Database Users

Why are so many programs starting on their own?

I downloaded Advanced Task Killer Free, and things like Sprint Navigation, Facebook, Voice Dialer, etc, the list gets 20 programs long after about 15 minutes... this makes no sense.
Can someone who has used Android longer please explain this to me? It seems that this OS needs much more babysitting than even WM, if it's really auto-starting all this crap for no reason.

It seems like all of the applications you described are system apps that were on the phone when you got them. They may be set to automatically run. I know you wont be able to remove any of them without the phone being rooted and having su access - but i may be wrong.
When you close them, it seems like the OS is just automatically reloading them.
Careful when you kill apps, it could cause some unwanted issues.

So many of these programs have nothing to do with day-to-day operation... this is bizarre.
Does Android supposedly have built-in memory-management? IE, you exit the camera app, it eventually FORCE closes it? So far, I haven't noticed that behavior at all. That's what caused so many issues on my old WM HTC devices.

Android does have built-in memory management. It is how the OS was developed.
If you have a program running on your screen, it will use whatever amount of memory it needs in order to run it.
If the program gets pushed into the background, but is still running, it will still use the memory, even though another program is being ran using up even more memory.
Having free memory will not make the phone run any faster. Eventually the program in the background will close if not used. It will also be force closed if the system is in dire need of memory.
Android knows when it is need of memory.

There are several threads already which explain memory use if you search. Since I'm using my phone I won't go into detail but I will say that task killers are not recommended. It's much better to let Android manage the memory and processes.
My personal experience bears this out as I had a lot of strange issues like losing wireless connectivity when I was using a task killer. Now I let Android handle things and my phone runs smooth. Using a Sprint Hero with Fresh 2.1.2 ROM.
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Interesting... all my friends who use Android have task managers... Most engadget posts mention that too. Hrm... I guess I'll make sure auto-kill is disabled and just watch and see how the OS holds up.

I just got the phone this morning and was killing apps left and right. I started to get a lot of Force Close errors.
I rebooted the phone which would clear the memory anyways and I'm letting the OS handle everything now - Havent had any problems since.
good luck!

ScrapMaker said:
Interesting... all my friends who use Android have task managers... Most engadget posts mention that too. Hrm... I guess I'll make sure auto-kill is disabled and just watch and see how the OS holds up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, if you are worried about a particular program running away and have reason to believe it, sure a task manager/task killer can be handy for that one program but historically, giving people task managers on Android causes more problems than it helps. Voice Dialer is your phone app for example and at the CDMA Hero forums, we've seen the phone do some crazy things when we removed it from the phone right after we got root (turns out that thing is hooked to more than just the "making phone calls" feature).
All that said, it's quite informative to google around about android's method of memory management. It's kinda cool!

I had a hero, and it least made it through the day. The Evo is way worse. I have no idea why some things run in the background that I've never used and have no reason to be running in the background. I'm using ATK and Auto Task Manager, which kills app once your phone goes to sleep. You just have to know what apps you shouldn't be killing. As a rule of thumb, I didn't kill any native google or HTC services. I did kill all Sprint services. Following this guide as well:http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/06...attery-life-and-what-this-says-about-android/

here is why you don't really need a task killer.
with that, i can say that i do have one but, i don't have any autokill going. i only use it as a last resort to kill things if i have like multiple things producing sound at once.

Honestly I can tell you from experience, that sprint bloat wear will launch on its own all day long. Even if you set ATK or AMM to nuke it, it eventually will cost more batt. in the long run because of the system resources required to launch and kill over and over again. The only way to successfully deal with the issue is to rm the crap, which requires root.

Multi-tasking in Android 2.1

Is Multi-tasking currently supported in 2.1? I get this doubt because everytime I open a new application the previous goes hidden. This apparently takes up or keeps eating the resources in the background.
Instead, if 2.2 (froyo) comes up with something like the iPhone 4 handles it will be simply superb. I know even now there are add ins from the market, still they are not easy and friendly as iPhone 4 handles multi-tasking - where we can simply scroll through the application and open or close or minimise the different applications that are already open.
Please someone confirm this...or am I missing something until android 2.2 comes out.

Your right... whenever I am running an application and I press the menu button then start another application, I can see the old application running in the Services (or background).
When I quit the new application and go back to the former app, it shows me where I left off... Now, this is "technically" multi-tasking but of the sucky kind...

To minimize just press the homebutten. To switch between the last 6 task just press the homebuton for about 1 second.

In 2.1, you still long press the home key to show the most recently run applications. This is not necessary the running application. You could have manually closed an application but it will still be shown. Similarly, you could have application actually running and yet not shown there.
Another point to be aware is that although long press of home key brings up the most recently used application and allows you to jump to them, there is no facility to force close an application from there; unlike in iOS4, where on the multitasking application dock, you can force close it, as well as jumping to that application.
Another key difference between the two is that in Android 2.1, only the last 6 used applications are shown, although most of the time, I find 20+ applications running, often started by themselves mysteriously (that's another story though). So, for the running application not listed as one of the six, you can't jump to them via long pressing home. Instead, you have to go back to the desktop, find your application, and launch the application in order to switch to them.
So yah, 2.1 is a little "backward" still compared to iOS4. Hopefully 2.2 improves on this.

As far as I know the multitasking from android is better than the one in iOS4. Multitasking is not complete on iOS4, there are some applications that you are not available to use as multitasking application.
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html
Here is the link to why and how the android multitasking works.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/199528/multitasking_with_ios_4_is_horrible_apple_blew_it.html
Here an article of PCWORLD giving negative feedback about iOS4 multitasking

eaglesteve said:
In 2.1, you still long press the home key to show the most recently run applications. This is not necessary the running application. You could have manually closed an application but it will still be shown. Similarly, you could have application actually running and yet not shown there.
Another point to be aware is that although long press of home key brings up the most recently used application and allows you to jump to them, there is no facility to force close an application from there; unlike in iOS4, where on the multitasking application dock, you can force close it, as well as jumping to that application.
Another key difference between the two is that in Android 2.1, only the last 6 used applications are shown, although most of the time, I find 20+ applications running, often started by themselves mysteriously (that's another story though). So, for the running application not listed as one of the six, you can't jump to them via long pressing home. Instead, you have to go back to the desktop, find your application, and launch the application in order to switch to them.
So yah, 2.1 is a little "backward" still compared to iOS4. Hopefully 2.2 improves on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
..now that's one place where we look ancient than iOS4, are there any words that this will be improved in 2.2?
Instead it could have just been without multi-tasking so when we start a new app the previous one to get closed atleast that saves on the RAM. I hate iPhones but just this feature makes me disturbed why android hasn't dones this yet as this is so very basic.
I know the third part app in the adroid market does this but not as elegant as the iphone 4 handles this.

sany said:
..now that's one place where we look ancient than iOS4, are there any words that this will be improved in 2.2?
Instead it could have just been without multi-tasking so when we start a new app the previous one to get closed atleast that saves on the RAM. I hate iPhones but just this feature makes me disturbed why android hasn't dones this yet as this is so very basic.
I know the third part app in the adroid market does this but not as elegant as the iphone 4 handles this.
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Click to collapse
Actually, the way iOS4 handles it is not even half as elegant as the way jailbroken phones do it. It is even better to disable iOS4 task switcher and use Cydia task switchers (there are 5 or 6 different method, you pick the one that you like most). If I'm the developer at Google, I'd copy jailbroken iPhone's switcher called the Circuitous. With it, you can swipe the task bar left or right to go to the previous or next active application!!! You can also double press the home key for example to show a list of task actually running (rather than most recently launched applications). You press home key to truly quite the application, and long press to make it run in the background while in both case show the desktop.
I personally don't like the task switcher in iOS4. It does not let me force close the application with the same act of quiting it. Instead, one has to bring up the task list and remove it there in order to force close. This is not productive. Also, very often I toggle betwen two or three application, and I find swiping the taskbar to be a lot more fun and productive.

How do I know if there's programs running in the background or not?
And how do I shut down programs where I can't find any Quit button (mostly of the programs I think is like this).

Chrilleee said:
How do I know if there's programs running in the background or not?
And how do I shut down programs where I can't find any Quit button (mostly of the programs I think is like this).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung's stock widget will tell you if anything is "running" other things will be idling that the widget may or may not pick up on. You can pick up a 3rd party task killer to see more details.
3rd party task killers would be one way to quit the programs after closing. The way Android operates, if you hit the "back" button out of your program it quits running but will stay in memory if there is available room in your memory.

Actually the Android 'idea' is that you don't close applications. Android will keep applications around in case you want to go back, and only close them when memory is needed. Before closing them outright it will try to close secondary activities and recover memory elsewhere, so that closing an app is the last resort.
Android applications are explicitly organized in autonomous activities so that they can be stopped independently.
Keep in mind that the fact that an application is 'in background' does not mean that it is actually doing something, and empty memory does you no good unless it's actually needed, so it might as well be used to keep an application loaded.
Only applications that stay active in background have a quit button, like IM clients for example. The others don't have it because ideally you don't need to close them. Of course when the system does need to free memory you might experience some delay as applications are closed.
On the iPhone OS there is a similar model, with the difference that applications don't have 'activities' that can be independently closed. In case of memory starvation the OS first asks applications to free some memory, if possible, then starts killing them outright, but it has no means to force applications to free memory.
I stopped using task killers and found that they are not that needed unless you really can't stand small delays now and then. I didn't find the iPhone multitasking any friendlier at all...

eaglesteve said:
Actually, the way iOS4 handles it is not even half as elegant as the way jailbroken phones do it. It is even better to disable iOS4 task switcher and use Cydia task switchers (there are 5 or 6 different method, you pick the one that you like most). If I'm the developer at Google, I'd copy jailbroken iPhone's switcher called the Circuitous. With it, you can swipe the task bar left or right to go to the previous or next active application!!! You can also double press the home key for example to show a list of task actually running (rather than most recently launched applications). You press home key to truly quite the application, and long press to make it run in the background while in both case show the desktop.
I personally don't like the task switcher in iOS4. It does not let me force close the application with the same act of quiting it. Instead, one has to bring up the task list and remove it there in order to force close. This is not productive. Also, very often I toggle betwen two or three application, and I find swiping the taskbar to be a lot more fun and productive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there anything similar to Circuitous available in the market for use.
thanks
S

I really do not understand how people say that iOs 4 is better in multitasking than 2.1 android. I've used the "multitasking" feature of iPhone and it is for sure not multitasking. It behaves as it should only for native apps and I believe it will not finally work for every application of the appstore.
On the other hand, multitasking on android is better. Every app you choose to re-start comes at the state you left it. Not on the first screen. Of course there is a lot of room for development, but it actually is multitasking and not multitasking in quotes.
P.S. I kind of laugh with Jobs's enthusiasm for things that already exist in the market even for years (for example videocall). It is like they invented something revolutionary and actually there are many people who totally fall for all these...
Uneducated sheep...

darnap; said:
On the iPhone OS there is a similar model, with the difference that applications don't have 'activities' that can be independently closed. In case of memory starvation the OS first asks applications to free some memory, if possible, then starts killing them outright, but it has no means to force applications to free memory.
I stopped using task killers and found that they are not that needed unless you really can't stand small delays now and then. I didn't find the iPhone multitasking any friendlier at all...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damap,
In both iOS 4 and jailbroken iPhone running backgrounded, any activities other than the telephone application can be manually closed rather then left running in the background, in order to free up memory.
I don't know about the other Android phones but I find SGS unbearably slow, whether if I do not use task killer to manually kill off the application every now and then. Not sure how much of it is due to the way Android multitask though.

ivas75 said:
I really do not understand how people say that iOs 4 is better in multitasking than 2.1 android. I've used the "multitasking" feature of iPhone and it is for sure not multitasking. It behaves as it should only for native apps and I believe it will not finally work for every application of the appstore.
On the other hand, multitasking on android is better. Every app you choose to re-start comes at the state you left it. Not on the first screen. Of course there is a lot of room for development, but it actually is multitasking and not multitasking in quotes.
P.S. I kind of laugh with Jobs's enthusiasm for things that already exist in the market even for years (for example videocall). It is like they invented something revolutionary and actually there are many people who totally fall for all these...
Uneducated sheep...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is some important points to be aware of, and most iPhone users are not aware of these points:
- If you want "true" multitasking, you must jailbreak and use backgrounder. All third party applications could then multitask. However, even that will not have two applications with audio running simultaneously. So, you can't have radio and music playing at the same time. The one in the background must pause.
- To be eligible for multitasking under iOS4 third party applications must specifically enable so. If not, you can only multitask them with jail breaking.
- if an application has been enabled for multitasking under iOS4, then backgrounder application in a jailbroken phone offers the option of letting user select the method of multitasking. The choices are to either multitask this application the "true" way as it always did prior to iOS4, or the iOS4 way (which means you don't start your applications from the beginning, but when in background, only certain processes such as GPS, VOIP, downloading, audio are running), or to automatically select the method, which means that if the application has been enabled for iOS4 multitasking then that mode will be used, otherwise it will multitask the "true" way.

sany; said:
Is there anything similar to Circuitous available in the market for use.
thanks
S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I'm not aware of such customization possibility yet. But i would like to request for such tools so that multitasking in Android can be more easily performed. One thing about using back button for quitting application is that I find it goes to a different screen of the same application rather than the previous application, so it can be confusing. Sometime back button merely get rid of a pop up message but does not seem to quit the application.

You can't really get more simple than the os doing everything for you though. The point with android is you don't think about things like multi-tasking and just use your phone. Can't get more simple and elegant than that.
There is no need for a task manager like ios as you just open the apps you want without worrying about closing apps, or what's open and what's not.
ios on the other hand uses sudo multi-tasking, the apps don't actually stay open. I'm sure this works well but it has it's limitations. So when you close an app in ios task manager, you are not actually closing the app as it is already closed, essentialy you are just removing the icon from the drawer.
Android's system is far better. Why have a task manager when you don't need one, and especially when you only use sudo multi-tasking so the apps in the task manager are not even open at all.
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bushbox browser said:
You can't really get more simple than the os doing everything for you though. The point with android is you don't think about things like multi-tasking and just use your phone. Can't get more simple and elegant than that.There is no need for a task manager like ios as you just open the apps you want without worrying about closing apps, or what's open and what's not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both Android and iOS4 are exactly the same in saying that nobody shoud have to manually close an application. Both advocates that you let the OS close it when resources are insufficient. For iOS4, most of the application merely save the state where you left off, so it is not actually active, but with some exceptions: GPS, VOIP, audio playing, downloading, etc.
However, I personally do not find it to my liking. If I've been using say TomTom navigation software and have just completed a trip, and know that I wont be using it again in the next few days, I would rather be able to long press the home key to completely stop it, instead of just pressing the home key to keep it running in the background.
bushbox browser said:
So when you close an app in ios task manager, you are not actually closing the app as it is already closed, essentialy you are just removing the icon from the drawer.
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Click to collapse
bushbox browser, this is not how it works, based on what I was told. If you have removed the icon from the multitasking dock, then come back to launch the application, it will start from the beginning rather than where you last left of. This was a question that I asked and was told the answer. Therefore, it is capable of stopping the task from running there, not merely removing the icon from the drawer.
Hope that helps to clear up the misconception.

eaglesteve said:
Both Android and iOS4 are exactly the same in saying that nobody shoud have to manually close an application. Both advocates that you let the OS close it when resources are insufficient. For iOS4, most of the application merely save the state where you left off, so it is not actually active, but with some exceptions: GPS, VOIP, audio playing, downloading, etc.
However, I personally do not find it to my liking. If I've been using say TomTom navigation software and have just completed a trip, and know that I wont be using it again in the next few days, I would rather be able to long press the home key to completely stop it, instead of just pressing the home key to keep it running in the background.
bushbox browser, this is not how it works, based on what I was told. If you have removed the icon from the multitasking dock, then come back to launch the application, it will start from the beginning rather than where you last left of. This was a question that I asked and was told the answer. Therefore, it is capable of stopping the task from running there, not merely removing the icon from the drawer.
Hope that helps to clear up the misconception.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks all, it is really comforting enough to see comments from knowledgeable people in the forum who are really researching with the apps and how they work.
My only concern is that nothing in the background should slowdown the performance by hogging the resource. As long as it is taken care off that is fine.

sany said:
thanks all, it is really comforting enough to see comments from knowledgeable people in the forum who are really researching with the apps and how they work.
My only concern is that nothing in the background should slowdown the performance by hogging the resource. As long as it is taken care off that is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My concern is the same as yours too. Unfortunately, I'm personally of the view that allowing so many applicaitons to be kept alive DO hog resources and slow things down. Therefore I'm using the task killer on my SGS to manage it. I'm using a task killer that also kill itself after killing off the unwanted task, so that itself would not be taking more resources (or at least that's how I hope would turn out).
Then the other aspect of multitasking is the user interface or how we effect:
- showing all live applications (not just most recent 6 applications), to swith there. As I said, I've notice that on my SGS, if left alone, typically have 20 to 30 applications live. The long press of the home button showing just 6 of them is not exactly a workable way to switch, is it?
- then, there is an issue of being given the freedom to truely quit an application rather than minimise it to the background, and here Android's as well as iOS4's design leaves much to be desired IMO. They both need to learn from jailbroken iPhone's backgrounder.
- finally, I believe Android as an OS could improve by having a true task manager showing applications which are truely alive, thus allowing switching to them, as well as allowing quitting of the listed applications. Yes, if user want to let the OS manage it they could just leave the list alone and not quit it, but freedom should be given to users to do so.
That's the reason I much prefer the jailbroken iPhone's method of multitasking (especially when using the Circuitous method of task switching) over iOS4 as well as Android's.

This is like a neverending story, when I had WM phone everybody was b*tching about the way he have to go to task manager and close apps and always look for tha apps that are running. Now I have android which is doing everything on its own, u dont have to care about running apps and now is everybody dreaming about iPhonish multitasking. Did I land on Mars here?

[Q] Multitasking questions

I have some questions re: multitasking. My understanding of the way that honeycomb works is that apps usually don't close when you exit them. They stay open until you use them again, or until honeycomb needs more memory, at which point it starts closing background apps. Is this accurate?
What puzzles me is that, if I have several apps open, some of which I want to keep running and some I don't mind if they get killed, when honeycomb needs memory it will just randomly kill apps?
This seems inefficient to me. Why doesn't it allow me to kill apps that I don't want and only "minimize" apps that I want to keep open? This seems inefficient but maybe I am missing something.

Most apps don't use any processing power when In the background, just ram. U could use a task killer however, it will probably just kill more battery life then it saves. Do u have performance issues when running lots of tasks? Ifso, THEN use a task killer to find out what is using up the processing performance and uninstall/stop the app.
(Using a task killer is NOT recommended)
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I hear you. I think multitasking in Android (not just honeycomb) is an illusion. The new 3.1 "recent apps list" is just that... recent apps, it reopens apps you used, but as far as multitasking goes, it happens very rarely.
I'd love to be able to lock my browser into memory so it doesn't have to reload all the pages when I get back into it. I was filling out an online form and needed to get an order number from my gmail app... well, when I went back into the browser, it reloaded everything and I lost what I had filled - this is not multitasking.
I think the only true multitasking mobile os was windows mobile 6.5.
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Dyskmaster said:
Most apps don't use any processing power when In the background, just ram.
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Click to collapse
I guess when apps are kept in RAM is isn't a big deal. After all, we have a whopping 1 gig to play with right? Who could ever use up that much?

EP2008 said:
I'd love to be able to lock my browser into memory so it doesn't have to reload all the pages when I get back into it. I was filling out an online form and needed to get an order number from my gmail app... well, when I went back into the browser, it reloaded everything and I lost what I had filled - this is not multitasking[\QUOTE]
It's a bug in the browser then. It should remember all you wrote even if it was closed.
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Click to collapse

Magnesus said:
EP2008 said:
I'd love to be able to lock my browser into memory so it doesn't have to reload all the pages when I get back into it. I was filling out an online form and needed to get an order number from my gmail app... well, when I went back into the browser, it reloaded everything and I lost what I had filled - this is not multitasking[\QUOTE]
It's a bug in the browser then. It should remember all you wrote even if it was closed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically, if it was truly multitasking (as in keeping the browser running while doing another task), then it should have just resumed. This happens on all browsers, but not all the time, only when Android decides to kick it out of memory.
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Click to collapse

By far the best multitasking mobile OS is webOS. If a card is open and is anything other than a video, then it's running in the background unless the developer specifically codes it to suspend. Since I switched to Android, this is the one thing I miss the most about webOS.
For me, the only problem with how Android multitasks is with Quickoffice and Polaris Office. Try this: create a new document, add some text, and then start switching back and forth between it and other apps. Eventually (sometimes immediately) you'll return to a blank document, with no way to retrieve any edits. It's the same for a document that's been saved, and really limits how an Android device can be used to write long-form pieces while doing other things. Basically, you have to save every time before you switch to a different app (say, to look up some research).
In webOS, you'd just keep the card open and your document would be retained. And note: I'm not here to bash Android or glorify webOS. I did switch, after all. But man, either developers or Google have to fix this. At the very least, an app like Quickoffice should save its state when it's suspended, to include the currently open document. It doesn't actually have to run in the background, but it certainly shouldn't lose information.
Given how I'm using the Transformer, this a huge thing for me. I wouldn't switch to, say, the Touchpad, because webOS doesn't even have apps like this yet and probably won't for awhile. It might have Quickoffice sometime in the next few months, but that's about it. Oh, and the Touchpad is a weak tablet as well, and certainly doesn't have anything like the keyboard dock available. It's just that Google and the Android development community could learn a thing or two from webOS, starting with better multitasking support.
Okay, venting over. I feel much better now.
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wynand32 said:
By far the best multitasking mobile OS is webOS. If a card is open and is anything other than a video, then it's running in the background unless the developer specifically codes it to suspend. Since I switched to Android, this is the one thing I miss the most about webOS.
For me, the only problem with how Android multitasks is with Quickoffice and Polaris Office. Try this: create a new document, add some text, and then start switching back and forth between it and other apps. Eventually (sometimes immediately) you'll return to a blank document, with no way to retrieve any edits. It's the same for a document that's been saved, and really limits how an Android device can be used to write long-form pieces while doing other things. Basically, you have to save every time before you switch to a different app (say, to look up some research).
In webOS, you'd just keep the card open and your document would be retained. And note: I'm not here to bash Android or glorify webOS. I did switch, after all. But man, either developers or Google have to fix this. At the very least, an app like Quickoffice should save its state when it's suspended, to include the currently open document. It doesn't actually have to run in the background, but it certainly shouldn't lose information.
Given how I'm using the Transformer, this a huge thing for me. I wouldn't switch to, say, the Touchpad, because webOS doesn't even have apps like this yet and probably won't for awhile. It might have Quickoffice sometime in the next few months, but that's about it. Oh, and the Touchpad is a weak tablet as well, and certainly doesn't have anything like the keyboard dock available. It's just that Google and the Android development community could learn a thing or two from webOS, starting with better multitasking support.
Okay, venting over. I feel much better now.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
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I was just using the Playbook at staples and it also has the browser multitask problem... when I open a bunch of tabs (cnn, bbc, globeandmail, espn, etc.) and go to another app, returning to the browser causes all tabs to refresh - it's actually worse than on android because at least on android the tabs can remain "active" without the need to refresh SOME to MOST of the time.
So the illusion of multitasking remains on all mobile os's.
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Multitasking means services running in the background. Which Android can, and does do. It does not mean having every single process and application running live in the background(who wants that anyways? not even windows does multi tasking like that anymore.).

JCopernicus said:
Multitasking means services running in the background. Which Android can, and does do. It does not mean having every single process and application running live in the background(who wants that anyways? not even windows does multi tasking like that anymore.).
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Click to collapse
Yes, light services that check for certain notifications is one thing, but apps that were run in the last 5 minutes should not close so quickly. In the meantime, I have a lot of services running and taking up memory that I DON'T want - I wish there was a way to adjust what apps stay in the memory (and which never load automatically), even if it does mean having to manually manage memory usage, I would rather it truly multitask than "fake it".
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Apps don't close, they are hibernated. If an app restarts from zero, it's a problem of the developer not implementing their save states properly. (I believe engadget app is notorious for this).
The concept of "closing" an app doesn't really exist. The closest thing is a force close, which is just removing it from memory.
There are a few apps that allow you tweak the thresholds, but they require root if I remember correctly.

Maybe even if it could use some of the 16/32 GB storage as a swap file it would help. It wouldn't slow the system down much since it's not on a magnetic platter like on a PC. I'd gladly give up a gig or two of my 32GB for a swap file if it meant the apps (or browser tabs) I was working with wouldn't get unloaded from memory while I was using them.

Mutnat said:
Maybe even if it could use some of the 16/32 GB storage as a swap file it would help. It wouldn't slow the system down much since it's not on a magnetic platter like on a PC. I'd gladly give up a gig or two of my 32GB for a swap file if it meant the apps (or browser tabs) I was working with wouldn't get unloaded from memory while I was using them.
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Click to collapse
Archos did this on their 256mb ram devices (added 32mb swap I believe). It did absolutely nothing on those devices, but maybe a gig or two would make a difference. I'm willing to sacrifice some battery life and speed for a true multitasking device.
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JCopernicus said:
Apps don't close, they are hibernated. If an app restarts from zero, it's a problem of the developer not implementing their save states properly. (I believe engadget app is notorious for this).
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I hear you, and I do wish Quickoffice and Polaris Office would handle this correctly. That's really my only concern with Android, that these apps lose edits and new text with frustrating regularity.

illusion multitasking ? lol
want to see fake multitasking ,look at ios,it fakes it. but android is pure multitasking. multitasking allows app to still running and finish it's process in the background. try open a browser,load a rich content page, change to other app,wait for few second n backt to browser,the page should be loaded.
case when ur app won't continue from previous state just because android has its own way to kill processes, this is merely due to memory management.

xufuchang said:
illusion multitasking ? lol
want to see fake multitasking ,look at ios,it fakes it. but android is pure multitasking. multitasking allows app to still running and finish it's process in the background. try open a browser,load a rich content page, change to other app,wait for few second n backt to browser,the page should be loaded.
case when ur app won't continue from previous state just because android has its own way to kill processes, this is merely due to memory management.
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Click to collapse
But the point is, if I return to the browser more than just a few seconds later, it restarts and then reloads all my tabs - this isn't multitasking. With the amount of RAM we have on these devices, apps shouldn't be closing so aggressively - and worse yet, apps that I don't want in memory shouldn't be taking RAM away from important 'active' apps!
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EP2008 said:
But the point is, if I return to the browser more than just a few seconds later, it restarts and then reloads all my tabs - this isn't multitasking. With the amount of RAM we have on these devices, apps shouldn't be closing so aggressively - and worse yet, apps that I don't want in memory shouldn't be taking RAM away from important 'active' apps!
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yes some apps just buggy, even honehcomb itself isn't perfect. but multitasking sure is working in android.

wynand32 said:
By far the best multitasking mobile OS is webOS. If a card is open and is anything other than a video, then it's running in the background unless the developer specifically codes it to suspend. Since I switched to Android, this is the one thing I miss the most about webOS.
For me, the only problem with how Android multitasks is with Quickoffice and Polaris Office. Try this: create a new document, add some text, and then start switching back and forth between it and other apps. Eventually (sometimes immediately) you'll return to a blank document, with no way to retrieve any edits. It's the same for a document that's been saved, and really limits how an Android device can be used to write long-form pieces while doing other things. Basically, you have to save every time before you switch to a different app (say, to look up some research).
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That sounds like a design flaw in the applications. What happens when you switch to another application is the application being pushed into the background receives an OnPause() event. The application should handle this event by saving the user context in a manner that ensure no loss of data (ex write to the drive) and free resources. When you make the application the active you move it to the top of the activity stack and the app receives and OnResume() event. The app should handle this event by restoring the user context to the saved state.
This is all very well documented in the Android API along with the expectations of the actions the application should take. However, a developer can choose to ignore the recommendations.

jerrykur said:
That sounds like a design flaw in the applications. What happens when you switch to another application is the application being pushed into the background receives an OnPause() event. The application should handle this event by saving the user context in a manner that ensure no loss of data (ex write to the drive) and free resources. When you make the application the active you move it to the top of the activity stack and the app receives and OnResume() event. The app should handle this event by restoring the user context to the saved state.
This is all very well documented in the Android API along with the expectations of the actions the application should take. However, a developer can choose to ignore the recommendations.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the explanation. I'm surprised then that these particular apps are having the problem--I mean, Quickoffice should know better, right?
Well, I've reported the issue, perhaps they'll resolve it.
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Can someone clarify this for me... (as I am used to Windows).
Let say I will start task like zip/unzip of a file/files or download of a file from the net. Can I do something different in the meantime and wait for the task to finish in the background?

Multitasking or lack of!

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?
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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

[Q] Suspended or Closed?

Hi,
I likes to use Weather and twitter,FB apps of Win8.But hot to close them after opening them?I have to go to Task manager to kill them.
When i go to task manager there was Suspended written in left side of Application name.
What does it indicate?
What is difference between Suspend & Killing??
Sorry for Bad English

My basic understanding is that it is sort of like a mobile OS (Android, iOS...). Suspended apps are kept in RAM for quick resume but not actively processed. They can also be cleared from memory automatically as soon as it is needed for something else. In theory, you shouldn't have to worry about it, just let it do it's own thing. In practice, task manager is there if something goes wrong.

Correct, Supended apps are held in memory, but they do not use any processor nor do they have any effect on battery life. Very effecient way of multitasking like Windows Phone 7.5.

someone tweeted about it to Sam Moreau in channel9.
and he explained people have to stop thinking about "closing" an app and have to close apps to get your computer work fast. of course they have to tweak it.
and difference with killing, its apps are suspended so they eat some memory but its not like it will kill your memory.
with all apps suspended and all, still I use like 10-15% less memory than windows 7. which is amazing

This is not completely true. Several days ago, I was playing with Windows 8 and I have noticed that it got significantly slower. So I opened a task manager and weather app was using 60% of the CPU. In background. I am not sure, what was doing but I guess that it was drawing weather animation?
Also another drawback is that you cannot control what is in "app switching menu". You just have to keep sliding apps to the right and hope that you find one you are looking for. Apps you don't need don't close and apps you do need might suspend/close.

matejdro said:
This is not completely true. Several days ago, I was playing with Windows 8 and I have noticed that it got significantly slower. So I opened a task manager and weather app was using 60% of the CPU. In background. I am not sure, what was doing but I guess that it was drawing weather animation?
Also another drawback is that you cannot control what is in "app switching menu". You just have to keep sliding apps to the right and hope that you find one you are looking for. Apps you don't need don't close and apps you do need might suspend/close.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But its because its Dev Preview. and remember these apps are just place holders to have something to show in windows 8. its not like they will be there in the end, since they aren't optimized for example.
so the point is... you will not have to close the app. but since its a dev preview it will have problems. sometimes i cant even type here in IE desktop because it gets slow i guess for the spellchecker. and it wont stay that way in the end, they are fixing all this stuff, adding new features and making awesome apps for stuff like photos, people, messenger hub. stuff like that. but these apps you see like [email protected] and weather are just placeholders.
also developers have to optimize everything for their apps.
and the apps switching is for tablets, the swipe thing. you only click on the left of your screen and it goes to next app. if you pause a second and click again you will go back to your last app. also you can use scroll wheel. and alt+tab and win+tab. and ctrl+win+tab, ctrl+alt+tab.
so you don't have to think these apps you got in dev preview are going to be in RTM or beta. and apps will not be optimized to run nicely (like they do in WP7).
this OS needs work and it will have alot of bugs.