Database Info

Android Multitasking

Hey everyone, I'm posting this to gather information about Android Multitasking.
I have used android since i had my G1, I am now on a g2, otherwise known as the HTC HERO.
In my opinion android multitasks beautifully when we talk about speed! It doesn't however manage it's open applications well at all. I mean switching to a application which is open in the background is tough. Pressing and holding the home button gives you a menu to RECENTLY open applications which doesn't conform to what IS open at that very moment. And the task bar notifications dont really give you a full list of all applications open..only apps that support it.
With the iphone really gathering it's bearings, and beginning to multitask [kinda better multitasking management then android imo] Im beginning to waver in my support for android.
I can imagine if holding the home button brought up a card view like webOS, giving you a preview of all the open applications in the background. Or something similar. I mean if HTC sense has a pinch gesture to view home screen in a hard view environment, i don't see what's stopping android from having a more polished and robust multitasking experience.
What are your thoughts on this?

the iphone 4 implementation looks to be exactly what you are complaining about with android. it offers a list of recently used apps. with iphone none of the apps stay running, they have background services that an app can start but the app will close. Android is similar. the ui for an app isnt necessarily running. it will be killed by the os and started again when you ask to see it.
WebOS does actually show you exactly what is running. I havent used a webos device for an extended period of time, but it dies seem their card metaphor is the easiest to understand for users. if your phone is slow just look at the cards you have open and flick some out.
I agree with your point though, i find the android app switcher inadequate. Far too often the app i want to get back to is no longer in the list. i think the iphone will have the same issue unless their list can grow very long.
It'd solve a lot if the android switcher had a button to pull up the app drawer.
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hexix said:
the iphone 4 implementation looks to be exactly what you are complaining about with android. it offers a list of recently used apps. with iphone none of the apps stay running, they have background services that an app can start but the app will close. Android is similar. the ui for an app isnt necessarily running. it will be killed by the os and started again when you ask to see it.
WebOS does actually show you exactly what is running. I havent used a webos device for an extended period of time, but it dies seem their card metaphor is the easiest to understand for users. if your phone is slow just look at the cards you have open and flick some out.
I agree with your point though, i find the android app switcher inadequate. Far too often the app i want to get back to is no longer in the list. i think the iphone will have the same issue unless their list can grow very long.
It'd solve a lot if the android switcher had a button to pull up the app drawer.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I suppose you're right, but i cant help but think the iphone will just be better at it then android.
Other then that. Yes Android really needs to polish it's multi tasking system.
EDIT: Also, I have used WebOS and honestly it's a superior mobile platform to android [imo]. It's community however is not as enriched as the android one and there aren't as many apps available for the palm pre. Palm really screwed themselves over limiting it to one phone...it would have been a strategic move to stop manufacturing phones and start working on EXPENSIVE palm software like webOS

Or maybe you can try AppSwipe!

There's also a nice app (imo) from a user on here, he tried to mimic the webOS cards system, and is doing pretty well until now. No previews yet but its still a nice powerful task manager that views icon in a nice view and has launch on search / camera button press too!
It's called TaskOS!

I've tried both task os and app swipe and still...they are both very unpolished multitasking management systems =/
I hope eventually something will come along.

I came from the Palm Pre before I got my HTC Hero, and multitasking was wayyyy better than Android. In fact, if the Pre wasn't so slow, I would have kept it over the HTC Hero. It took me over a minute to open Google Maps... with nothing else running! (and the keyboard sucked)

hexix said:
It'd solve a lot if the android switcher had a button to pull up the app drawer.
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Click to collapse
Dxtop has a second App Drawer that does just that. It works great.

tdusen said:
Dxtop has a second App Drawer that does just that. It works great.
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Click to collapse
Eh, that shows background services like home and what not..
Personally I'd like to disable the drawer from showing apps on my ignore list

what would be nice is if you held home then cards poped up like in webos and showed your running apps with a preview pic of the app

blaboy51 said:
what would be nice is if you held home then cards poped up like in webos and showed your running apps with a preview pic of the app
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Click to collapse
YEah thats something to look forward too.

XxsydenxX said:
YEah thats something to look forward too.
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Click to collapse
but for that to happen google probley would have to add that in there rom in a update hopefuly it'll happen

nice idea. I wish i knew how to make it happen.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=668232

Wow i was just thinking the same thing today, (i used to own a pre) But check out TaskOS in the market guys!!! It's legit, almost exactly the same as cardview on webos except it just shows icons instead of real time view.

If you want a nice way to switch apps without the stupid home key crap just install advanced task killer and switch the default click option to switch too instead of select/unselect. Its one swipe down for the notifications, one click on atk, and one more click on the app you want. Its not as good as webOS but its the best method I can find for now. I also leave a shortcut to atk on my home screen.

there is also MultiTask Manager. Once again not as good as WebOS card view but its more like an Iphone multitask thing. I think I like TaskOS the best. Well I'm not allowed to post links because of new member thing so just look it up.

It wouldn't be hard if you can get live preview's of the application windows.
I've been searching google for "android sdk live preview" and the like for a while though and its not looking good

can the current state of multi-tasking allows, for example, one uses the phone with the speaker while trying to look up some info/or do something with another application(eg, look up notes that you have written down from an application)?
cheers

How to clear recent apps list?

Honeycomb comes with a "Recent" apps list, by pressing the 3rd button from the bottom left. The icon looks like 2 rectangles with one overalpping each other.
Unfortunately, this list grows too large after a while and the only way to clear it is to reboot. This makes the list cumbersome to use.
Is there a way to EITHER:
- Clear the list
- Limit the number of the list
Thanks!

I agree there needs to be some way of clearing the recently used apps just to make it a little more user friendly
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I did a quick search and didn't find anyway of clearing it aside from restarting. I will try a few apps tomorrow and see what i come up with.

Excellent keep us updated with your findings if you can.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

This thread is relevant to my interests. +1

todders said:
Excellent keep us updated with your findings if you can.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will do!!!

For this very reason, I have been restarting my Tf a lot more often than it needs.
I wish there is an easy way to kill running apps and clear the list like in the ipad/iPhone.

ikeny said:
For this very reason, I have been restarting my Tf a lot more often than it needs.
I wish there is an easy way to kill running apps and clear the list like in the ipad/iPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can kill apps with a taskmanager.

I like the way Android handle multitasking by showing recent apps instead of just running apps, but the ability to remove any apps from the list would make it more perfect. I hope it will be implemented in future.

I have found myself looking for a feature like this as well. Hoping they throw it in an updated version of Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwhich...

I am also interested on this.
Regards.

sontin said:
You can kill apps with a taskmanager.
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Click to collapse
But that requires finding and opening the task manager app, selecting/deselecting what you want to kill, pressing the kill button, then hitting the home button to get back home. Since I got my Transformer, I can't help but compare the OS in some ways to my iPhone. With jailbroken iOS, I just simply press and hold the home button to quit/kill the app, and that's it. The current Android task manager method just can't be compared with the simplicity of the iOS method of killing apps.
Don't peg me as a "fanboy". I love different technologies and enjoy competition because it just give me more options and products to play with

I just navigate to "settings>applications" area; and use the "force close" for whatever I don't want to see.

Spd2Last said:
But that requires finding and opening the task manager app, selecting/deselecting what you want to kill, pressing the kill button, then hitting the home button to get back home. Since I got my Transformer, I can't help but compare the OS in some ways to my iPhone. With jailbroken iOS, I just simply press and hold the home button to quit/kill the app, and that's it. The current Android task manager method just can't be compared with the simplicity of the iOS method of killing apps.
Don't peg me as a "fanboy". I love different technologies and enjoy competition because it just give me more options and products to play with
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Advanced task killer for froyo. Pretty good
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You should be able to bring up the recent app list & give you the option. This could either be done by providing an X to close that program. Another option could be to click & hold on the program in the list to ge given the option. I think Google needs to change this in the next update.

So far it seems that task killers or use what rpavich said. We could ask a dev of they could if they could add the little x that jadesse said.

The ideal solution would be a long press on the thumbnail would give you the option to kill the app, remove from list or both.
I'd love to see that in future OS versions.

First we complain about not being able to scroll the list in 3.0, now we complain about the list being too long?
I doesn't bother me but the option would be nice. Rather than a hold, i would like to drag the screenshot away and "toss it" a la WebOs flick up.

You know, sometimes I wonder if Google even beta tests.
Some of these issues, probably, would have been caught or suggested early on in the beta testing process.
Just my opinion....

Iwish there was Cynanogen for Honeycomb. This festure has been part of Cyanogen for a while..

Dolphin for Android Pad V1.0 Beta Released

Here's the announcement from Dolphin. It only works on Honeycomb devices.
http://blog.dolphin-browser.com/2011/07/26/dolphin-for-android-pad-v1-0-beta-released/

advocate2 said:
Here's the announcement from Dolphin. It only works on Honeycomb devices.
http://blog.dolphin-browser.com/2011/07/26/dolphin-for-android-pad-v1-0-beta-released/
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Ya somebody already posted this last night in this same forum. Anyway it does rock, I immediately uninstalled DolphinHD after trying this, it's pretty dang quick and like the look and feel of it.

Scrolling is still jittery like original dolphin hd compared to default, I hope they activate graphic acceleration on next update

How do you use gesture? The Dolphin HD has the button at the lower left corner you touch to put it in gesture mode. Can't find that anywhere on the Dolphin for tab

I like the interface more than HD but getting some FCs on some addons (xmarks)
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I'm using it now and like the way it works.

Youtube speed test shows 30fps, scrolling could be better (slow redraws), there are a few issues when selecting text.
To use gestures press the "triangle in a circle" icon located on the top right and then draw your gesture.

Been using this since yest also... got rid of Dol HD as well. like the feel and speed is not bad. I am a big fan of the stock browser but this could be a good replacement.
accel would be a +.
took me a while to find the gesture button also. I actually think the top right is the best place for it. I think the swipe left and rt with the bk mrk menu coming out on top and a quick tap to get rid of is so much better than sliding the screen over

tonyz3 said:
Been using this since yest also... got rid of Dol HD as well. like the feel and speed is not bad. I am a big fan of the stock browser but this could be a good replacement.
accel would be a +.
took me a while to find the gesture button also. I actually think the top right is the best place for it. I think the swipe left and rt with the bk mrk menu coming out on top and a quick tap to get rid of is so much better than sliding the screen over
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so where is the gesture button?

Hit the arrow button on the upper right and then make a gesture.
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agentgreen said:
Hit the arrow button on the upper right and then make a gesture.
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Thank you, that was easy.

baseballfanz said:
Thank you, that was easy.
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Click to collapse
Not very intuitive though hehe
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It's nice, fast and clean. Scrolling isn't too bad. But I still notice keyboard lag, less than on the other 2 browsers I have (stock and Dolphin HD) but it's still there.
Tested flash on yahoo finance, which is an interactive applet I use. It's *fast*

I tried this last night and wasn't too impressed. It crashed on the first launch. Scrolling is not at all smooth like the default browser.
I really like that it automatically imports my bookmarks... that is really intelligent... however, it doesn't maintain the folder structure of the bookmarks, so they end up in one big mess, which kind of makes the auto import a moot point, since a person would have to organize them anyway.
I guess a person could always say "it's a beta"... which would be true... but I can't really see any advantage of this over the stock browser. Just my opinion.

Just tried it right now and the load time is not as fast as Opera Moblie. There is some lag when typing compare to Opera. Overall, for me much better then Dolphin HD. Wish Opera had the font sizes as Dolphin and Default browser. Opera Moblie with bigger font sizes =

Just tried it with youtube on 720p, it runs really well from the browser.

Is there a quick way of getting "history" other than through settings. Having to keep hitting the back button is a bit of a pain.

So is there anything interesting this does that the Stock browser doesn't? It sounds like it's not as smooth as stock.

Midda said:
So is there anything interesting this does that the Stock browser doesn't? It sounds like it's not as smooth as stock.
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Click to collapse
Right now - not really. There was adblocker plugin but they removed it. Dolphin uses stock browser's ability to view pages anyway (it doesn't have it's own rendering engine). I like the interface of it better than of stock though.

i like the app but it is still in beta . it feel slower to me than the stock browser.
they final add a forward and backward buttion . i hate useing gersture to navigate
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Your absolute fave app

What is your absolute favorite application/game? The one you just cannot live without. I am excepting to see a lot of mainstream apps being called out, so to go along with that question, what is your favorite non mainstream app/game?
My fave mainstream app would have to be Facebook (lots of friends from england)
My fave non mainstream app would have to be SwingGame
I am hoping that we will all be able to find some apps that we have never heard of before through this thread.

Netflix and before that came I would say YouTube app impressed me.
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Reddita. I don't think I've ever wasted more time in my life than the period of AR (after reddita).

gReader. Looks, feels and works great

Pulse. Never have I wasted so much time during work cause of this app. Best RSS reader!
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fliparsenal said:
Pulse. Never have I wasted so much time during work cause of this app. Best RSS reader!
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I agree. Pulse is really quite amazing. The UI is beautiful

Pulse. Great app.

I would have to agree with Pulse as well. Was recently introduced to this app and absolutely love it.

+ on pulse. Save sooo much time with it.
Multipicture live wallpaper.
1- because I was going out of my mind when honeycomb cropped my pics
2- runs great with adw ex

Feedly :
Love it the away it allows me the add the feeds, read the same feeds on my phone and on the tablet , and also on my desktop (Firefox addon).
Beautiful interface on both android and desktop. Another nice feature is the suggestions of other feeds that I would like. Stopped using pulse once I found Feedly

The browser is my fav. Its the one app I couldn't live without.
Sent from my Samsung Epic

I'm greedy, I have two ~ Evernote & Dropbox
Both serve me exceptionally well on all my devices; allowing data to be shared simple and easy.

Evernote: Totally useful - not a timewaster - your information available transparently on every device you own, simply awesome.

It used to be Pulse, until I found News360.
Honestly though, the browser gets 99% of the usage on my tablet. I use the default browser cause I;m a chrome user on PC and having synced bookmarks is a necessity. Opera Mobile would be great if I could add more than 9 speed dial buttons
If I may ask my own question about "Your absolute favorite app"
What is your favorite sports app?
I'm trying to find a good one for tablet. All the amazing sports apps, Score Mobile, Fox etc suck for the tablet... they wont even go into landscape mode!

For those who use Pulse, try out Taptu, its very similar but somehow cleaner and faster in my opinion. (news 360 is awesome though.)
But my favorite app is... either Dropbox or Youtube

I love Pulse.
Can't help but think that if you could hide the window which slides out from the left when you click a story by sliding it back, instead of hitting the back button it would be so much better.
Going to d/l Taptu & check it out as well. Cheers for the suggestion

fliparsenal said:
Pulse. Never have I wasted so much time during work cause of this app. Best RSS reader!
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried d9 reader? XDA creation, very good.
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For all of the folks that like Pulse - Check out News Republic - it's a really nice (and free) news app (I like it better than Pulse)!
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

Besides the browser and Facebook (Friendcaster for tablets) the app I keep coming back and spending lots of time in is Age of Zombies. The Survival mode is addicting. It's the only game I've found on the Android Market that I keep coming back to play. Everything else I get bored of after 5-10 minutes.
Still can't replace console gaming though.

Have to agree with Pulse. Its just so clean and epic...and epic.

Chameleon Launcher

Anyone using chameleon launcher on their infinity?
Looks like another great launcher for tablets...
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/chameleon-launcher-1.0-google-play/

whats so great about it?

Tried it.
Uninstalled it.
I prefer Apex launcher. Chameleon has some nice ideas but it's still buggy and not ready for release imo. It costs $10 too which is a mistake.

Basically, the main feature is that you can set it up so that your default "home" screen automatically changes depending on where you are, what time it is, etc... But really, other than that, I'm not so sure what people (including myself - I'm a "backer") were so excited about. Besides being able to set your default home screen depending on certain conditions, it really doesn't add much to the launcher experience...
I personally can't remember why it was supposed to be so great!
I un-installed it as well, mainly because you can only use widgets provided by the app - you lose access to all standard Android widgets, which makes it unusable in my opinion.
That being said, it would be nice if Nova, Apex, etc added the ability to automatically change your home screen depending on certain conditions - I think that is a cool feature...
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I am a backer, too. I am disappointed, too.
Switching things like chameleon does is really nothing special. It is still just one screen. So, i can set my apex launcher screens to reflect what chameleon tries to do very easily. The only thing is that i have to swipe. To be honest, this is not exactly true either, cause almost everything can be done with Tasker.
So yeah. I still hope chameleon starts getting better, but it has to be real quick or all the interest is going to float away and another app will go down the drain like many others.

I backed it too... it costed 10$ . But after few days i uninstalled it. Lack of Widgets , very Slow , lack of user defined wallpapers etc .
They are still in Beta i guss and they are updating the app almost everyday . Hope they come up with more nich Widgets etc soon.

thanks all for the replies!!! was trying to see if it warranted the ten dollar price
like i use a different homescreen when im in my vehicle (media oriented),but right now i just swipe right to get to it
swipe left to go back to my regular homescreen
chameleon key feature is simply to "auto-swipe" ?

At first I was disappointed, 1.0 has changed my opinion its stable and looks amazing. I was the first to complain with the beta releases now with the widget api released things good get interesting. @Apex launcher pro on my tf700t.....too buggy
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda premium

Svashtar said:
I am a backer, too. I am disappointed, too.
Switching things like chameleon does is really nothing special. It is still just one screen. So, i can set my apex launcher screens to reflect what chameleon tries to do very easily. The only thing is that i have to swipe. To be honest, this is not exactly true either, cause almost everything can be done with Tasker.
So yeah. I still hope chameleon starts getting better, but it has to be real quick or all the interest is going to float away and another app will go down the drain like many others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kickstarter backer here and I'm a little disappointed now that they have issued Ver. 1.0. There's no calendar widget, you can only place so many apps in the dock, the dock is huge and not adjustable, no pre-built Android widgets so any thing you've already paid for is wasted, and it doesn't do news feed images very well.
But the biggest disapointment is the lack of a calendar widget! That should have been a fundamental basic widget from the start. It's not so it won't be my launcher of choice untill that get's fixed.

SayWhat10 said:
thanks all for the replies!!! was trying to see if it warranted the ten dollar price
like i use a different homescreen when im in my vehicle (media oriented),but right now i just swipe right to get to it
swipe left to go back to my regular homescreen
chameleon key feature is simply to "auto-swipe" ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's one key feature, but I would say the bigger draw is the aesthetic polish it brings. That's one of the reasons they won't let normal android widgets be used, as it clashes with the look of Chameleon. Give it time for more widgets to get made (especially with the API now available to developers) before deciding if it's a success or failure. IMO with 3 or 4 more of the widgets I need, I would easily use it as my day to day launcher.

whoah....cant use regular widgets? only widgets you can use are chameleon widgets?

SayWhat10 said:
whoah....cant use regular widgets? only widgets you can use are chameleon widgets?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. If you care to learn html5 you can make your own Chameleon widgets, and in the future they will add the ability to use widgets other users create. Until then, you only have the official chameleon ones to choose from. No standard Android widgets are usable in Chameleon though.

I was super hyped about it so I backed it on KS. Then I tried it and uninstalled it... nuff said...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app

Chameleon will definitely get better with further releases and more widgets added.
Like someone before me said, for me too, the polished and beautiful design is an added value of this launcher, nothing else (at least currently).
Calendar, Google+ and Music widgets are coming in near future. Custom widgets from users are coming, too, eventually. (i am hoping for beter gmail, email widgets etc...which can easily be done by others, not necessarily by teknision).
But, as i said before, they will have to act quickly - hype is on, but as with anything else it can get cold very quickly, too.

Svashtar said:
Chameleon will definitely get better with further releases and more widgets added.
Like someone before me said, for me too, the polished and beautiful design is an added value of this launcher, nothing else (at least currently).
Calendar, Google+ and Music widgets are coming in near future. Custom widgets from users are coming, too, eventually. (i am hoping for beter gmail, email widgets etc...which can easily be done by others, not necessarily by teknision).
But, as i said before, they will have to act quickly - hype is on, but as with anything else it can get cold very quickly, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just found this I like the look of it but does it have bookmark and email widgets?

Another kickstarter backer here. I also uninstalled it. It supports my gmail and news. I don't use Twitter or Facebook so it's fairly useless to me. Maybe widgets that appeal more to me are yet to come but not using it now.