Database Info

Android App Discussion...by a noob?!

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 :-(

[To "lagfix" or Not to "lagfix" This is the question]

This will be the start of a hopefully short lived thread as I only intend to use it to post my findings about the affects of a lagfix. Alright if you are going to come in here to start a flame war about how you know it works or doesn't work just "because" do not even post just leave now! if you have actual measurable data or intelligent input then please contribute.
So a lot of folks state that the advantage lagfix has for them is general responsiveness of applications like touchdown or the market or even jsut opening speedtest.net app. I already no that the direct read/write speed to the FS where the OS resides shows the Captivate much faster than the Nexus one and there is no general feeling that the N1 needs any lagfix. So we can not measure any advantage of a lagfix just by testing the read/write speed of the FS. what then? if it's application responsiveness that is the difference then we have to create environment in the form of a measurable benchmark. So right now I have a ver VERY comprehensive I/O bench script running. it creates an application level benchmark environment where several to many processes are each running various mixed mode I/O streams (read/write/cache) doing this with the exact same standards on a non-lagfix FS and a lagfix FS will show even the smallest most tiny variations in the different types of I/O. it will let us know if perhaps there is a certain type of stream (buffer size, block size, file size) that a lagfix might be improving upon. once the results finish here in about half an hour I will sift through the results, build a graph then post it! I am in no way on one side or the other of a lagfix, I have used both and would rather keep my opinion to my self right now. check back later today for results. I welcome all constructive input/ideas/do it better benchmark (currently 1429 Hawaii standard time)

This is also a question that came in to my head before installing a lag fix.
Well i notice some lags in a stock non-lag fixed captivate. Examples are in games like asphalt (when you win/lose a race) and in N.O.V.A. (progress save) and sometimes in google search widget (when you tap on the text bar, a little sec before the virtual keyboard appear).
I thought that these are just bugs on software or the app itself, but everything is gone when i install lag fix. Yes there are still lags but not as much as before.

This is awesome, can't wait to read it. Are you considering releasing the batch script so others can attempt to contribute?

Already got moved but it doesn't matter. I for one can not wait to see your results cruiser. If you do decide you want to let someone else try your benchmark I'll gladly run it as well.

phishie said:
This is awesome, can't wait to read it. Are you considering releasing the batch script so others can attempt to contribute?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely! I take no credit for these tools and credit will be given where due once the graph is up. I only wrote a script to create the benching environment I wanted. using these tools you can write a very comprehensive script to create the benching environment you want/need for the specific aspect that is being benched. these tools don't just test hardware as hardware is nothing without great software. so using the application level software components to perform these benches and bouncing them off the hardware benches you can see what areas of the software environment are choking what part of the systems performance and vice the versa.

There are a few different lagfixes out there - so don't leave any out. Also, some attack one partition, others attack more then one (/dbdata) - so you need to take this into account. Also Touchdown, and i believe stock email app, benefit because they store data on dbdata in a database - so database throughput should be part of the equation.
Benchmarks are nice, but i have tried with and without and see the difference deleting emails using the stock client. That being said, I rolled back to stock because one-click odin does a poor job of reformatting everything - I don't want to get stuck with an EXT4 filesystem and stock kernel with no way to go.

I found with 2.2 it is way faster than 2.1. But 2.1 with any lag fix is still faster. Now you could run 2.2 with no lag fix and it's definetly fast enough but with a lag fix it's amazing. It's like buying a 300hp sports car then the sales guy asks you if you want the 400hp model for a free upgrade and it gets the same gas milage and you saying no because 300hp is plenty to get you around town. If theres even a chance a lag fix makes a difference why not do it, it's not gonna make it any slower thats for sure.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897

Just my 2 cents, I do think that lag fix will give you better performance with certain apps however, it is not that significant and with Froyo, I had problems with apps force closing and battery drain (probably from all the background crashes) with it enabled. I do not think it is needed and may cause more problems than it is worth. Maybe later once the official Froyo is out for a while and the lag fix apps are improved, it may be worth another look. But for now, I do not think it is worth it. But your mileage may vary and if you think your phone is too slow without it, you may have some other underlying issue that needs more attention than trying to fix it with a lag fix.

Duty calls, this is taking longer than I anticipated so I'll still be running this on different file systems tomorrow after work. very interesting results so far though! Spoiler alert! there are obvious gains from database read/writes, only milliseconds but I suppose that counts when it comes to responsiveness of certain programs.

I can't wait to see the results.

I wanted to say that I am interested in what you are trying to do here and appreciate the time you are putting into making this an unbiased effort at answering this question.
I also wanted to provide you with my own real world experience based on three different captivates all presently using cognition 2.2b5.5...until later tonight...lol
I have never installed a lag fix on two of the phones (my wife and duaghter's) and held off on reinstalling the ext lagfix on mine again until yesterday as I wanted to see if it would benefit the performance prior to updating again to beta6
On the phones that my wife and daughter use, I can see where the lagfix is not necessary and they don't complain about any hangups. However, on mine I definitely see a performance improvement with the lagfix installed and i am quite sure that the reason is I am addicted to widgets almost as bad as flashing and I cannot seem to get away from them. After installing the lagfix I do not get the occasional "freezes" that occurred without it and music never skips when opening other apps.
Also, all three phones are running launcher pro, using at least a few widgets, such as friends, messaging, weather, etc. Not sure how you would reflect this in your testing but I do see a difference here though I would love, and certainly tried, to not use the lagfix.

It seems people have gotten bored of this issue. I will say this:
When I ODINed directly from 2.2Beta2 to 2.2Beta5.5, lag was undeniably horrible and OCLF made a huge difference.
When I master-cleared 5.5, ODINed to stock 2.1, then ODINed to 2.2Beta6, everything became zippy fast again without any lagfix. I'm afraid to even try to put OCLF on there now.
Anyone experiencing lag when others say they shouldnt: go through most or all of the steps I laid out for battery drain. Quirks abound, and your lag and lagfix situation could be an indirect side-effect, and not a direct result, of the ROM you've flashed to.

I agree. Some of the claims are down right odd about lag issues so I too feel a lot has to do with "left overs".

My Experiences
i didn't install the lag fix because of the horror stories in the forums about applying an update and having to roll everything back. Normally it's not so bad but I've noticed some of the behavior mentioned. Are these issues addressed in the Froyo leaks (hopefully official) or will these always be a problem.
-Load time of games (using Asphalt 5 and comparing the load times to an IP4 running the same game). The Captivate load times were very slow.
-The appearance of freezing when you win / lose a race in Asphalt 5?
It may not be a fair comparison for load times but it's obvious signs something is wrong when I'm trying to brag to my friends about how my phone is better then theres
The biggest issue I have is with the music stuttering though. I listen to music at work (normally the 13GB data partition is full of music) and the email client is running in the background. The music stutters A LOT when it's downloading the emails. Is this issue no longer a problem in Froyo?

Hopefully this settles it.
Here's a vid I made. I don't know how to split-screen, but I think this makes the point regardless.
I master cleared, then stock 2.1, then Cog 2.2B6. I didn't restore any backups, all fresh installs and configs.
When I ODINed directly from Beta3 to Beta6, the lag was horrible. Doing a master clear, stock, to 6 was much better. But even then, as seen below, there is blatantly noticeable lag. That only leads me to believe that the issue relates to something like fragmentation, and that if people used beta6 for a few weeks without a lagfix, they'll end up with really bad lag too.
For the record, I doubt any of this has much to do with DG's work. I don't think DG is responsible for lag. DG is only responsible for giving us awesome alternatives to choose from when we don't like what the factory gave us and we're willing to take the risk. However, the lag is not a placebo, and your benchmarks are deceiving you.
I picked Touchdown because it was an easily reproduced example, but I notice a difference all over.
The stopwatch is to add legitimacy. The iPhone, to add irony. There's a glass of beer off-camera you can't see, but it's responsible for most of the background noise.

Alright folks!
Those of us in the Military know how your work schedule can tends to change randomly causing you to change your plans a lot. Anyway as I don't see myself with the free time to spend making a cool but not very practical PowerPoint right now I am going to tell ya'll what I found and post the DHT tools so you can play around with it yourselves.
First to those who wish to try the tools, read the vague overview file in there it's as good as it gets as far as information from DHT. you HAVE to run the IO bench several time in both read, write ADN mixed modes. Make sure you run each mode a few times specifying different files sizes block sizes AND numbers of IO streams! each specific setup should be run 5 times and averaged, if run in each set is 5% or more from the rest it should be scrapped and run again. NOTE: some modes require you to have already deployed a file or DB to run the test on!
Alright so I found the difference in every area except one to be non-substantial! and by that I mean 5%+/- (within the considered error margin)
I ONLY HAVE HAD THE TIME TO TEST OCLF! all benches were run on Cognition 2.2B5.5.
When you start getting more than TWO IO streams you start to see a substantial difference in the DB IO streams. in my last run in mixed mode multi-stream bench of 5 runs (all within the acceptable margin) it showed a 19% increase in throughput over the stock FS! I know that doesn't sound like a lot but milliseconds count when it means the responsiveness of an application! One thing I did not do which I wont get to for a while is look into how many IO streams are running and in what modes while running some common applications! this could give us an idea of what kind of bench environment to set up and perhaps give us a base (just for information sake) % throughput increase with a certain FS. just to give you an idea (I am sure most people already know this but wth) of what types of application might take advantage of an increased IO throughput on DB read/writes. A lot more applications do DB IO streams than you might think, some email applications/exchange contact syncs, even some system settings are stored in DB anyways I say it's up to the person! I wont personally use a FS patch "lagfix" until A at least as stable as the current COG2.2B6 Voodoo kernel is done for the captivate. I don't feel like messing with the loopback stuff and whatnot, I can live with it like it is as I don't feel it's bad enough to HAVE to have one, but again everyone is different! However when Voodoo comes standard in a good ROM like COG I say what the hell~! even if it's only 10% gain and only in certain situations! if it's stable and cooked in then it can't hurt me right! ok enough now hope you guys can figure out the tools well enough. it is clear that no matter what anyone says it is factual that no matter how small in SOME situations/applications there IS an IO throughput gain when using OCLF and I am sure any other EXTx FS. weather or not the gain % is worth the possible side effects, well like everyone keeps saying (well almost everyone, some do just cry "MUST HAVE IT") that's up to you!

Ok great video mate.
I also noticed one HUGE lag difference which now made me a believer.
I use Launcher Pro and when adding applications to the lower scrolling bar there was always lag the first time accessing the applications.
I timed it at 17 seconds without lag fix and no delay with lag fix...that is BIG!

That was one of my bigger lag issues too...lp seeming to freeze but after finally giving up on touchwiz a while ago and removing it I have been able to get by without the lagfix though I am probably going to use one again as soon as voodoo is available for 2.2
Posted from my phone using some technology I don't understand

shaolin95 said:
Ok great video mate.
I also noticed one HUGE lag difference which now made me a believer.
I use Launcher Pro and when adding applications to the lower scrolling bar there was always lag the first time accessing the applications.
I timed it at 17 seconds without lag fix and no delay with lag fix...that is BIG!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I originally intended to include a few other tests in the video:
* Adding an app shortcut
* Opening the app drawer
* fast scrolling through the 3D app drawer and some widget-heavy home screens
* boot times (particularly initializing widgets on the home screen)
However, in prepping for the video (and most particularly after removing TW), I determined that I could not reproduce the lag effect as consistently in any of the above. I've definitely seen what you describe, and noticed lag differences OCLF vs. not OCLF in all of the above, but I've also ran some tests where I couldn't reproduce it. Touchdown was one of the easiest to demo and that never fails to present an obvious difference.
My current theory is that while Froyo has performance tweaks, a lot of the reason people think there is no need for lagfix anymore is because more people were master-clearing and flashing stock before flashing Cog betas. This gives you a clean slate on your fs, with little chance of fragmentation or other inefficiencies that crop up in a well-used file table. Like I said, flashing without going stock or master-clearing, or restoring lots of backups afterwards, seem to be what bring back the lag. A well-managed cache like you get with a lagfix helps that a lot. I still say that even those who claim to see no lag, if they put some heavy use and load some heavy databases and throw some I/Os at them, then over time they will see more and more of the same lag others see. I don't know that for sure, but I do know for sure what you can see in the video. And that's on a recent setup of master-clear, stock, beta, and no backup restores whatseover.

This probably in the wrong section, but I recently purchased the captivate through an upgrade, and read about and installed the lagfix. Yes it did speed up my phone considerably. My quadrant score was about 2386. I was pretty damn impressed. But then I wanted to go back to stock, and just did a factory reset. I don't think the lagfix is installed anymore. But I just want to know if I didn't hurt my device by doing so. Thanks

Android "List what you dislike or hope to see changed"

Sorry mods if i placed this in the wrong section but I just hope google reads this and fixes its faults. I want everyone reading this to post there issues or dislikes so we can enjoy this UI more while providing the best experience to us and other earthlings out there.
1. standby - I noticed the battery life is pretty good when it comes to playing movies,music and little bit of gaming but the standby is just horrid i know are phones are powerful as umpc but there should be a better way to lower consumption on sleep mode.
2. market - not really liking the new layout it needs to be more organized and less oversized.
3. multitasking - it's good obviously between switching to apps right away but sometimes i am left with too much baggage. I suggest there should be a setting to switch this option on/off.
4. scrolling - pretty good but still a little bit of lag now and then. would like the bounce when you hit the edge of the page.
5. UI - needs to be little bit more animated and lively.
6. brightness - the option to lower the level to the lowest.
7. websites - still has some bugs and glitches.
8. sdxc - running out of room here needs support of the extra capaity of sd cards.
9. apps - more quality apps. it seems like they just throw the free ones in the market without fully testing it for bugs. i have to scroll through dozens of unknown users with opinions that are just randomly unbiased.
10. standby again! - please fix this google!!! if i am left stranded from my car broken down or if i am vacationing to another then i'm screwed. I had a winmo phone did me good lasted more than a week on standby.....

It is not Google who builds the UI, its the phone manufacturer... Motoblur,thouchwiz,Sense etc, not google-builds.
To much baggage?, Try downloading and installing an app killer from market.
What other category is there to add to market btw?
Scrolling, I would think this is directly from your phone and not cause of Google...
again, try app killer to free up some ram.

-i7- said:
It is not Google who builds the UI, its the phone manufacturer... Motoblur,thouchwiz,Sense etc, not google-builds.
To much baggage?, Try downloading and installing an app killer from market.
What other category is there to add to market btw?
Scrolling, I would think this is directly from your phone and not cause of Google...
again, try app killer to free up some ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not talking about category but how the market is viewed it's all oversized block columns I prefer it to be more smaller and with more information in each block. I know there are app killers but it's better if it's official built running it would be more stabled and furthermore i hope more people will list there dislikes or changes about android and maybe google and the phone manufacturers will see this and make some fixes to there next builds. i want this thread to be seen by google from future post from xda users dislikes and hoping to change the faults....

Battery usage is my biggest complaint.

Mcds said:
5. UI - needs to be little bit more animated and lively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean?
Live wallpapers arent animated and lively enough for you? Do you use widgets?

hungry81 said:
What do you mean?
Live wallpapers arent animated and lively enough for you? Do you use widgets?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
usually when i compare the ebay iphone app to android it's less animated it's dull coming from someone in there thirties i can get to bored easily. don't get me wrong i'm using the 2g iphone it's smooth also laggy my 1ghz android is smooth but the phone doesn't animate i guess it depends on what apps you get also...
---------- Post added at 07:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:18 AM ----------
gigem01 said:
Battery usage is my biggest complaint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the answer I am looking for from all of you, what you want to change! this deserves a thanks!

Android market has one of the worst layouts..(Both in Android as well as on Website) Despite having all the resources at disposal why they are still taking time to improve the layout?(Laziness??)

message apk should be improved

Given your initial post it sounds as though WP7 may be a better OS to suit your needs.

i dont quite understand #6
"6. brightness - the option to lower the level to the lowest."
my past 2 Android phones (G2 & currently my 4G Touch) have always been able to lower the brightness all the down.

comedy said:
i dont quite understand #6
"6. brightness - the option to lower the level to the lowest."
my past 2 Android phones (G2 & currently my 4G Touch) have always been able to lower the brightness all the down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mcds is confusing hardware with Android. Basically he'd like the lowest brightness setting on his phone to be dimmer.
You know how the lowest brightness setting on one phone can actually be brighter than a different model, just as the highest setting can be brighter on one handset compared with a different model. It's down to the hardware, not Android.

all these things can be fixed with either a new ROM new kernel or just an app download... when it comes to android, if you know wt u doing then there is nothing that cant be fixed/tweeked to ur liking... that's the power of android my friend RECOGNIZEEEEEEEEEE

Doesn't matter what app, kernel, or rom you download. After androids attempts at emulating ios and wp7s fluid UIs they've proven, the UI just isn't going to get good. To me the UI is half of the reason I buy a phone with the other half being gaming and social integration (be it Facebook or texting) perhaps a small percentage of it is battery life but with my transition to wp7 a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I realized I never wanted to dissect my phone just to increase the fps by 10, I did it because I wanted to make my mobile experience bearable. Now, I have everything I want out of the box.

Smartphones are app platforms, whatever flavour the OS is. Most of what people spend time doing on their phone, whether it be texting, gaming or emailing, is using apps. UI isn't a factor for me as i only see it for a very brief period until i launch the app i need.
If anything, it's the quality of the apps that should be compared between platforms, not the UI. Android Market could probably do with a bit more quality control, that's my own criticism really. Like for like apps on iOS are often more polished than their Android equivalent.

z33dev33l said:
Doesn't matter what app, kernel, or rom you download. After androids attempts at emulating ios and wp7s fluid UIs they've proven, the UI just isn't going to get good. To me the UI is half of the reason I buy a phone with the other half being gaming and social integration (be it Facebook or texting) perhaps a small percentage of it is battery life but with my transition to wp7 a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I realized I never wanted to dissect my phone just to increase the fps by 10, I did it because I wanted to make my mobile experience bearable. Now, I have everything I want out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, you've freely admitted that you found Android too complex, so of course the simplicity of such a basic OS as WP7 is going to appeal, lets face it, it's even less complex than iOS.
It's ideal for people who have never used a touch screen phone before, or even a mobile phone of any kind, especially if they have fat fingers, the sort of people who are not going to notice the lack of functionality but are easily impressed with visual effects.

xaccers, I still find it comical that you call me the troll but eh. I guess if that's your prerogative. I prefer my phone have decent social integration or as they put it, be "peoplecentric." as I use my phone primarily for *gasp* communication. The fact that it's also aesthetically pleasing is just a bonus, another that android does not have.
DirkGently, I agree to some extent, but I guess I feel the way I do because with WP7 the UI is uniform across the whole OS and most third party apps. I've come to appreciate the beauty in that. I do also agree that I see more quality in both the iOS and WP7 versions of apps that are on all platforms.

Let's not forget that you can't connect to ad-hoc wireless networks. I mean... c'mon...this is just lame.

Kinda not related, but i'ld like the source to be mirrored at some more reliable location xD
Getting to topic, i do like the custom overlays(tw, sense, etc..) but they take significant resources and are one of the causes behind slow updates

Wifi is the big problem for me
I have wifi issues with Archos 70 (Android 2.1 to 2.3, rooted), and Arcer Iconia (Honeycomb 3.2 rooted). Android seems does not like my working wifi and stay in obtaining ip most of the time.
And, I plan to listen some online radio (Domi, Douban for say), once the tablet goes to idle mode, wifi disconnected, make it useless. I tried to set wifi disconnect policy, tried wifi alive, wifi lock, wifi buddy and maybe most wifi related apps in the market, none work.
While iTouch works fine for above 2 scenarios.

Battery life and more quality apps. Seriously, has anyone else noticed that Android apps feel kinda rushed and low quality. Especially if that company/app is on iOS. I always felt that the iOS counterparts seem a lot better and that more time and effort is put into them.
Also, improvement on multitasking. I don't really like the little recent app window crap. Something along the lines of WebOS's multitasking screen would be a really nice addition. Also, notifications should be a little more organized. Apple did a good job with this on their notification dropdown ripoff..
-i7- said:
It is not Google who builds the UI, its the phone manufacturer... Motoblur,thouchwiz,Sense etc, not google-builds.
To much baggage?, Try downloading and installing an app killer from market.
What other category is there to add to market btw?
Scrolling, I would think this is directly from your phone and not cause of Google...
again, try app killer to free up some ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By UI he probably means Android's base UI, Stock Android. You have to admit, it is pretty meh. Downloading a app killer/task manager is a bad idea. That bogs down Android more than background apps do.

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.

Safe to remove bloatware

I am creating this topic because I think we could use a thread dedicated to see what is safe to remove and what is not.
Right now it won't have much, but I plan to provide good info. please post what you have been able to remove and even what Bootloops phone or just causes problems.
ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP BEFORE TRYING THIS! BOTH NANDROID AND TITANIUM BACKUP
Ways to Remove Unnecessary Apps
One way and my personal favorite is to use Titanium Backup. It can uninstall these apps but can also back them up.
Another way is to use a file manager that can access /system/app. this is one of the harder ways since it can get difficult to know what is what because it just gives package names. ex. com.mobitv.client.tmobiletvhd.apk is the T-Mobile TV app
Safe to remove NOTE: This is how they appear in Titanium Backup. Always make a backup both TiB and Nandroid before starting
Buddies now 1.0
Custimize homescreen 1.o
Email 1.0 (this is the widget not the android email app)
Game Base
Gmail
Google Play Books
Highlight
Home screen tips
Lookout
Media Hub
More for Me
News & Weather
Ocean Weather
Polaris Office
Pro Apps
Slacker Radio
Social Hub (app)
Social Hub (widget)
TeleNav GPS
TwLauncher (only if you have a replacement launcher. Ex. Adw, go, Zeam, ...)
...
Unsafe to remove. Do not remove!
mediaprovider
...
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

If you do remove something you shouldnt
If you can boot, then just restore the app you removed in titanium backup.
If you bootloop you got two options
1. Restore Nandroid backup in CWM (good thing I did a Nandroid backup, right?)
2. No Nandroid Backup, its not guarantied but you might be able to use this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1591601 . A factory reset/data wipe may be needed in stock recovery
I will try to see if I can post backup files in case some one does remove something they shouldn't.
mediaprovider.APK and .Odex: http://db.tt/EQquH1Zi
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

I'll say it here again, "bloatware" is a misnomer of a term. Your phone will not work faster removing these applications. Personally I removed them because I didn't want to ever see the notification for them having an update in the store. Also, having them installed, but not running, has *zero* impact on your battery.
I point this out because if you're ever unsure about whether you should remove uninstall something, don't.
These are the apps I have personally chosen to uninstall or freeze, and my phone has worked flawlessly for several weeks:
Zinio
Yelp
Visual Voicemail (may be desirable to many, but if you use google voice it's not)
Telenav GPS (yes, your google maps gps will work just fine without it)
T-mobile Video Chat
T-mobile Name ID
T-mobile Mail
Slacker
Netflix
More for Me
MobileLife Family
Media Hub
Lookout Security (the app didn't even work for me so I found it useless)
Linear
Pro Apps
Kies air
Highlight
Game Base
Bonus Apps
411 & More
Personally, I always selected "make a backup" with TitaniumBackup Pro before removing an app, and if TBP ever gave the warning message about that app not being deodexed, I instead chose to freeze it.

Cirkustanz said:
I'll say it here again, "bloatware" is a misnomer of a term. Your phone will not work faster removing these applications. Personally I removed them because I didn't want to ever see the notification for them having an update in the store. Also, having them installed, but not running, has *zero* impact on your battery.
I point this out because if you're ever unsure about whether you should remove uninstall something, don't.
These are the apps I have personally chosen to uninstall or freeze, and my phone has worked flawlessly for several weeks:
Personally, I always selected "make a backup" with TitaniumBackup Pro before removing an app, and if TBP ever gave the warning message about that app not being deodexed, I instead chose to freeze it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, it won't affect your phone much to remove these apps, but some of these still run in the background. I personally do this because I feel my phone runs a bit better and I just don't want them on my phone. I'm doing it for those who want to remove stuff but don't know what can be.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

You think those apps, "run in the background?" The majority of those apps, and probably more, don't even load up at all, much less "in the background" unless the user of the phone INSTRUCTS THEM TO.
And you put twlauncher in the "safe to remove" category? If ADW, LauncherPro, or whatever else a person is using crashes or gets corrupted, good luck!
This thread just shouldn't exist, the information has already been posted, in the thread where the instructions to even allow it to be done in the first place.

Cirkustanz said:
You think those apps, "run in the background?" The majority of those apps, and probably more, don't even load up at all, much less "in the background" unless the user of the phone INSTRUCTS THEM TO.
And you put twlauncher in the "safe to remove" category? If ADW, LauncherPro, or whatever else a person is using crashes or gets corrupted, good luck!
This thread just shouldn't exist, the information has already been posted, in the thread where the instructions to even allow it to be done in the first place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look, on my phone, lookout mobile along with Telenav and a few others still loaded on the memory. What I'm trying to do is something helpful for the blaze community.
If you have something against me, don't post it here. Pm me or bring it up with a moderator. If you want to post something help, please do so. ( I appreciate the fact that you reminded me to include a warning about touch wiz launcher). This is an open community where we try to help each other, not argue.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

I removed touchwiz first. I use rootuninstaller to remove what I don't want.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using XDA Premium App

Cirkustanz said:
I'll say it here again, "bloatware" is a misnomer of a term. Your phone will not work faster removing these applications. Personally I removed them because I didn't want to ever see the notification for them having an update in the store. Also, having them installed, but not running, has *zero* impact on your battery.
I point this out because if you're ever unsure about whether you should remove uninstall something, don't.
These are the apps I have personally chosen to uninstall or freeze, and my phone has worked flawlessly for several weeks:
Zinio
Yelp
Visual Voicemail (may be desirable to many, but if you use google voice it's not)
Telenav GPS (yes, your google maps gps will work just fine without it)
T-mobile Video Chat
T-mobile Name ID
T-mobile Mail
Slacker
Netflix
More for Me
MobileLife Family
Media Hub
Lookout Security (the app didn't even work for me so I found it useless)
Linear
Pro Apps
Kies air
Highlight
Game Base
Bonus Apps
411 & More
Personally, I always selected "make a backup" with TitaniumBackup Pro before removing an app, and if TBP ever gave the warning message about that app not being deodexed, I instead chose to freeze it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your comment is completely untrue - Android is an operating system; just like any other - Windows, Linux, iOS, etc...
By removing applications that run in the backround and take critical memory (RAM) you instantly make your phone run faster...many of these applications run in the backround and the only way to stop them is to:
* Freeze them
* Uninstall them
THUS - removing applications that aren't vital to a user; and are taking system resources away; instantly speeds your phone up...not only do you free ram but you also take away applications which are using processor power...
...your comment couldn't be further from the truth and has no form of logic to it...sorry to bust your bubble.
...and don't get your panties in a wad and upset because someone has called you out and clearly disagrees with your flawed train of thought over the matter
SOOO removing applications that are junk, that you don't want...bloatware, etc - WILL speed up your phone...
Although one program can be considered bloatware to one user, and vital to another - I prefer the term "junkware" - just like Windows (Microsoft); the companies get kick backs for installing software...(T-Mobile)

michaelstigers said:
Your comment is completely untrue - Android is an operating system; just like any other - Windows, Linux, iOS, etc...
By removing applications that run in the backround and take critical memory (RAM) you instantly make your phone run faster...many of these applications run in the backround and the only way to stop them is to:
* Freeze them
* Uninstall them
THUS - removing applications that aren't vital to a user; and are taking system resources away; instantly speeds your phone up...not only do you free ram but you also take away applications which are using processor power...
...your comment couldn't be further from the truth and has no form of logic to it...sorry to bust your bubble.
...and don't get your panties in a wad and upset because someone has called you out and clearly disagrees with your flawed train of thought over the matter
SOOO removing applications that are junk, that you don't want...bloatware, etc - WILL speed up your phone...
Although one program can be considered bloatware to one user, and vital to another - I prefer the term "junkware" - just like Windows (Microsoft); the companies get kick backs for installing software...(T-Mobile)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung has actually optimized CPU and RAM quite well. Most of the "bloatware" does not take CPU or RAM, and some due. Removing them does not make a noticible difference on this phone, although on some past Samsung models it did.
And not to get off topic, but you can frame 'corrections' in a appropriate tone and not accuse him/her of being void of logic. Which wasn't even true.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium

Bulletblitz27 said:
Samsung has actually optimized CPU and RAM quite well. Most of the "bloatware" does not take CPU or RAM, and some due. Removing them does not make a noticible difference on this phone, although on some past Samsung models it did.
And not to get off topic, but you can frame 'corrections' in a appropriate tone and not accuse him/her of being void of logic. Which wasn't even true.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...if it quacks like a duck; and looks like a duck; and has logic like a duck - well, then it should swim in a pond, not be wrong; and give me no reason to correct it...
And you clarified my point even further - "most"...thanks
My posting was simply made so people were not under the WRONG assumption that taking a few minutes to get junkware off their O/S wouldn't make a difference. It will actually save a good amount of system resources; and give a much more rich experience that Google intended...

michaelstigers said:
...if it quacks like a duck; and looks like a duck; and has logic like a duck - well, then it should swim in a pond, not be wrong; and give me no reason to correct it...
And you clarified my point even further - "most"...thanks
My posting was simply made so people were not under the WRONG assumption that taking a few minutes to get junkware off their O/S wouldn't make a difference. It will actually save a good amount of system resources; and give a much more rich experience that Google intended...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, actually I did not clarify your point. My point was in contrast with yours. Rooting the phone has many other benefits than possibly speeding up a phone that's already optimized in this respect.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium

Who cares. No one should.
The amount of time "saved" from "freeing up resources" so the phone can "have as rich of an experience as Google intended" is much less than the time it took for either one of us to write our posts, or for any would-be person to read them.
It's a dead issue, do whatever you want. Including having some silly opinion.

Bulletblitz27 said:
No, actually I did not clarify your point. My point was in contrast with yours. Rooting the phone has many other benefits than possibly speeding up a phone that's already optimized in this respect.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 thing that we need to remember, is that this message board is not for arguing our points. How about we simply agree to disagree over this matter? You clearly are not going to see it my way - and I clearly believe that taking junkware/bloatware is clearly beneficial to the phone.
I have seen it in action on many android phones that I have serviced, and I also saw how removing junkware off of my personal blaze freed up a lo of memory.
What we should do is now let users of the thread that have seen 2 different peoples point of view make up their minds for themselves. If we continue to go back and forth it does nothing but take up valuable space here on the thread and does a disservice to the users...a healthy debate and conversation is good / but this is beginning to become toxic and redundant!
Thanks for a different point of view however and no hard feelings
This message has been sent using my unlocked - ROOTED - Samsung GalaxyS Blaze 4G (With CWM) using the XDA PREMIUM Application (TapaTalk)

I could not have agreed more, and thanks for not taking a lot of offense to what I said.
Personally I am 1 that is always messing with my phone, so I put more time into it than most people ever would...gotta love ADHD and Ritalin
This message has been sent using my unlocked - ROOTED - Samsung GalaxyS Blaze 4G (With CWM) using the XDA PREMIUM Application (TapaTalk)

FYI
i wouldn't get rid of the default Gallery app (Gallery3D.apk) it seems like for some reason you can't set a Lock screen wallpaper it only has Wallpaper gallery as an option but if i want to set a Home screen wallpaper i can choose from Live wallpapers, Quickpic Wallpaper (an gallery app i downloaded), & Wallpaper gallery.
With Gallery installed the Lock screen options are Gallery & Live wallpapers and when i tap on Gallery i get a bunch of options including the Quickpic and i set that as default and when i go to Quickpic and say "set as" i get options to set as Home screen or Lock screen wallpaper now as i didn't before without Gallery installed
So yeah not sure why i need the default Gallery app to set Lock screen wallpaper but whatever

Use autoresizewallpaper instead..don't need the stock gallery..I got rid of mine
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app

'bloat' and boot...
Removing 'bloatware' from an android (linux) environment will only effect boot time (phone will be fully booted/usable faster). As it is so often pointed out in forums, once an app is cached (most of the time this happens during boot) it is not using cpu cycles and thus not eating away at any battery life (the RAM will have the same power draw whether it is being used or not) - that is until that app is opened (as any running app will use battery). So if you are looking for a more responsive phone removing bloat isn't going to help - you are literally better off buying a more powerful phone. However I can attest to removing bloat and speeding up boot times from using a 1st gen Exhibit 4g. Removing the 'bloat' decreased my boot time on my exhibit by 10-15 seconds! But beyond speeding up boot times there is no real reason to remove 'bloat' (unless you just don't want those crappy apps on your phone). Let's not get on a tangent on ram cleaners (task killers) please... as they are worthless and do eat away at battery life (as the os realizes it needs to re-cache those apps...) :victory:

anactoraaron said:
Removing 'bloatware' from an android (linux) environment will only effect boot time (phone will be fully booted/usable faster). As it is so often pointed out in forums, once an app is cached (most of the time this happens during boot) it is not using cpu cycles and thus not eating away at any battery life (the RAM will have the same power draw whether it is being used or not) - that is until that app is opened (as any running app will use battery). So if you are looking for a more responsive phone removing bloat isn't going to help - you are literally better off buying a more powerful phone. However I can attest to removing bloat and speeding up boot times from using a 1st gen Exhibit 4g. Removing the 'bloat' decreased my boot time on my exhibit by 10-15 seconds! But beyond speeding up boot times there is no real reason to remove 'bloat' (unless you just don't want those crappy apps on your phone). Let's not get on a tangent on ram cleaners (task killers) please... as they are worthless and do eat away at battery life (as the os realizes it needs to re-cache those apps...) :victory:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look, we dont need any more of those kind of posts. I understand it wont affect much, but some do want to remove certain apps like myself. I have wanted to rename post to safe to remove apps, but i dont know how to do that. Unless you have something to contribute to this, dont post things like those apps arent bloatware or that they dont do anything to affect performance. We are trying to help each other out.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

no offence please
abraham.ramirez said:
Look, we dont need any more of those kind of posts. I understand it wont affect much, but some do want to remove certain apps like myself. I have wanted to rename post to safe to remove apps, but i dont know how to do that. Unless you have something to contribute to this, dont post things like those apps arent bloatware or that they dont do anything to affect performance. We are trying to help each other out.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uh.. wha? I believe you misunderstood my post entirely. I never said that there is no point in removing 'bloatware'/preinstalled apps. The purpose of my post was only to inform. Please re-read my post (without bias). There's this false assumption that removing bloat will make a phone faster and it's just not true. Removing '411 & more' & 'netflix' is NOT going to make my quadrant score higher or give me more FPS playing games.
I may be over-generalizing here but this is what I have come to understand in regards to Android:
Need more storage & want faster boot times? ---> remove bloat/preinstalled apps.
Want better battery life? --> buy extended battery, adjust screen brightness to lowest viewing level.
Want a faster phone? ---> get a custom rom with OC/buy setcpu and OC or buy a faster phone.

anactoraaron said:
Uh.. wha? I believe you misunderstood my post entirely. I never said that there is no point in removing 'bloatware'/preinstalled apps. The purpose of my post was only to inform. Please re-read my post (without bias). There's this false assumption that removing bloat will make a phone faster and it's just not true. Removing '411 & more' & 'netflix' is NOT going to make my quadrant score higher or give me more FPS playing games.
I may be over-generalizing here but this is what I have come to understand in regards to Android:
Need more storage & want faster boot times? ---> remove bloat/preinstalled apps.
Want better battery life? --> buy extended battery, adjust screen brightness to lowest viewing level.
Want a faster phone? ---> get a custom rom with OC/buy setcpu and OC or buy a faster phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, i see now. Sorry bout that. You are right. I have seen the same pattern with android that you describe and that is why i removed a few things from my phone
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