Database Users

Some basic noobie Galaxy S questions

First up, hello to everyone.
I'm a new convert to Android having picked up a Galaxy S a couple of weeks ago, and I've got a couple of (what I'm sure are) basic questions about how best to work it:
First up, how do I go about creating folders on my SD Card. I'm assuming that's the best way to organise things like icons, themes, wallpapers etc.
Is it possible to edit the icons on the dock at the bottom of the screen? Can I put different Apps down there? Can I change the icons that those apps use?
I'm having issues with Widgets - do I need to restart the phone each time I install an app with a widget? There are some apps which allow me to use a widget straight away, but then there are some (like the BBC news feed) which just doesn't show up in my widget list
Can anyone reccomend a good link or article on how to root the Galaxy S? I'd like to it be as simplified as possible please.
Thanks loads in advance for both your help and your time.
Cheers

1)while browsing your sd card, press menu button and it will you the option to create a folder
2)click on applications button while on home screen to change to applications view, then click menu (left button) and edit, then you can just drag the icons in and out of the dock
3)not sure, widgets that i tried all ran after installing them without rebooting the phone
4)I suggest you check out the Galaxy S I9000 Android Development subforum right here on xda, there are some great guides there.

1) I just do it when plugged into my PC via USB in Mass Storage mode. =)
2) As random.si said.
3) I've never needed to restart the phone for widget...are you sure those apps actually have widgets?...Any widgets from the Market or installed apps should always be under 'Android Widgets' as soon as the app is installed, otherwise try using the app first as it may have a config or something.
4) There's a stickied guide in the Android Development subforum here! It's dead easy, so no worries there. Just follow the instructions to the letter, but that's not hard for rooting the Galaxy S.

Hi there. Could you just tell me how to close running application? There is 6 application when i open my task manager (middle button for 3 sec) and i cant do anything with them. Is there any button to close application, not minimalize?
Like now i'm installing facebook and setting up my account. Phone seems to hanging. I dont know how to close it?

mika34 said:
Hi there. Could you just tell me how to close running application? There is 6 application when i open my task manager (middle button for 3 sec) and i cant do anything with them. Is there any button to close application, not minimalize?
Like now i'm installing facebook and setting up my account. Phone seems to hanging. I dont know how to close it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Applications open in the background don't use any CPU time and if the RAM they use is needed Android closes them by itself.
Android isn't designed to let the user close applications. If you really have to close them for some specific reason you can use a task killer from the market.

mika34 said:
Hi there. Could you just tell me how to close running application? There is 6 application when i open my task manager (middle button for 3 sec) and i cant do anything with them. Is there any button to close application, not minimalize?
Like now i'm installing facebook and setting up my account. Phone seems to hanging. I dont know how to close it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually those 6 applications are NOT actually running(necessarily).They are just the last 6 applications you have used.

saldawop said:
Actually those 6 applications are NOT actually running(necessarily).They are just the last 6 applications you have used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. Thanks very much guys for your help.
One more question.
How to enable vibration to incoming text message? Can`t see any option for that.

You should try out prehome. When you press home key, it will show the active task, and you can switch or kill task there. Press home key the second time will bring you to home. I love it.

Does anybody knows how to set vibration on incoming messages? Can`t find it. strange

mika34 said:
Does anybody knows how to set vibration on incoming messages? Can`t find it. strange
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Messages > Menu button > settings. It's at the bottom : D

Rawat said:
Messages > Menu button > settings. It's at the bottom : D
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Click to collapse
Big thx for that.

mika34 said:
Big thx for that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If ever in doubt, always try the menu buttons.
Pretty much every app hides its settings and many controls under the menu buttons to stop the screen being cluttered up with buttons.
The menu button is also context-sensitive to whatever you're doing at the time, so you just need to get used to remembering it's there.
As the previous guys said, Android is designed to not have specific 'closing' or exiting of apps. Rather, they'll hide themselves in the background and once the system needs to free up some ram it'll close once you haven't used for a while automatically in preference of those using the most RAM. It will also usually save the state of that app, so if you go to use it again and Android has already closed it, it will still appear where you left off but just take a bit longer to start since it was cleared from the background.
Most apps will fully close however if you exit by using the back button (bottom-right touch button on the phone), basically reversing your way out of the app until you hit the home screens.
Holding the Home button shows the last 6 apps you had open, whether they're still running in the background or not. It's just a quick way to jump between stuff rather than an actual task manager.
In the JM2 firmware Samsung have added a great widget and task manager app. The widget shows the number of apps still running in the background, as well as a colour for if they're draining battery or performance (ie: processing lots in the background). All you need to do is touch the widget and it'll take you straight to a list where you can close any. Very handy!
While it's easy to get obsessed with using one of the task killer apps on the market all the time, I eventually found with my old Hero that it performed just as well if you ignore what it's doing with RAM or apps since it's intelligent enough to prioritise and close appropriate background stuff without your intervention.
The only reason people were recommending task killers for the Galaxy S was because of the random lags / stalls caused by bugs in the firmware, some of which were caused by it not closing stuff or managing itself properly in the background.
My advice: JM2 firmware and just use the Samsung task manager widget as a guide to if for some reason something high-powered like a game was left open and Android didn't clean it up yet.

Phone number format
How can I change the format of the phone number which is displayed when I have an incoming call ? Thanks ?

While writing SMS, contacts displayed twice
Hi to all,
When I write an SMS and want to choose a contact, they all appear twice, even tough in the phonebook they only appear once because I ticked the option of displaying only contacts from the phone and not from the sim card.
Is there a similar option in SMS that I'm missing here?
Thanks in advance,
Itay

Glad to see this thread has taken off a bit.
One more question from me:
random.si said:
1)while browsing your sd card, press menu button and it will you the option to create a folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm assuming I need some sort of File Explorer app to be able to do this - can anyone recommend one?
Cheers

Astro file explorer

is there any way to stop sms being converted to multimedia message? if i write a text message consisting of more than 3 messages (i believe 180 characters) it converts it to multimedia, which costs me!!!

Annoying background apps

guys i need a trick for stop app that start without permission in background, and close app that i use when i press the home or the back key
please there is a way?

search for task killer.

i don't think that solve the problem

djsolidsnake86 said:
i don't think that solve the problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its the closest thing he has to solving his "problem" or what he would easily be able to use.

taskiller or something else dont kills services and selfstarting background apps, you can try with startup auditor which has an option to prevent apps to start again but i want an app which can really disable this ****, hope somone knows a better solution

suicide monkey said:
taskiller or something else dont kills services and selfstarting background apps, you can try with startup auditor which has an option to prevent apps to start again but i want an app which can really disable this ****, hope somone knows a better solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you can simply uninstall the app/system app then.
If its a system app you want removing use "SystemApp Remover".

I don't see what's the big deal ! this is not something new, it doesn't kill your battery any faster if you kill them, use advanced task killer, set auto kill level to safe, set auto kill frequency to When screen off, only leave important apps on the ap list unchecked, add the auto kill widget to your homescreen, and every time you want just hit that widget killing all apps and go on with your day!!

Try Autostarts: http://www.androidpit.de/de/android/market/apps/app/com.elsdoerfer.android.autostarts/Autostarts
With this app you have not only control of the startup programms, you also can disable apps, that would starts if different events happens. gl

TheATHEiST said:
Well you can simply uninstall the app/system app then.
If its a system app you want removing use "SystemApp Remover".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its not about unistalling i just want to disable the services of apps i use, eg news room has an service to refresh the rss feeds, but i have set it to refresh manual so it doesn't need a refresh service...

j4n87 said:
Try Autostarts: http://www.androidpit.de/de/android/market/apps/app/com.elsdoerfer.android.autostarts/Autostarts
With this app you have not only control of the startup programms, you also can disable apps, that would starts if different events happens. gl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx seems to be a nice app but not that easy u have to know what u change
i have to try

roloracer said:
I don't see what's the big deal ! this is not something new, it doesn't kill your battery any faster if you kill them, use advanced task killer, set auto kill level to safe, set auto kill frequency to When screen off, only leave important apps on the ap list unchecked, add the auto kill widget to your homescreen, and every time you want just hit that widget killing all apps and go on with your day!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
of course it can kill your battery faster,like an update service witch activates your data, a music player which is watching if ur headset is plugged or things like that and its not enough to kill them with taskiller cause they can restart from them selve!
try multitasking from royerd, its a taskmanger which start when u press homebutton twice,there u can kill apps and u have a tab where u can see active services and kill them trough a shortcut

djsolidsnake86 said:
guys i need a trick for stop app that start without permission in background, and close app that i use when i press the home or the back key
please there is a way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. The ones running in the background are normally services or any apps which are not closed.
2. You can see service/apps run status using any task manager tool from market.
3. The services are installed as part of the app installed on your machine.
4. They are more often than not harmless as far as battery is concerned but can
be problematic if you have limited RAM on your phone
5. The best bet is to un-install the apps themselves, if you want to get rid of the services.
6. The normal task managers don't kill services running in background as that is what they are meant to do,otherwise the apps they are linking will not work properly.
7. Some apps on market claim to kill services/apps automatically as and when they are started by system, but this counterproductive as a service once installed will always attempt to start at frequent intervals and then the task manager killing them resulting in higher battery drain anyway.
Also, this means the task manager will always be running in the background.
So in short, the best bet for now is to un-install the apps which have background services running if you dont use them much.
Hope this helps.

hold back button to kill app?

are there any mods out yet that allow for this?

Not that I know of, I believe that requires source code hacks. We don't have the honeycomb source.

is there at least a way to close/kill apps from the running apps button next to the home button? Right now the only way i know of is killing theme from app settings

xdmds said:
is there at least a way to close/kill apps from the running apps button next to the home button? Right now the only way i know of is killing theme from app settings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now there is a thought! I am new to Android but I think it is completely asinine that there isn't a way to close apps. Even doing it in setting isn't a sure fire way to close apps. Not just apps but how but the settings menu for example? They say those apps are not using resources but if I am done with a game/app then I want to close it.

jadesse said:
Now there is a thought! I am new to Android but I think it is completely asinine that there isn't a way to close apps. Even doing it in setting isn't a sure fire way to close apps. Not just apps but how but the settings menu for example? They say those apps are not using resources but if I am done with a game/app then I want to close it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
very good idea.
pull the recent apps and either do a long press, or maybe it could have an "X" to close it

How do you kill a running app

On my Samsung Gingerbread /Touchwiz Galaxy Phone long touch of the home button brings up recent applications with a task killer button that lists running apps with an exit button each.
The recent apps button on the Nexus doesn't seem to lead to a kill option.
I guess I could go to settings/apps/running and select an app and pick the stop from its page, but thats a lot more complicated.
Is there an easier way?

Press the right button (looks like two windows) then swipe to kill
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

rowanparker said:
Press the right button (looks like two windows) then swipe to kill
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I had the right button, but I was trying to kill with a long press instead of a swipe. I thought kill/delete with Swipes was an Apple thing, while Android used long press.
Maybe Apple will sue

Nah, in the iPod touch and iPad it's long press which brings up close buttons

According to the manual the only way to kill a task is in the settings / apps section. "Force Stop"
Swiping away the "recent apps" simply removes it from "recent apps"
Jellybean manages apps / memory automatically. You should never be short on memory.

Hemidroids said:
According to the manual the only way to kill a task is in the settings / apps section. "Force Stop"
Swiping away the "recent apps" simply removes it from "recent apps"
Jellybean manages apps / memory automatically. You should never be short on memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, that isn't killing an app.
You don't need to kill apps as a matter of routine although people always seem to think so. Sometimes it is necessary if the app is behaving badly and there a lots of task-killers available that will do that.
I like "system panel" as it has other uses too.
The "recent apps" button is supposed to be there for your convenience so you can easily go from one app to another, if you are swiping them away you are just nullifying the point of the button.

Actually swiping away from the recent apps does indeed kill the app. You can verify the behavior on apps by swiping them away and opening them again. They will load from the beginning instead of where you left off.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

ok thanks, didn't know that. I think some of the other stuff I said is still kinda valid tho. There is no real need to kill apps.
Sent from my LG-P990 using Tapatalk

kangxi said:
Actually swiping away from the recent apps does indeed kill the app. You can verify the behavior on apps by swiping them away and opening them again. They will load from the beginning instead of where you left off.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would hardly call that proof. It could simply be a signal to refresh instead of "pick up where you left off". After all, if you swipe it away you dont really have an urgent need to go right "back where you left off".

Hemidroids said:
I would hardly call that proof. It could simply be a signal to refresh instead of "pick up where you left off". After all, if you swipe it away you dont really have an urgent need to go right "back where you left off".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The proof is already out there. I just simplified it. There was a huge debate about it when the Gnex came out and I believe a Googler posted about it on Google+ as well.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Don't most people put a task manager widget (Application Manager) on their home screens anyway for this so you can quit all active apps and clear your RAM? It was a standard app on my Samsung Captivate Glide, and I keep it next to my battery widget so maybe between the two I can make the battery last more than 8 hours.
-Ara

is there a way to delete all the runnings apps at once? It's tiring to swipe them out one by one..
sometimes after a long use you have more than 10 apps running, it would be easier if i can simply swipe them all out with one button

thunder9111 said:
is there a way to delete all the runnings apps at once? It's tiring to swipe them out one by one..
sometimes after a long use you have more than 10 apps running, it would be easier if i can simply swipe them all out with one button
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, that's why I like my App Manager widget, you have the option to kill everything in one click (at least until I get the ics update, then it's two clicks for that damn confirmation screen).
-Ara

I've always heard it likened to the backing out of an app with the back button. If I go into G+, go into a room in messenger and skip to home, I can resume the app right where I left off (provided it's soon, hasn't been killed). But if I exit home, swipe the app out, it acts as if I've closed it but it's kept in memory. If I do the same but long press the app in the recent apps list, go to app info and kill the app, then it is forced out of memory. It's essentially killing the app. A good example is a music app; the app continues to play when you've backed out of the app via the back button, even when you swipe the app away as it is still in use. Force stopping the app has a definite result.
Guess it is time for the obligatory "why you shouldn't don't need to use a task killer" with Android. This is an old article, but this was true then and is even more so now. Killing all apps isn't necessary and can have negative effects.
-edit-
Probably should have linked the mentioned article;
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/

AraDreamer said:
Again, that's why I like my App Manager widget, you have the option to kill everything in one click (at least until I get the ics update, then it's two clicks for that damn confirmation screen).
-Ara
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no need for task killers. This has been confirmed over and over, even by Google. That's why they made them stop working in Froyo I believe'
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Hemidroids said:
According to the manual the only way to kill a task is in the settings / apps section. "Force Stop"
Swiping away the "recent apps" simply removes it from "recent apps"
Jellybean manages apps / memory automatically. You should never be short on memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, actually i use Cool Tool to monitor my available ram, and when I swipe away apps from the recent apps view, i free up lots of ram.

AraDreamer said:
Again, that's why I like my App Manager widget, you have the option to kill everything in one click (at least until I get the ics update, then it's two clicks for that damn confirmation screen).
-Ara
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works, but it ruins the the running tasks page. After you killed everything, bring up the running apps, and they are all still there. It doesn't get rid of the apps there, so that's still annoying

[Q] Is the easiest way to stop and app...

I was just wondering if someone knew what was going on when you swipe away an app in the app switcher. (I'm not sure what the proper name is for the 3rd soft button so my searches haven't proved very useful - although I'm sure this information is out there!)
To be clear, you know how you can cycle between open apps by hitting the 3rd soft button? And you can also 'swipe away' an app here. Does this shut the app down along with all related processes? Does anyone know what's going on behind the scenes?
For example if I lose my twitter app this way I no longer get tweet notifications, but if I close gmail I do get email updates - but perhaps the latter is more tightly integrated or maybe I've remembered this behaviour wrong!
I guess what I'm really trying to understand is if this is the easiest way (without using 3rd party apps) to keep tabs on open apps and make sure my poor Nexus doesn't get overwhelmed by processes.
Thanks.
oops typo in the thread title.. should be "an app"

That third button is called a Recents button. And currently when you swipe away an app all it does is remove that app from your recents list but it does not close the app

Ah, great, just the info I was after.

no problem im glad to help

To answer your original question... Settings -> Apps -> Running -> tap an app -> Stop

truthkillszz said:
it does not close the app
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Click to collapse
yes it does. could just try it...