Question about multitasking - Windows Phone 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a question about Wp7 lack of multitasking. Do you mean its not possible for example to listen to internet radio using a third party app and browse the xda forums at the same time, for example?
Thanks for the clarification.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

i havent heard much about the multitasking.... sorry

That's right. The only thing that runs in the background that i'm aware of is the Zune music player (which has a radio if you want). I haven't found anything else.

sammy_user said:
I have a question about Wp7 lack of multitasking. Do you mean its not possible for example to listen to internet radio using a third party app and browse the xda forums at the same time, for example?
Thanks for the clarification.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. Neither can you use it for GPS navigation while surfing the web or speaking on the phone. Your milage may vary as to how much it affects you though.

Well you can do things while calling so at least this is good.

Yes, multitasking is very limited to wp7. I am sure they might add a few features to it so that we don't feel completely controlled.

also the other noticeable thing is the web browser being able to multi task. for example, you can download a large file, and go off and do something else, and it will keep downloading.

For crying out loud! Please stop calling background scheduling for multitasking! Multitasking is, always has been, and always will be, the ability to do more than one thing. WP7 can multitask just fine, and so can apps. Period. They can.
What you're asking about is something completely different, and you're even contradicting yourself. As some of the native apps, and some made by OEMs, can run in the background, there's no doubt about the OS supporting background scheduling. It's there.
What's actually happening is that MS is protecting us from lousy programmers by not letting most programs run in the background. There's mostly no use for it anyway, unless you want some lousy piece of s.... software eating up your battery, devouring your data plan.
Hell, if you want to, I'll be glad to write a program that will fill up the file storage, using battery like crazy and even using way more data than you can afford. Only down side is that it won't run in the background to f.... up the performance of your other apps.

emigrating said:
Correct. Neither can you use it for GPS navigation while surfing the web or speaking on the phone. Your milage may vary as to how much it affects you though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh? Am I missing something? Why would you need to use the GPS while you are surfing the web?
From my experience it goes like this: surfing the web->home button->maps[back to home][back to explorer]...and just like that you are back to exactly back to where you were having done MULTIple TASKs at once ; )

tiwas said:
For crying out loud! Please stop calling background scheduling for multitasking! Multitasking is, always has been, and always will be, the ability to do more than one thing. WP7 can multitask just fine, and so can apps. Period. They can.
What you're asking about is something completely different, and you're even contradicting yourself. As some of the native apps, and some made by OEMs, can run in the background, there's no doubt about the OS supporting background scheduling. It's there.
What's actually happening is that MS is protecting us from lousy programmers by not letting most programs run in the background. There's mostly no use for it anyway, unless you want some lousy piece of s.... software eating up your battery, devouring your data plan.
Hell, if you want to, I'll be glad to write a program that will fill up the file storage, using battery like crazy and even using way more data than you can afford. Only down side is that it won't run in the background to f.... up the performance of your other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Show me one app that can multitask please?! and by app I mean any third-party or OEM addon to the core OS.
Sure, on WM and Android there is/was a mantra that everything should run in the background - always. But that's not to say that multitasking is evil, it's not. It just needs to be controlled.
Microsoft could quite easily have allowed third-party apps to multitask (or at least register a small service running in the background) if your app needed it - they have "technical exceptions" when submitting to the marketplace, this would be a great opportunity for you to describe why your app needed real multitasking and it would be up to the testers to [dis]agree.
premiumdude said:
Huh? Am I missing something? Why would you need to use the GPS while you are surfing the web?
From my experience it goes like this: surfing the web->home button->maps[back to home][back to explorer]...and just like that you are back to exactly back to where you were having done MULTIple TASKs at once ; )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was just an example, although it's something that's bugged me more than once. But okay, I'll agree it isn't the most common scenario. How about this instead, you're driving along using Navigon and you want to change your tunes, so you press home, then zune, find an artist/album and press play, go back home and then back to the satnav app only to discover you've missed a turn because it didn't tell you you needed to turn off the turnpike at the last exit. Now you're stuck driving another xx miles to get back to where you need to be.
If you don't drive, perhaps you map your morning runs using a GPS tracker. So you're on your way and the phone rings. Since you've got a headset you continue running while talking only to have your entire statistics screwed up because the phone stopped tracking you while on the phone.
Or even better, you're using some third-party app to sync your Hotmail or Exchange tasks to your phone. Problem is, the app cannot multitask so it will never notify you of [over]due tasks unless you constantly keep the app open...
While I definitely agree you don't need your RSS reader or Angry Birds clone running in the background, all the time, there are scenarios where real multitasking is important.

emigrating said:
That was just an example, although it's something that's bugged me more than once. But okay, I'll agree it isn't the most common scenario. How about this instead, you're driving along using Navigon and you want to change your tunes, so you press home, then zune, find an artist/album and press play, go back home and then back to the satnav app only to discover you've missed a turn because it didn't tell you you needed to turn off the turnpike at the last exit. Now you're stuck driving another xx miles to get back to where you need to be.
If you don't drive, perhaps you map your morning runs using a GPS tracker. So you're on your way and the phone rings. Since you've got a headset you continue running while talking only to have your entire statistics screwed up because the phone stopped tracking you while on the phone.
Or even better, you're using some third-party app to sync your Hotmail or Exchange tasks to your phone. Problem is, the app cannot multitask so it will never notify you of [over]due tasks unless you constantly keep the app open...
While I definitely agree you don't need your RSS reader or Angry Birds clone running in the background, all the time, there are scenarios where real multitasking is important.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wholeheartedly agree. Excellent examples. Was able to put myself in those scenarios and see how important deep multitasking is. Thank you for helping me see that.

tiwas said:
For crying out loud! Please stop calling background scheduling for multitasking! Multitasking is, always has been, and always will be, the ability to do more than one thing. WP7 can multitask just fine, and so can apps. Period. They can.
What you're asking about is something completely different, and you're even contradicting yourself. As some of the native apps, and some made by OEMs, can run in the background, there's no doubt about the OS supporting background scheduling. It's there.
What's actually happening is that MS is protecting us from lousy programmers by not letting most programs run in the background. There's mostly no use for it anyway, unless you want some lousy piece of s.... software eating up your battery, devouring your data plan.
Hell, if you want to, I'll be glad to write a program that will fill up the file storage, using battery like crazy and even using way more data than you can afford. Only down side is that it won't run in the background to f.... up the performance of your other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it cannot multi-task anything besides Zune, therefore, I guess technically you could say that it can multi-task like .1% of all the apps available.

MartyLK said:
Wholeheartedly agree. Excellent examples. Was able to put myself in those scenarios and see how important deep multitasking is. Thank you for helping me see that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol,
I think it's as simple as like with Android I can have google maps open and have turn-by-turn open in the background, so the british lady still gives me audio directions while I play Angry Birds or surf the web (as a passenger in a car) like going to a party or something.
Also let's say I'm at the gym and want to use Pandora (which WP7 doesn't even have or I sure as hell can't find it in the app store) in the background while im texting/emailing between bench sets, just simple **** like that I wish WP7 could do.
It's not life or death but it is the reason I use Android more than WP7 on my HD2, although I do like WP7 more at times as well, but it sure as hell can't multi-task for any practical purpose.

orangekid said:
lol,
I think it's as simple as like with Android I can have google maps open and have turn-by-turn open in the background, so the british lady still gives me audio directions while I play Angry Birds or surf the web (as a passenger in a car) like going to a party or something.
Also let's say I'm at the gym and want to use Pandora (which WP7 doesn't even have or I sure as hell can't find it in the app store) in the background while im texting/emailing between bench sets, just simple **** like that I wish WP7 could do.
It's not life or death but it is the reason I use Android more than WP7 on my HD2, although I do like WP7 more at times as well, but it sure as hell can't multi-task for any practical purpose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear ya there. I keep the sim card in my HD2...running Android...for purposes of using TbT voice nav and other things WP7 doesn't give me.

MartyLK said:
I hear ya there. I keep the sim card in my HD2...running Android...for purposes of using TbT voice nav and other things WP7 doesn't give me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly.
I'm glad I've got dual-boot rocking on my HD2, as much as I do like WP7, I don't think I could use it as a daily without being able to restart the phone and load up android whenever I want to, maybe when the OS is more matured and actually CAN multi-task and offer more of the apps I like.

Somebody needs to just make something like the jailbroken iphone app backgrounder that lets you choose what multitasks. It worked fine back before apple had "fast app switching"

Anthonok said:
Somebody needs to just make something like the jailbroken iphone app backgrounder that lets you choose what multitasks. It worked fine back before apple had "fast app switching"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's true. I used backgrounder + Proswitcher forever before iOS4 came out and it worked great, smooth, and had awesome palm pre-like task switching, and you could background any app, it really didn't hurt battery life much at all. I would love to see this on WP7 if it could be implemented till MS gets their act together.
kinda like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMAVyaNQdnw

orangekid said:
that's true. I used backgrounder + Proswitcher forever before iOS4 came out and it worked great, smooth, and had awesome palm pre-like task switching, and you could background any app, it really didn't hurt battery life much at all. I would love to see this on WP7 if it could be implemented till MS gets their act together.
kinda like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMAVyaNQdnw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep it was great. I coudlnt live without it. Also this way only people with unlocked phones (thus meaning they more than likely have knowledge of how things work) will be using this and shouldnt complain if there device gets slow or anything. They would know the consequences.

Anthonok said:
Yep it was great. I coudlnt live without it. Also this way only people with unlocked phones (thus meaning they more than likely have knowledge of how things work) will be using this and shouldnt complain if there device gets slow or anything. They would know the consequences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well if the 3GS can handle it so well on a 600mhz processor and 256mb ram, I'm sure a WP7 device with 1ghz and 576mb ram could handle it just fine with no slow-downs.

tiwas said:
For crying out loud! Please stop calling background scheduling for multitasking! Multitasking is, always has been, and always will be, the ability to do more than one thing. WP7 can multitask just fine, and so can apps. Period. They can.
What you're asking about is something completely different, and you're even contradicting yourself. As some of the native apps, and some made by OEMs, can run in the background, there's no doubt about the OS supporting background scheduling. It's there.
What's actually happening is that MS is protecting us from lousy programmers by not letting most programs run in the background. There's mostly no use for it anyway, unless you want some lousy piece of s.... software eating up your battery, devouring your data plan.
Hell, if you want to, I'll be glad to write a program that will fill up the file storage, using battery like crazy and even using way more data than you can afford. Only down side is that it won't run in the background to f.... up the performance of your other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen your post history and, no offense, but you're starting to remind me of the fanboys at MacRumors, thinking that their phones are perfect until Apple changes one thing. Then suddenly it is revolutionary and intuitive.
Multitasking would greatly benefit WP7. Live with it. Apps don't even run under lock properly. But I'd like to be able to run a music app and surf at the same time. Want a gimped experience? Fine with me. Just don't go whining when people want to make the most out of their experience with their phones.

Related

Multitask like pre

Hi everyone,
A friend of mine just got a Palm pre plus. Nice phone, not bad at all. I still prefer my Nexus but one tool really did caught my eye on the Palm.
The multitasking ability is wonderfull on the Pre. the ability to view small windows of every tasks you are running, moving left of right to switch and up to close/kill an app is just plain awesome.
I know jailbroken Iphone can download a similar app through cydia. So if the Iphone can do it, Why can't I find anything alike for Android?
That would be a great app that for sure many would download as it is just nice looking.
thanks a lot for reading.
Aeonys
Aeonys said:
Hi everyone,
A friend of mine just got a Palm pre plus. Nice phone, not bad at all. I still prefer my Nexus but one tool really did caught my eye on the Palm.
The multitasking ability is wonderfull on the Pre. the ability to view small windows of every tasks you are running, moving left of right to switch and up to close/kill an app is just plain awesome.
I know jailbroken Iphone can download a similar app through cydia. So if the Iphone can do it, Why can't I find anything alike for Android?
That would be a great app that for sure many would download as it is just nice looking.
thanks a lot for reading.
Aeonys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would love love love this.
That would be way cool Been wanting something like that for a while now
You mean a task switcher
And yes, would be a nice feature
Aeonys said:
Hi everyone,
A friend of mine just got a Palm pre plus. Nice phone, not bad at all. I still prefer my Nexus but one tool really did caught my eye on the Palm.
The multitasking ability is wonderfull on the Pre. the ability to view small windows of every tasks you are running, moving left of right to switch and up to close/kill an app is just plain awesome.
I know jailbroken Iphone can download a similar app through cydia. So if the Iphone can do it, Why can't I find anything alike for Android?
That would be a great app that for sure many would download as it is just nice looking.
thanks a lot for reading.
Aeonys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can simply long press the home button. It's not all your running tasks, just your six most recently executed applications. It's not nearly as cool of an interface as the Palm Pre may have, but it effectively does the same thing. For killing processes I recommend Advanced Task Manager.
I'm sure we'll have a similar interface on stock Android in future releases. 2.5 perhaps?
@mhaedo:
Thanks for the tip! I tried it and it aint bad.
I already had Commantalb and ES task manager.
Both of them and this trick do partly what I ask (and other too.)
Check out the proswitcher on youtube. I'm sure it ain't too hard to have an app running in the back that shows up like commantab show you the windows let you kill them with a vertical slide, etc.
If I wait for this to happen on android 3.1 I may as well buy an Iphone (oh dear no way!)...
Proswitcher looks fantastic.
Now that we have a phone with some decent power, I'd love to see a graphical task switching app with thumbnails and gestures like this!
Aeonys said:
@mhaedo:
Thanks for the tip! I tried it and it aint bad.
I already had Commantalb and ES task manager.
Both of them and this trick do partly what I ask (and other too.)
Check out the proswitcher on youtube. I'm sure it ain't too hard to have an app running in the back that shows up like commantab show you the windows let you kill them with a vertical slide, etc.
If I wait for this to happen on android 3.1 I may as well buy an Iphone (oh dear no way!)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having used the two multitasking solutions available on cydia (multifl0w and kirkae) I can report that they are buggy at best. In theory it works well but in practice, I often had apps crash when backgrounded (pandora was a fine example of this). The phone was not meant for it and could barely support it.
Using backgrounder alone with pandora worked well most of the time but even then pandora would close.
Personally, I have no real compelling interest in a pre-esque multitasking ability on the n1 but if someone came out with one, I would definitely try it out for no other reason than "why not".
coming from a 3gs and having used mquickdo and kirikae, I also would like to see how the n1 would handle task switching.
yep, backgrounding + task switching via card view on the iphone (specially through kirikae) was nice to have and would like to see how a similar solution would operate on the n1 - which supports unfettered multitasking out of the box.
aside from task switching, i would really like to have a nice way to invoke favorite, instead of recently used apps.
You're gonna end up with like....8 million cards when you want to switch.
aleitry said:
coming from a 3gs and having used mquickdo and kirikae, I also would like to see how the n1 would handle task switching.
yep, backgrounding + task switching via card view on the iphone (specially through kirikae) was nice to have and would like to see how a similar solution would operate on the n1 - which supports unfettered multitasking out of the box.
aside from task switching, i would really like to have a nice way to invoke favorite, instead of recently used apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you want to use a set of favourites, why not just make the "home" desktop where you keep your favourites? Seems to satisfy that ask, no?
deprecate said:
if you want to use a set of favourites, why not just make the "home" desktop where you keep your favourites? Seems to satisfy that ask, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stop being so logical.
aleitry said:
i would really like to have a nice way to invoke favorite, instead of recently used apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can create a folder on your home screen, name it favorites, then dump shortcuts of all your favorite, top 5 or top 10 apps in there.
legitimate suggestions and really i'm in no way being critical about current support for folders or shortcuts. pre like task switching or swipe-to-invoke features would be cool - but not necessary. bottom line - my n1 runs circles around my 3gs - without jbreaking.
deprecate said:
Having used the two multitasking solutions available on cydia (multifl0w and kirkae) I can report that they are buggy at best. In theory it works well but in practice, I often had apps crash when backgrounded (pandora was a fine example of this). The phone was not meant for it and could barely support it.
Using backgrounder alone with pandora worked well most of the time but even then pandora would close.
Personally, I have no real compelling interest in a pre-esque multitasking ability on the n1 but if someone came out with one, I would definitely try it out for no other reason than "why not".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to disagree with you on this Sir. proswitcher and Multiflow are both apps made by some user to compensate a HUGE lack in the Iphone. They are comparable to Cyanogen making multitouch on the Nexus (on the video it was shaky and unprecise at best). Besides, they can hardly work well because of the phone's design (solo tasking).
Now you've got the Nexus: Lots of power, and able to multitask. So with such a device I don't think it would be SOOOOO complicated to actually make a switching feature like it exists with great success on the Palm PRE.
I had to spend quite a long while the first time on my wife's Iphone just to get Proswitcher (unlock/root/blackstuff/cydia/backgrounder/proswitcher/settings) to get this important app: because quite frankly, yes it's buggy but it's awesome to be ABLE to do more than 1 thing at the same time like looking for apps and installing apps for example... My Pal who's got the PRE now has this feature built it. His PRE is nice, no offense, but the Nexus kills it. This feature would be one of the only thing I'm really jealous about.
lol from the dev of ProSwitcher when asked about making a similar app for Android.
chpwn
@xManMythLegend If you send me an Android phone, sure, but I don't own any.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
proswitcher is sooo cool its almost sickening! our n1's can run x2 amount of apps as the iphone and yet we only get to switch between the most recent 6?! thats weak! i bet if we keep this thread alive (and on topic) we can see some development. lets see what dev is up to the challenge. i would definitely pay for something like this!
your posts needs some clearing up.
Iman07 said:
our n1's can run x2 amount of apps as the iphone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
N1 can run not just x2 amount of apps as the iphone. More, way more...prob more near 10? 20? obviously depending on the app itself.
Iman07 said:
yet we only get to switch between the most recent 6?! thats weak!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are able to switch between any open apps by loading up the app again from either the drawer or any shortcuts you've made. I understand you may mean by touch holding the home button but tbh its far far easier to press home once and nav to your app, and having it open instantly. Rather than sifting through pages to find it.
m00moo said:
your posts needs some clearing up.
N1 can run not just x2 amount of apps as the iphone. More, way more...prob more near 10? 20? obviously depending on the app itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was basing it solely on the fact that our N1's have twice as much RAM as the iPhone, 512 vs 256 respectively. Of course it depends on size of the app but it wasnt meant to be scrutinized over.
m00moo said:
We are able to switch between any open apps by loading up the app again from either the drawer or any shortcuts you've made. I understand you may mean by touch holding the home button but tbh its far far easier to press home once and nav to your app, and having it open instantly. Rather than sifting through pages to find it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I do mean by holding the home button, but I find it more work to have to open the app drawer and sift through my 100 apps, though alphabetical, can be cumbersome. To each his own though.
Still would love to see a more effective and efficient method of switching between apps than the obvious (placing shortcuts on the desktop), sifting through app cards is cooler than sifting through the app drawer. Perhaps if the cards were limited to a certain number so it doesnt get out of hand. Who knows!

Android and why I want WiMo back

For almost 2 years I used a Touch Diamond. While WiMo is far from perfect in todays world with a bit of tweaking and some extra software I had a device that did what I wanted it to do. Sure, WiMo isnt what you´d call fast but as said, it did what it had to do.
For the past few days I´ve been using android with my new htc legend. I heard a lot of good things about android and that is why I decided to switch. But even after a few days I´m already having a feeling of regret. While android is very fast and finger friendly the OS/apps itself just don't cut it compared to WiMo. About 75% of the things I did on a daily basis with my phone just don't work (properly) on android.
Syncing mail with hotmail is a *****. It for example does not sync read messages so everytime I login with my pc I still have to click all new messages while I already read them on my phone. This worked perfectly with WiMo.
No automatic 3g disconnect. Now this isnt default on WiMo either but there are apps that just disconnect a idle data connection. Now android has a whole bunch of apps like juicedefender but they just dont work properly and are overcomplicated. Just disconnect if I don't use it. Thats all I want. Let apps and whatever connect when they want to and kill the connection when they are done. Simple you'd think but impossible on android it seems.
Youtube is a epic fail. In the exact same place, with the exact same simcard I just can't load a movie. They all stop after 3 seconds and don't load further. Also there is no option for always having HQ. The WiMo app had this and I could always load HQ movies without trouble.
But it gets even worse when it comes to much more practical things. The browser won't save exchange webmail login info. So now I'm expected to loging like 5 times a day to my uni mail by typing my info every time? Not nice.
And what about displaying agenda items? can't do that on the lockscreen. There are apps to do this but not on the htc sense one as far as I've seen. So I have to manually check my agenda which is just a ***** because I'm just to seeing things come up on the homescreen.
Also I can't login to the uni website. You should get a login popup but the android browser doesnt seem to be capable of this. Ofcourse this was no problem at all with a 2 year old browser... So now I can't check schedules and all.
Also there is no way to stream my favorite internet radio station.
Basically I pay 10 euro's a month for internet on my phone but all apps I regulairy use with internet don't work or only work a bit on android.
Don't get me wrong, I love the speed and all but what good is speed to me if I can't use most of the functions that are important to me? What is even more disturbing is that non of the things I want to do are very special. This should all just work but it seems to be far above what android is capable of.
Basically to me android is a disfunctional OS. If the above things would work, I'd love it but now all I got is speed, but no way of doing the things I want.
Nice try, but not quite it.
sjaak1234 said:
Syncing mail with hotmail is a *****. It for example does not sync read messages so everytime I login with my pc I still have to click all new messages while I already read them on my phone. This worked perfectly with WiMo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's hardly Android error - it just seems to be a bug in the mail client app. Maybe yry another one?
No automatic 3g disconnect. Now this isnt default on WiMo either but there are apps that just disconnect a idle data connection. Now android has a whole bunch of apps like juicedefender but they just dont work properly and are overcomplicated. Just disconnect if I don't use it. Thats all I want. Let apps and whatever connect when they want to and kill the connection when they are done. Simple you'd think but impossible on android it seems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not as simple as it sounds - android has to have an active data connection to enable IM messages as well as gmail imap notifications. Unlike POP3 e-mail accounts where you have to querry the server for new e-mails once in a while, gmail actually sends information to your phone when you get an email. And this wouldn't be possible if the connection was turned off.
And if you don't want to use gmail or gtalk, just disable background data in android's data sync settings and the 3g module won't eat your battery when unneeded. Don't worry, android is much smarter with power management than winMo and the fact that you didn't disable something by hand doesn't mean that it's eating your battery.
It's like GPS - even if it;s turned on in options/on power control wigdet the module isn't physically powered up until an app requests to use it. And when it's done the module powers down again. But still you see people disabling gps support in options after exiting maps believing that it will save some battery, or even requesting an app that would disable the switch on power control wigdet.
So just remember - it's a different OS, it has different rules and the fact that you did something by hand in winMo doesn't mean you have to do it here.
Youtube is a epic fail. In the exact same place, with the exact same simcard I just can't load a movie. They all stop after 3 seconds and don't load further. Also there is no option for always having HQ. The WiMo app had this and I could always load HQ movies without trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, this seems to be a problem with your rom/app version. I (and many other people) don't have any trouble with YT on android.
As for the HQ, it's turned on automatically when you're on wifi, on a gsm connection it defaults to standard quality. Personally i like this behavior but i agree that there should be an option to change that for people with huge/unlimited data plans.
But it gets even worse when it comes to much more practical things. The browser won't save exchange webmail login info. So now I'm expected to loging like 5 times a day to my uni mail by typing my info every time? Not nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weird, but also not android bug, just the browser. You might want to try some alternatives (like dolphin, skyfire, opera mini)
And what about displaying agenda items? can't do that on the lockscreen. There are apps to do this but not on the htc sense one as far as I've seen. So I have to manually check my agenda which is just a ***** because I'm just to seeing things come up on the homescreen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, and since when does WinMo display the agenda without any additional software? But i agree, htc really should make some "upcomming events" widget, and default android could use one as well. For now i use "CalWidget" and i know of "pure calendar widget" (paid). I don't know it they're compatible with sense but it may be worth a try
Also I can't login to the uni website. You should get a login popup but the android browser doesnt seem to be capable of this. Ofcourse this was no problem at all with a 2 year old browser... So now I can't check schedules and all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, hard to blame android for that. Some alternative browser might help (maybe opera mini?).
Also there is no way to stream my favorite internet radio station.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no way to do that or maybe you just don't know a way to do it? Try DroidLive (it might even have this station in its database) or StreamFurious. Both have usable free versions.
Don't get me wrong, I love the speed and all but what good is speed to me if I can't use most of the functions that are important to me? What is even more disturbing is that non of the things I want to do are very special. This should all just work but it seems to be far above what android is capable of.
Basically to me android is a disfunctional OS. If the above things would work, I'd love it but now all I got is speed, but no way of doing the things I want.
Nice try, but not quite it.
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Click to collapse
Well, seems to me that you don't really have a problem with android but you just got screwed by HTC and their customized version of android
If i were you, i'd just look for an unofficial rom. It might actually fix all your problems.
Also, part of your woes seems to be the fact that you knew winMo, knew the tweaks and apps you needed to make the device do what you want. Going over to android is a fresh start where you have to find out everything again. I know, i had similar feelings on a stock rom on my G1 after being a hardcore winMo user But after some research and grabbing a new rom and few extra apps android is way more functional than winMo for me and i don't feel like ever going back.
Just give it a chance and do some research.
Android platform has to mature a lot.
WM without xda is a hell.
You really need to find a new ROM. I've never had one single issue you're talking about.
Edit: And I'm using a myTouch running 1.6.
mr_deimos said:
That's hardly Android error - it just seems to be a bug in the mail client app. Maybe yry another one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be, though I doubt that. But I might try a different one.
It's not as simple as it sounds
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Click to collapse
I know all that. But for me it does not seem to work perfectly. If I disable data connection always on (I never actually completely disable it), it still leaves it open. I checked overnight compared with just totally disabling it and it made a clear difference in the battery charge left. Its not like GPS where the icon actally dissapears when you don't use it but this doesnt happen with 3g so far as I can see it, it still uses more power than when disabling it.
I understand all the google stuff needs it, but I don't use any of it so for me its rather useless.
Again, this seems to be a problem with your rom/app version. I (and many other people) don't have any trouble with YT on android.
As for the HQ, it's turned on automatically when you're on wifi, on a gsm connection it defaults to standard quality. Personally i like this behavior but i agree that there should be an option to change that for people with huge/unlimited data plans.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did some more reachers on this and the problems seems to exist on a lot of different models/rom versions. I got the latest 2.1 rom for legend so I should have the latest (v1.5 I believe).
Weird, but also not android bug, just the browser. You might want to try some alternatives (like dolphin, skyfire, opera mini)
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Click to collapse
I reacherd a bit more and it seems to be a IIS and android problem. Wm and Iphone have the same problem but they just ignore the IIS message and continue. I tried Opera and it has the same problem. Btw, I think Opera on android is a long way off from Opera on WM. Still missing lots of functions I think.
IIS problem for the website login btw. Not sure why the exchange site doesnt save credentials but that seems to be misconfiguration. For example it wont even work on most desktop browsers either.
Okay, and since when does WinMo display the agenda without any additional software? But i agree, htc really should make some "upcomming events" widget, and default android could use one as well. For now i use "CalWidget" and i know of "pure calendar widget" (paid). I don't know it they're compatible with sense but it may be worth a try
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes ofcourse with extra software I will try the apps you posted. Thanks.
There is no way to do that or maybe you just don't know a way to do it? Try DroidLive (it might even have this station in its database) or StreamFurious. Both have usable free versions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the problem. They work with their own databases. I just want to load a .pls or m3u file in a player and have it connect.
Well, seems to me that you don't really have a problem with android but you just got screwed by HTC and their customized version of android
If i were you, i'd just look for an unofficial rom. It might actually fix all your problems.
Also, part of your woes seems to be the fact that you knew winMo, knew the tweaks and apps you needed to make the device do what you want. Going over to android is a fresh start where you have to find out everything again. I know, i had similar feelings on a stock rom on my G1 after being a hardcore winMo user But after some research and grabbing a new rom and few extra apps android is way more functional than winMo for me and i don't feel like ever going back.
Just give it a chance and do some research.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you are right. I know everything about WM and for me android still has a lot of things beneath its skin I don't know. If the apps I want exist I could fix some of my problems.
But some problems are just android related. The whole website thing is a combination of android and IIS configuration that don't play nice. Nothing HTC can do about this, nor can any custom rom. Its something google needs to fix. Ofcourse, if my uni would change their IIS settings it could also fix the problem but I don't think I can get them to change settings just for me.
For me that really needs to work because its a daily function for me.
Also I wonder if some things can be done. For example in WM you can just select to only use your provider. I still havn't found a way to completely disable roaming on android. Fortunatly its easy to prevent data roaming.

(Q) Android bad as ios when it comes to multitasking..

My phone before moving to android was a n900 with maemo. Problem I have is that with that you had card based multitasking which for example you could be playing a YouTube video on the browser or a app. Then minimize it and still hear it running in the background while you text...with android the app seems to just freeze which is what IV always hated about iPhones...
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
P.S By freezing I mean freezing the state of the app as opposed to "crashing" lol
What exactly are u stating you say its bad but then u complain it just freezes.???? If I may add, android does this and over time shuts off the app....iphone usually doesn't all the time..... And unless your playing music in the backround I find no need to be running music while on the phone doing stuff, it saves ram.....also there's an app for that (possibly) pun intended
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Get a task killer? I've had no problems with freezing. I'm actually streaming music from Slacker radio right now; no slowdown at all.
Sent from my Droid Incredible running Myn's Warm Two Point Two RLS5.3.
I dont mean the phone freezes lol I mean android freezes the state of the app rather than letting it carry on running fully as maemo would..
Just wondering if there is a way around this..
Im pretty sure the n900 was underpowered compared to a Nexus S hence why I thought it would be able to keep apps running not in a "frozen state" in the background...
Oh. Never mind then, sorry about that lol. I'm not sure how to prevent that.
Sent from my Droid Incredible running Myn's Warm Two Point Two RLS5.3.
@sottyc
Multitasking of OS doesn't mean every app is always minimized - that would be really bad. It means app could run in background if it want. YouTupe app doesn't want to do that and this makes much sense for me.
You could try to find an app to play YouTube videos in the background, but I don't think this is a good idea. Phone isn't a PC, you know ;-)
As a user you shouldn't notice any difference to your app's behaviour whether it's frozen or even killed in the meantime. As a developer you can influence, to a degree, your app's priority, or create a service, so that android doesn't freeze or kill your app - it still will in extreme cases. In most cases, however, you shouldn't need to.
You wouldn't have an enjoyable experience running youtube and anything else simultaneously. Phones just aren't that powerful, although the dual cores will probably be an improvement.
This is what alot of people dont get...its not to do with performance..My PC back in the day had less power than modern phones and it still worked fine with windows 98 lol...
As said the N900 is underpowered compared to most android devices and that could run anything in background in fact to could have loads of apps open and keep running while you do other stuff..
Youtube might seem a stupid one but I only use it to listen to music so can be useful to be running..
I dont think its anything to do with power, its the OS not being able to cope...
You cant even run online radio via flash via a website and minimize it so you can keep listening.
There are many uses for this...just never thought android does not like to cope with a load..
To say that the OS cannot cope with multi-tasking is like saying linux cannot cope with multitasking. What you describe are design decisions of the developers of the apps you mention. So, I guess, you should get apps that work for you.
The things you are talking about, Youtube streaming and running Flash, are resource intensive.
Multitasking with these is not the same thing as editing a document and periodically checking your email account ot updating your FB status!
@sottyc
As I told you: you could create an app which will play music from youtube or from WWW in the background. But developers don't do that, because this isn't a great idea - no matter which OS you use.

How bad is multitasking issue?

Hello,
I'm considering purchasing One X but after reading so many posts about multitasking issues I have serious doubts. I can not really check this since it takes time to see the issue but how if I don't use Sense (use alternative launcher like GoLauncher, will I still have this issue or Sense is bigger then just laucher itself.
artisticcheese said:
Hello,
I'm considering purchasing One X but after reading so many posts about multitasking issues I have serious doubts. I can not really check this since it takes time to see the issue but how if I don't use Sense (use alternative launcher like GoLauncher, will I still have this issue or Sense is bigger then just laucher itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sense is bigger than the launcher. Sense affects a lot of the core phone's features can can't be removed with just a launcher. In this particular case, Sense affects memory management, as well as the actual multitasking app itself.
Let's put it this way. If you're playing a game like say... Radiant Defense (awesome game, btw) that takes a while to complete a level and you get a text message... switching to the messaging app will actually cause the game to close. Now you can use the "multitasking" app to go back to the game, but the game will reload. It will not leave off where you left it.
If that sounds like something that would bother you a lot... I'd avoid the phone. HTC has even said that this is a core Sense 4 FEATURE, not a defect. So they won't be fixing it.
Personally don't think this really warrants a new thread, you probably should have just asked in the ongoing discussion on this.
Haven't tried an alternate launcher yet, so I can't comment on that. But as to the basic question of "how bad" the issue is, I think it depends greatly on how you use your phone, and what you expect from it. Obviously, HTC expects most people to be okay with it, or they wouldn't have tweaked it this way. Only had the phone for a few days, but so far the memory management doesn't seem much different from how the HTC Flyer does it, and I've been fine with that (having owned it since June 2011).
Like posted above, Sense is more than just a launcher. The multi-task changes are likely deep in the kernel.
To me, it is not a big deal. I don't like anything running in the background anyway. And for that matter, the number 1 app in the past a typical Android user uses is Auto Task killer which serves the exact same purpose as the new Sense 4.0. I suspect a lot of those Auto Tasker kill users now also the ones who complain about HTC's feature.
Either way, the biggest problem is with Android itself. There isn't any uniform way to inform OS that an app requires to remain running in background (unless you created a service) can be kept that way. And there is no way for an app that doesn't do anything in the background to be suspended without using any system resources. For later, both iOS and WP7 have much better implementation.
For many years now, I use Google Listen as my podcast player everyday. It works in most times while in the background but a lot of occasions, this app will be closed by OS while I'm listening to the podcast. This behavior is the same on couple different Android phones (samsung and now HTC One X). So, if google's own app can't even stay alive in background in various Android phones, it speaks volume that multi-tasking is a over-hyped feature. What HTC did is not necessary bad to everyone. For example, my Samsung phones (SGS, SGS2 and GTab 10.1) doesn't auto kill bakcground tasks (still kills my GListen) but they all lags badly from time to time.
For what it worth, I can use Google Listen in the background while running Google Nav app in the fore ground for a few hours without problem (other than occasionally Listen get closed for no reason).
I have had mine for 2 weeks and only knew about a "problem" from reading these threads.
In all in how you use it. First reply answered it best
ricktat said:
I have had mine for 2 weeks and only knew about a "problem" from reading these threads.
In all in how you use it. First reply answered it best
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. The only app I use for streaming in the background is subsonic, which functions just fine.
Also I have the very very slight annoyance that games have to completely reload if you exit them and don't switch back very very quickly. So if I get a phone call and go right back to game it's fine, but if I go web browse or something else and go back the game has to reload. This is mitigated somewhat by the raw speed of the phone, as game loading doesn't take very long (unless the game is a ****ty port like PvZ).
To avoid confusion, lets just keep this conversation with the ongoing one here. Thanks.
Thread closed.

Task killers and data usage...

I got into a little argument with my manager today because I told the customer that exiting an app stops the app from working since android is extremely efficient with multi tasking. As soon as the customer walked out he told me I was wrong and that a task killer was necessary to stop any data usage by the app. In this case it was the browser that was in question. I tried to explain to him that it's not needed but of course he pulled up an article from 2010 which I pointed out the data right away. So now I have to present to the team why I am right on Friday.
My question is.... As soon as you exit an app and go back to the home Page.... Will it stop its data consumption?
Yes it will . Although some app will still consume ram . But for data as in internet data yeah they will stop as u exit them unless they background enabled like Pandora .etc.
I might be wrong though ..
Sent from my LandLine
I'm inclined to agree. If set to work in background, app killer will start and stop it more therefore theoretically use more data then not using an app killer at all. Although I'm tired and may be way off base haha. Got rescued from the ocean today so I might be a little off lol
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I would say no, not all apps stop consuming data just because you aren't in them. If you have Facebook, Gmail, etc then you will still get notifications after backing out of them.
Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk 2
I think it would stop data, unless of course it has background data perms. Which I don't think the browser has. Also since froyo task killers have been outdated. Unless you are selling a phone with eclair your boss needs to get with the times there.
Sent from a strange blue box hurtling through time and space.
I can't believe it's more then halfway through 2012 and people still want to use task killers on current Android systems.
Windows conditioned people for some bad habits.
Wish I had the time to get into this now.
You won't have to search far for a landslide of proof why you are right.
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/06/02/revisiting-android-task-killers-and-why-you-dont-need-one/
Still over a year old but is more relevant that his sources.
Top comment from that article. I think its a good analogy.
Say you're out golfing, and you have a caddy carrying your clubs for you. You ask him for a driver, he has it right there with him and hands it over. Then, after you tee off, you ask him for a 5-iron and he's got that handy as well. A good caddy will even recognize what club you're probably going to want next, and have it out of the bag already to hand it to you as soon as you need it. That's how Android approaches memory usage - it keeps the things you're likely to need right there and ready so you can just pop it open immediately.
If you're using a task killer, it can't do that. It's essentially the same as if you were to tell your caddy to leave all your clubs in your car. Any time you want a new club, you hand him the old one, and he walks all the way back to the parking lot, puts it away and gets the new one. Worse, occasionally he'll try to be helpful and bring back a second club (say, your putter as you're getting close to the green), but you'll just tell him you didn't want the putter right now and send him all the way back to the car again. Meanwhile, you'll take your shot, and stand around at the green waiting for him to get back so you can hand him your 5-iron and tell him to go get the putter...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with the above statements on how task killers are not needed (or even helpful) on most Android OS phones, although does Sense 4 on the HTC One-X muck up the general explanations as to how our Android phones typically manage memory, perhaps?
That is, last I read Sense 4 would cause reloads of apps sent to the background - such as a browser, Maps, etc. - because those background tasks are apparently being killed by a kill-happy task manager.
- ooofest
A program in the background can be using data (syncing, streaming, etc) when you're not using it and killing it will stop the data usage. Not very complicated.
Imatoasta said:
A program in the background can be using data (syncing, streaming, etc) when you're not using it and killing it will stop the data usage. Not very complicated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only programs with sync enabled such as Google apps and facebook which do not stop on exit. Sync means it will still sync personally at all times until you disable sync. So all in all exiting apps does no good anyhow. The memory handling makes that possible. If you want proof check the firewall. You can find a firewall application easily and it will show data usage and all that. Also most roms now show data usage internally. They will show minimal to no usage whatsoever if you have not done something.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
jclendineng said:
Only programs with sync enabled such as Google apps and facebook which do not stop on exit. Sync means it will still sync personally at all times until you disable sync. So all in all exiting apps does no good anyhow. The memory handling makes that possible. If you want proof check the firewall. You can find a firewall application easily and it will show data usage and all that. Also most roms now show data usage internally. They will show minimal to no usage whatsoever if you have not done something.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A browser in the background can still stream. Not complicated.
Imatoasta said:
A browser in the background can still stream. Not complicated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not necessarily. And yes it is more complicated. Their are variables to consider.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

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