this morning. And the program manager is not just a widget I found it listed in the apps section after updating this morning
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I'm disappointed that they didn't add select/copy functionality to e-mail.
.
Program Monitor, add a widget to your home screen and select program monitor.
My GPS is still slow to lock, those of you who say yours is fixed, while you have wireless assist turned off how many seconds does it usually take you to lock? Mine takes around 18 seconds at times. I had one of the first ones off ATT preorder so I dont doubt it could be hardware related. I havent tried a custom ROM yet though and people have commented that their GPS improved.
anyone have problems with kies mini? says unrecognized device I searched internet see a bunch of people with problems same on vibrant. Upgrade button greyed out. and regular kies says what version of elcair i actually have and recognizes it but says it cant update it. I odin 1click restored back to stock, deleted everything on phone, and still same problem.
Btw on task manager, I use samsung task manager I like it better then the others.
*Disclaimer* This is all from a personal experience and testing/research from a long time android user, what I have discovered over time and has helped me and some friends. This will work whether your rooted OR not. I kept it as basic as I can so everyone can benefit. If you dont like what you read and disagree, or want to add something PM me, Ill change/add and give credit to you. Hopefully, this can grow with the community.
*Rooted Section Will be Added*
*When I charge my battery I usually drain it all the way down or as much as i can (around 20% left) then charge plugged in till green, then power down and charge for another hour or so. Not sure if this matters or not but seems to help me out try it!*
This guide will help you if your rooted or non-rooted, all the apps I talk about I honestly have no ties to the devs. I don't use any SUPER AWESOME AMAZING BATTERY SAVER 5000 apps or anything like that. Those mostly just turn ur radios off and on and kill apps in the background. In my experience a lot of them cause syncing issues with my e-mail and other notifications. I like to receive my information instantly not have an app waiting for me to turn my screen on to check for updates.
About my personal setup: Basically, I want my phone to last me all day but still perform well with a heavy use, WITHOUT needing to constantly change settings to save battery. With what I have here Im able to keep my Sensation running for a full day of moderate-heavy use (7:30am to around 10pm) with its STOCK battery (Did damn well on my Evo 4G too). Days of very minor use Ive gone into the second day with 60% + battery. Yes, I use all my home screens and have a good amount of widgets, I love sense and its widgets. I play games, surf the web, do a lot of texting, listen to a lot of music, decent amount of fbing and email, usually take a few pictures a day. Half my day is wifi/other is mobile data.
Here goes the real basics, mostly common sense here not trying to insult anyone. Feel free to browse thru it quick (green text) if your not totally new to the android scene, whats after it will be a good read for noobs and vets.
*I use the power control widget, make getting to a lot of settings quicker. Why waste battery digging thru menus?*
Basics:
-Screen brightness: (duh ) these pretty screens eat battery brighter=quicker drain naturally and from my experience leaving it on Auto Brightness kills more battery too. Each time your phone pulls information from the sensor to decide on how bright it should adjust itself too.
-GPS: If GPS is on it should not effect battery unless an app is using it and you see the GPS icon on your notification bar. I noticed a very slight increase in mA discharge when i had it enabled, to be safe leave it off if you dont use it extremely frequently.
Location thru mobile networks: Not to hard on battery. I leave mine on it does add drain but it takes away from my weather widgets updating when Im traveling.
-Bluetooth: Moderate battery drain. I honestly don't use it at all myself but if you do try your best to keep it off when not in use.
-Wifi: Android has gotten a lot better at managing wifi over the past few years. It doesn't drain that bad on battery and it shuts off/on periodically on its own when screen is off depending on whats using it.
Google Back-Up: Takes a little juice here and there no biggie. I dont use it just because I like to fresh install my apps when I try a new rom, run into less problems that way.
2G/3G/4G: This varies phone to phone, the slower speed the better battery life. If you know your not going to be using 4G for a while turn it off. I leave mine on 4G or wifi all day with my sensation. When I had Sprint and my Evo I would leave it off most of the time. Depending on your carrier and how their data works this is a big one. T-Mobile seems to handle well, Sprint and Verizon's 4G Ive seen eat an insane amount of battery.
Sync/Background Data: I lumped them together because sync is pretty much reliant on background data. These kill a lot of your battery in general. It syncs your apps (email, facebook, google data, contacts, etc.), the periodic checks your apps do to check for and download new emails and notifications, using background data (data still transmits when screens off). I always leave these on and still manage great battery life, I like things instant if I wanted to wait Id just wait till i got in front of a PC. Sync and Background data are the settings most battery saving apps control because they really can help your battery if you turn it off. You can control what core apps sync in settings>accounts and sync. Or the power widget that 95% of android phones have has it on there. I recommend minimizing the amount of apps you allow background data with, example: WeatherBug first launch it asks if it can automatically update itself in the background for apps were thats not necessary hit no.
Radio/Airplane Mode: Pretty self explanatory, turns off your connection to your wireless provider. No point in ever turning it off in my eyes, your phones no longer a phone.
What has really helped me with my battery life (non-basics):
There is a lot to be said when it comes down to 2.2+ android phones and whether they need a task killer anymore or not. Since Ive had a lot of android phones and a few now that are 2.2+ Ive done a lot of testing. I usually go about a 2 weeks on one idea or new task killer and keep a close eye on battery drainage using Battery Monitor Widget, free app in the market. It tells you exactly how much of your battery is being drained without killing battery itself. Each phone/rom settles at a different average mA lower the better. In my experience if I can keep my phone anywhere under 100mA when idle im doing good. This held true on both the Evo 4G and my Sensation. Some ASOP roms i could get down to the 30's but for sense under 100mA is good. Keep in mind you will get the occasionally spike here and there its just android and/or apps in the background. You can view the a chart of the battery data in Battery Monitor.
Instead of boring you guys with each task killer Ive used and its results, Ill just get down to what I found out in the end.
Basically, the way android 2.2+ works it really isn't necessary to run a task killer it does a decent job removing apps from memory when you need more memory. But at the same time I found running a task killer periodically (BUT not killing frequently used apps) results in a lower average mA drain leading to overall better battery life.
The best application I have used has to go Automatic Task Killer , trust me Ive used a lot from the top free ones to a few of the more popular paid ones. What this task killer does is kill a selection of apps you allow it too every time your phones screen shuts off and goes idle. On Automatic Task Killer's first boot your shown a screen of every application that could at some point run in the background on your phone. This part sucks a little bit but it is worth it, you need to select which of the apps you want to allow it to kill automatically. It does not kill foreground apps the ones you currently have open on the screen aka a browser or a game. Example your playing NFS: Shift and your boss walks by so you quickly pause and hit the power button turning off the screen, next time you turn the screen on it will kill all other allowed background apps but your game will still be up front and center.
Now the trick is to go thru and set it to kill apps you know your phone won't automatically just restart or you don't use 90% of the time. So don't select things like Dialer, Contacts, Clock, Calendar, Messages or apps you constantly use/check such as a third party SMS app or your main E-Mail Client or third party keyboards (various by person and what you use most). Letting the app automatically kill those is just going to lead to worse battery life because your phone will just restart it each time leading to more CPU cycles (not what you want and part of the reason some consider task killers bad things).
Also, when using any task killer and killing the proper apps sense seems runs smoother, a big deal with sense 3.0.
Re-calibrate Battery: After you flash a new rom or start using a new battery, you should use your recovery (CWM or other) to Wipe Battery Stats. Before you do this make sure your battery is at 100% and has been on the charger for over an hour with the fully charged green led on. This will allow your device to better drain your battery and can really help battery life.
So hopefully with a little messing around you can get a good setup where your phone lasts you all day without having to constantly keep changing settings and watching your battery life. All while everything stays syncing and instant. Hope this helps!
Thanks to people who have contributed:
-JadeSoturi
*ROOT Section (now that we have s-off )
Everything posted above can be done on any rom, rooted or none. There has been a lot of posts on "freezing apps" that you dont need or typically use, which does in fact really help battery life. Since, we (by we i mean sensation users) now have a permanent root this is my tiny second part of the guide for rooted devices.
I dont freeze my apps I prefer them to be gone for good if its something I dont see myself using or its bloat that came with my phone/rom. Since 98% of us will be using custom roms now this usually isnt an issue since most dev's r good at what they do and remove all the bs we dont need or normally use. Still there is some apps we may not want on our phones so for that I use SystemApp Remover . Its a great App for people who dont want to have to worry about going in manually and getting rid of system apps.
Its just basically an Uninstaller that allows you to access any and every app on the phone for you to uninstall (thats y roots needed). For me I just go in an drop the apps I know i wont use. A lot of roms come with carrier add-ons and such, those I normally delete as well as a few HTC sense widgets and apps I see no need for. It will free up space and increase your phones battery life with most things you delete.
Now, be careful. You are prompted upon opening SystemApp Remover that messing in system apps is dangerous and it is. If your not sure what something is DONT touch it, simply do a google search or ask around to see if its safe to remove first.
Nice to have needed guides posted. Hopefully someone will see fit to add this to the Stickies. Thanks.
no problem glad to give back.
itd be nice to have my first sticky, maybe when some people start noticing results and the thread picks up
Leaving GPS on has NO impact on battery life unless you have an app that is actively using it (you will notice the little satellite icon in the notification bar).
Thanks your this what is the automatic task killer you used because there are a few when I search on the market and wasn't sure which one to get?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App
TheBiles said:
Leaving GPS on has NO impact on battery life unless you have an app that is actively using it (you will notice the little satellite icon in the notification bar).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updated OP. I do still notice slightly higher mA when it is enabled even if theres no apps using it
Thanks for the info, I'm trying out the automatic task killer to see how it affects my battery life.
Oh, and I didn't even read the bottom of your post. DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS WITH ANDROID. PERIOD.
TheBiles said:
Oh, and I didn't even read the bottom of your post. DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS WITH ANDROID. PERIOD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No offense bro, but you should read his entire post before you start ripping it apart. It looks like he put a lot of effort into it. He explains his reasoning for the task killer with evidence and it makes sense.
Thanks OP, I'm using your suggestions already. Will update soon.
moh0 said:
No offense bro, but you should read his entire post before you start ripping it apart. It looks like he put a lot of effort into it. He explains his reasoning for the task killer with evidence and it makes sense.
Thanks OP, I'm using your suggestions already. Will update soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With more evidence than the article I posted? Yeah, right.
TheBiles said:
Oh, and I didn't even read the bottom of your post. DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS WITH ANDROID. PERIOD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I address the fact that android doesnt need a task killer but if you read the whole thing automatic task killer lets you choose which apps to kill, leaving out worry of killing system apps that just restart.
Also, this is for battery life and performance, my battery's mA drains slower when i use a task killer for non system apps as well as keeps Sense 3.0 running smoother. I have had sense bog down on me a few times when not keeping a task killer handy.
It isnt necessary to have have a task killer and in the average users hands it can cause more harm than good. But this threads helping to school people on a way for better battery life using a safer method than a BASIC KILL ALL task killer.
Lastly, why did they include a task killer with my android if they dont think we need one?
TheBiles said:
Oh, and I didn't even read the bottom of your post. DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS WITH ANDROID. PERIOD.
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Wow, that was helpful. What a waste of an attempt to incite a useless forum war.
@ bobzoz
Nicely put, it will definitely help the newbies to android and made me think twice about a couple of things even though I'm on my 4th android phone.
bobzoz said:
I address the fact that android doesnt need a task killer but if you read the whole thing automatic task killer lets you choose which apps to kill, leaving out worry of killing system apps that just restart.
Also, this is for battery life and performance, my battery's mA drains slower when i use a task killer for non system apps as well as keeps Sense 3.0 running smoother. I have had sense bog down on me a few times when not keeping a task killer handy.
It isnt necessary to have have a task killer and in the average users hands it can cause more harm than good. But this threads helping to school people on a way for better battery life using a safer method than a BASIC KILL ALL task killer.
Lastly, why did they include a task killer with my android if they dont think we need one?
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Click to collapse
The same reason HTC and T-Mobile included all of that other BLOATWARE crap.
dazzlet said:
Thanks your this what is the automatic task killer you used because there are a few when I search on the market and wasn't sure which one to get?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App
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Updated OP with links, good call
TheBiles said:
The same reason HTC and T-Mobile included all of that other BLOATWARE crap.
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It's made by Google, not HTC or T-mobile.
Im just sharing how with people how I get good battery life. Trying to help out, if you dont agree with my method than just dont use it and ignore this thread.
bobzoz said:
Its made by Google, not HTC or T-mobile.
Im just sharing how with people how I get good battery life. Trying to help out, if you dont agree with my method than just dont use it and ignore this thread.
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That looks like part of HTC's Sense. You definitely won't find that in AOSP Android.
TheBiles said:
That looks like part of HTC's Sense. You definitely won't find that in AOSP Android.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Sense
Apps section.
Im not trying to have a battle man just ignore the thread if you dont agree with it. Easy stuff
bobzoz said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Sense
Apps section.
Im not trying to have a battle man just ignore the thread if you dont agree with it. Easy stuff
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Wow, you cited Wikipedia. Credible info there!
I'm only trying to help out the other forum users who are being mislead. I've been through a lot of Android devices and spent a lot of time focusing on things like this, and I know what I'm talking about.
Edit: And the only task killer you will find made by Google is the one within Android OS itself. Go download an AOSP build of Android with the latest Google Apps and let me know when you find a task-killer app.
TheBiles said:
Wow, you cited Wikipedia. Credible info there!
I'm only trying to help out the other forum users who are being mislead. I've been through a lot of Android devices and spent a lot of time focusing on things like this, and I know what I'm talking about.
Edit: And the only task killer you will find made by Google is the one within Android OS itself. Go download an AOSP build of Android with the latest Google Apps and let me know when you find a task-killer app.
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Click to collapse
Im just sharing what works for me and like i said in the OP ive been doing this for a long time too. If you want to continue coming at me please do it thru a PM.
So, I've heard the new update 2.21.401.10 still has the well known limited multitasking issues (see YT videos for One X, it's the same for us: http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...0.0.0.119.352.3j1.4.0...0.0...1ac.R68YKWQ8QnE )?? Is it true? How can we persuade HTC to keep standard Android multitasking?
I've also heard the audio issues (crackles, trashed sounds, some micro-stutters sound-related. You can easily notice this with games, f.e. Pinball Arcade or Mame4Droid etc. Won't hear these problems on GS2 and other Android phones) are still there too, so the audio driver is still the same.
Should I go back to GS2? Multitasking problem is very important for me...
I don't have issues with sound now, never have. A lot of games ether aren't compatible completely (gta 3), and others are just trash audio. If you want to test audio run a GOOD mp3 file, if it crackles its your phone....
Sent from my HTC One S running Axiom S
the multitasking of the one X and S isnt' bugged, it is in this way for a choice of HTC. Basically the system doesn't left completly open apps but it freeze them which is almost the same of restart the app from zero more or less. This is because HTC want to keep some resources free to have a more fluid sense experience.
Anyway if you have an unlocked device you can flash this script http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27318828#post27318828 that should give you real multitasking and leave the cool HTC interface ( the task manager ) to swith from an app to another. I would try it but I don't want to unlock my device at the moment.
none of the scripts work. wait till developers will fix it on kernel level. no other solutions here.
HTC One S via XDA
hexaae said:
So, I've heard the new update 2.21.401.10 still has the well known limited multitasking issues (see YT videos for One X, it's the same for us: )?? Is it true? How can we persuade HTC to keep standard Android multitasking?
I've also heard the audio issues (crackles, trashed sounds, some micro-stutters sound-related. You can easily notice this with games, f.e. Pinball Arcade or Mame4Droid etc. Won't hear these problems on GS2 and other Android phones) are still there too, so the audio driver is still the same.
Should I go back to GS2? Multitasking problem is very important for me...
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Click to collapse
I agree with hexaae. It's worth nothing having a super-fluid UI if it means killing your opened browser when you try to live it in background. You just can't browse between browser and email: how is this supposed to be called multitasking??
I really believe this choice of HTC's is senseless... On a smartphone with 1GB of RAM...
Edit1: by the way, what is the "background processes limit" option in "development options" supposed to do? Possible values are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, default.
Edit2: would it be an idea to make a poll and see how many people would be interested in this?
mannequin said:
none of the scripts work. wait till developers will fix it on kernel level. no other solutions here.
HTC One S via XDA
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why do you say that it doesn't work? On the thread some guys has reported that it works!
light_n_roses said:
why do you say that it doesn't work? On the thread some guys has reported that it works!
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It worked for me, problem was the battery started draining like crazy. Which got me thinking, the reason HTC did this was battery life. Nothing else. Sense was still just as smooth for me, but apps would multi task like I used to, but my battery would last less than half as long. So I went back to stock and am getting decent battle life again.
Sent from my H1S using XDA Premium.
MadJoe said:
It worked for me, problem was the battery started draining like crazy. Which got me thinking, the reason HTC did this was battery life. Nothing else. Sense was still just as smooth for me, but apps would multi task like I used to, but my battery would last less than half as long. So I went back to stock and am getting decent battle life again.
Sent from my H1S using XDA Premium.
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Well this is quite natural, you should manually clear everything once that you put the phone on stand-by ( and here the cool HTC task manager interface lack of a " close all" button ) or if you don't want to do this you can put task killer widget on the home that kill everything by a tap. Anyway this would kill also the background process not started by you which is not good so HTC should really put a "close everything" button on task manager interface so we can kill just recent apps opened by the user and not from the system.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
it works for about "10 minutes". all script "fixes" are nothing more than a placebo.
mannequin said:
it works for about "10 minutes". all script "fixes" are nothing more than a placebo.
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That is not true. Yes, the multitasking is not stock quality... but the scripts do have a noticeable effect that improves performance (assuming you have enough free memory).
mannequin said:
it works for about "10 minutes". all script "fixes" are nothing more than a placebo.
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this shouldn't be a script ment to improove performance, this should be something that it works or not, an off/on ...
light_n_roses said:
Well this is quite natural, you should manually clear everything once that you put the phone on stand-by ( and here the cool HTC task manager interface lack of a " close all" button ) or if you don't want to do this you can put task killer widget on the home that kill everything by a tap. Anyway this would kill also the background process not started by you which is not good so HTC should really put a "close everything" button on task manager interface so we can kill just recent apps opened by the user and not from the system.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
It lacks the close all option because it is not needed. You dont have to close any apps unless they are something that need to be operating all the time like music player when it is playing songs or navigator and stuff like that. There is no difference for your batterylife whether you clear the "recent apps" list or not. And its called "recent apps" for a reason because it means that it has nothing to do with the fact is that application actually running or not. It has always being like that in android. It just makes it easier to jump between apps.
Using task killers and such only increases battery usage since the app it has closed needs to be loaded again when you use it the next time instead of it being just unfreezed from the memory.
HTC has set the automatic killer which kills apps on the background when running out of memory way too aggressive when you compare that to how it works on vanilla ICS or even older HTC phones running android 2.2 or 2.3.
However the latest update made multitask way better for One S. And Iam talking about the one which updatet android version to 4.0.4. Now you can jump between many apps without the fear of them closing immediately so Iam very happy with that now and it works as its should be.
Paqu1 said:
However the latest update made multitask way better for One S. And Iam talking about the one which updatet android version to 4.0.4. Now you can jump between many apps without the fear of them closing immediately so Iam very happy with that now and it works as its should be.
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I've read comments by users who installed latest update and still have the limited multitasking issue (I'm waiting for the OTA update in Italy). Are you saying instead this has been "fixed"...?
Moved To Q&A
Please post all questions in the Q&A section
hexaae said:
I've read comments by users who installed latest update and still have the limited multitasking issue (I'm waiting for the OTA update in Italy). Are you saying instead this has been "fixed"...?
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Well its working fine for me. I can now jump between 4-6 fairly light programs and 2-3 heavier ones without the previous app always closing like before the update.
Paqu1 said:
Well its working fine for me. I can now jump between 4-6 fairly light programs and 2-3 heavier ones without the previous app always closing like before the update.
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Click to collapse
Actually I still don't know because I do not have the last updated, I'm waiting that it goes online on automatic update.....
Hope you are right!
Paqu1 said:
Well its working fine for me. I can now jump between 4-6 fairly light programs and 2-3 heavier ones without the previous app always closing like before the update.
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Click to collapse
Please can you test this?
Open Google in the stock browser and type in something to search (but don't start searching!)... then switch between other apps and finally go back to the browser. Does it still reload and delete your input text?
I'm going to test the script now. Available memory is not an issue for me, as I removed Sense and am running Nova Launcher. My available memory usually sits around +230, ranging from 170-270. Haven't seen it drop below that. As for battery life, as long as you actually use the HTC multitask button and kill the apps that you don't want to go back to, the battery shouldn't really be affected, or at least the only effect will be a result of the apps that you actually want running, so it's a trade off, right? Keep in mind that means not killing the processes that will be automatically restarted by Android (ie using an auto task killer, or some pre Froyo type apps), only user apps that you recently launched and are now killing.
tgtoys said:
As for battery life, as long as you actually use the HTC multitask button and kill the apps that you don't want to go back to, the battery shouldn't really be affected, or at least the only effect will be a result of the apps that you actually want running, so it's a trade off, right? Keep in mind that means not killing the processes that will be automatically restarted by Android (ie using an auto task killer, or some pre Froyo type apps), only user apps that you recently launched and are now killing.
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Click to collapse
Oh god, didn't I just explained this few post earlier? You dont have to do any of that since it DOESNT have any impact to your battery life. Go ahead and test it if you dont believe me.
hexaae said:
Please can you test this?
Open Google in the stock browser and type in something to search (but don't start searching!)... then switch between other apps and finally go back to the browser. Does it still reload and delete your input text?
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Click to collapse
Ok, I just did what you asked. After doing that with the default browser I was able to jump between Dolphin HD which had two tabs open, youtube app and chrome without any of them closing. And I even went to home screen between them. I think thats pretty good compared how it worked previously. Because then often it was enough if I just jumped to homescreen and then right back the previous app to make it close.
Confirmed.
Official stock ROM, via OTA, ver. 2.31.401.5... and there IS multitasking, finally! Task manager is much more conservative (around 70-80% of cases) with executed apps in the multitasking-history-menu...
Yes, also the browser now won't reload pages if you switch to the mail app for a moment and go back...
~200MB free mem.