Related
<gibberish>
Title says it all.
Yes, the gtab runs pretty darn well on a tegra duo core processor and 512 meg of memory. That said, since this device does well in multitask, nothing ever gets shut off when you press the home screen button.
Say you're watching youtube videos and then decide to play some games. So, you press the home button to "exit" out of youtube and then play your games. You then surf the net a bit, open up quickoffice to read some documents, etc.
Here's the thing. Everytime you press the home button, you're not shutting down the app. You're just going to your home screen. The apps are still running in the background. The more apps are running, the more resources your gtab will have to divert to those apps. I've been testing it, and the lag is definitely noticable after a while. All these apps that are piling up on top of one another will slow you gtab down considerably.
The two apps that I say are a must for every android device are the startup auditor and advance task killer. Use startup auditor to have control over what starts up. Your device will start up a lot faster. Use advance task killer to kill apps after you've used it. After all, what's the point of letting it run in the background when you're not using it? It's just wasting battery and processing resources.
</gibberish>
ATK is bad news. The Android OS DOES NOT need this invasive software. You'll have a lot more problems with it than without it. There are many, many developer-written articles which prove this. You really outta take that off any device you have it on.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk
deep_powder2012 said:
ATK is bad news. The Android OS DOES NOT need this invasive software. You'll have a lot more problems with it than without it. There are many, many developer-written articles which prove this. You really outta take that off any device you have it on.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After reading a few pages on this, I'm convinced. I'll edit the OP.
goodintentions said:
<gibberish>
Title says it all.
Yes, the gtab runs pretty darn well on a tegra duo core processor and 512 meg of memory. That said, since this device does well in multitask, nothing ever gets shut off when you press the home screen button.
Say you're watching youtube videos and then decide to play some games. So, you press the home button to "exit" out of youtube and then play your games. You then surf the net a bit, open up quickoffice to read some documents, etc.
Here's the thing. Everytime you press the home button, you're not shutting down the app. You're just going to your home screen. The apps are still running in the background. The more apps are running, the more resources your gtab will have to divert to those apps. I've been testing it, and the lag is definitely noticable after a while. All these apps that are piling up on top of one another will slow you gtab down considerably.
The two apps that I say are a must for every android device are the startup auditor and advance task killer. Use startup auditor to have control over what starts up. Your device will start up a lot faster. Use advance task killer to kill apps after you've used it. After all, what's the point of letting it run in the background when you're not using it? It's just wasting battery and processing resources.
</gibberish>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get the point you are trying to make, even if the software you have recommended is not the best. I use aCCleaner to clear my cache and SuperBox (10 programs in 1) to free the memory it comes with quite a few other utilities. Installer/uninstaller, App2SD, cache, taskkiller which I seldom need or use, settings, file manager and safeguard which tells you the risk level of the programs or services running on G Tab. Efficiency is everything.
You know, in theory all these articles have grounding but I can say IMHO "every android device I have owned runs more responsive when I kill using a task manager. "
I can feel the difference in speed when I use my photo editing software and then jump online for some image searching. Taskillers may not be perfect, and I especially don't advocate using the constantly running autokill features, I have found greater responsiveness from my devices when using multiple high end softwares consecutively. Like I said JMHO.
Sent from my Chromatic Magic using XDA Premium App
I guess this is my honeycomb ignorance (still getting used to the features) but when pulling up recent apps with the softkey I really only want apps that are currently running.
Are some of these apps are already "closed" and by choosing a thumbnail from the list I'm re-opening these?
Is there a setting anywhere to "limit" the history I see? Like <5 apps or something?
I have Task Killer pro intalled now to manage the real running apps but the Softkey is handier, if I can just be sure of what its supposed to indicate.
Thanks
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
I was wondering this as well. I haven't found any way to do it yet.
I don't know of any way except to manage apps in the settings and then kill "running" apps....but remember; these are apps "in memory" like you'd think in Windows.....they are not sucking resources...
I think that there is an article here somewhere about this list and why you shouldn't use an app killer in Honeycomb....
I'm more interested in changing it to a grid layout, like a speed dial.
yeah I know theyre not in memory but they are wasting screen space. I finished playing chess yesterday, I dont think the game should stay in the recent apps list. Froyo & Gingerbread are much better at managing this.
moo99 said:
yeah I know theyre not in memory but they are wasting screen space. I finished playing chess yesterday, I dont think the game should stay in the recent apps list. Froyo & Gingerbread are much better at managing this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. I just want a cleaner recent apps list. Sometimes it's hard to find what you're looking for.
I guess a workaround would be to longpress the home screen, put a widget there that is linked directly to "manage applications" and then it would only be one press and then zap the offending apps.
You do realize the Recent Apps button on the homescreen is just that, a Recent Apps button. It's not exactly a "running in the background" button.
"I finished playing chess yesterday, I dont think the game should stay in the recent apps list."
Why not? It is a recently played app isn't it? LOL.
And yeah, agree with the other reply, if you want a list of running apps.... don't touch the Recent Apps list button lol.
Stop worrying about what's running in the background. Just enjoy the damn Android.
Im not near my TF now but I use Multitasking Pro on my Galaxy S for that. you can choose to open it by double clicking the home button and see only running apps or recent apps - its configurable in the application settings. i does cost about 2$ i think but it was the best 2$ I've spent
this is called a 'Recent apps' list for a reason...it's 'Recent'..not current running...
Well you could always downgrade to 3.0 if it really bothers you. That only showed 5 apps!
LOL. Its a nuisance, not so much a grievance; but I'm glad I'm not the only one annoyed, perhaps this will get looked at ;-)
Possibly once Honeycomb is more prevalent there will come market apps or enough reportage to have an updte with a setting for it, or a utility that tweaks it. Regardless, I appreciate the feedback. At least now I know its sort of "normal".
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
My number one wish is for Google to improve multitasking (and give back control to the user as to which programs are running).
As is, the implementation just isn't very usable if you consider it to be a multitasking device -- it's really closer to single-tasking with a memory of what it did recently and the ability to reopen with a similar state to what it last had.
For example, I use my tab during F1 races for timing and scoring. I have F1.com's timing and scoring app, and I have access to a (non-public) website which provides further real-time info through Adobe Flash in a web browser.
If I switch from the web browser to F1.com's timing and scoring app for more than say 10-15 seconds, then back again, the flash app has to reconnect to the server because the web browser ceased running, even though the browser and the F1.com app were the only programs running and had ample memory / CPU power / a mains power supply connected, ie. no reason to halt the browser.
This isn't the only time I hit this issue, it's just one easy-to-explain example.
I'd much rather I had the ability to exit programs / apps myself when I'm done with them, and to keep programs / apps running in the background when I want them to. It'd make the whole experience much more coherent and logical.
The Flash plugin was designed to suspend when you switched apps. It's not an android issue.
Adding "close programs" to the current implementation would not make it more logical, it would make it more convoluted. It doesn't need it.
knoxploration said:
.I'd much rather I had the ability to exit programs / apps myself when I'm done with them, and to keep programs / apps running in the background when I want them to. It'd make the whole experience much more coherent and logical.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that the vast majority of users won't want to handle this themselves, and would expect the OS to do if for them.
Personally, I'm in favour of having some sort of mechanism whereby you can tell the OS not to kill specific tasks if you so choose, but otherwise task management performs as is.
With specific regard to your example, I think that the OS believes it is always OK to kill the browser, which is why it can be killed so quickly after switching away. For other apps, this doesn't seem to happen - for example, yesterday I was connected to a remote server using Wyse PocketCloud, and I frequently switched away to do something else for 30-60 minutes at a time, yet my remote desktop connection was never dropped or killed.
Regards,
Dave
Me personally don't need and don't like this "recent" app button. Or I need it to have an option either to clear it or not. You know we sometimes need privacy over such things
JCopernicus said:
The Flash plugin was designed to suspend when you switched apps. It's not an android issue.
Adding "close programs" to the current implementation would not make it more logical, it would make it more convoluted. It doesn't need it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, if flash is left to run in the background it will drain the battery like hell..and other system resources as well.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
...and it should be *my* choice whether that happens. That is where this argument totaly falls on its face. *I* know whether it is vital to me that an app remain open, or can safely be closed. The tablet doesn't.
As long as it remains in the tablet's hands, it will continue to annoy me by leving open apps that I no longer need running, while closing apps that I strongly do need running.
magicpork said:
Agreed, if flash is left to run in the background it will drain the battery like hell..and other system resources as well.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's just it....it doesn't.
Revisiting Android Task Killers and Why You Still Don’t Need One
from another forum.
We almost hate to approach the topic of Task Killers on Android after all this time, but with so many new faces here at Droid Life and in Android in general, it’s something that needs to be done. In fact, after seeing the Amazon app of the day and reading through the Twitter conversations we just had with many of you, this thing needs to be posted immediately.
Let’s see if we can’t get you all some better battery life!
First off, please ignore the image up at the top of the post. If this was 2009 and we were all running something less than Android 2.2, that statement plastered on that red banner might be somewhat correct. But since it is 2011 and the majority of people on the planet are running Android 2.2, we need to get you away from the mindset that killing off tasks on your phone is a good thing.
So rather than me blabbering about the inner-workings of Android and how it manages RAM for the 10,000th time, I’m going to just pull from some posts that friends of ours have done that explain this in the plainest of ways.
First up is our boy @cvpcs who you may know from CM and his Sapphire ROM days. He knows Android inside-and-out, so when he goes into memory management which is done by the OS itself, you should listen up:
…What people don’t seem to realize is that android is designed to have a large number of tasks stored in memory at all times. Why? Well basically we are talking about a mobile device. On a mobile device things tend to be slower. The hardware isn’t as robust as say a desktop or a laptop, so in order to get that same “snappy” feeling, there have to be workarounds.
One of these is how android deals with memory. Android will load up your apps and then keep them running until they absolutely HAVE to kill them. This is because that way, if you want to re-open an app, the system already has it loaded and can then just resume it instead of reloading it. This provides a significant performance increase.
What a lot of people don’t realize as well is that android kernels have their own task manager. This means that:
it will be more efficient than any app-based task manager as it is run at the kernel level, and
it should be left up to that task killer to decide when to free up memory
There is only one case where having a task killer is a good idea, and that is when you want to kill ONE SPECIFIC APP. Killing all apps is never a good idea. You don’t know what operations they are performing or if they are necessary.
Whitson Gordon of Lifehacker suggests that you should be more worried about CPU usage than what’s going on with your RAM. We agree:
This set-up implies that the goal of killing these apps is to free up memory. Nowhere on the list does it mention the number of CPU cycles each app is consuming, only the memory you’ll free by killing it. As we’ve learned, full memory is not a bad thing—we want to watch out for the CPU, the resource that actually slows down your phone and drains your battery life.
Thus, killing all but the essential apps (or telling Android to kill apps more aggressively with the “autokill” feature) is generally unnecessary. Furthermore, it’s actually possible that this will worsen your phone’s performance and battery life. Whether you’re manually killing apps all the time or telling the task killer to aggressively remove apps from your memory, you’re actually using CPU cycles when you otherwise wouldn’t—killing apps that aren’t doing anything in the first place.
In fact, some of the processes related to those apps will actually start right back up, further draining your CPU. If they don’t, killing those processes can cause other sorts of problems—alarms don’t go off, you don’t receive text messages, or other related apps may force close without warning. All in all, you’re usually better off letting your phone work as intended—especially if you’re more of a casual user. In these instances, a task killer causes more problems than it solves.
More on how Android has a built-in memory-management system, but also on how killing all tasks is not a good thing (via: NextApp):
Android was designed from the ground up as an operating system (OS) for mobile devices. Its built-in application and memory-management systems were engineered with battery life as one of the most critical concerns.
The Android OS does not work like a desktop operating system. On a desktop OS, like Windows, Mac OS X, or Ubuntu Linux, the user is responsible for closing programs in order to keep a reasonable amount of memory available. On Android, this is not the case. The OS itself automatically removes programs from memory as memory is needed. The OS may also preload applications into memory which it thinks might soon be needed.
Having lots of available empty memory is not a good thing. It takes the same amount of power to hold “nothing” in memory as it does to hold actual data. So, like every other operating system in use today, Android does its best to keep as much important/likely-to-be-used information in memory as possible.
As such, using the task manager feature of SystemPanel to constantly clear memory by killing all apps is strongly NOT RECOMMENDED. This also applies to any other task killer / management program. Generally speaking, you should only “End” applications if you see one which is not working correctly. The “End All” feature can be used if your phone/device is performing poorly and you are uncertain of the cause.
And we could go on for hours with source after source on why task killers do nothing but work against Android, but you probably get the point now don’t you? Ready for a quick recap? OK.
Basically, Android keeps tasks handy because it thinks you’ll want to perform them again in a very short amount of time. If you don’t, it will clear them out for you. It also likes to keep as many things handy as possible so that the overall performance of your device is top notch. If Android were to completely kill off everything that your phone is doing, then it would require more resources to restart all of them and you would likely run into slowness and battery drains. By keeping certain things available to you, your phone is actually running better than it would without. So please, stop killing off tasks and let Android do the work for you.
Your goal for the week is wash your brain of the idea that having little RAM available is a bad thing. The more RAM available, the more Android will find ways to use it up which means your battery will be dead in hours. Instead, let it manage itself, so that you can spend more time playing Angry Birds or reading Droid Life.
All good now?
A simple reboot clears the list of recent apps. And as others have stated, it's not about running apps but something like the "recent documents" list in Windows 7
I am now a ICS user and I realize when you hold the home button you'll have a list of recent apps. Cool, but I realize the list is very very long, are all those apps currently running at low usage for quick access? If so, is there a way I limit the amount of apps, I remember with 2.3.4 (whatever) cyanogenmod you could modify the number for recent apps. I ask because with so many running I imagine it will drain battery. Thanks
You can remove them from the recent apps list by swiping them away (either left or right).
I understand that, but if I let it stay because it is sort of a hassle having to deal with them individually. Will it consume a lot of battery? Am I better off leaving it, or just swiping constantly killing the task.
That, I'm not too sure of. I believe that by swiping it, it'll dismiss it from the recent apps and kill the task because there would be no point to just remove it from the recent apps list and still have it runing in the background but I think you'll need more clarification on that.
Sorry I can't help so much; I'm not running ICS yet, so I can't be too sure.
Thanks, I'll give it a Google anyways
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
You are better off leaving it as it is. It is really just a recent apps list, just with a thumbnail, exactly like the one in gb. Swiping can just resets the app, the same as 'backing' out of it. This has the effect of removing some apps from cache completely, though not all.
Thanks mate. My concern was that it would be a battery drain, but I'll let it be.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
No battery drain unless it's some kind of service (which is usually (always?)) in the notification bar. When you press the home button, the app will be put into RAM and classified as cache, so it is quicker to open up next time. Note that filling RAM uses no extra battery, RAM is powered the same regardless. If you are using an app that requires more RAM than is available that is classified 'free', it will start removing some of the apps android has put into ram as cache and fill it up with necessary data from the foreground app.
Task managers are useful, however not any more useful than Androids built in managing (system settings --> apps). There is never a need to close any app forceably UNLESS it is not working as it should, whether it be frozen, excessively slow or not loading in some way or another, etc. All other circumstances are taken care of for you and memory is used as efficiently as possible.
Thank you Harbb for the very detailed explanation. That is exactly what I was looking for. I thought myself the same but needed clarification simply because the list was so long, I semi feared it could be running. Cheers mate!
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
No problem mate, just happy to help. Always good to clarify these things.
i disagree Harb. RAM management is sometimes pretty poor without using a task manager.
For example some apps that use a lot of RAM such as Real Racing 2, could force close because of lack of RAM.
I've never experienced something genuinely FCing because of a lack of RAM, but will try out the RR2 demo and see how it gets on, i'll try and get it to crash or FC. 768mb of RAM would've been really nice on the NS though as a good chunk is used by the system.
Just a tip instead of going to settings/apps..ect
Just go to recent apps hold down on the app and click app info much quicker
also most of the top recent apps are not using any resources but the lower ones are swiping will close and free up the RAM
Its a built in taskkiller that Google put into ICS even though they always said one was not needed.
IV seen a couple forum's we're people go back and forth about task killers, ( manly about whether or not you need them)
It seems like the argument against it is that the android system already kills apps. And most of the programs and apps constantly try to restart (draining you're battery)
But the argument for it. Is that the android O/S lets way to many apps run. And keeps them in memory, before it actually starts killing them.
But from what I can tell it doesn't look like any of the arguments were 'rom' or even 'phone' specific.
What do you Guy's think?
Are you for, or against auto killers?
And why?
Do you think they make a difference?
Do they drain your battery?
If you do use them. "Which ones do you use"? And y?
(Let the arguments begin) I'm interested to know what you guys think?
Sent from my G2X.
Rocking stock CM 7.2.0-RC1
Do not use them. The Android OS is very good at knowing what to keep in memory and what not to. You want your memory to be full pretty much all the time (unused memory is wasted memory), and the OS will swap data out to your internal storage (or SD card?) when necessary.
Think about it: Do you have auto-task-killer for Windows or Mac OS? Of course not. The OS manages memory very well.
Now, I *may* kill a task that has a memory leak or is taking up gigantic amounts of memory for no reason (as I would on Windows using the Task Manager), but I'll only do that on an app-by-app basis, and it usually results in my uninstalling the crappily-written app.
So no, "auto" task killers are worthless.
Android continues to run random crap in the background for no reason. Crappy programing. I have had mixed results with various task killers. It is a shame that Google can not get their stuff together. They have the resources to do it correctly, so it leads me to the conclusion it is intentional.
Why the hell does Maps need to run all the freaking time? It's ridiculous. Is ICS any better than Gingerbread? I hope it is. That would be a worthy reason to upgrade, but for the short time I tried an ICS rom it still ran tons of crap for no reason at all other than google wants it to run.
Hopefully one day someone will come out with an efficient OS. Until then we are stuck trying to implement workarounds to Google's crap programing.
ok, ill try to explain this
Android and windows operating systems are very different in the way they handle memory useage.
In windows, when you open a program the program allocates a chunk of memory that it can use, it then tells the system to give it more if it needs it, and it gives it back when it dosent. Once the program is closed all of this memory is 'forgotten' instantly and cannot be recovered, so when you restart the program you are starting it over like new. (one exception being programs that stay running in the background after you close the window)
In android, this is all handled much MUCH MUCH more efficiently.
Android apps are made up of processes and services. A process is a foreground window that you interact with. Unless you hit the back key to exit out of the program, it is simply paused. Once paused a process can use NO CPU!! none at all! ZERO! It is still kept in memory so that if you want to go back to the app, or you restart it later, and its still in memory, the phone will spend less time, CPU power, and battery power relaunching it from the start. if the phone begins to run low on memory it starts closing these programs. id say 90% of the time closing a paused process is so fast, and takes so little resources that you cant tell when its happening, even if you watch really closely for it.
The problem with apps using battery in the background is android Services.
Services are different from processes. services have no UI, the user cannot interact with them directly at all, and they should only contain code that is needed to run in the background. When you exit an app through its own menu, it shuts down its own services, unless it believes that they are needed still. These processes can run in the background for as long as they want... to a point. if android needs the memory for something else, and its already killed every process that's not running, it will start killing unused services.
Services are the main thing that separate android from the IOS. Android can multi-task, and services are the way that it does it. The reason that these can suck the battery dry is because of bad programming by the app creator. If your facebook app wants to sync your pictures, it will keep a service running to do that, perhaps using GPS, Network, and SD card data the whole time. Its the app's fault, not android's.
For example:
If your playing music, and you want to go to another playlist, a service is the part of the program reading the song off the SD card, downloading album art, and playing it over the headset. while the process is showing you all this and letting you pick another playlist. if you press your home key in the middle of a song, the process is paused, so the UI can no longer use CPU power, however the service is still running, still playing music. when you stop the music and then close the app, a WELL PROGRAMMED music app will stop its service, then pause its UI. 10 minutes later you want to play music again, so you reopen the app only to find that it is exactly the way you left it! all ready and waiting for you to hit play. this is because while it was paused, it was not using battery or cpu power, but was still stored in the RAM. when you reopened it, the OS just reads all this ram and 'un-pauses' the program for you.
Finally just because an app has a process, does not mean that it is drinking your battery power by the megawatt! Some services are just there, waiting for something, using little to NO cpu power. For example your SWYPE and Android Keyboard services are running constantly. however they are not using much battery power at all. the services are only there listening for android to shout that it needs a keyboard, at which point the service runs the paused process.
one last thing, the reason google maps runs in the background is because something on the phone wants location data. (could be the fact that you checked 'share anonymous data about my location with google' or the fact that you want your weather service to update based on your location, or any other 100's of things) While any program can access GPS data, the numbers you get back are latitude and longitude. This is damn near useless for any location based app, so they ask the Google Maps process to return a city, state, zip code, street address, ect... instead of your Average app maker programming an entire system for this, and getting map data from somewhere else on its own (that will most likely be not as efficent), google made a wonderful maps program and let everyone use it for its location data! Hows that for open source?
As for app killers, they are useless, 100% useless and i think that they are the only thing that should be banned from the google market. they ONLY hurt and NEVER HELP!!! the only thing that is useful is CM7/CM9's 'hold back button to kill app' this can be used to kill that annoying rogue app that has an awful programmer. but even then about 75% of the time the programmer will make it just start back up anyway, so the only solution is to UNINSTALL it.
korny647 said:
IV seen a couple forum's we're people go back and forth about task killers, ( manly about whether or not you need them)
It seems like the argument against it is that the android system already kills apps. And most of the programs and apps constantly try to restart (draining you're battery)
But the argument for it. Is that the android O/S lets way to many apps run. And keeps them in memory, before it actually starts killing them.
But from what I can tell it doesn't look like any of the arguments were 'rom' or even 'phone' specific.
What do you Guy's think?
Are you for, or against auto killers?
And why?
Do you think they make a difference?
Do they drain your battery?
If you do use them. "Which ones do you use"? And y?
(Let the arguments begin) I'm interested to know what you guys think?
Sent from my G2X.
Rocking stock CM 7.2.0-RC1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly I can care less about a task killer. My phone runs perfectly without any task killer.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Klathmon said:
ok, ill try to explain this
one last thing, the reason google maps runs in the background is because something on the phone wants location data. (could be the fact that you checked 'share anonymous data about my location with google' or the fact that you want your weather service to update based on your location, or any other 100's of things) While any program can access GPS data, the numbers you get back are latitude and longitude. This is damn near useless for any location based app, so they ask the Google Maps process to return a city, state, zip code, street address, ect... instead of your Average app maker programming an entire system for this, and getting map data from somewhere else on its own (that will most likely be not as efficent), google made a wonderful maps program and let everyone use it for its location data! Hows that for open source?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. My phone still seems to slow down when I do a lot of web surfing. When my available memory drops below 100mb the Internet slows to a crawl. Any tips? I have been using a task killer to manually close out runing apps to free up space.
jcbofkc said:
Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. My phone still seems to slow down when I do a lot of web surfing. When my available memory drops below 100mb the Internet slows to a crawl. Any tips? I have been using a task killer to manually close out runing apps to free up space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if your using the stock browser, press the tab button at the top right...
close the probally 20 or so tabs that are still open that you dont use anymore
the more memory the active app takes up the more android has to kill, after it kills all empty processes, it starts killing services, and active services, then notifications, ect...
the further up the list you go the more cpu power it takes to free up the resources.
Many tabs take up alot of ram
Klathmon said:
ok, ill try to explain this
Android and windows operating systems are very different in the way they handle memory useage.
In windows, when you open a program the program allocates a chunk of memory that it can use, it then tells the system to give it more if it needs it, and it gives it back when it dosent. Once the program is closed all of this memory is 'forgotten' instantly and cannot be recovered, so when you restart the program you are starting it over like new. (one exception being programs that stay running in the background after you close the window)
In android, this is all handled much MUCH MUCH more efficiently.
Android apps are made up of processes and services. A process is a foreground window that you interact with. Unless you hit the back key to exit out of the program, it is simply paused. Once paused a process can use NO CPU!! none at all! ZERO! It is still kept in memory so that if you want to go back to the app, or you restart it later, and its still in memory, the phone will spend less time, CPU power, and battery power relaunching it from the start. if the phone begins to run low on memory it starts closing these programs. id say 90% of the time closing a paused process is so fast, and takes so little resources that you cant tell when its happening, even if you watch really closely for it.
The problem with apps using battery in the background is android Services.
Services are different from processes. services have no UI, the user cannot interact with them directly at all, and they should only contain code that is needed to run in the background. When you exit an app through its own menu, it shuts down its own services, unless it believes that they are needed still. These processes can run in the background for as long as they want... to a point. if android needs the memory for something else, and its already killed every process that's not running, it will start killing unused services.
Services are the main thing that separate android from the IOS. Android can multi-task, and services are the way that it does it. The reason that these can suck the battery dry is because of bad programming by the app creator. If your facebook app wants to sync your pictures, it will keep a service running to do that, perhaps using GPS, Network, and SD card data the whole time. Its the app's fault, not android's.
For example:
If your playing music, and you want to go to another playlist, a service is the part of the program reading the song off the SD card, downloading album art, and playing it over the headset. while the process is showing you all this and letting you pick another playlist. if you press your home key in the middle of a song, the process is paused, so the UI can no longer use CPU power, however the service is still running, still playing music. when you stop the music and then close the app, a WELL PROGRAMMED music app will stop its service, then pause its UI. 10 minutes later you want to play music again, so you reopen the app only to find that it is exactly the way you left it! all ready and waiting for you to hit play. this is because while it was paused, it was not using battery or cpu power, but was still stored in the RAM. when you reopened it, the OS just reads all this ram and 'un-pauses' the program for you.
Finally just because an app has a process, does not mean that it is drinking your battery power by the megawatt! Some services are just there, waiting for something, using little to NO cpu power. For example your SWYPE and Android Keyboard services are running constantly. however they are not using much battery power at all. the services are only there listening for android to shout that it needs a keyboard, at which point the service runs the paused process.
one last thing, the reason google maps runs in the background is because something on the phone wants location data. (could be the fact that you checked 'share anonymous data about my location with google' or the fact that you want your weather service to update based on your location, or any other 100's of things) While any program can access GPS data, the numbers you get back are latitude and longitude. This is damn near useless for any location based app, so they ask the Google Maps process to return a city, state, zip code, street address, ect... instead of your Average app maker programming an entire system for this, and getting map data from somewhere else on its own (that will most likely be not as efficent), google made a wonderful maps program and let everyone use it for its location data! Hows that for open source?
As for app killers, they are useless, 100% useless and i think that they are the only thing that should be banned from the google market. they ONLY hurt and NEVER HELP!!! the only thing that is useful is CM7/CM9's 'hold back button to kill app' this can be used to kill that annoying rogue app that has an awful programmer. but even then about 75% of the time the programmer will make it just start back up anyway, so the only solution is to UNINSTALL it.
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Well said, makes it alot more clear to me.
But that being said is there anyone that still has an argument for auto killers?
Or is it pretty much a no across the bored. Here at xda.
If that's the case why are their so many task killers that have a huge amounts of downloads,?
Just a bunch of noobs falling for snake oil?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
korny647 said:
Well said, makes it alot more clear to me.
But that being said is there anyone that still has an argument for auto killers?
Or is it pretty much a no across the bored. Here at xda.
If that's the case why are their so many task killers that have a huge amounts of downloads,?
Just a bunch of noobs falling for snake oil?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
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yes and no.
most people only have experience with windows, and when something is running in windows it is actually running. most people think a computer is a computer (roughly) so they think that running in android means the same. not really falling for something, just a misunderstanding.
also if i made one of these apps (regardless if i knew how it worked at the time or not) im not gonna stop the money coming in because i might be wrong
Klathmon said:
yes and no.
most people only have experience with windows, and when something is running in windows it is actually running. most people think a computer is a computer (roughly) so they think that running in android means the same. not really falling for something, just a misunderstanding.
also if i made one of these apps (regardless if i knew how it worked at the time or not) im not gonna stop the money coming in because i might be wrong
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True, so true.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
Read here also.
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Good stuff, Klathmon. Couldn't have explained it better myself.
If you want a "task killer" don't use a task killer use a memory optimizer... such as the v6 supercharger or autokiller from the market. These aren't task killers but they basically just make your phone a ram nazi.
Pin it to Win it.
Allow me to jump on the bandwagon. Don't use them. Allow the operating system to work as it was intended for better or worse.
Thanks everyone for this very interesting thread.
Hi all, I'm sorry if this is not the correct place to post this. But I hope the Mods will replace it where appropriate.
I just was wondering if there is a way to stop that annoying reloading of web pages when I push the browser to background process in my old Android 4.0.3 device. It so consumed data. Is there any way to keep the pages in memory or something?
Thanks
Hi,
As far as I know, it's because of Android cleaning unused programs from memory (RAM) when it's getting full, and on lower specs phones it happens pretty quickly, although I don't have accurate numbers here.
It's a core feature of Android, so I'm not sure there is a way to bypass, limit it or whitelist programs, perhaps on rooted phones, but I'm eager to know if it's possible.
But, is it the same on newer devices? I hope not, cos it's so lame.
So that's it... I just can't do anything unless I root. Hmmm...
Thanks for your comment though.
I can't answer for sure, but on all my devices it's the same problem, even under KitKat.
I suppose my RAM isn't enough, but someone would have to confirm if the problem still exists on high end devices like S4 or G2.
I don't know what you'll get here by rooting your device, cause all of mine are rooted but sometimes I still get the problem.
Well at least you can delete some bloatware so it's never a bad idea if you feel confident rooting the phone.
For repro, I usually do this, between each step, just press the Home button to return to the home screen :
- Launch a heavy game such as Dead Trigger 2 or Real Racing 3, or even a smaller one like Subway Surfers
- Launch Chrome, open something simple like Google News for mobiles
- Open the camera, no need to take a pic but just open it and go back to home straightaway
- Open Gmail, or another mail app
- Open Play Store
- Try to go back to your game (or browser)... on all of my devices I lose my current level, as it's as I've force quitted... yeah that sucks for low end or old devices like mines, but I don't think there is a workaround.
Just to say, on my iPod Touch 3 I get a better experience for games, although I have to go through reloading on Safari tabs.