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!!!If you have Android 2.1 the app now is in the market!!!
Android 2.2 and higher are also still supported
This is not another Auto Task Killer, no.
Thanks for all the help from everyone! We've moved into a lite and full version now on Android 2.2 and 2.3 phones.This is a new program which allows the user to specify alert levels to phone tasks and give you insight into what your phone is really doing. Make a call, ever wonder what apps may be listening? What's going on when you phone is in standby? In creating this, I will say that I've been surprised a few times at what is really going on. I want any and all feedback as well as we are trying to make this into something special. I am the actual developer of this app.
The full version has:
-Common Names and Actual Application Icons
-No Ads
-Access to all App Settings
-Ability to change alert level from List Tasks
-Removed Internet and Location Permissions
And we have a slew of other features planned for only the full version, but we don't want to spill the beans on those quite yet, but they will enhance the tool greatly!
Both versions now have the new UI as well.
Anyone who had the beta should be notified to upgrade to the lite version now.
Download Task Identifier Lite from your phone:
market://search?q=pname:com.task.identifier
Download Task Identifier Full from your phone:
market://search?q=pname:com.task.identifier.full
I've also attached a QR Code to scan for both versions. Or just search for Task Identifier in the market.
I hope you all find this useful and enjoy!!
smart work
notowork said:
smart work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
10
Hehe, I like how the only comment for the app (5 stars and "awesome" as comment) is currently by a user named 'x2k'. Hmmm.
I've just installed it and it's been less than a minute and I got an alert from an app that no longer needs to sync...So I disabled it (every little bit of non-sync means longer battery life!).
So far it's looking very promising! I'll definitely report back on my experiences!
Okay, first big thing...
Can you please resolve the cryptic app names to their more friendly name variants?
It's hard to read and make out the com.blah designations.
Thanks!
So far it seems like a cool app. I've been using WatchDog for ages to alert me when an app misbehaves.
But I'm confused about this app. When would you want to be using this? Can you give an example?
I'll keep it installed and see how it goes. Thanks.
Paul22000 said:
So far it seems like a cool app. I've been using WatchDog for ages to alert me when an app misbehaves.
But I'm confused about this app. When would you want to be using this? Can you give an example?
I'll keep it installed and see how it goes. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for trying. This is more of an app to alert you as to what your phone is doing, ie what loads at a given point in time on your phone.
x2kjosh said:
Thanks for trying. This is more of an app to alert you as to what your phone is doing, ie what loads at a given point in time on your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'm playing around with it and actively trying to make notifications pop up I opened Facebook and Google Reader started, as did Maps. Weird.
Which brings me to a question: how do we know whether the task started was CAUSED by the current app I'm using, or Android just randomly started it?
For example, it's possible Facebook opened Maps in order to try to get my location, but I don't see the connection between Facebook and Google Reader. Which is why I ask if it's random, or the app I'm using is causing other tasks to run.
Paul22000 said:
Thanks. I'm playing around with it and actively trying to make notifications pop up I opened Facebook and Google Reader started, as did Maps. Weird.
Which brings me to a question: how do we know whether the task started was CAUSED by the current app I'm using, or Android just randomly started it?
For example, it's possible Facebook opened Maps in order to try to get my location, but I don't see the connection between Facebook and Google Reader. Which is why I ask if it's random, or the app I'm using is causing other tasks to run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've found when you start doing things you see patterns. On my old Eris while I was testing this, every time I made a phone call, ebay would start! Glad it seems to be working for you! Thanks!
Great thanks
wael0x said:
Great thanks
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Click to collapse
You're welcome.
Sounds like a great troubleshooting tool. Nice work!
I'm liking this app more and more. A few more comments and requests.
Comments
* I like the main app window. Large fonts, long-press to get quick-help or short press to go to the item. Nice
* Screen off app start notification, nice!
Requests
1. Possible to get more detail about why or how an app was triggered? Like, was it triggered by a service? another app? etc. And did the triggered app take any actions? Like sending network traffic or queried the GPS and such?
2. The 'Setup Alerts' window is hard to read through, could you maybe add color so all the status 'Green' items have the word 'Green' in green font and so on?
Just added a 5 star rating on Market, keep up the good work!
Namuna said:
I'm liking this app more and more. A few more comments and requests.
Comments
* I like the main app window. Large fonts, long-press to get quick-help or short press to go to the item. Nice
* Screen off app start notification, nice!
Requests
1. Possible to get more detail about why or how an app was triggered? Like, was it triggered by a service? another app? etc. And did the triggered app take any actions? Like sending network traffic or queried the GPS and such?
2. The 'Setup Alerts' window is hard to read through, could you maybe add color so all the status 'Green' items have the word 'Green' in green font and so on?
Just added a 5 star rating on Market, keep up the good work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestions. Those are features we truly will consider adding as it will just make the tool even better. Thanks!
There will probably be updates from time to time through the market
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
First of all, thanks for a great app.
I really like the fact that it reports on tasks/processes started while the screen was off!
I have some suggestions though:
1: When I click the icon in the app list to open the menu, it just shows the "Starting monitor" message and nothing else. I have to open an app to get the message in the pull down bar and click on that to start the application it self.
2: On my Samsung Galaxy S i9000 the layout of the application is just a bit to long for a full screen. We are talking about 1 cm or something.
3: I would very much like a log, so that I can check back, what applications started during screen off, and at what time/date.
4: The way the Android memory management works, I guess it's normal for Android to start and application/process to memory by itself from time to time. Is it possible to show this somehow? For what is interesting here is when an application is launching another application or process, and not when Android memory management is putting an application in memory.
Thanks for your great work, I'm looking forward to further updates to the application!
Just saw this on the front page and thought it looked pretty interesting. Installed a few minutes ago, but so far I like it. Not too intrusive with the pop-up.
As Namuna posted though it would be nice to get more detail.
Also to have the actual app name rather than com.xxx.
Really good work.
Installed.
I like the idea that we can see what tasks are really doing in the background. But as noted by some above, the notifications are a bit cryptic at the moment.
After installing and running the app, I started updating some of my other apps in App Market and my phone crashed. This has not happened before and I seems from my layman eyes that too many things might have been running in the background.
When the phone restarted, it too forever for anything to be displayed and the 3 widgets I had on the homescreen refused to load up. Again it seems to me that this app is popping up too many notifications - I have now stopped the app from starting up and running on start up.
I don't know whether this is unique to me or not though. I am running the app on Samsung Galaxy S (international) on stock Froyo with LauncherPro.
Still, I like this app and will use it more. Keep up the great work and many thanks.
Edit : just checked app settings again, and although I explicit unchecked app running on phone startup, the box is checked again. I unchecked the box and pressed save again. Re-entered app settings and the box is checked again. Am I missing something?
This looks very interesting.. So it's installed and ready for testing
Thank you very much for that app, it's awesome. I agree with the recent posters that the name of the app in addition to the com.blah.blubb would be a great help to identify the task. Also I'd like to see a possibility for a logfile.
Keep up the good work!
EDIT: I can hardly read the small, dark font when setting task levels since I use almost the very darkest display settings to save battery. So being able to chose the font color would be great but has absolutely no priority. Again: great app!Using it all day long now and I am surprised what tasks are being started!
so i found out how to force close apps under settings but theres gotta be a better way.
for example lets say i have browser, market, and facebook apps open. all showing under the window selection button. after time i get a ton of windows there and i don't want all of them open. how do i close them selectively without going through all the settings menu crud?
some apps let me close from within, most don't though and leave me stuck with a ton of windows (apps) open.
What you are asking isn't necessary unless an application has malfunctioned. There is no other way to close applications other than using the force close button in settings. Android handles this itself -- if this doesn't satisfy you download a task manager.
I don't think there is a way yet.
What Google needs to do is make those preview windows in the multitasking bar long-pressable for a menu to be able to close them.
modru2004 said:
so i found out how to force close apps under settings but theres gotta be a better way.
for example lets say i have browser, market, and facebook apps open. all showing under the window selection button. after time i get a ton of windows there and i don't want all of them open. how do i close them selectively without going through all the settings menu crud?
some apps let me close from within, most don't though and leave me stuck with a ton of windows (apps) open.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no need to manually close out apps. Since 2.1, Android has done an excellent job managing memory. It's been written many times (some directly from Google) that micromanaging your apps will actually hurt battery performance. You'll essentially be working against the system as opposed to helping it.
I am not sure if my task manager is working on this device. I use AutoKiller and when I killed task it doesn't appear as though anything closes. Can somebody confirm?
atoy74 said:
There is no need to manually close out apps. Since 2.1, Android has done an excellent job managing memory. It's been written many times (some directly from Google) that micromanaging your apps will actually hurt battery performance. You'll essentially be working against the system as opposed to helping it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
id like to point out thats NOT the issue.
the issue is the ton of windows you end up having to sort through unless you close them. its a quality of life thing, i don't like having unused unnecessary windows open that i have to sort through to get to the stuff i am using. its just bad form.
foldog22 said:
I am not sure if my task manager is working on this device. I use AutoKiller and when I killed task it doesn't appear as though anything closes. Can somebody confirm?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will most likely not work until its rewritten. The way 2.2 and now 3.0 allow access is completely different then 2.1 and below. Plus as said about 200 million task there is 0 reason to run a task killer. If you wanna clear them out, even though there is 0 reason, reboot.
Okay, I get the memory management issue, but as the OP pointed out, I've got all sorts of icons in the "task bar area" (bottom right hand corner) that just sit there or keep coming back.
For example, I haven't listened to any music on my Xoom since yesterday morning, yet I've got an icon down there for Music and Rhapsody. Also, there's no way to clear some notifications.
There's got to be a way to at least clear out the notification isn't there?
you tap on the little icon music for example and you will see a little x on the right of it, click that and it closes it from the notification system
There is absolutely no reason to use a task killer or manually kill tasks. 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, etc. handle memory and tasks extremely well. In many cases, task killers will only cost you more battery and more slowdowns than letting tasks just run out and sit in memory. Unless you're seeing rogue or malfunctioning tasks in the background causing slowdowns, there is no need to kill them.
I do wish you could scroll through the recent running apps rather than only being able to access the latest 5, but spam closing background apps doesnt help at all.
arrtoodeetoo said:
I don't think there is a way yet.
What Google needs to do is make those preview windows in the multitasking bar long-pressable for a menu to be able to close them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I haven't used a task manager since I started learning how android actually works last year when starting to make apps, I can't help but want the same thing in honeycomb for malfunctioning apps. I think google left it out intentionally to discourage task-killing rampages by oblivious users.
Every time I read "you do not need to close apps" I want to scream. first hour of usage I had a second browser installed and it and the stock browser were conflicting with each other... all I wanted to do was a quick close of one of the browsers.
There are always a multitude of good reasons to want to close a background app. I completely understand the technical reasons why an app does not need to be closed, but from a user experience point of view, it should be made simple.
mjpacheco said:
Every time I read "you do not need to close apps" I want to scream. first hour of usage I had a second browser installed and it and the stock browser were conflicting with each other... all I wanted to do was a quick close of one of the browsers.
There are always a multitude of good reasons to want to close a background app. I completely understand the technical reasons why an app does not need to be closed, but from a user experience point of view, it should be made simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which is exactly why in my first post I said "...isn't necessary unless an application has malfunctioned" otherwise such a thing is barely necessary. And in your case, the classic "Settings > ....... > Force Close" would have easily sufficed.
So what you are saying is that a method to kill tasks is necessary, just not often. I, for instance, just had the xda app stuck on the splash screen. I killed it and restarted the app and all was good. There is a potential for harm if used over zealously but at times it would be nice if there was a more convenient way to close an app when necessary.
Applications do not always behave as they should so to say there is no need to kill am app is making a naive assumption that every android app is perfect.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
martonikaj said:
I do wish you could scroll through the recent running apps rather than only being able to access the latest 5, but spam closing background apps doesnt help at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oddly enough, if you turn to portrait, you get a few more. So, technically its not a hard limit on 5, but rather (literally) limited by space on the screen.
Anyone want to place a bet as to what rev we see scrollability?
Sent from my Evo using the XDA App
JanetPanic said:
So what you are saying is that a method to kill tasks is necessary, just not often. I, for instance, just had the xda app stuck on the splash screen. I killed it and restarted the app and all was good. There is a potential for harm if used over zealously but at times it would be nice if there was a more convenient way to close an app when necessary.
Applications do not always behave as they should so to say there is no need to kill am app is making a naive assumption that every android app is perfect.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this happens use the built in task killer, settings/applications/running tab.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
bwcorvus said:
If this happens use the built in task killer, settings/applications/running tab.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did and it worked. As I said it would be nice to have a more convenient way of force stopping apps that are not behaving.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
Closing apps isn't necessary for two reasons.
1. Android does a good job at managing apps on its own.
2. You have 1GB of RAM to work with.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk
Watchdog does a considerable job since it only lets you know when an app is misbehaving. And since being on 2.3 its barely given me any alerts. Perhaps further proving the awesome memory management.
Sent from my Xperia X10 using XDA App
delete please
I can't imagine something like this doesn't exist but I've been searching the market and appbrain for one and I haven't found one yet. The idea is simply to see currently running apps (like the task manager) with the option to kill them from a widget on a desktop. Anyone know of one or even want to get rich making one? I would think plenty of people would find it useful.
Captivate//Serendipity//Swype
search for active apps. it does the same thing at what you want.
anyway, the link is here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=967686&highlight=samsung+active+apps
I appreciate the suggestion, but that's not quite what I'm looking for. I'm needing something that will show the active apps and "end" button in the widget itself instead of in a new window.
Captivate//Serendipity//Swype
I need exactly the same app, I have been looking tht for many hours and nothing
I've found plenty of widgets that launcha custom task manager but nothing like this...looks like Dual's gonna learn some java
Captivate//Serendipity//Swype
Ok so I did a lot of searching and have not been able to find anything for this... I found a couple of threads started by people asking if it is possible or if there is one that exists but those did not receive any real responses so I'm hoping that one of the amazing devs here can help please. I'm debating making a thread in the general Android Development forum so that maybe I'll reach a wider audience.
So what I'd like is a homescreen widget, or possibly a Live wallpaper, which shows the live cards from Google Now.
There are countless Google Now themed UCCW skins that people have put out. I don't want that.
I also found a way to create homescreen icons that LOOK like Google Now cards. But all those do is launch apps, they do not update with live information from Google Now.
I'm not sure why Google Now wasn't created with a widget. It just seems to make sense. It's kind of annoying that you have to open the app to get all this information, instead of having it right in front of your face on your homescreen where you can access other apps quickly as well. I mean the point of google now is to present you with information before you need it right? How is that possible if I can't get the info without opening the app.
So I'm hoping there is, if anything, some sort of work around here.
Maybe someone knows of a way to create a widget with desktop visualizer that will show the live Google now cards and update them.
I'm hoping for a scrollable widget that will be almost exactly like Google Now (i.e new cards will pop up as they do in the app, you can scroll up and down to view all of the cards you currently have, you can swipe to remove cards - (come to think of it you probably won't be able to swipe to remove cards, but maybe a double tap or something?))
It would probably be best if this widget did not include the google search bar and simply showed the google now cards.
I remember hearing about an app in the past that could overlay live wallpapers on each other. Is there a way to overlay an app into a live wall paper? so that you could see Google Now as your live wall paper, even if maybe you can't actually interact with it this way?
For now I'm going to try setting up something with tasker, so that google now will automatically open every morning when I turn off my alarm, and possibly at other points (maybe when a new card pops up or something). Something similar to this could probably be done with the smart actions app if people are interested in trying that out. But honestly I feel like this is not the best solution because I'd rather not have tasker running constantly, eating my RAM and therefore my battery.
So I don't know if the reason there is no widget already is because it simply is not possible. And if it's not possible could someone please explain why?
Also, so that I can try to work on this myself - can someone please help me by telling me which files Google now uses for getting and updating cards? (i.e. the file names I would see in Titanium or under Settings>Apps or in a file explorer where they would be located - I'm guessing somewhere in the /system/ folder) If I can access these I can play around with them and try some things out
TIA to all who reply...
Given that Google Now is a bit of a battery drain already, I'd imagine that having it constantly running and updating cards would use even more. The cards ARE available in the pulldown menu, aren't they? I haven't used it in a while... Still on ICS until Moto+Rogers updates the OS sometime in Q1 '13 now. >.<
EdwardN said:
Given that Google Now is a bit of a battery drain already, I'd imagine that having it constantly running and updating cards would use even more. The cards ARE available in the pulldown menu, aren't they? I haven't used it in a while... Still on ICS until Moto+Rogers updates the OS sometime in Q1 '13 now. >.<
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got a Razr Maxx HD because I don't want to worry about battery drain. It's been something holding me back with every other phone I ever owned. I hear that the regular Razr HD gets pretty amazing battery life as well. I'm not looking for reasons why I wouldn't want this. I'm looking for reasons why it would not be possible or a way to make it possible.
Sorry to hear about Rogers...
But if you are rooted you should be able to install Google Now for ICS
This might work http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1983337
And I just found this http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-news/232046-gnow-handlebars-easy-solution-google-now-ics.html
I am looking for the same thing as you but maybe we need to be writing to the Google dev team instead.
dhigby said:
I am looking for the same thing as you but maybe we need to be writing to the Google dev team instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also discovered that pressing the home button and swiping up brings up Google Now. That is good enough for me, and I can live without the widget.
Sent from my HTC One S
dhigby said:
I also discovered that pressing the home button and swiping up brings up Google Now. That is good enough for me, and I can live without the widget.
Sent from my HTC One S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. It works from any app and it only takes a second to load.
Ok so I did a lot of searching and have not been able to find anything for this... I found a couple of threads started by people asking if it is possible or if there is one that exists but those did not receive any real responses so I'm hoping that one of the amazing devs here can help please.
So what I'd like is a homescreen widget, or possibly a Live wallpaper, which shows the live cards from Google Now.
There are countless Google Now themed UCCW skins that people have put out. I don't want that.
I also found a way to create homescreen icons that LOOK like Google Now cards. But all those do is launch apps, they do not update with live information from Google Now.
I'm not sure why Google Now wasn't created with a widget. It just seems to make sense. It's kind of annoying that you have to open the app to get all this information, instead of having it right in front of your face on your homescreen where you can access other apps quickly as well. I mean the point of google now is to present you with information before you need it right? How is that possible if I can't get the info without opening the app.
So I'm hoping there is, if anything, some sort of work around here.
Maybe someone knows of a way to create a widget with desktop visualizer that will show the live Google now cards and update them.
I'm hoping for a scrollable widget that will be almost exactly like Google Now (i.e new cards will pop up as they do in the app, you can scroll up and down to view all of the cards you currently have, you can swipe to remove cards - (come to think of it you probably won't be able to swipe to remove cards, but maybe a double tap or something?))
It would probably be best if this widget did not include the google search bar and simply showed the google now cards.
I remember hearing about an app in the past that could overlay live wallpapers on each other. Is there a way to overlay an app into a live wall paper? so that you could see Google Now as your live wall paper, even if maybe you can't actually interact with it this way?
For now I'm going to try setting up something with tasker, so that google now will automatically open every morning when I turn off my alarm, and possibly at other points (maybe when a new card pops up or something). Something similar to this could probably be done with the smart actions app if people are interested in trying that out. But honestly I feel like this is not the best solution because I'd rather not have tasker running constantly, eating my RAM and therefore my battery.
So I don't know if the reason there is no widget already is because it simply is not possible. And if it's not possible could someone please explain why?
Also, so that I can try to work on this myself - can someone please help me by telling me which files Google now uses for getting and updating cards? (i.e. the file names I would see in Titanium or under Settings>Apps or in a file explorer where they would be located - I'm guessing somewhere in the /system/ folder) If I can access these I can play around with them and try some things out
TIA to all who reply...