Database Users

how to completely close applications?

I find that when I visit SETTINGS --> SYSTEM tab --> MEMORY --> RUNNING PROGRAMS tab, there are always several applications running. It seems to be ones I have used and I pressed the cross or OK on the top right cornerto close it, but hey don't actually completely close. Is there a way to make sure they are closed and not running in the background?

You can install a task manager.
I recommend:
Wisbad Advance 2 (free as it is beta right now)
Good luck

how to realy close programs
im using the best software i think the "battery pack 2.1.1". this software will give u some other great stuff.
http://www.omegaone.com/batterypack/pro/default.htm
bye

Magic Button from http://www.trancreative.com
Freeware as well, and will enable you to toggle the top bar between the standard window title and a neat windows-like task bar.

the one and only CloseAll does the work.

wow guys, thanks a lot for your speedy suggestions. I will check them out, thanks again.

My VJOkButt is a very low profile task killer and can also be used with AE button plus to replace the red key, since it will also simulate hanging up phone calls. So you don't lose a button, but merely double it's existing functionality.
V

Another vote for MagicButton. Very small memory footprint, shows you which tasks are running on the status bar, can choose which apps it leaves alone, and gives a battery meter too. I found that WA/PocketPlus/BatteryPack etc were all too much of a resource hog on the Wizard.

Re: how to realy close programs
erez29 said:
im using the best software i think the "battery pack 2.1.1". this software will give u some other great stuff.
http://www.omegaone.com/batterypack/pro/default.htm
bye
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be VERY careful with Battery Pack Pro.
Totally banjaxed my K-JAM, I had to do a hard reset to recover.
I am currently trialing Spb Pocket Plus.
Does what you want plus a whole load more and has NOT caused any problems on my PDA.
Except it would not work when installed on my MiniSD card only installed internally.
Robin

I am using DinarSoft's HandySwitcher it is also very small and unobtrusive

Re: how to realy close programs
erez29 said:
im using the best software i think the "battery pack 2.1.1". this software will give u some other great stuff.
http://www.omegaone.com/batterypack/pro/default.htm
bye
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be VERY careful with Battery Pack Pro.
Totally banjaxed my K-JAM, I had to do a hard reset to recover.
I am currently trialing Spb Pocket Plus.
Does what you want plus a whole load more and has NOT caused any problems on my PDA.
Except it would not work when installed on my MiniSD card only installed internally.
Robin

I have loaded MagicButton on my Qtek 9100 and it works realy nice. But when I check AutoStart option in Settings, and turn device off and on error message appears that mbutton cannot be opened as it is not signed with trusted cerificate. Any tip how to avoid this message?

I switched to Magic Button, but the biggest problem is that it cannot be used with a hardware key .
I'm using the PIE hardware key as Ok/Close, but MB is just minimizing the apps, not closing them, which is really annoying.
If someone made it to close apps, please share ... if it is not possible, I'll switch to other task manager.

Try HandySwitcher from DinarSoft it can be assigned to a HW button. It can also sit on your tray and/or topbar.

bnycastro said:
Try HandySwitcher from DinarSoft it can be assigned to a HW button. It can also sit on your tray and/or topbar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried it. i assigned it to the PIE (internet explorer) hardware button but when i press it, it just brings up its menu.
what i want to do is to close apps when pressing the PIE button or any other hardware button

just tried vijay's vjokbutt, works like a charm for me, does what I want

RE
Can HandySwitcher or MagicButton close PIE or OPERA?
If not, then which task switcher can?
Thanks

@kelu: HS is actually a Task Manager so it will show you the list of running tasks and wait for you to decide which to close [that is why you see the menu and task list] to individually close an app you may tap the 'ok' button or do a 'tap-n-hold' [depends on what you put in the settings] of course this is not done via hw buttons. What I do when I don't have a stylus handy is I just hit the hw button and select 'Close All' now it may be a hassle to some people with multiple apps running but too me it is ok since I rarely run multiple apps [or more often than not I close the app when I am done via 'close all' before running the next one].

you can actually close applications by using the SIP keyboard and choosing CTRL-Q
this has worked ever since my Casio E105 (man, that was a long time ago...)

bnycastro said:
@kelu: HS is actually a Task Manager so it will show you the list of running tasks and wait for you to decide which to close [that is why you see the menu and task list] to individually close an app you may tap the 'ok' button or do a 'tap-n-hold' [depends on what you put in the settings] of course this is not done via hw buttons. What I do when I don't have a stylus handy is I just hit the hw button and select 'Close All' now it may be a hassle to some people with multiple apps running but too me it is ok since I rarely run multiple apps [or more often than not I close the app when I am done via 'close all' before running the next one].
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes u are right, the ok/close functionality via a hardware button is not really conected to the task listing of a task manager, but nevertheless I found it very usefull
as a task manager now I use SmallMenu and GSPPocketMagic (I'm testing both to decide), as they are very light and they also extend the start menu

Magic Button problems

Ok, I've been using Magic Button for about a week but lately i've been encountering some issues that seem to happen every day.
I'll have a few applications open, or through general use (phone, text, etc) there will be other things open. Sometimes when I go to close everything, or close the programs that I don't want to use/have open, I get stuck on certain screens (for example the phone keypad screen) and cannot return to the 'Today Screen' at all, even if I hit the little House icon or go to Start - Today. No matter what I hit, where I go, there are no running programs, I even close Magic button and still cannot get back to the 'Today Screen' until I do a soft reset.
How is this happening and how can I stop it? It's really annoying to have to do a soft reset whenever magic button screws up.
This is a cingular 8125.
Thanks.

thisisunique said:
Ok, I've been using Magic Button for about a week but lately i've been encountering some issues that seem to happen every day.
I'll have a few applications open, or through general use (phone, text, etc) there will be other things open. Sometimes when I go to close everything, or close the programs that I don't want to use/have open, I get stuck on certain screens (for example the phone keypad screen) and cannot return to the 'Today Screen' at all, even if I hit the little House icon or go to Start - Today. No matter what I hit, where I go, there are no running programs, I even close Magic button and still cannot get back to the 'Today Screen' until I do a soft reset.
How is this happening and how can I stop it? It's really annoying to have to do a soft reset whenever magic button screws up.
This is a cingular 8125.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Phew - I thought I was the only one. I seem to have a few funnies with MB on my O2 Mini. I think you will be able to get back to the Today screen from the Start menu option, if you have it there.
I've just put MB on again the other day, but I think I'll prolly take it off today.

No your not but i'm surprised more people haven't posted about this, I couldn't find anything when I was searching. How is this such a great program if you have to soft reset every day???
I tried hitting the Today option in my Start Menu and that doesn't do the trick either. Trust me i've tried hitting every program in the book only to just waste more time trying to close them all.
Anyone have a fix, solution, beta, anything?

I had the same issue but found that the red 'hang up' button would reliably get me back to the today screen
Hope this helps
Vlado

I had the same problems so stopped using magic button. Try wisbar - same as mb but does not have those problems. Version 1 is free. For a simpler solution use smclose which just changes the minimize button to close button and of course there's vj okbutt which you can map to a button to close an app. (and smartskey as well!)

I've posted several threads about this problem, here and on Modaco. I find vBar is a bit more stable than MB, but even it has problems. I'm told InClose and SPB PocketPlus don't have these problems...

magic button acted funny for me, too, so I went to xbar. Another big plus with xbar (for me) is how easily it's accessed without having to pull out the stylus.

The first day i installed magic button it worked perfect. after letting the phone sleep all night it's gone crazy. All kinds fo freezing. Mine seems to have something to do with magic button being installed on the sdcard instead of in the main memory because it keeps telling me at startup that it can find the require files, even though it's running.
So i diabled autostart and tried just manually starting when i boot up and have had fewer problems. But still problems none the less.
I really don't like the fact that the close button is only set to either-or. It would be nice if we had a close button AND a minimize / put program in background button.
is there any program like this? I wonder how hard it would be to modify the source to do that.

Try the Cyberon voice speed dail, you can close a programm by speech. is on de MDA vario. no los off extra memory and no problems.

Magic Button
I have not experienced any problems at all with Magic Button and have found it to be the best Task Manager for closing running programs, and I also like the fact thast you get an 'active' decktop.
One thing I have noticed since I started running the new o2 ROM is that the Phone icon is ever-present, whereas on the previous ROM it did not stay on the screen permanently. Generally impressed by the speed of the new ROM, but not having any major problems with Magic Button.

I must be the only one who DOESNT have a problem with MB, I've had it since I got my HTC Apache without a hitch I installed it on the main memory and it seems to work quite well with allowing me to keep certain apps alive i.e. phone app, agile, etc.
pink

[Q] App to show all the running apps in tray?

Does something like that exist? I would like to see all the running programs as icons in the tray on today screen. So I don't forget something running and eating up my battery.
I know I can press the upper right corner to see these apps and open or close them from there, but I would prefer seeing them in the tray and being able to tap the icon to open the program. Tap and hold to close would be excellent. iGO 8 and palringo, for example, will show up in tray.

So it doesn't exist?

I think not. I was also searching quite a while for something like this and it doesn't seem to exist. I would also think of this as a very practical application for the tray since there is no real task bar in Windows Mobile.
I chose a somewhat compromise - HTC_TRAY allows you to put shortcuts into the tray which are launching apps, but when they are already running, it is also simply bringing them to foreground. Since you need the stylus anyway to tap the tray icons, I just put apps there which I usually control with the stylus. With HTC_TRAY app I also have a battery meter and a rotate icon. In the tray I can also see the currently selected phone profile with PhoneWeaver - that was basically the reason why I didn't want to hide the tray.

sort of Windows (desktop) tray ??
guess not... but would be great

sounds like WKTask to me.

fards said:
sounds like WKTask to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://soft.photoracer.net/docs/wktask_en.html
definitely wktask, it also has a battery bar on top.. and a lot more functions.
its my favorite program for ppc.

Yeah, but wktask uses the upper task bar instead of the tray, right? Since the tray is already there when programs show tray icons and the taskbar already shows information like network, time, sound, start etc., there's not much space for icons left. WkTask using the tray instead of the task bar would be perfect.

why not use the one that is built-in to the unit? go to Windows\TaskManagerApp.exe. you can run the application or stop the selected or stop all running applications.
and if you're going to rely on this app, just assign it to one of the left or right hard keys..

azian_advanced said:
why not use the one that is built-in to the unit? go to Windows\TaskManagerApp.exe. you can run the application or stop the selected or stop all running applications.
and if you're going to rely on this app, just assign it to one of the left or right hard keys..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but it's better to have it in one glance on the today screen which apps are currently running. Especially with the stylus, you could then quickly switch between applications or terminate them from there. Since you have the tray anyway and can't really get rid of it, I think this would be the best application for it - a small icon based task bar. I really like that idea too.

Well, I guess there's no such thing yet. Maybe some smart guy will read this thread and make a small app for this, I'm sure it's not that hard to do.

try truetoolbar
http://www.valksoft.com/TrueToolbar.html

@mgfung - It's more like a launcher and has a ton of unwanted features. All I want is something simple, only to show the running apps in the tray - tap an app to maximize, tap and hold to close or to have some sort of menu in which I can choose "close".
I don't want to use the upper space (taskbar) because it's already cluttered by the system icons (that I want to have there). I also don't like that these taskbar apps will also change the functionality of the X/ok button in the right corner.

Switching between apps? Multitasking?

So with all this talk about Hero's ability to multitask I just wanted to ask how people leverage this ability.
Unless I'm missing something if I want to go from a browser session to my playing music app I have to go via the home screen. Similarly if I want to switch from say Google Maps to Google Mail then I need to go via the home screen and the app's icon.
This is no different to how the iPhone handles things except that the apps on the Hero continue to run in the background.
Am I missing some technique for 'TAB'ing' between running apps? Palm's Pre has got the 'cards' and the floaty shortcut menu thing.
To be honest if there is no ability to switch DIRECTLY to a running app from another running app then the whole multitasking thing is a bit pointless (Widgets not withstanding)
I'm new to Android so I'm hoping that I'm just missing something.

I have a G1 but if you hold down the home key you can switch between running apps and I imagine that works as well on the hero.
Also, you can use an app such as "task switcher" or "bar control" found in the android market to switch between applications without having to go through the home screen with a few more options than the home key thing.
HTH

Holding down the home key only displays 6 recently opened apps not ones that are running. Thats what it does on the Hero anyway. It also brings you back to the home screen and out of whatever app you were in when you held it down.
It seems that the Palm Pre is currently the only handset that truly enables multitasking app switching.
I'm somewhat disappointed in the Hero in this regard.

To be fair, the whole concept of multitasking doesn't really address in what way you would be switching from app to app. The major thing is the ability of the phone to keep two, three or ten apps running at the same time, doing their stuff in the background. This is what the iPhone doesn't have and Android does. This is the "competitive edge".
If you install "Advanced Task Manager", it will put itself in the notification drawer for two-click activation. I think I'd enable it, if there was a setting to make all apps behave this way. A sort of "show all running apps in the notification drawer" feature (or the apps I select).
Notice you can switch to all running apps from Advanced Task Manager, but that makes for a total of four clicks, moving from one app to another. It's a bit cumbersome.

Pressing and holding Home should IMHO bring up the recent apps list to allow switching WITHOUT returning Home first.
Maybe a bug or a bad decision UI wise.

@joemax
That would sort me out. Having it behave like that would be really useful.

Commantalb looked promising in the Market - very nice effect when bringing apps list up too
BUT, it cannot be envoked unless you press and hold HOME and then select Commantalb.
If it were a background process that changed the default HOME button behaviour - to launch itself, it would be very cool.

ShiroEd said:
To be honest if there is no ability to switch DIRECTLY to a running app from another running app then the whole multitasking thing is a bit pointless (Widgets not withstanding)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok -here's a real world example.
I use MyTracks when out walking. Since the Hero can multitask, I can start MyTracks recording, then as I'm walking do anything else with my phone that I want and not be artificially limited to a select few apps. This is something that I do regularly.
From my perspective, the lack of a true task switcher is largely immaterial to me, but the fact that the apps are still running, even when not active, is.
Regards,
Dave

joemax said:
Pressing and holding Home should IMHO bring up the recent apps list to allow switching WITHOUT returning Home first.
Maybe a bug or a bad decision UI wise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can happily report that this is exactly what it does with the new ROM. Yipee!!

It does indeed
Posted as such on another thread.
The new firmware is very good IMHO.

ShiroEd said:
I can happily report that this is exactly what it does with the new ROM. Yipee!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GOD ALLMIGHTY IN THE HEAVEN!!! THERE IS STILL A GOD!!!
I didn't know this untill now... and it god damn works... WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
We love you HTC...

Oh damn... a double post... :-(

My experience with CM10 so far XD (and maybe a feature wishlist)

First of all, how awesome is this forum !!!
I consider myself a pretty "upright" forum user as in I usually read the pinned, "read this first", Q&A, and search before I make new posts. Whenever I come upon people who don't do that, I kinda frown to my computer screen but beyond that seems like nothing much can be done? The "Here are the similar threads we found:" section is just pure brilliance.
Sorry about the rambling but I will start with a tiny background story first.
So once upon a time, I got warned thru my gmail that my account apparently was "compromised". After I did some preliminary verification to make sure they are not spams, I decided to try the google "2-step verification" process. And I bet most of you knew what comes next: I keep getting bad password popups. After some hours of frustrating struggle, I fixed my gmail on my phone. But Gtalk would not let me do that 1-time psasword verification thing, and thus my play store won't work. (God really who designed them to be linked!? I did not launch Gtalk once in my life.) Before this happened, I was happy with my stock launcher from Samsung and always have the "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" motto. In the end, I decided it is "certified broken" and I thought this might be a good time to look into upgrading to Jelly Bean.
hm.. i think i'm making this post unnecessary long so I will just cut through the chase. I never thought "stock" stuff would come in any quality. But amazingly in my first day experience of CM10, I am already missing a bunch of features that I used to take for granted. I have no desire to go back to the last launcher (as this in theory should be a step up overall, i believe). So if anyone have tips for me to how to get these features back, I would very much like some pointers! Thanks in advance.
Just some clarification in case this matter: I bought my phone unlocked in Hong Kong. So there is no service-provider-associated stuff that came with the stock launcher I got.
EDIT: I used the 11-02 nightly build of CM10 and its corresponding Gapp package.
1) Contact list
+ Improved: To my amaze, my chinese contacts got sorted by their pronunciation in english! The original stock launcher lumped all of them in the end of the list.
- What I missed: Slide left on names will message the contact and slide right will call them.
# What I tried: Of course my first solution is to search on App store to find a replacement. For some reasons, only two (with good rating) showed up. Did the search got dumber? Or it got smarter but just not doing what I want?
Go Contacts: I think i remember trying it and personally not a big fan of the GO packages. I didn't give it a second try.
Contants+ with a penguin icon: There's a function that lets you "Hold" on a contact to call them. This is very much inferior to the slidings : ( I need recommendations for contact list app.
2) App drawer
+ I like how the widgets got attached to the horizontal pages. Much nicer option than Homescreen-> menu and keep scrolling through the 1x4 area LOL. I love widgets and I have a lot of them. Yes it was painful.
- You can't custom organize the drawer. You can sort by Name or Install Date and that's it. I used to organize them by functionality. I have over 160 apps on my phone. I don't use all of them all the time but I would say I use close to 70% of them at least once in a while. So while my homescreen is really reserved for Widgets, App drawer is where I launch my less-used apps. I really like the "menu -> edit" function in my old launcher. I can create new page, move the apps around and even uninstall the app right there (with a minus sign on the top right corner of the app icon. Yes I didn't use to understand why one would even need uninstaller app from the store). Please don't hate me if you really just rather sort by Name.
# Funny the problem this time is not about how I can't find a suitable app from the play store to do a better job with the drawer. It's that I CAN'T move the original app drawer icon of the launcher from the bottom middle area. I imagine there's probably a way to replace it but it's obviously not a readily available option or I am missing something.
3) Task manager?
+ I think it's just recent launched apps (or apps in the background) now. It's in a way good that it goes beyond the last 6. Not that I find that old limit bothering really.
- Where's my task manager? I'm a bit OCD when it comes to ram usage and processes/services. Oh how i missed the Hold home button -> recent app screen with a task manager button -> Kill all task. LOL It's not much but it shows just enough: total ram usage, running apps, processes, and even storage space. Scratch that, it's actually very much.
# Right now I am resort to Auto Memory Manager with a blue fish icon. It's sufficient. But I can't access it anywhere.
4) Misc. stuff that I missed and would like help to find them. Note: these have nothing to do with the launcher.
- I used to have this "Windy Weather" live wall paper (or what i believed it was called). There were some wind turbines running on a grass field. It reflects the current weather. I scour the store and I couldn't find anything remotely like that besides having to go back to the GO family or you have to pay. I know it's not recommended but I tried titanium back up to restore it from my old system - no luck.
- Ap news widget. The widget was 2x4. It does not refreshes on its own and only do so with a tiny refresh button on the bottom right corner. It cycles through headlines with pictures that fully stretches the whole 2x4 window (beautifully). Can't find it in the store.
- Pinch on the home screen zooms out and gives you a quick view of all 7(now 5, but I can live with that) pages of home screen.
- That's all for now. I think I am still missing a few things I wanted to mention but I forgot what they are at the moment
anyway, sorry about some of the ranting. Here are some features i like:
+ File Manager is awesome.
+ Camera is great as well. And I love the quick browse gallery. It's weird that the actual gallery don't even have to pinch function while they put it here.
+ The pull down menu is clean. I kinda missed the "auto-rotation" quick set. But it's minor. I usually don't allow auto rotation anyway. I also like the setting button in there. But I used it so much I have to put a short cut on the home screen anyway.
+ The animation when you turn off the screen is COOL
+ The lock screen which gives you direct access to the camera is very convenient as well.

There is no sammy like app with swipe unfortunately.(edit :didnt know ex dialer has it sry_
Try apex launcher,nova launcher,adw ex launcher(i prefer this at the moment,pletora of settings)
autorotation ,play with toggle settings in system settings menu.
Don't bother with ram,free ram is wasted ram.
That windmill wallpaper i think go has something similar to it but i dont use it as it is a huge battery hogger .I just use a plain wallpaper.
I suggest u stay playing a bit with the lockscreen/system settings

Hi, i use ex dialer and it have slide right to call and slide left to sms.
Cheers!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

For dialer I recommend Dialer Ex from Play. I also missed the swipe to call & message function from Sammy roms. This app does it(it also has other great features like theme support etc.!)
Sent from my premium potato

1) ExDialer. You will never look back. You can customize it to your taste and it has the features you ask.
2) You need to use another launcher for that, but in my case I got accustomed to search for apps instead of looking for icons. It's easier and can be done from everywhere in your launcher if you click and hold the Menu key. You can also have folders in the Home screen, that's also a nice way to organize. Why I ended doing this? Because other launchers have too many options.
3) You shouldn't care about running apps. You can kill them by pressing Menu key on the Home and selecting manage apps. There, in "Running" you have the apps that are currently working on the background, the memory they use and you can eventually kill them. I'm against that unless you have an issue with an app (like Media Scanner going rogue).
4) GO Weather. You can download it from the web if it's not on the store and side-load it. But I have it available. I can't help you with the news widget as I never found one useful enough to my usage patterns. I don't think the default launcher can show you all Home screens at once.

Thanks for all the help guys. You are quick to reply : )

android manages ram efficiently u dont need to free ram if u still want to have a kill apps button on recent apps its part of aokp and if u want to have it on cm10 try pacman rom