Cause I'm about to return this thing.
Software/OS wise:
- I guess this is an Android "thing", but the phone is constanly launching random programs in the background that I had nothing to do with, and it noticeably slows the phone down. If I see Sense stuttering, I'll run ATK, kill the dozen or so random things thta somehow launched all by themselves, and the phone is snappy again. Today I was typing a text message, and the phone was so slow, it was only registering one character every 5 seconds or so in the message. I went tho ATK, a whole ****load of random stuff was running, I killed it all, text messaging goes back to normal. How can you use an OS that randomly launches apps that degrade system performance? And as far as I can tell there's no way to remove the apps, or keep them from randomly launching on thier own in the background. I thought Android apps running in the background were supposed to not use any resources? But these a re having a noticible impact, clear as day. Sluggish UI, run ATK, kill the apps, silky smooth UI.
- I despise threaded SMS and you can't turn it off.
- I hate the little gray faces in the people list, and you can't turn them off
- Don't like the transparent folder backgrounds, and you can't do anything about it.
Hardware wise:
- The volume rocker is in a terrible positoin and is way to easy to accidentally hit. And apparently you need root to do anything about by remapping the keys
- If the phone is locked, sliding out the keyboard just a little bit wakes up the phone unlocked. andthen when trying to slide the KB back in you end up hitting buttons and hittingthe volume rocker, it's just annoying
- Suffers from the iPhone 4 "holding the phone in your righthand cuts your signal strength by 3 bars" problem
I mean, by themselves, none of these is a huge deal (except the OS slowing itself to a crawl, WTF is up with that?), but add them all up, on tp of the fact I'm paying $30 more a month over my Mogul, and I think this thing is going back to the Sprint store this weekend.
Kinda shocking that 5 years later the latest Androis phone still can;t match my Mogul in terms of useability.
emkorial said:
Cause I'm about to return this thing.
Software/OS wise:
- I guess this is an Android "thing", but the phone is constanly launching random programs in the background that I had nothing to do with, and it noticeably slows the phone down. If I see Sense stuttering, I'll run ATK, kill the dozen or so random things thta somehow launched all by themselves, and the phone is snappy again. Today I was typing a text message, and the phone was so slow, it was only registering one character every 5 seconds or so in the message. I went tho ATK, a whole ****load of random stuff was running, I killed it all, text messaging goes back to normal. How can you use an OS that randomly launches apps that degrade system performance? And as far as I can tell there's no way to remove the apps, or keep them from randomly launching on thier own in the background.
- I despise threaded SMS and you can't turn it off.
- I hate the little gray faces in the people list, and you can't turn them off
- Don't like the transparent folder backgrounds, and you can't do anything about it.
Hardware wise:
- The volume rocker is in a terrible positoin and is way to easy to accidentally hit. And apparently you need root to do anything about by remapping the keys
- If the phone is locked, sliding out the keyboard just a little bit wakes up the phone unlocked. andthen when trying to slide the KB back in you end up hitting buttons and hittingthe volume rocker, it's just annoying
- Suffers from the iPhone 4 "holding the phone in your righthand cuts your signal strength by 3 bars" problem
I mean, by themselves, none of these is a huge deal (except the OS slowing itself to a crawl, WTF is up with that?), but add them all up, on tp of the fact I'm paying $30 more a month over my Mogul, and I think this thing is going back to the Sprint store this weekend.
Kinda shocking that 5 years later the latest Androis phone still can;t match my Mogul in terms of useability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok - a long list of complaints. I'll try to address a few, but I don't think there are any "fixes" for any of these problems.
1. Have not had this happen on this phone. Not sure what is running....what were you doing at the time? What apps do you have installed?
2. You'd prefer a single message? Not really sure I understand the issue with threaded SMS...
3. If you hate the gray faces, you can customize the picture for each person - if you don't feel like doing that, then stop complaining. To assign a picture for your contacts - Contacts - "Joe Smith" - Edit - then click the Camera to the left of the contacts name. You can assign any picture you want.
4. This is something that can be modified once we have perm. root, I believe. Is customizable if you modify LPP or ADW.
5. I see a lot of people complaining about the terrible placement. I've only hit them once when closing the phone, but they are almost in the same position as my Heroc, so it must be a habit from avoiding that rocker.
6. My slider needs to slide until I see the 2nd row of keys before the screen turns on. Not sure if yours is diff. or not, but that seems acceptable to me. Perhaps you want to put a lock code or pin on, and then it won't open to the homescreen, etc.
7. I have noticed that too, but really almost every phone has this to some effect. And I've only watched the signal strength bars in the notifications bar. We should watch the signal strength (dB) to see if there really is a drastic difference. It hasn't negatively impacted my use of the phone (on a call, or surfing the web) so I don't really see it as an issue, but more of a pet peeve.
Sorry to hear you are so turned off by your experience so far. hope some of what I've written is useful.
There is no need for a task killer. Just because you see those apps in the backround doesnt actually mean they are running. Android works different in the fact that those are stored in ram to actually save battery if you were to open those apps. It doesnt use more battery to have those apps stored in your ram. Since froyo was introduced there is no reason to use ATK unless there is an aftermarket app that you know will cause power drain.
There is an app called Volume Locker. It will keep you from being able to change the volume level.
Also, there are different dialers out there that offer different looks if you dont like the sense dialer.
I dont have any issue with my bars going down when holding my phone. The reason that happens to an Iphone is because they built the antenna around the case of the phone. It's not built like that with the shift.
Is this your 1st android phone?
emkorial said:
Cause I'm about to return this thing.
Software/OS wise:
- I guess this is an Android "thing", but the phone is constanly launching random programs in the background that I had nothing to do with, and it noticeably slows the phone down. If I see Sense stuttering, I'll run ATK, kill the dozen or so random things thta somehow launched all by themselves, and the phone is snappy again. Today I was typing a text message, and the phone was so slow, it was only registering one character every 5 seconds or so in the message. I went tho ATK, a whole ****load of random stuff was running, I killed it all, text messaging goes back to normal. How can you use an OS that randomly launches apps that degrade system performance? And as far as I can tell there's no way to remove the apps, or keep them from randomly launching on thier own in the background. I thought Android apps running in the background were supposed to not use any resources? But these a re having a noticible impact, clear as day. Sluggish UI, run ATK, kill the apps, silky smooth UI.
- I despise threaded SMS and you can't turn it off.
- I hate the little gray faces in the people list, and you can't turn them off
- Don't like the transparent folder backgrounds, and you can't do anything about it.
Hardware wise:
- The volume rocker is in a terrible positoin and is way to easy to accidentally hit. And apparently you need root to do anything about by remapping the keys
- If the phone is locked, sliding out the keyboard just a little bit wakes up the phone unlocked. andthen when trying to slide the KB back in you end up hitting buttons and hittingthe volume rocker, it's just annoying
- Suffers from the iPhone 4 "holding the phone in your righthand cuts your signal strength by 3 bars" problem
I mean, by themselves, none of these is a huge deal (except the OS slowing itself to a crawl, WTF is up with that?), but add them all up, on tp of the fact I'm paying $30 more a month over my Mogul, and I think this thing is going back to the Sprint store this weekend.
Kinda shocking that 5 years later the latest Androis phone still can;t match my Mogul in terms of useability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) if your talking about things like FM radio, Sprint navigation, NFL, Sprint TV, etc running in the background. they arent using processor time just small bits of memory they launch in the background after certain triggers like "SMS Recieved" occur and you cant change that without full root, or you can use the temporary root and set it after every boot
2 and 3) i believe you can with handsent or chomp
3) not without full root and nand unlock
as for the rest, havent had any issues with signal either on or off my airave so i cant really replicate your issue, havent had any slowness or slowdowns compared to the painfully buggy and slow mogul for sure.
There is no need for a task killer. Just because you see those apps in the backround doesnt actually mean they are running. Android works different in the fact that those are stored in ram to actually save battery if you were to open those apps. It doesnt use more battery to have those apps stored in your ram. Since froyo was introduced there is no reason to use ATK unless there is an aftermarket app that you know will cause power drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but there is. Performance on the phone is noticably slower, sliuggish screen transitions, today my text messaging was barely working at all the phone was so bogged down. Killing tasks fixes the problem, so obviously those tasks are using some system resources. If they weren't I wouldn't care that they are there, but they are having a absolute impact of the phones performance and responsiveness.
none of the apps running were crazy stuff, there's maybe 2-3 things I installed from the market (Astra and Google Maps being the most frequnt) and the rest is preinstalled stuff, Teleus GPS, Voicemail, Gmail, Amazon MP3, etc. At the low point ATK says I have aorund 30M memory free, clearing the apps out brings it up to 160.
This isn't a "things running in the background bugs me", it's "these things are slowing the phone down.
2. You'd prefer a single message? Not really sure I understand the issue with threaded SMS...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, each messgae should be a message. Unto itself. I know some people like threaded, and that's fine, but why is there no option to turn threaded SMS off? I can specify seperate auto completoin settings for the soft keyboard and hardkeyboard for crying out loud, but I can't choose how I want text messages displayed?
3. If you hate the gray faces, you can customize the picture for each person - if you don't feel like doing that, then stop complaining. To assign a picture for your contacts - Contacts - "Joe Smith" - Edit - then click the Camera to the left of the contacts name. You can assign any picture you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, pardon me while I run off to snap 150 pictures and assign them all. I should be able to customize the view to no show pictures with the contacts, not be forec to have 1 chunk of screen real estate takend up "mystery gray head man"
4. This is something that can be modified once we have perm. root, I believe. Is customizable if you modify LPP or ADW.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats good to know, thanks
Also, there are different dialers out there that offer different looks if you dont like the sense dialer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The dialers fine, it's the contact list.
Is this your 1st android phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, an I knew there' be some getting used to things, but honestly, why am I paying more for a phone I have to get used to (and launches apps to slows down it's performance by itself)? I'l just go back to my Mogul, it works how I want, and is cheaper.
they arent using processor time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SOMETHING getting auto launched is using processor time, absolutely. When the phone is runing so slow I can;t even type a text message, and killing the running apps fixes the problem, then there's something running in the background slowing the phone down massively.
Might want to try killing apps 1 at a time to find out what the rogue process is... generally task managers do more harm than good.
You can also sync facebook photo's with contacts if any of your contacts are on your fb account... if you use facebook that is You can also assign photo's thru your gmail account on the web, that is an easier interface than on the phone.
There is really no getting around getting used to a new phone.. just takes some time to get comfortable with it. Usually a week or 2.
emkorial said:
but there is. Performance on the phone is noticably slower, sliuggish screen transitions, today my text messaging was barely working at all the phone was so bogged down. Killing tasks fixes the problem, so obviously those tasks are using some system resources. If they weren't I wouldn't care that they are there, but they are having a absolute impact of the phones performance and responsiveness.
none of the apps running were crazy stuff, there's maybe 2-3 things I installed from the market (Astra and Google Maps being the most frequnt) and the rest is preinstalled stuff, Teleus GPS, Voicemail, Gmail, Amazon MP3, etc. At the low point ATK says I have aorund 30M memory free, clearing the apps out brings it up to 160.
This isn't a "things running in the background bugs me", it's "these things are slowing the phone down.
SOMETHING getting auto launched is using processor time, absolutely. When the phone is runing so slow I can;t even type a text message, and killing the running apps fixes the problem, then there's something running in the background slowing the phone down massively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to read up on this article. like I said before you only need to use it when you have a bad app. Close 1 at a time until you figure out the lag issue as I havnt had a single issue at all with lag. Why you shouldn't use task killers
When you close apps that always run they have to re-open and that uses CPU. All those apps running (except the one giving you issues) arent using any cpu just stored in your memory and if they need to be ran it actually saves CPU. You obvliously have more apps running than you think because I always have at the very least 80mb free. If you decide to root your phone you can always use auto killer memory optimizer and make it so if you hit a certain point it will close the empty apps etc.
Give it some time. Your obviously and amateur Android user (Please dont take offense) and will learn how they work and love it I promise.
I think you're the first person I've heard about who prefers Windows Mobile 6.X to Android. If that's the case, more power to you. Rock that Mogul and cut your monthly bill down and save some bucks. In this economy, nobody's going to argue with you over that.
Sounds like a lot of your gripes are just getting used to the phone. I've never once accidentally hit the volume rocker but I'm coming from a Sprint Hero too, so maybe that's why. If I cup my hand around the bottom of the phone I can get it to drop a bar or two, but I never hold my phone like that under normal use so it doesn't bother me. And my phone doesn't wake up until the keyboard is halfway out (2nd row of keys). If yours wakes from barely moving, maybe something is wrong with it? Take it back for a new one and see if that fixes the problem.
I haven't noticed any slowdown but again, I'm coming from the Hero and that was just a dog trying to run factory Sense. Some people have reported improved performance after performing a factory reset (though that's typically related to data speeds). Might be worth looking into if you're still having problems.
You need to read up on this article. like I said before you only need to use it when you have a bad app. Close 1 at a time until you figure out the lag issue as I havnt had a single issue at all with lag. Why you shouldn't use task killers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the who idea of android running crap in the background, and if it really worked as advertised and was using no CPU power, I wouldn;t care if there were 100 apps in the background. Whatever is running my my background is causing moderate performance issues most of the time, and occasionally severe performance issues.
Next time it happens I'll try the "kill them 1 at a time" thing and see if I can identify the culprit.
I recognize that most of this is just preference and getting used to the phone, but the performance degradation, the volume rocker, and the signal loss are, to me, enough added up to make the phone just not worth dealing with.
emkorial said:
I understand the who idea of android running crap in the background, and if it really worked as advertised and was using no CPU power, I wouldn;t care if there were 100 apps in the background. Whatever is running my my background is causing moderate performance issues most of the time, and occasionally severe performance issues.
Next time it happens I'll try the "kill them 1 at a time" thing and see if I can identify the culprit.
I recognize that most of this is just preference and getting used to the phone, but the performance degradation, the volume rocker, and the signal loss are, to me, enough added up to make the phone just not worth dealing with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that sucks you find one of the sickest Android phones not up to par. Maybe you should go back to a Windows phone lol
There's always the Jesus phone.
Also, the battery is doubling as a heater. I played angrybirds for about 20 minutes, my battery is reading 106 degrees F, and my hand is starting to sweat.
fifedogg said:
Well that sucks you find one of the sickest Android phones not up to par. Maybe you should go back to a Windows phone lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, my windows phone doesn't launch mystery apps in the background to kill my performance, doesn't have threaded SMS, doesn't have transparent folders, doesn't put little grey heads next to my contacts, doesn't have any buttons that are easily pushed by mistake, doesn't have an overheating battery, doesn't unlock and wake up when the keyboard is opened, and doesn;t lose signal strength when you pick it up. So yeah, it's kinda dominating android on those points.
herbthehammer said:
There's always the Jesus phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Herb, I am quickly starting to love your posts!
Sent from my HTC Evo Shift 4G
Uh, I'd be inclined to think the device is defective or you installed something janky. I have only in a few situations with z4root seen lag on this thing.
I would try a factory reset (hold volume down while powering on the device, choose from menu) and see if that doesn't help. It will wipe the handset so be prepared for that.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Hard reset fixed most of my issues, but the only big one was the battery life anyways. Try that and hopefully it works for you too.
Life is too short to be miserable over a cell phone. Take it back and go back to the Mogul. You clearly like it better and it's cheaper per month. Win-win.
Peace out! Go rock that bad ass mogul til the wheels fall off.
Scent phrum mie fone!
etbrandt2 said:
Uh, I'd be inclined to think the device is defective or you installed something janky. I have only in a few situations with z4root seen lag on this thing.
I would try a factory reset (hold volume down while powering on the device, choose from menu) and see if that doesn't help. It will wipe the handset so be prepared for that.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can you back up your contacts? The Sprint store copied them over from my Mogul for me, so they're all on the phone, no on my gMail account.
I'd like to hold out and see if some of these issues are fixable, because there is a lot I like about the phone too. I love the marketplace, I like the proximity sensor, I like close to 99% of Sense, the screen is gorgeous. Is there hopw that when the phone is rooted I'll be able to fix some of this stuff?
Peace out! Go rock that bad ass mogul til the wheels fall off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also got about a 50/50 split betweenn yes and no on whether or not I can go back to my SERO plan if I want to.
I'll give it a week, hopefully real root will be out by then, see if it helps/give the ability to fix some of this stuff, and if not, back to the Mogul. Much love for the 30 day return window!!
Unfortunately I think to get the contacts copied over to Google you'll need to log into your Google account and manually add them.
The nice thing is though, that once you start flashing ROM's they will automatically sync.
I find it much easier to go in and streamline my contacts on my computer.
Also, if you do not use Facebook or have pics to sync up from FB you can add pictures to your Google contacts and they will sync to the phone.
Related
I've read all post in this board.
but i can't quite understand if lag is really there, if it shows only in certain phone(say carrier,geographical area etcetc) or whatever...
reading random post here and here doesn't give precise informations about this aspect of the hero's user experience.
So i'll make a poll. 4 options of lag-tollerability.
if you vote for the poll, reply describing details of the phone, and a precise description of the lag(where, when, app open...)
ps
I'm italian so sorry for my dodgy english.
I'm going to refrain from voting until I have a better idea of what precisely people mean by lag.
The only slightly slow thing on my G2 has been the messages - sometimes there has been a bit of a delay opening the list of messages, threads etc.
Today, I waited for all of about..........four whole seconds.
I can live with that.
None of the phone's other functions have any appreciable delay or sluggishness.
It's worth noting, however, that I don't use the Farcebook or Twatter widgits, so I don't know if they cause any lag on other poster's phones.
Compare this to my Vario III/Kaiser which seized up on regular occasions.
And if you had the temerity to hit the 'back' button whilst using PIE, well, it was sometimes quicker to do a soft reset than wait for it to get its arse into gear.
That's the feedback i was looking for.
in my opinion you are in the second option of the pool.
Because it's normal that some application need loading time, and that's not lag nor abnormal..
I voted no lag, but that is because of some modifications I made.
Before I go into detail, here is my definition of "lag":
My device lags if an action that should be instant hangs for a fraction (or more) before taking place. An example of such an action is a screen swipe across the homescreen. It should happen as you perform the swipe, if it doesn't, something is lagging and preventing the screen from moving. Waiting for a calendar to load, an inbox to display, logging in to messenger, that sort of stuff is in my view not lagging. They are usualy an action that loads data for display or modification.
I voted for No lag at all, but I cheated because I have removed the entire Sense UI and its widgets from my device using the Rosie remover from Modaco.
The Sense UI is a great piece of work, but every time I used it I had the feeling the Hero just doesnt have the horsepower to drive such a UI. (Which fits my description of lagging)
So, lagging: No, but only after cheating and reverting to the default Homescreen.
I voted totally no, but it's not exactly true. The phone can sometimes lag abit while it's loading up from sleep mode, also the browser can lag depending on which sites you visit. But both of those examples are very minor and I have never had the phone freeze for more than a second.
Sure the phone could be faster, but when I got it, and after hearing about it's laggyness from reviews I was supprised of how fast it was.
I use the default ROM that came with the phone, and taskkiller isn't even installed.
I have a couple of complaints about this device but lag isn't one of them.
Irregular Programming said:
I voted totally no, but it's not exactly true. The phone can sometimes lag abit while it's loading up from sleep mode, also the browser can lag depending on which sites you visit. But both of those examples are very minor and I have never had the phone freeze for more than a second.
Sure the phone could be faster, but when I got it, and after hearing about it's laggyness from reviews I was supprised of how fast it was.
I use the default ROM that came with the phone, and taskkiller isn't even installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I experience the same thing, I've had doubts on buying the new diamond 2 or the hero, since i've had the diamond 1 for a while I decided to try the android thingy.
Compared to that the diamond lives in the stoneages and experiences lot's of lag, my hero sometimes hesitates when coming out of sleep and when I just refreshed the widget's (got new mail ore weather update) it lags a tiny bit, but I don't consider the hero to lag overall so I voted option 2
Typing quickly makes the keyboard lag quite alot which always winds me up.
Scrolling through contacts is very clunky (maybe due to all of them having pictures and facebook status'). But then again dont offer the feature if its crap.
Messages takes too long to load up.
BAM!
Biffert said:
I voted no lag, but that is because of some modifications I made.
Before I go into detail, here is my definition of "lag":
My device lags if an action that should be instant hangs for a fraction (or more) before taking place. An example of such an action is a screen swipe across the homescreen. It should happen as you perform the swipe, if it doesn't, something is lagging and preventing the screen from moving. Waiting for a calendar to load, an inbox to display, logging in to messenger, that sort of stuff is in my view not lagging. They are usualy an action that loads data for display or modification.
I voted for No lag at all, but I cheated because I have removed the entire Sense UI and its widgets from my device using the Rosie remover from Modaco.
The Sense UI is a great piece of work, but every time I used it I had the feeling the Hero just doesnt have the horsepower to drive such a UI. (Which fits my description of lagging)
So, lagging: No, but only after cheating and reverting to the default Homescreen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you keep any aspects of Sense UI intact? I don't know what is tied to it as far as the keyboard and music player?
Totally no for me. I thought about 'More of a slight delay' but that would be less accurate, as for the most part things happen very quickly. The keyboard has been known to miss a beat, and large pdf files take a minimum of time to load up the pages as you scroll, but apart from the expected delay in processing intensive tasks, generally I've been pretty amazed at the speed of the thing to be honest. If I was to say the Hero lagged, I'd have to say my PC lagged aswell. Some things do take time. You're not gonna load up a 5Mb pdf instantaneously on the iPhone either.
To completely remove delay or lag from a phone you'd need processing power far beyond that normally required by the software, which isn't practical.
megaoptimus said:
Did you keep any aspects of Sense UI intact? I don't know what is tied to it as far as the keyboard and music player?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only the visible parts have been removed such as HTC widgets and the homescreen itself. The apps still work great (calendar, people, keyboard, etc). The background services are still present.
Just a bit of delay between switching screens and once in a while I do encounter keystroke lag when typing on eBuddy and RoadSync email - rarely any keyboard lag when texting.
I've been trying out some bits and pieces over the past couple of days and have noticed some serious performance differences.
After my factory reset I didn't set an 'unlock code' with the connect the dots dealy, this has made a massive difference to the performance of my phone. Also, as I'm with Vodafone, I didn't bother setting up Peep, I opted for Twidroid instead. Without peep on a home 'scene' I've got a performance boost too. Twidroid is still running in the background, mind and I don't miss a tweet!
Just thought I'd chime in and see if anyone else had noticed the same.
No lag at all here with anything yet, tried a few different configurations. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones, but looks like the new update will sort out any lag in the next few days?
No lag for me, sometimes you have to wait a second but compare to my last phone (HTC Diamond) it's just black and white.
The diamond was buggy and slow. The hero is fast, I never had a freeze and Android is the best OS I never tried!
This is my first touch screen, and first android phone, so of course im constantly impressed with it. Blows my mind in fact.
That said, I do experience lag problems:
- that require me to use Taskiller to kill everything once in a while if ive been using to many difference apps.
- Keyboard lag when typing fast. More noticeable if apps are piled up in the background
- Sliding between home screens straight after unlocking the screen. Seems like once they screens are 'buffered' they slide smoothly and quickly. FYI i only use 3 home screens with only the clock, dialer, Taskiller and WIFI widget. Rest is plain app shortcut icons.
- Dialer widget. Sliding through favourite contacts is sloooow. Take a second or two to start moving, and as aboive, once I've slid all the way up and down and its 'buffered' its smooth as silk...
I voted for Sometimes is unusable.
First week I used TasKiller and Advanced Task Killer (great app btw!) to kill unnecessary apps running, and I was very pleased with the performance. Next week I uninstalled all third party task killer apps because I read here that Android should be very capable of handling these things. Well in my experience, I doesn't handle this all too well, I think now my device is lagging more than with me using task killers.
Lagging here means screen unresponsive when unlocking, not being able to drag notifications bar to properly view what's there, home screen switching is not so smooth etc. I'm only using Wi-Fi & other ON/OFF switches, medium weather app, couple of calendar widgets and bunch of shortcuts on my home screen. Only FB contacts are integrated, I'm not on Twitter or Flickr.
Just today I started using class 6 microSD card, and for now, everything seems pretty smooth. But I did remove the battery before doing this so it might not be so dramatic change compared to previous experience. Waiting eagerly for the new Hero update!
Only Sense is slow sometimes
Sometimes (once or twice a day) it definately lags. But it seems only a "Sense" issue. When it happens, for example the scrolling is not smooth anymore and the "SMS" Widget stops working properly (you can't flip trough the messages anymore).
But if I enter any Application, the App. itself works smooth and without any lags at all.
Strange thing is: after a couple of minutes (and it doesn't matter if the phone is turned on or not) the lag disappears totally. Maybe theres is some sort of "memory-rearrangement" or "Disk defragmentation" going on that slows the phone down while running.
it's worth noting as well that whether or not there are any "issues" it's always possible to make the phone lag - playing high-bit-rate-music while trying to browse a flash website will do it, for example - but that's only because the phone doesn't artificially limit what you can do
does anybody have a major problem with hero lagging. It is really annoying. I was wondering if rooting the hero can fix this problem. If not do you guys think the 2.1 update will fix it.
What ROM are you running? What apps do you normally have running in the background? Are you using a Task Killer that automatically kills apps on a set time frame? Have you tried doing a factory reset/wipe to see if it makes a difference? And finally, where do you see the lag the most? Is it in a particular application, or are you judging the "lagginess" based on moving back and forth from your home screens in SenseUI?
Answering ALL of these questions will help us understand what you're seeing a little better. Your question is a little vague, and your answers will probably help you get some more support from folks on here.
Thanks!
My phone was laggy too. I rooted it and put the fresh rom on it and I saw a big improvement in overall performance. Still not as fast as my old iphone 3gs, but I would never go back. I also don't use task manager anymore. It always runs in the background and drains your battery faster.
I was having the same issue.. and I narrowed it down to Handcent(SMS) of all things..
phone was fast until I installed it.. then it ran like a dog.... then I uninstalled handcent and speed it actually usable now..
I would like to see confirmation of this from others as well..
tyrnight said:
I was having the same issue.. and I narrowed it down to Handcent(SMS) of all things..
phone was fast until I installed it.. then it ran like a dog.... then I uninstalled handcent and speed it actually usable now..
I would like to see confirmation of this from others as well..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah handcent killed me, made the phone not just a dog, but a wounded dog born with 2 legs. 10x worse than the stock hero app, which is bad.
I'm running handcent, but I haven't noticed any specific slowdowns from it. It can take a while to load the main handcent screen when you have lots and lots of texts in there, but I usually clear them out when I get over 100 or so anyway.
Check to see that you have the most recent version of Handcent. I think I read that there was a performance bug related to their special "with Christmas animations" holiday release (that has since been fixed).
Also, remember to clear the boot-cache directory and reboot after upgrading apps ('rm -r /data/boot-cache/*'; reboot). The Hero has problems with caching apps after upgrades (so you aren't actually running the upgrade version). I have no idea if this was fixed in the newer ROMS. I'm running Fresh and still do it, as it only takes a sec (if you have the android-sdk and root set up).
Turning off HandCent popup notifications resulted in a substantial performance increase for me. Which is good, as I really like the features HC adds (such as voice-to-text).
I had the latest version and it was always cleared out sms wise. and I never used popup notifications.. they were annoying.. and I just got a fresh replacement of the Hero (warrantee) and its still on stock rom and Handcent still killed it.. in one day..
i have not rooted, pure stock phone. only app i think runs in background is email and loopt
I notice the lag from everything to sense UI to the clock taking 2-3 secs to update to my contacts scrolling, to text message lag, to calling even lags. like anything and everything can lag.
It all has to do with this bug in Android 1.5:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3453
I'm running AOSP 1.6 on my Hero right now and it is ridiculously fast.
So yes, I think that the 2.1 update (which hopefully will come out soon) is going to fix these issues for us.
on your location settings turn off "network location" then reboot..your lag will be gone...and make sure you have a task manager installed too and end your apps so they take over your processor
Task managers are a waste of time.
Sawawa said:
Task managers are a waste of time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with this statement.
Sawawa said:
It all has to do with this bug in Android 1.5:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3453
I'm running AOSP 1.6 on my Hero right now and it is ridiculously fast.
So yes, I think that the 2.1 update (which hopefully will come out soon) is going to fix these issues for us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is very true. I was running the 2.1 build from here the last few days (thought I had to revert due to missing some texts and voicemail) and it's much speedier. It uses the HTC keyboard, but it's much faster in its response, almost instantaneous. The location bug really does suck up a lot of CPU time.
Also, maybe its just me, but I think it's important to remember the kind of device we're using, the hardware involved, and what you're asking it to do. It's not like you're walking around with a quad core CPU and 4GB of RAM in your pocket, but it seems a lot of people think it should respond as if that's what it has. It's a phone, yes, and it should be able to do phone stuff quickly if possible, but look at all it can and is doing. If you need absolute speed, get a dumb phone that can't browse the web, play games, or do just about anything. It'll run just fine.
handcent never made my phone lag. The only thing that made my phone lag was HTC's battery widget. Damn thing slowed my phone down so I uninstalled it and phone is running back fast again. I still use task manager because I do notice once to many apps are open it lags. Don't care what anyone says it happens on my phone. I do have a lot of applications on ignore though.
Try disabling Location services.
thef0x said:
I agree with this statement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to wholeheartedly disagree with this statement, until I read a kickass article explaining how Android actively manages memory.
Now, I also agree with this statement 100%. I don't even use my paid task manager app anymore. :/
Hi everyone. I just purchased my Droid X last week, and I'm having some migrating pains coming from Windows Mobile 6.5 (HTC Touch Pro 2, Mighty ROM) over to Android. I'm wondering if the fine folks here at XDA can help me ease into the Android OS a little easier.
Here are the things I miss most about WinMo, maybe you can tell me some viable alternatives.
1) The Dialer. - Skip the next 3 paragraphs if you're familiar with HTC Sense on WinMo.
The dialer absolutely sucks compared to the TP2. Having to click different tabs juts annoys me. In the TP2, the dialer and recent calls were displayed in a single window, so if I wanted to dial Steve, I had 2 ways of doing it.
The first way was to dial 7(S), 8(T). The phone would recognize I am spelling out Steve, and list everyone who fits the ST criteria sorted by most recently called. The more I spelled out his name, the narrower the results got.
The second method was to dial his number. Pretend Steve's number is (123) 456-7890. If I dialed 123, it would sort all contacts with numbers who matched the area code, and it would narrow the results as I typed more of his phone number.
I really hate having to tap between Contacts (there is a contacts soft button next to the dialer anyway), I would just click that if I wanted to from the beginning.
Are there any dialers out there closer to the HTC Dialer?
2) Contacts.
There has to be a better contact manager. Not being able to quickly tap a letter to get to contacts is really dumb.
3) Ninja Applications.
Why do I keep seeing applications running that I never started when I load Advance Task Killer. It's really annoying when I load up an App, and go to close it, and see Skype and CityID running when I never launched either of them. I'm almost afraid to set up AIM on my phone at this point.
4) GPS.
If I keep my GPS on, my battery gets killed. With my TP2, it would only use the GPS when it needed it, so for weather updates, and Google Maps, otherwise it stayed off (or was in a suspend state). I turned the GPS on my first day and had 0 battery by around 2 (left the house at 8). Is there any way to set the GPS to only be used, as needed?
5) APPLICATIONS EVERYWHERE.
Is there anyway to sort these into folders? Also, is there anyway to add an X to the application so I can close it when I'm done with it rather than having to launch an App just to close the App I just used?
I really liked the Sense way of doing it, where I had an X in the Application, and a drop down on the home screen that would list the open Apps so I could close them 1 at a time.
6) MotoBlur.
Ugh, I really hate this UI. Has anyone had any experience with SenseX?
7) Custom Roms.
I've seen a handful of Custom ROMs, and I'm planning on putting one on when I have some time next week. I need a good way to backup contacts, after I just spent an hour linking everyone, but I'd like to know if there is a decent Apples to Apples comparison of the ROMs. They don't seem to be outlines as detailed as I'm used to.
On this topic, are there any problems setting up things like MMS once you install a Custom ROM? It was a nightmare on the TP2, but those ROMs were also made for multiple carriers, which isn't a problem with this phone, so I imagine it shouldn't be an issue.
----------------------------------
Thank you for taking the time to read this wall of text.
Other than the 7 things listed, I love the phone. Finding MortPlayer for Droid made my day. I'm looking forward to unlocking it's true potential, and I hope my list isn't a bunch of things I'm just going to have to adjust to.
Thank you again, have a great day.
EDIT:
Also, it's really annoying that every time I connect my phone to my PC, it launches a Verizon web site. Is there anyway to disable this?
Ok... I will take a stab at this.
FIRST, You DO NOT have to settle for the apps that come preinstalled on your phone! Just had to clear that up... Ok, here we go:
Check an app called "Dialer One" and see if that fits your needs... I haven't used it in a while... but heard it still a great replacement for the stock dialer.
Searching for a better Contact Manager is on my To-Do list.. hope someone comes in and help out a little more with that one
Don't worry about the "ninja" apps TOO much. Android Froyo has an amazing task manager and even though you SEE the apps as "running applications", they are not really RUNNING. They are more like... in a queue.. so they are ready for whenever you come back to them....but you still have to watch what the apps are doing. Some do not play nicely and hog memory. I'll link a good post here in a minute explaining that a little better.
There is a widget that can help you out here.. it's called "Power Control" put that bad boy on your homescreen and the option to turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, gps, etc is at your fingertips (for even more controls... check out "Extended Controls" in the market. It cost like $1 and some change)
I'm... not really following this one. For one.. you CAN use folders on your homescreen and put whatever your heart desires in them.. and label it accordingly. I'm not sure what you mean by the "X" in the app
SenseX?? What is that?? Anyway.. as you will find out soon, 99% of the Droid X community despise MotoBlur!! You can use a different Home Launcher and not use Blur. Two of the major Home Launcher replacements are Adw.launcher & LauncherPro... which one is better is a whole different story. They are both great and only YOU can choose which one is best. There many threads comparing them and they run neck to neck mostly. I'm on LauncherPro personally
Custom Roms?? Eh.. I personally do my own developments and theming on my phone and do not use them... there not really all what they cracked up to be because whatever they have on them... I can do myself. So I'm not much of an help on that one... Somebody else maybe will chime in.
P.S-To fix the Verizon thing, go to the "M" in the taskbar at the bottom of your screen by the clock on your PC and right click it.. there should be an option saying to tell it to NOT send you to the Verizon site when you connect your phone. I don't know the EXACT wording of the option menu.. I'm on a mac
Thank you for your reply.
I will check out the Dialer. Thank you very much.
Darn!
A friend of mine told me that, but it's hard for me to not be a bit OCD about background Applications. I've been a Windows user most of my life, and coming from WinMo, background apps really kill performance.
More than anything, my issue is with things like Skype loading when I do not want to be signed in. I want auto-login when I launch the Application, but I don't want the application loading when it feels like it, and me getting a random IM or call from someone when I didn't even tell it to log in.
It also bothers me that Amazon MP3, something I've never even loaded, has turned itself on. It makes me feel like I don't have control over my phone.
I do have a widget that lets me turn these things on and off, I was just hoping for a way to set it up so that the GPS is "pinged" and only used as needed, and turned back off. My TP2 did this, and was a great battery saver. Having to turn the GPS on and off just to get a weather update based on location is a bit annoying.
I didn't mean on the home-screen, I meant in the application list. So when I hit the application list, I can sort them by "Games", "Google", etc.
For the "X", what I mean is in reference to closing an App. In WinMo, the top right of the screen had an X, and if I touched that X, the app would close. Now, once I exit the App, I need to use an application killer to close said App.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=764840
Looks like Sense for the Droid X. In Beta now, so I'm waiting for a stable release.
Really, it's just to get rid of bloatware and take advantage of some performance optimizations that have been made.
A couple of other things that have come up.
I need a better keyboard. One with arrows so I can navigate text. Touching isn't precise enough, and I don't have a stylus with this phone. Today I voiced a text message, and I went to correct an error, but I couldn't get the curse to go in the exact spot I needed it to go into. My old OSK had arrow soft-keys I could tap to navigate with.
Also, I notice when I pull my phone out of the leather pouch I have, when I hit the power button it comes up in landscape, and the accelerometer doesn't pick up on the turn. I need to turn the screen off and turn it back on.
Finally, I'm having extender issues, but I think I need to call VZW for that. When leaving my house, I can't reconnect to Data without a power-cycle.
Thank you for the reply.
my .02
3. Break yourself from the taskiller need. If you have programs allways running that you dont need, ie skype or city id. Root and delete those SOB's. you can look around and there are plenty of articles of why not to use them. Android is a linux based os. Linux is far supirior to Win in memeory management. You dont need task killers.
4. if your gps is turned on its not always running. It only runs when needed. Is by chance your wifi on? that will run all the time by searching for access points. if not you might have maps running, make sure to always back out of maps and not just hit home. That way it closes and doesnt just run in background. (actually goes for most apps)
5 organization- you cant sort the app drawer, you can hide apps (just the icons) using launcher pro, not sure if ADW has that option. Useing folders or the app "app manager" is your best bet
extra. swype has arrows. swype from the swype icon to abc and it will bring up a new keyboard.
I came from winmo- so I know all about your "X" pains. But I say forget about a task killer or even killing tasks (except maybe maps and navigation). I did a little reading about pros and cons and decided to try the "no task killer" approach. I haven't had any problems. the task killer is a pain anyways. you can kill apps all day long and there are a bunch of them that are just going to repopulate themselves in like 5 minutes. I just said, "fegetaboutit". My phone runs great.
if you open the dialer and are on the contacts tab just long press the menu button (the physical button) and your keyboard will pop up. start typing and contacts will appear.
I like "Zeam Launcher". There is a thread here on XDA. I have Launcher Pro+ -but actually liked Zeam so much I use it. Just different preferences though.
that's all i got for now.
Thank you for your replies.
I will try to be a bit less OCD regarding my tasks. I did kill a couple of services of applications that kept starting, like Skype.
I'll check out those launchers and see if I like them better.
Any good stock widgets?
EDIT:
So I just tried to check my location on Google Maps with GPS turned off, and it says I need to turn it on.
How do I set it up to use the GPS as needed?
I leave location services on (GPS)
My theory is that applications will only enable GPS when they need them, so if you have a application running that wants GPS, it will use it.
The GPS icon appears in the notification bar when I'm using something that is using GPS, so I assume its only actually on when this icon is present. Leave it on in settings just makes is available.
Any widget or application that has a setting for manual location (Weather, IMDB) I use it, and disable GPS location, to keep GPS from running all of the time.
To exit an app you are using, either hit the back button or the home button.
If you are worried about "ninja" apps using cpu and memory, you can try a minfree adjustment application such as AutoKiller Memory Optimizer. It fine tunes android's inner memory manager to be a bit more aggressive in closing applications.
I use another Rom (rubiX, link in sig) that already has minfree adjusted (according to the author) and it does help in keeping the X smooth. It also removes all (well most) of Blur and default installed apps as well, so you start with a very clean X.
The default home screen (blur) is crap. I would also suggest replacing it with LauncherPro or ADW
For removing the pre-installed applications. Follow this guide
http://www.droidxforums.com/forum/d...ta-3-ways-super-easy-safe-safe-easy-free.html
Some apps in /system/app/ are not named what they are
(IE. mynet.apk = 3g Hotspot)
For a keyboard anywhere, you can hold the menu button, and it will pop up.
Swype is really a few keyboards. Swype from the icon to the SYM button, it will give you the edit panel (arrows, home, end, copy, paste, etc...) press the ABC button to go back.
Swype from the icon to the f key, it will turn into a number pad. Press the ABC button to go back to the normal keyboard.
Run the tutorial on Swype too, it will give you some very nice pointers on it's use. I used Swype on windows mobile and I found out a few things about Swype I never knew.
Also, as for touching where your cursor is in a text field, if you press and hold, and magnifying bubble will pop up. This makes moving the cursor easier
Did you find a dialer yet? I saw these posted and thought about this thread...
http://www.appbrain.com/app/kz.mek.DialerOne
http://www.appbrain.com/app/acontacts/kz.mek.aContacts
Haven't had a chance to try them yet.
bad4u6669 said:
.... swype has arrows. swype from the swype icon to abc and it will bring up a new keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG. thanks. been loving swype but that has been driving me nuts. Thanks for the info.
Thank you for the replies.
One of the things I liked about my TP2, is I could leave location services on, and it used very little battery.
I guess Weather Bug just SUCKS battery out like crazy. I turned on the GPS last night for something, and decided to see how well it did with battery today. It turns out that some grocery shopping app I wanted to try was sucking my GPS dry (no idea why)... yet another "ninja app" that just started up because it felt like it (this kind of **** really makes me , programs should only start up when I tell them to, not when a component of my phone turns on).
I live in an apartment that has really bad signal (I actually have a Network Extender), so that might be my GPS constantly trying to update when I'm at home killing my battery.
WeatherBug is set to update every hour, so I'm going to see what happens tomorrow with the GPS turned on. It would be nice if I could just set it and forget it, not need to turn it off every time I come home.
Thank you for the contact program, I might check it out. I've been pretty content since I got DialerOne and found out I can get the keyboard up by holding the options.
I tried LauncherPro, and I LOVED it at first, and my phones performance was fantastic!
Then I found out it charges me to resize widgets... WTF is that crap?
I'm going to try some other launchers and see what happens. I'm getting the hang of it, but I still do not like things starting up on their own. Regardless of memory management, my phone should not just decide to boot up programs on it's own.
the phone only does what the app or the user tells it to do. If theirs an app that you don't like, delete it.
And complaining that launcher pro charges for every thing it offers is ridiculous. Every thing it offers for free already ( 7 home screens, 10 rows and columns, unreal speed improvement, etc. ) then to get the extras its less than most people throw away on a daily basis. Where as this three dollars its money that pays off on a daily basis
Adw and lp should be paid apps from the start for all they offer.
You have 3 options, write your own program, use the stock launcher, find a free one.
-end rant
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
I usually leave my location setting on "Use Wireless Networks" and don't bother with GPS other than for maps and navigation. Works fine for all of my other apps that need a location (e.g., weather).
There are apps out there that can turn GPS on and off automatically when you run a particular app, such as Tasker (which can do a whole host of things, but that is one one of them). Tasker is a paid app, but there might be something free out there that does something similar.
Also, I agree with the previous poster re: Launcher Pro. It's really a fantastic home launcher and well worth a few bucks to support the developer. The LP Plus widgets are also a lot better than any of the Blur widgets.
In the end, I probably will buy it, but I'm going to play around with some of the free ones first.
Tasker sounds like it might be worth it for that feature alone (being able to turn the GPS on and off at will). I'm just surprised a feature like this wasn't built in to begin with, considering WinMo has had it for years.
On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good media player? I'm going to be flying soon and want to test the battery out on Airplane mode while watching a movie from the SD card. I need something that can decode a variety of formats, mostly XviD for stuff like digital movie copies and TV shows.
EtherBoo said:
In the end, I probably will buy it, but I'm going to play around with some of the free ones first.
Tasker sounds like it might be worth it for that feature alone (being able to turn the GPS on and off at will). I'm just surprised a feature like this wasn't built in to begin with, considering WinMo has had it for years.
On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good media player? I'm going to be flying soon and want to test the battery out on Airplane mode while watching a movie from the SD card. I need something that can decode a variety of formats, mostly XviD for stuff like digital movie copies and TV shows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to look into RockPlayer. That's the only one I found so far that decodes ALMOST anything on the spot.
The "Ninja Applications" are running because Android is a true multi tasking OS.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
I hope necromancy isn't frowned upon on this board, so my apologies if it is.
I found a new problem because I had the nerve to attempt to update a contact photo after Facebook had saved it's picture to it.
This is especially frustrating because I'm going to want to override a lot of these photos very soon.
Apparently, updating the photo updates the Google Contact photo, but the phone only displays the Facebook photo. This is a bug confirmed by Moto that will be fixed in a future update.
This leaves me with 2 options.
De-Sync FB, which I'm not thrilled about only because I like getting the most recent status update prior to receiving a call, and There is a lot of info that FB fills in for me.
Copy down all the FB info, and fill it in manually. With Google Contacts not being the best contact manager (I'm very OCD about uniformity in the way things are formatted), I really don't want to do this.
So I figure I need a new contact manager. I tried AContacts, and it crashed every time I tried to edit a contact.
I would love something like the HTC one that comes with WinMo, or maybe even the iPhone one.
I would be willing to pay for this.
P.S.
I'm now rooted and running a custom ROM (zapX I think it's called). I'm loving my phone much more now. My battery life has skyrocketed, and my performance is amazing now. Very iPhone smooth (one thing I was always jealous of, and I hate the iPhone).
Im new to android i was using iphone before i got Galaxy S with gingerbread and i've noticed that if i don't use an app for a while, it gets automatically killed. For example i quit browser, or the music player, or basically any other app using the home button. Than if after a few minutes i try to return to them, but they have to load up again. This can get annoying, since almost every time i open a link in browser to view my twitter feed/resume music playback after a while/open a book/etc. the app has to load up everytime.this never happend on iOS i could open many and go back to them will be right where left of but why dosent this happen on my galaxy s? is something wrong with my phone or is just android.
+1
seems to me Android hasn't fully matured yet
But when I take my former 3GS in my hands, now my wife's, it feels sluggish and I'm missing things.
i was using 3gs before this and honestly even now using 3gs such amazing experience compared to android no lag or thing like that,but is there any mod or app that can fix the multitasking issues? evertime i close the browser to go play a song or watever n open the browser again it has to load the page all over again just like pretty mch all of the apps
There is nothing wrong with your phone or android. You said that you leave the phone for a while and then go back and you had to open the apps up again and they had to re-load. This is normal because when you press HOME to get out of them, they are kept in the memory for a short amount of time before your phone kills them off as it thinks you're not using them anymore.
If you were using say.. APP1 and then press the home button to go back to your homescreen and launch APP2, then press the home button again to go back to APP1, everything will still be the same.
But if you don't go back to APP1 for a long time, the OS kills it off to free up resources and stop background apps from eating your battery.
iOS doesn't have true multitasking, it simply freezes the current state of the app and you can pick it up again when you switch back to it. For example, in Android you can press the home button to switch away from MSN messenger, but it will still be running, you can still receive messages etc. However on iOS, if you press the home button to switch away from MSN messenger, it will momentarily sign you out and freeze the app state and then re-sign you back in when you go back to it.
I hope that helps
I have often heard this argument of "Android is true multitasking" vs "iPhone only freezes the current state of the app" and (even as a veteran Android user) I think iPhone's solution works better in practical terms.
Most of the time, with mobile computing, users switch between apps but don't really care if they are actually still "running" in the background or not - they just don't want to have to keep reloading applications from scratch everytime. For this, iOS is perfect as it almost seamlessly resumes an application the user last accessed several hours before exactly where they were at that time.
Because Android has to keep the whole application in memory, it quickly runs out (even with 512mb RAM) and then has to decide what application it will close. If switching between games (which often require >50mb each) then the memory manager will likely close game 1 as soon as I load game 2.
To add to this, with push notifications, applications don't really need to run all the time in the background (with regard to the example of MSN messenger above). The application can "freeze", allow push notifications to keep an eye out for incoming messages, then resume when I want to access it - perfect!
Of course, with the advent of 1gb phones (such as SGS II), perhaps there is an argument to be had for Android multitasking as there will be enough free memory to keep 10+ applications running at once. Who knows!
surrealjam said:
I have often heard this argument of "Android is true multitasking" vs "iPhone only freezes the current state of the app" and (even as a veteran Android user) I think iPhone's solution works better in practical terms.
Most of the time, with mobile computing, users switch between apps but don't really care if they are actually still "running" in the background or not - they just don't want to have to keep reloading applications from scratch everytime. For this, iOS is perfect as it almost seamlessly resumes an application the user last accessed several hours before exactly where they were at that time.
Because Android has to keep the whole application in memory, it quickly runs out (even with 512mb RAM) and then has to decide what application it will close. If switching between games (which often require >50mb each) then the memory manager will likely close game 1 as soon as I load game 2.
To add to this, with push notifications, applications don't really need to run all the time in the background (with regard to the example of MSN messenger above). The application can "freeze", allow push notifications to keep an eye out for incoming messages, then resume when I want to access it - perfect!
Of course, with the advent of 1gb phones (such as SGS II), perhaps there is an argument to be had for Android multitasking as there will be enough free memory to keep 10+ applications running at once. Who knows!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never having used IOS can you tell me that if I am visiting friends and am talking to them in a call can I then pull up their contact details and use it to switch to navigation to get me there in the middle of which I get a SMS and read it without coming out of the call or losing my place in navigation?
Tehpriest said:
Never having used IOS can you tell me that if I am visiting friends and am talking to them in a call can I then pull up their contact details and use it to switch to navigation to get me there in the middle of which I get a SMS and read it without coming out of the call or losing my place in navigation?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lolz.
But going back to the previous post about iphones being more practical, I do agree with this point. Most users of iphones are not really tech savvy and just want a phone that works. No tweaking no technical mumbo jumbo, this is where the iphone shines. This "freezing" and its ability to bring the app back to the user seamlessly does appear to more desireable than androids "true" multitasking.
Heres hoping that future generations of android phones really provide a good multitasking experience thats both functional and practical
My single biggest gripe with the Android OS is the way it closes backgrounded applications without the user's permission, unrelated to available memory but rather amount of time the app is left idle. I can be editing a Word document in QuickOffice or Docs-to-Go, then get an incoming call, answer it and talk for ten minutes, only to find my Office application has been closed and all my changes have been lost.
I am wondering if perhaps by some small miracle, the Atrix has been programmed differently from other Android devices NOT to do this, because of its intended function as a desktop substitute via the Webtop environment. No one ever wants their desktop/laptop computer shutting down applications because they left to grab a coffee for ten minutes, so I'm hoping maybe the Moto devs took this into account and somehow turned off the "auto close backgrounded apps if left idle for X minutes" functionality of Android.
It's only a slim hope I'm holding out regarding this, but maybe someone can answer definitively one way or the other.. anyone know for sure?
No, it's still the same operating system. The Webtop is completely separate from Android.
Nope. I'm slightly annoyed every time adw ex is background killed just because I was reading my email, and it has to completely reload.
Not only that, but gingerbread took away the option to keep the launcher persistent
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
If your app doesn't restore the previous state on restart, then the app developer is to blame, not android. Just saying
turl1 said:
If your app doesn't restore the previous state on restart, then the app developer is to blame, not android. Just saying
Click to expand...
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Sorry, but Motorola's responsible for any killing of webtop. X isn't designed to be magically killed the way that Android kills things.
It is worth pointing out this is less of an issue on Atrix given the 1Gb of RAM... but yes, this is still Android and as such the memory management is ultimately the same.
I have had cases on the Atrix where I am playing Angry Birds, get distracted and browse the web, forget I was playing the game... then return to the game 1 hour later to find it's still running as I left it. This certainly would NOT have happened on my Galaxy S!
Sogarth said:
Sorry, but Motorola's responsible for any killing of webtop. X isn't designed to be magically killed the way that Android kills things.
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We were talking about android apps though
turl1 said:
If your app doesn't restore the previous state on restart, then the app developer is to blame, not android. Just saying
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Most apps do restore previous state.
They also take a while to do so.
On the other hand, my biggest gripe is resolved: cm7 has an built in option under he performance setting to keep the launcher persistant, so I don't really care anymore
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From my understanding of Android programming, it only closes Background tasks automatically, all apps are started as Background tasks by default, it's up to the app to tell Android that it's a Foreground app, and it can't be closed automatically.
Hmm, I've used QuickOffice and left it alone for a while (got distracted, went on the internet, checked emails, turned off the screen, etc) and it was still all there when I came back. Does it happen to you frequently?
As a test I just made a new word document and typed some random stuff into it. I'll leave it alone for a day in the background and see if it's still there tomorrow...
Restoring to previous state works for some types of apps, but for others it's not a viable solution. For example streaming radio applications or chat programs like eBuddy, Fring, Skype etc. These need to be left running constantly in the background, not just restored to where they left off, because otherwise you're not available to be contacted through them while they're closed/offline. Some of those apps use the workaround of an ongoing notification to avoid being shut down, but that is really just a trick that developers shouldn't have to resort to.
I find that both QuickOffice and Documents-To-Go get shut down constantly when left idle in the background, even with nothing else running or using memory, and after only ten minutes or so of idle time. And I always lose all unsaved changes - the previous state is never restored.
What seems to happen is this: I can leave a document in the background for hours, and then come back to it okay, IF I don't do anything else in between. But if before returning to the open document, I launch ANY other app first, even a very small footprint one like a notepad, THAT is when the previously backgrounded apps like QuickOffice get closed by Android. It seems that Android's auto-close-after-idle activity is triggered by the next time the user launches something else. That's when the check is done and idle apps get shut down.
There are free app-switching utilities like AltTabApps and Smart Taskbar which allow you to easily see which windowed apps/tasks are still currently running. Using these I have tested and confirmed that I can actually leave quite a few things running idle in the background for a full day, and every time I keep checking, they are all still there and open, waiting to be switched back to. But then as soon as I open a new small app, and all those others have been sitting there idle and backgrounded for long enough, *POOF*, they all get closed instananeously the moment the new app is opened.
And like I said it's not related to memory, because I can see how much is free, and the app I end up opening is very small as well.
So if you're going to test, don't just leave it for a day and then try to come back to it. Before you go back to it, open something else that ISN'T already running (such as email or text messaging which are always quietly open already).. choose a brand new app to open and then try to go back to your Quickoffice document. On the three or four Android 2.2 devices on which I have tried this, I have never, ever been able to return to a document without losing all changes.
Sorry for the long message.. just important to point out the mechanism at work so as to avoid a false positive result, since there are cases when you can return to documents when you haven't opened anything else new in between.
Ok, I see what you mean now. Tried it the way you said and left it for a good while and it did indeed lose the stuff I had typed. I can see how that would get frustrating...
Have you tried using a task manager and telling it to keep QuickOffice alive (i.e. for the system to never kill it)? Although this will probably eat your battery, so I guess only do this if you really need it. I doubt there's a way to turn the functionality off entirely, as it's a pretty core part of making multi-tasking work on low power consumption devices.
Even with my devices rooted, no task manager I have ever seen or tried has successfully been able to override the core Android system to keep-alive any app that I've specified. These utilities seem only to be able to affect their OWN task-closing habits or aggressiveness levels, but not to prevent the OS from doing its own thing separate from their internal settings.
Not to get side-tracked into an OS comparison, but I have an HTC Leo HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5, and it is able to keep a dozen applications open in the background indefinitely, without ever slowing down or draining the battery. I can leave Word Mobile, Coreplayer, Internet Explorer, Opera Mobile, Windows Messenger, and a large handful of others all open and still get a strong couple of days out of the battery. Surely if an older OS like WinMo (and even WebOS and Symbian) can do this, Android should be capable of it too. For this very reason unfortunately, I have had to stick to Android 2.1 or WM devices as I need my apps to stay open until I decide to close them. I am always hoping though that a new 2.3 or 2.4 device will come along that allows disabling of this functionality by the user.
paleozord said:
Even with my devices rooted, no task manager I have ever seen or tried has successfully been able to override the core Android system to keep-alive any app that I've specified. These utilities seem only to be able to affect their OWN task-closing habits or aggressiveness levels, but not to prevent the OS from doing its own thing separate from their internal settings.
Not to get side-tracked into an OS comparison, but I have an HTC Leo HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5, and it is able to keep a dozen applications open in the background indefinitely, without ever slowing down or draining the battery. I can leave Word Mobile, Coreplayer, Internet Explorer, Opera Mobile, Windows Messenger, and a large handful of others all open and still get a strong couple of days out of the battery. Surely if an older OS like WinMo (and even WebOS and Symbian) can do this, Android should be capable of it too. For this very reason unfortunately, I have had to stick to Android 2.1 or WM devices as I need my apps to stay open until I decide to close them. I am always hoping though that a new 2.3 or 2.4 device will come along that allows disabling of this functionality by the user.
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The keep persitant value was depreciated from android alltogether in 2.3. However, if cm7 can be set to keep alive the launcher and the messenger app, then it stands to say there is still a way around this.
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