Database Users

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... :-(

any guesses to Google's next OS release?

I'm not rooted, I really didn't feel like tinkering with the phone right now, but I'm kind of getting tired of Launcher2's performance and behavior since the last OTA... aside from the obvious bugs (forgetting which home screen you are on), quite often it takes FOREVER to "redraw" when I exit an app and it force closes 5-6 times a week.
Any prospects of them releasing a bug-fix patch? I really don't have time to play around with loading roms and then maintaining my own update schedule.
--Daniel

May 19.
----

Like there aren't a gazillion other threads about Android 2.2 and Froyo already on this forum?

aside from the obvious bugs (forgetting which home screen you are on)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not a bug, it was changed on purpose in 2.1 to go the the 3rd homescreen when you press the home button. It does seem like a weird idea at first but it's actually increased my navigation speed considerably. Before I would forget which screen I was on sometimes and I would have to pause and check. Now I know which one it's going to be and I know instantly which was to swipe to get where I want to go. I think it was a good choice.

anstosa said:
That's not a bug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it is. I suggest you check again.
From any home screen other than the 3rd one you mention, hit the apps softkey to open apps. Now press either of the home screen buttons, soft or hard and you will (as you say) get returned to home screen 3 or the middle one. This is fine and good. BUT take a look at the mini icons at the bottom of the screen.
They are supposed to show
** ** to indicate you are on screen 3.
However they will incorrectly show the screen you were on before heading off to the apps screen and not the one you are on now.
****
* ***
*** *
****
That IS the home screen bug.

Yeah, that and the occasional battery pulls I have to do to reset a frozen phone and the bluetooth random reboots are getting bothersome.

logger said:
Yes it is. I suggest you check again.
From any home screen other than the 3rd one you mention, hit the apps softkey to open apps. Now press either of the home screen buttons, soft or hard and you will (as you say) get returned to home screen 3 or the middle one. This is fine and good. BUT take a look at the mini icons at the bottom of the screen.
They are supposed to show
** ** to indicate you are on screen 3.
However they will incorrectly show the screen you were on before heading off to the apps screen and not the one you are on now.
****
* ***
*** *
****
That IS the home screen bug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that would be a bug. I haven't heard of anyone else with this problem nor can I replicate it myself.

I've heard of many people with that bug. I have it also. Only on the stock ROM. The background is also offset to where it would be if you were on the previous screen (the one the dots indicate), as opposed to being centered when on the middle screen.

anstosa said:
Yes that would be a bug. I haven't heard of anyone else with this problem nor can I replicate it myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had that issue before I rooted and installed Enom's ROM, now I rely on noticing how far left/right my wallpaper is shifted to tell which screen I'm on, as I have the phone/browser buttons in the bottom corners instead of the dots.

List of bugs found in Froyo, please add them here

Please put all the bugs you have found in Froyo in this thread and eventually this can be forwarded to HTC.
Edit: the push functionality seems to be working to some capacity.
- Crash/force close -
Internet Browser
*Issue: When selecting accept all plugins in the settings for the stock browser it will force close on execution
**Work around/solution: Select to clear all data in the application settings for the browser
- Loss of functionality -
Email App/Widget
*Issue: Push email not working as before. The email will sometimes fail to sync (when other mail clients can sync) and push communications is sometimes only one way (phone to webmail)
- Non-verified bugs/issues -
Google Earth
*Issue: Google Earth App not available on market

I am expiriencing a very bad performance of SenseUI after upgrading to froyo. Everything is slower than it was before?

very bad performance if I use live wallpapers.
thats all for now^^

The browser has a few issues - when a page is still loading, there is a refresh button instead of a stop button, and copy and paste is very buggy.

Tracebustabustabusta said:
Please put all the bugs you have found in Froyo in this thread and eventually this can be forwarded to HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it would be best if users post what ROM they're using...
But back on topic: Sometimes my sense restarts with no error report/popup whatsoever...

All my alarms were resetted... Could be just my phone, I dunno, but quite annoying if I hadn't noticed

All my alarms where reset aswell....but that's not a big problem to me. What is, is that also my entire agenda/calendar was wiped. :/
And it does seem froyo is loading stuff (like picture preview tiles, app lists, setting menus, the folder list in 'Pictures' app, etc.) a lot slower then eclair. And I'm not even running an animated wallpaper.

Let's go!
- Although Froyo is way faster for everthing, sometimes (i mean often!) my phone starts to slow down and i've unfortunately to reboot my phone..
- The music app has become resistant to task killers (at least on my phone). Probably like a bacteria to antibiotics??
Some surprises:
- Fonts are more beatiful to read, especially the text under icons (that striked me when I just updated)
-My greys are not pinkish anymore!!!
- Fonts on the SMS app are a bit bigger and it's really better (but the textfield is not as beautiful as before), and we have photos like on handcent on the conversations list.
I will not list everthing because there is a topic on the desire forums but i hadn't read that.

As I have mentioned in my thread everything works fine for me howeverwhen called or trying to call the other side does not hear my voice

Tracebustabustabusta said:
Email App/Widget
*Issue: Push email not working as before. The email will sometimes fail to sync (when other mail clients can sync) and push communications is sometimes only one way (phone to webmail)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm suffering from this bug, it chooses if and when to sync itself lol.

tnakir said:
I am expiriencing a very bad performance of SenseUI after upgrading to froyo. Everything is slower than it was before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here its slower then before...also app drawer is laggy.

Try removing the live backgrounds, it works like a charm without it.

Go around the loss of push email by installing a non HTC phone's mail.apk.
I have the 2.1 Milestone and it works beautifully.
Sent from my HTC Legend using XDA App

Im running the de-branded UK Vodafone Froyo ROM and honestly have to say there are no issues with speed at all. Even with live wallpapers running, all homescreens remain fast and smooth, as does the app drawer.
I did do a fresh install however with a full wipe, I then used TitaniumBackup to restore alarms, SMS messages, etc when done

Did not wipe or factory reset, just installed froyo. Everything works fine. No speed issues, my weather started working correct again, push mail works fine. And after living with sms bug for one whole day, i'm very happy to say it's gone... So suprisingly nothing to complain about yet.

New day, new bugs.
- Loss of functionality -
Wifi Connection
*Issue: An active wifi connection will stop working properly if the phone has been in sleep mode for some time. The wifi connection symbol will still be displayed (and always at the same level of reception (in my case full)) and the email clients will not warn of lack of connection and instead try to sync for ever.
**Work around/solution: Change wifi policy settings in settings - wifi - menu button - advanced from 15 minutes to something else. This might work to some extent, otherwise solution is to disable and re-enable wifi connection.

Hi, one annoying detail after updating: my 'Gmail Unread Count' widget has suddenly started to launch the Gmail app opening the most recent message, instead of opening the inbox.
When I launch Gmail directly from the apps list, it opens the inbox as it should. 'Course this issue is not related to Froyo, but I imagine I'm not the only one dependent on the 'Unread Count' widget. Anyone experiencing the same?
Sent from my HTC Legend using XDA App

I'm experiencing extreme performance degradation after the upgrade to Froyo!
I'm running an unbranded HTC Legend, stock rom, upgraded via Systems Software Updates OTA, I'm running ADW and Handscent. Other that that, it's stock. (3.15.405.3)
People are complaining that they can't hear me properly! This is the biggest concern I have so far!
Switching between Home Screens is slower, it hangs and it's less responsive. (Swipe, hangs for a second, then moves)
Using the back button to exit apps is very VERY slow. (Handscent is almost unusable)
Opening apps is slower. When pressing app, it zoom towards the screen faster, but hangs afterwards.
Scrolling in almost every app/widget is slow and lags!!!!!!
Entering the lock screen pattern is very slow
Scrolling the app drawer is very slow
It appears it's mostly a scrolling issue?
Another thing is that lock screen does not always work. The screen goes off and when I enable it again, I get right to the first home screen. Ie. no lock pattern. (FOUND IT : It now says "lock screen after 5 minutes"....so I set it to immediately.)
Also using "Gmail Unread Count" widget goes straight to first message, not the inbox. Does not matter if the message is already read.

Tracebustabustabusta said:
New day, new bugs.
- Loss of functionality -
Wifi Connection
*Issue: An active wifi connection will stop working properly if the phone has been in sleep mode for some time. The wifi connection symbol will still be displayed (and always at the same level of reception (in my case full)) and the email clients will not warn of lack of connection and instead try to sync for ever.
**Work around/solution: Turn off wifi connection then turn it on again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try going into the WiFi settings, then press the menu button and choose advanced. You will find WiFi sleep options in here. Choose the second or third option as you see fit. I've not tested it but I think it may solve your problem.
Sent from my HTC Legend using XDA App

Sebastian768 said:
I'm experiencing extreme performance degradation after the upgrade to Froyo!
Switching between Home Screens is very slow
Using the back button to exit apps is very VERY slow
Opening apps is much slower
Scrolling in almost every app/widget is slow and lags
Entering the lock screen pattern is very slow
Scrolling the app drawer is very slow
It appears it's mostly a scrolling issue?
Another thing is that lock screen does not always work. The screen goes off and when I enable it again, I get right to the first home screen. Ie. no lock pattern. (FOUND IT : It now says "lock screen after 5 minutes"....so I set it to immediately.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I experienced the slowness briefly, but after rebooting a couple of times it seems fine - if anything actually much faster! Not sure what exactly is causing the problem though...

Bugs in OTA 2.3.3 for Desire Z - add yours

While generally being quite happy with the Gingerbread update for my Desire Z, clearly there are a few glitches.
First of all, my DZ is a Nordic version with the characters Æ, Ø, Å, Ä and Ö on the hardware keyboard.
On 2.2 before the OTA there was a bug which consistently caused capitalization of Æ, Ø and Å (æøå) when using the hardware keyboard. I don't know about Ä and Ö which are only used in Swedish and not in Danish and Norwegian.
This bug is now fixed using the native keyboard but still present using Scandinavian Keyboard which I have installed from Market. I must admit that I have not contacted the developer to ask if this could be a bug in the app.
Sadly, I have now experienced another bug related to the hardware keyboard after updating to 2.3 - today it happened for the second time.
When typing in Whatsapp and the SMS app (and possibly other apps) using the hardware keyboard pressing "S" will open the SMS app, pressing "G" will open Gmail and pressing "B" will open the built-in browser (not Dolphin HD which is set to default). This is fixed by a reboot (temporarily, it seems). Incidentally, the bug disappeared just now without a reboot while checking if it was also present in Gmail.
The missing pictures bug in HTC's gallery app is still there - still using QuickPic.
Anything that is not listed here - please add to the thread.
EDIT:
As many others I also get the constant Sense restarting thing which is driving me insane!
Also the brightness setting itself to maximum many times.
A handful random reboots. A couple happened with no apps open and doing nothing on the phone - I just happened to notice when it rebooted.
Since monomer888's advise I haven't had another shortcut typing bug happen (as of yet). Thanks!
I'm running software version 2.42.405.2 CL84109

whpsnp said:
[..]Sadly, I have now experienced another bug related to the hardware keyboard after updating to 2.3 - today it happened for the second time.
When typing in Whatsapp and the SMS app (and possibly other apps) using the hardware keyboard pressing "S" will open the SMS app, pressing "G" will open Gmail and pressing "B" will open the built-in browser (not Dolphin HD which is set to default). This is fixed by a reboot (temporarily, it seems). Incidentally, the bug disappeared just now without a reboot while checking if it was also present in Gmail.[..]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try this:
Originally Posted by Snotmann
If i type a "S" in a SMS, on the hardware keyboard, i get the message that the SMS will be saved and the screen went back to the SMS Overview.
Did someone have the same issue ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have had this happen to me before. Fix it by doing this:
Settings -> Applications -> Quick Launch -> Delete all shortcuts
Also [..] restart just to be on the safe side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No guarantees but it might work.

My phone doesn't show album art in the music player, and it still doesn't work after several restarts, and dismounting and mounting sd card. Hope it gets fixed soon
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

- when exit from a fullscrren app, sometimes the status bar doesnt fit all screen, leting a space (about 10% of the screen space). Expanding the status bar fix it
- Portuguese translation erros remains from the first rom 1.34!!!!!:
Call volume is "Volume de ligação recebida" - shuold be "Volume da ligação"
The tips widget is "Dicar", should be "Dicas"
And a few others, that I don't remember now.

I've only seen some minor UI bugs and most recently, the capital letters typing a text message. That only happens when I try to type too quickly after opening the thread.
I must admit that I havent seen the gallery bug yet but then I don't really use the camera.
Might be worth posting your version number to track regional bugs.
Mine is 2.42.405.2

Brightness will be stuck at max waking from sleep sometimes. Brightness slider has no effect. Fixes itself if you sleep then wake again.

Playback of videos not taken with the camera is very stuttery. THis wasn't the case in 2.2.

I had the missing gallery pictures problem and the brightness problem as well-I have it normally on auto-bright, but sometimes when I wake it or reboot it, it automatically changes to full brightness and I have to select auto-bright again.
Also, Sense restarts after almost anything.

After installing, deleting or moving an app, returning to the home makes sense crash and restart.
I have a gallery bug aswell, can click on some line with pic and wording not shown.
I had once a bug in the unlock pin screen, tapping 7 was actually hitting 4, same if I hold on 7, i see the pressed status of the 4 button onscreen. It happened when i had no charge at all and plugged the phone to the usb port of my running pc. It was also impossible to switch on the phone, i had to plug it out.
Can't remember more right now.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

Sense crashing sometimes when leaving app
Newsreader crashing when returning from browser
The shortcut bug (pressing Searchkey once on hardware keyboar solve this)
The 10% status bar bug
Coming up some more soon
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

I was wondering if anyone had noticed if there is still this bug or if you could test to check for me:
Start an app in portrait mode, slide out the keyboard for landscape mode, hit the home key. Do your apps/widgets load right away or within a couple seconds? For me it has always been that it will take 15-20 seconds for the screen to load, all I will see is the status bar and my background, no loading screen, no errors, nothing but that. Let me know if you had this prior to updating and also if you have it after, thanks!

ME TOO!
nicolaibaun said:
My phone doesn't show album art in the music player, and it still doesn't work after several restarts, and dismounting and mounting sd card. Hope it gets fixed soon
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also don't have album artwork shown in my music app :| Do you guys think HTC will bring out a software update for these bugs?

noneabove said:
I was wondering if anyone had noticed if there is still this bug or if you could test to check for me:
Start an app in portrait mode, slide out the keyboard for landscape mode, hit the home key. Do your apps/widgets load right away or within a couple seconds? For me it has always been that it will take 15-20 seconds for the screen to load, all I will see is the status bar and my background, no loading screen, no errors, nothing but that. Let me know if you had this prior to updating and also if you have it after, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happens to me sometimes as well. Also, waking up by opening the keyboard may cause the widgets on the home screen to show after a few seconds.
Sense crashing sometimes when leaving app
The 10% status bar bug
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've experienced these as well. Funny thing is, I only experience the 10% bug in Facebook app.

Besides that "desktop loader" and sense-crash problem I got some strange issue with my mobile data connection - searched the forum for a while, haven't found anything, so I'll report it as a gingerbread bug.
Sense displays an activated connection all the time (3g/H - with those two little arrows flashing, thus indicating some traffic) but, unfortunately totally random, it decides to stop working.
Only way to check the data connection is browsing google. Turning off/on fixes the problem temporarily.
In addition, the speed of my mobile connection seem to be capped at some point - typically, depending on my location, it'll stick with 3G instead of H until I reboot. (noticed a remarkable speed difference by browsing the web before and after reboot)
Anyone similar problems?
Desire Z - 2.3.3 Stock

@Kueber;
While i've only seen the sense reload when my phone is uunder a lot of CPU load, I have seen it.
Regarding the data issue, i've only seen it with a certain app, "London Journey" This would retrieve some downloads, but not others. Maybe its a change in the data API relating to the new Download API. Using any other app was fine.
In maybe a slightly related issue, I've noticed that when in GPRS or EDGE, its much more reluctant to go to HSPA, especially when the H signal is low. However, this would normally just drop straight back to G / E anyway so is an improvement in my mind. It also seems quicker to see the HSPA connection has been lost and goes to G / E.
In your case, if location determins 3G rather than H, it could indicate you mobile provider may not have upgraded all their sites yet. If it passes data, then its stuck at 3G.
Craig

craiglay said:
@Kueber;
While i've only seen the sense reload when my phone is uunder a lot of CPU load, I have seen it.
Regarding the data issue, i've only seen it with a certain app, "London Journey" This would retrieve some downloads, but not others. Maybe its a change in the data API relating to the new Download API. Using any other app was fine.
In maybe a slightly related issue, I've noticed that when in GPRS or EDGE, its much more reluctant to go to HSPA, especially when the H signal is low. However, this would normally just drop straight back to G / E anyway so is an improvement in my mind. It also seems quicker to see the HSPA connection has been lost and goes to G / E.
In your case, if location determins 3G rather than H, it could indicate you mobile provider may not have upgraded all their sites yet. If it passes data, then its stuck at 3G.
Craig
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there, thanks for your answer.
The strange thing is that my previous phone (HTC Legend) always displays a HSDPA connection (speaking of my hometown as testing area). My Desire Z also states a H connection until it get capped somehow. Then I reboot and the little H is back. It is definitely not a display bug, since the speed difference, as already mentioned earlier, is noticeable after rebooting.
Is there some kind of a "user control" in areas that aren't fully covered by a mobile provider, so that my connection may drop due to non using the phone? (It happens normally while phone is sleeping) And is it possible that my Legend, 2.2 stock btw, just isn't very accurate when it comes down to displaying the current connection speed? - to mention your point of a quicker HSDPA loss on gingerbread.
greetings

I also have the Sense constantly restarting. It is really, really, REALLY annoying!
It happens about 50% of the times when I return to the home screen from any app, even the browser.
Has any of you tried uninstalling the Gingerbread update? Don't even know if it is possible, though.

beside the above bugs. the missing pictures bugs also affects my sound files. i can't change my ringtone or alarm tone. it will change back to the default ringtone every few hrs as the sound files went missing on my sd card. has to do a sdrescan to get it back. but few hrs later it will go missing again & ringtone either be empty or back to default.

marlar said:
I also have the Sense constantly restarting. It is really, really, REALLY annoying!
It happens about 50% of the times when I return to the home screen from any app, even the browser.
Has any of you tried uninstalling the Gingerbread update? Don't even know if it is possible, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah it drives me crazy too. Any chance to downgrade easily before update?

I've had the exact same bugs as described above, it drove me insane.
after 3 days or so i was fed up with it and downgraded and installed Virtuous 2.0. the bugs are gone and i've got a stable, rooted phone.
has anyone tried to contact HTC about these bugs? I myself was too lazy to write an email..

Re-program Recent Apps Key?

Devoting a soft key exclusively to recent apps seems ridiculous to me. Is it a Motoblur thing or stock ICS?
Is there an app that will allow an unrooted user to program a shortcut to the key that is of some use? Maybe on long press?
I installed Google Launcher and noticed that accidentally hitting that key shows recent apps but then takes you out of Go Launcher and back to Motoblur. Any way to avoid that?

That's pure ICS, not Moto. Actually was there in honeycomb too. I never understood removing the search key and menu key to put in the far less used recent apps. If there is a mod out there to convert it's function to a menu button I'd be on it too.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app

Any shortcut would be preferable. I thought it would be a nice button to open phone dialer or dolphin browser.

I'm really surprised you guys don't find it useful. There's plenty of times where I'd rather have that button than hit the home button and go back to the home screen or hold the home button for a second or more to get that popup on my Nexus S.
I find that I'm swapping back between texting, web browsing, the music player / pandora and facebook quite often

snowmanwithahat said:
I'm really surprised you guys don't find it useful. There's plenty of times where I'd rather have that button than hit the home button and go back to the home screen or hold the home button for a second or more to get that popup on my Nexus S.
I find that I'm swapping back between texting, web browsing, the music player / pandora and facebook quite often
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I agree as well. Not to mention, the menu and search are legacy buttons. People need to let them die and embrace the design direction Android is moving forward in...but I guess old habits die hard (and painfully). Why so much resistance towards the death of the menu button?

UserDemos said:
Thank you, I agree as well. Not to mention, the menu and search are legacy buttons. People need to let them die and embrace the design direction Android is moving forward in...but I guess old habits die hard (and painfully). Why so much resistance towards the death of the menu button?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I can definitely do without the menu button since every new app has been building it into the application. It's a button that I'd hardly hit while interacting with most applications.
I do miss the contextual search though. I got used to tapping the search button in Contacts or Chrome and searching within that context. Only searching globally when I was at the home screen. Well now with the changes (at least to the Nexus S) the search button brings up Google Now and there's no in-app search unless they specifically build in a button. Most have done that now, so it's not really a problem, just a habit that I got into.

I understand it's benefits but those apps I use quite often you speak of are already shortcuts on my home page. Using the recent apps button adds another key press to open it. I've only used it when I can't remember the name of an app I recently installed.
For me personally, useable? Yes. Useful? Not really. Especially when it gets bogged down with tons of recent apps and my finger already knows where the shortcuts are.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app

Hey look I'm the OP and said nothing about making it a menu button. What I want is a programmable button to do what I want and you could have one to do what YOU want. Now you tell me NOOOO.., I should embrace the direction of Android. That sounds suspiciously like Apple philosophy.
I never have had any use for a recent apps button and still don't. I don't care what apps I have used recently. Since there is a key there I would like it to be useful. Personally, I would like short press to be Opera and long press to be Dolphin. Now shall I look forward to be scolded for not embracing Chrome? I thought the whole point of Android was personal choice. Android users don't have to be sheeple imo.

Zodwraith said:
I understand it's benefits but those apps I use quite often you speak of are already shortcuts on my home page. Using the recent apps button adds another key press to open it. I've only used it when I can't remember the name of an app I recently installed.
For me personally, useable? Yes. Useful? Not really. Especially when it gets bogged down with tons of recent apps and my finger already knows where the shortcuts are.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've got to admit though that closing applications by swiping them "off" at that quick switch menu is kind of nice. I like that a little bit better for closing off high RAM applications quickly compared to the CM method of holding "back". Then again, I'll admit it's a very rare thing where I want to kill more than one application at once haha

Sorry, no I don't admit it. (not for me anyway) Never have done it. Never will. I prefer not to force close apps. I let Android handle it.
Dolphin and Opera are in a folder on my desktop so it takes two keypresses to access them while that utterly useless recent apps key sits there doing nothing. In fact it does harm if I am using another launcher and hit it by accident.
There was an app I used to use that allowed you to program the search key (which I also never used) and double tap of home key (which normally produced something else I never used). I think it is called Home to Shortcut. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated to use the recent apps key.
I also think Moto should have made the navigation bar transparent so we could see the entire screen like Nexus. I hope somebody figures out a way to do that too.

Give it time for custom roms and you will be able to do loads of stuff with that bar, including changing the icons and uses. Aokp is great for that.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

I don't think swiping from the recent apps menu is an FC function. Just a history. To check it I FC'd a bunch of stuff from the proper menu and opened the recent apps. Sure enough everything is still there. Clicked on one of the apps and sure enough it had to start up.
I generally don't use app killers but there are always rogue apps that will give you problems. Netflix is a bad one for me where I'll watch an episode and when it's over Netflix develops Alzheimer's whether there are more episodes. Does the same on the Roku and tablet so I'm sure it's a Netflix thing. The only way to slap sense into their servers is an FC and restart.
Sent from my Droid RAZR HD MAXX using the XDA Developer App

robstunner said:
Give it time for custom roms and you will be able to do loads of stuff with that bar, including changing the icons and uses. Aokp is great for that.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
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I can't wait. I was spoiled by the super developers for Tbolt.