GPS applications (keeping apps live in background) - Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Is it possible that applications can be kept running in the background whilst using other handset features such as the phone, people, Peep, camera etc ?
i.e. If you are tracking and a call comes in or you want to to use the camera, will the app stay running with the GPS active ?
I this app dependant or will Android kill the GPS and or app as soon as you select the Home button or Back button ?
GPS Status 2 for example does not keep the GPS live if you move to another app or take a phone call.
GeoBeagle is the same.
I thought Android could multitask

it can, but it doesn't mean that the programs are coded to do so.
most GPS apps are designed to be kept open and give you live updates, so if you leave them, they suspend to save battery. some of them, like my tracks and stuff like that will stay running i should imagine, but i would expect apps like geobeagle to close.

Thx, I thought as much.
Oh well, I will hunt down a GPS tracking app that will run in the background.
cheers

MyTracks happily runs in the background - it's a great application!
Regards,
Dave

Just grabbed it thx.
Will give it a go.
cheers

My Tracks is pretty awesome. I'm very impressed with Glympse aswell; a few screen clicks and you can send a link to a friend/colleague and they can open it and track your location in real time from a phone or PC.

Related

Exit running apps

hi i have only just got the hero and was wondering how to close apps properly. i have noticed that when you hold the home key for a while a window pops up showing some apps ...is this how you close them? or is simply pressing the home key shutting them .
The long press on home just brings up a list of apps that have been recently run. It's almost a task switcher, but not quite!
Many apps will exit if you "back" out of them - i.e. when in the app keep pressing back until you get back to the home screen. However, this isn't the case for all applications. Some may have an explicit exit or close button, whereas others may have nothing at all.
However, Android is pretty good at managing its own applications, and will kill/exit them as necessary. In my experience, there's little to be gained from explicitly killing applications using a task killer, but some people swear by it.
Regards,
Dave
foxmeister said:
The long press on home just brings up a list of apps that have been recently run. It's almost a task switcher, but not quite!
Many apps will exit if you "back" out of them - i.e. when in the app keep pressing back until you get back to the home screen. However, this isn't the case for all applications. Some may have an explicit exit or close button, whereas others may have nothing at all.
However, Android is pretty good at managing its own applications, and will kill/exit them as necessary. In my experience, there's little to be gained from explicitly killing applications using a task killer, but some people swear by it.
Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most Task Killers free up memory thats used by background apps.
so basicly back out of the app and let android do the rest of the worring. thanks for advise
risterdid said:
Most Task Killers free up memory thats used by background apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but the point is that Android itself will start killing applications if it starts to run low on resources. (see http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html)
Regards,
Dave
I'll attempt to sum it up once and for all, to try and set the record straight.
In Android's virtual machine, there is no functional differentiation between "closing" an app and "switching away from" an app. They are the same (the exception is things like music players which need to keep playing after you switch away from them, but even then only the 'service' part needs to keep running).
Whenever you switch away from an app, its current state is remembered so that even if it is effectively "killed" it can be returned to in just that state next time it's opened. Then Android either kills the process or it keeps it open, killing it when it needs the memory. You won't notice any difference between either scenario, except maybe that an app loads a little bit faster if it was kept in memory. At any rate, "closed" apps do not "run", and they do not take RAM or CPU cycles from other apps.
In terms of process/memory management, Android's VM has more in common with a web browser than a desktop OS - sure it can remember your state when you switch apps (like switching tabs, going back/forward/home in a browser) but whether behind the scenes it loads it all into and out of memory when you switch back and forth, or it all stays in memory is irrelevant to the user. Nobody worries that a long forum page on another tab or in their back button history is occupying 80 megs in the background or not, the browser takes care of loading/unloading it from RAM as needed, and that's just like how Android's VM works when switching between various pages of various apps.
Once you understand this you understand that all these 'task killer' apps are really unnecessary - all they'll do is make it slower to restart an app once closed. They don't reclaim RAM that was previously unavailable to other apps.
To cut a long story short, pressing "home" is a great way to close an app, whether you want to return to it later or not.
MercuryStar said:
Nobody worries that a long forum page on another tab or in their back button history is occupying 80 megs in the background or not, the browser takes care of loading/unloading it from RAM as needed, and that's just like how Android's VM works when switching between various pages of various apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is not true for me, my firefox can eat a lot of resources as long as it is open. and i can see a performance difference when having a lot of apps open on my hero. not that it would be a problem, but you can see the menus scrolling more "fluid" after killing all bg apps, for example.
kendong2 said:
you can see the menus scrolling more "fluid" after killing all bg apps, for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would wager that's the placebo effect. It feels faster because you believe it should. If you understand how the OS works you realise that apps you've switched away from do nothing to slow down or take memory from any other app (see my exception above about apps that launch background services such as music player).
kendong2 said:
that is not true for me, my firefox can eat a lot of resources as long as it is open. and i can see a performance difference when having a lot of apps open on my hero. not that it would be a problem, but you can see the menus scrolling more "fluid" after killing all bg apps, for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do notice this too. There is a general 'sluggishness' with my Hero when there are lots of app sleeping/running/hibernating/whatever in the background. As soon as I kill off a few unwanted ones, all the menus scroll faster and home screens change quicker.
And this is not the placebo effect either. The menu's DO scroll more fluidly after I have killed a few apps, regardless of how you describe the RAM management...
Micksta said:
And this is not the placebo effect either. The menu's DO scroll more fluidly after I have killed a few apps, regardless of how you describe the RAM management...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly, you can tell easily if it is one motion or looks like it is "skipping frames". even it is only because it takes the device some cpu cycles to kill other apps, it does make a difference. like i said a rather cosmetic one, since it doesn't really effect the general usage. nevertheless i like to know what is running and what's not, and so far im running good with advanced task manager free.
WOW i didnt expect a massive response for my question but i thank you all for your responses
MercuryStar said:
I would wager that's the placebo effect. It feels faster because you believe it should. If you understand how the OS works you realise that apps you've switched away from do nothing to slow down or take memory from any other app (see my exception above about apps that launch background services such as music player).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's not true, my phone gets so sluggish sometimes that i can't answer a phone call, the phone doesn't register that i press the answer button. and when that happends i usually have like 20 mb of free ram.
Daniehabazin said:
that's not true, my phone gets so sluggish sometimes that i can't answer a phone call, the phone doesn't register that i press the answer button. and when that happends i usually have like 20 mb of free ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just as a matter of interest, do you use swapper or AppsToSD?
My phone never gets into the situation you've described, but even though I do have the full version of TasKiller, I almost never use it, and I don't see a need at present to use AppsToSD.
In addition, I'd imagine that having a swap partition would cause an issue with Androids own memory management, since I guess it can't distinguish between real and "virtual" memory. So where a "non-swap" device would start killing processes, a "swap" device would just continue on regardless because it thinks it still has physical memory available.
Regards,
Dave
Yesterday I downloaded "Advanced Task Killer Free"... anyone who has experiences with this? Is is better than just "Task Killer" or is it just an updated version of "Task Killer" ?
thanks!
have been using atk free for a while (lol 2 weeks since i got the hero) now, i really like it. its advantage over all other task managers IMHO: it has an ignore list, things you ignore are not shown in the running tasks list. in the list you have check boxes, where you can select the tasks that will be killed, and this list is remembered. for example "htc sense" is on my ignore list, but "music" is only checked, so i can uncheck it when i don't want to kill it while listening to music. next time i want to kill music i just have to tap the checkbox, no dealing with the ignore list here...
Daniehabazin said:
that's not true, my phone gets so sluggish sometimes that i can't answer a phone call, the phone doesn't register that i press the answer button. and when that happends i usually have like 20 mb of free ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get this problem a lot, and in answer to fox meister, I don't have AppsToSD.
I don't know if the problem is RAM or CPU related, but the CPU often jumps to 100% when things are really slow.
Is the issue likely to be background apps, or widgets even?
Sausageman said:
I get this problem a lot, and in answer to fox meister, I don't have AppsToSD.
I don't know if the problem is RAM or CPU related, but the CPU often jumps to 100% when things are really slow.
Is the issue likely to be background apps, or widgets even?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me with the processor.
When i reboot my phone i usually have 90 mb of free ram, after starting a few applications, like browser and phonebook, it plummets down to 20 mb.
I do have some extra applications that starts as services, like systray monitor and 3g watchdog.
when i open atk after a fresh reboot i see that some applications that i don't even use is started, like footprints, settings and calendar, even my webrowser is started, whats up with that, can it be disabled?
I think the issue is that we have some applications that autostart withous us using them, and also programs that we download that autostarts as services and maybe having memory leaks...
I came to chime in with my experiences of the CDMA hero and sluggishness.
I watch memory like a hawk (thanks Mogul) and I too have around 80-90mb free ram on start, but it can get down to around 30 rather quickly. Once it gets down here, I notice that screen transitions and random lag occurs in apps. If I go into Advanced Task Killer and kill many of the stragglers, my menus are as smooth as can be.
It is most certainly NOT a placebo effect.
One thing I really like about Advanced Task Killer (pay version) is that it has the "Auto End" feature, where it will kill all apps not chosen to be excluded at the interval that you choose. For example, I have determined the system applications that need to be on all the time, and I've excluded those. Every hour, ATK kills everything else. For the most part, my Hero hovers around 70MB now at all times, although it can get down there to around 30-40MB if I'm right around the 1 hour mark.
That feature alone makes it much better than Taskiller IMO. Totally worth 99 cents
This definition would imply that android works exactly like the iphone osx? I mean saving "screenshots" of the last state of an app. But NOT having real multitasking?
Because it's not possible to have multitasking and at the same time "inactive" background apps everytime you hit the home button...
MercuryStar said:
I'll attempt to sum it up once and for all, to try and set the record straight.
In Android's virtual machine, there is no functional differentiation between "closing" an app and "switching away from" an app. They are the same (the exception is things like music players which need to keep playing after you switch away from them, but even then only the 'service' part needs to keep running).
Whenever you switch away from an app, its current state is remembered so that even if it is effectively "killed" it can be returned to in just that state next time it's opened. Then Android either kills the process or it keeps it open, killing it when it needs the memory. You won't notice any difference between either scenario, except maybe that an app loads a little bit faster if it was kept in memory. At any rate, "closed" apps do not "run", and they do not take RAM or CPU cycles from other apps.
In terms of process/memory management, Android's VM has more in common with a web browser than a desktop OS - sure it can remember your state when you switch apps (like switching tabs, going back/forward/home in a browser) but whether behind the scenes it loads it all into and out of memory when you switch back and forth, or it all stays in memory is irrelevant to the user. Nobody worries that a long forum page on another tab or in their back button history is occupying 80 megs in the background or not, the browser takes care of loading/unloading it from RAM as needed, and that's just like how Android's VM works when switching between various pages of various apps.
Once you understand this you understand that all these 'task killer' apps are really unnecessary - all they'll do is make it slower to restart an app once closed. They don't reclaim RAM that was previously unavailable to other apps.
To cut a long story short, pressing "home" is a great way to close an app, whether you want to return to it later or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shahpur.Azizpour said:
This definition would imply that android works exactly like the iphone osx? I mean saving "screenshots" of the last state of an app. But NOT having real multitasking?
Because it's not possible to have multitasking and at the same time "inactive" background apps everytime you hit the home button...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you've not understood the explanation.
The iPhone will always* terminate an application that isn't on its list of "approved" multi-tasking apps once it isn't active any more (i.e. you've switched tasks).
Android will try to keep whatever it can in memory, but eventually will start killing processes in order to keep the system running.
So, if you're on an iPhone listening to something on Spotify and you want to browse something on the web, the iPhone will "kill" Spotify when you switch to the web browser. On Android this won't occur except in the most critical of resource low situations, but then again, I'd imagine other apps would get killed before Spotify.
Read this article, specifically the section from "Component Lifecycles" onwards specifically "Activity Lifecycle", "Saving activity state" and "Processes and lifecycles".
Regards,
Dave
* Unless it has been jailbroken!

Problem with apps

Hi
I'm currently having problem with apps they are auto opening themselves.
Sometimes at startup when I open my open and use Helix/ADW all launcher manu apps are open automatically. It eats like 50MB of memory and battery.
And even while my screen turns off it opens app. I was sleeping and my screen is turn off/sleep and I check task panel it got apps open even the screen is lock.
Got No Idea on this. Why my apps are auto opening.
And do I need to debrand?
I just got a unit Unlocked
X10i
Baseband 1.0.14
Build Number R1FA014
Kernel 2.6.29-rel [email protected]#2
Do I really need to debrand?
Does it reset my phone and my settings/apps will be deleted?
TIA
It's not the X10, it's an Android thing.
Then how to get rid of this auto opening app? I never exp. this on 1.5 and 2.1 on my HTC Hero just on this 1.6
Get Automatic Task Killer or something similar, and set it to kill apps on open...if you find the apps opening affects your performance.
Also, if they're apps that sync with a service, make sure all syncing is off, or they'll keep coming up anyway, to try to sync with the cloud.
as a personal anecdote, once I stopped using task killers, the phone started running more stable and quicker.
So Task killers are not good?
I check my Task Panel once i boot my phone tons of APPS are open
Like Bluetooth file transfer
SMS Backup and Restore
Email
Alarm Clock
Calender
Settings Voice Dialer
It opens on startup.
seriously I just boot up my phone and use ADW Launcher and those open up automatically? what does those do? for startup? there are tons more like 25 apps on startup. This thing is not good since I'll do task killing always even the phone is screen off. My phone is opening Voice Dialer Handsent SMS even though i dont have message or calls received.
It's like every min or hour I'll do task killing it kills battery
Well, Alarm Clock has to be on, so it knows when to go off... If you don't have any alarms set, delete all the alarms that are in it.
Email is on by default, since it's a smart phone. If you don't have an account set up, email won't sync, and thus, isn't really doing anything. Calendar will attempt to sync with google if you set it up, but if not, again, shouldn't be doing anything. SMS will start to monitor for incoming SMSes. A lot of services start so they're there when you try to start them up. Basically, anything that has to sync to the internet to update will start automatically.
If things like Photoshop Mobile or a game or something start up, those should be killed.
Stand alone apps that don't access the internet should have no business starting up on their own.
Some people on here claim task killers are great and help a lot... some claim they do nothing. I'm torn, because the phone feels a bit faster than when I used the task killer everytime I unlocked the phone. If your phone is new, cycle the battery a few times, and let it 'break in' and, eventually, the battery life should improve.
Thanks. I'm just a little bit worried that I'm not aware that there are many task opening with me noticing or knowing it and use much battery as I do.
Some apps open automatically
I know that apps auto close ok , here's its invers..
Any how use some task killers frequently to kill them....
Or just unistall them
.....:thumbup:
................................................................................................
Can somebody help me? I am running my xperia x8 and as i know since i rooted and got myself new rom i was wondering why my games work slow but after a little research i found out that official Facebook app is working in background so i unninstaled but now my question is is there someone who has some facebook app non-official which i can run without the problems?
PS: Sorry if spam on this thread but i cant make new threads on this app (or i can but i cannot figure it out)
Sent from my X8 using xda app-developers app
gr3yh0und said:
Thanks. I'm just a little bit worried that I'm not aware that there are many task opening with me noticing or knowing it and use much battery as I do.
Some apps open automatically
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android works by loading EVERYTHING it can into memory, up to a threshold and then removes apps from memory if they're not being used and memory is required for newly initiated applications.
Some apps have a terminate and stay resident approach and are seen as 'services' and they just stay active no matter what. Email, Calendars and status bar and etc never leave memory cause they're all waiting for there big moment, an email, an appointment, a finger touch etc.
Using a task killer doesn't really do anything, cause as soon as you 'kill' the process and the moment there is available memory again the process will just return to active/inactive memory because that's the way Android memory processing works.
If you have root access you can delete/freeze system apps you don't require.
A 'slim' Android v2.3 ROM shouldn't have more than approx 110 system apps. Less that 95 if you're good.
gr3yh0und said:
I check my Task Panel once i boot my phone tons of APPS are open
Like Bluetooth file transfer
SMS Backup and Restore
Email
Alarm Clock
Calender
Settings Voice Dialer​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the apps you listed are system apps and will, by their nature find there way into memory all the time. That's just how it is.
After a few hours of use many of the non-used apps will drop out of memory and others will take their place.
Loading applications into memory has a time and processing cost and so if it's already in memory, it's quicker to access.
However the Android system doesn't know your usage traits at start-up and that's why some less used system applications may be seem in memory until they're weeded out by those you do use. Again, nothing to worry about,
Using an XPERIA X10i with ~384MB of memory leaves little room for bloatware and thus a lean running machine is the order of the day for the XPERIA X10i.

[Q] How to get the most out of my TF Prime? (from a Android and Tablet newbie!)

Hi all,
I just got my Transformer Prime this week, and as a new user both of Android (my phone is a WP7 device) and of tablets in general, I do have a couple of questions that maybe you guys can help me with...
1) Shut it down or not?
Being a tablet something in between my phone and my laptop, I'm still not sure exactly how to manage it. I know this will come with experience, but do you guys leave it always on like your phone or do you shut down like a laptop? I actually only hibernate my laptop, but I don't know how to do that on my TP... is it possible?
2) Services: my battery and OS responsiveness
OK, so I got my TP and started downloading apps... Skype and Facebook were one of the firsts. I quickly realized that, by default, after opening them for the 1st time, they kept giving me notifications, even if I swiped them left of the task manager (i.e. closed them, AFAIK). This is OK for Skype, but I really don't want Facebook bothering me that much, so I disabled notifications on its settings. Is that all that is needed to remove these permanent services? Does the "services" tab under Settings -> Applications really show everything that is running or can some apps hide from there?
3) Closing apps: should I care about it or not?
I still didn't fully understand how "closing apps" work on Android (ICS at least). If I have an app with notifications enabled (i.e. its service is enabled, right?), even if I close it from the task manager, the notifications keep coming. However, if notifications are disabled, is swiping them left from the task manager REALLY closing them? At the end of the day, to improve battery and responsiveness, should I keep closing my unused apps?
4) Launcher: Is ICS launcher the best for tablets?
This is actually part of a more general question, coming below. But anyway, I read that the ICS launcher is much improved from previous Android versions, and at the same time I didn't find a good launcher comparison for tablets only. Many of the launchers reviews only apply them for phones, and only compare them to the Gingerbread launcher (or some device-specific launcher). Since many of the launchers are paid apps, I would like to know: is there any launcher that is really worth trying in my new TP? What do you guys use?
5) Tablet-optimized apps???
I don't have my TP for even a week and I'm already tired of reading great things about an app, only to download it and see that it is not optimized for tablets at all. So, is there any good source of info/reviews on tablet-optimized apps?
Many thanks!
Leo.
1) Shut it down or not?
Personally, I always leave mine tablet running. There is a price to pay from a battery perspective when shutting down / starting up, so unless you know you are not going to be using it for an extended period of time, I would recommend leaving it on.
2) Services: my battery and OS responsiveness
I believe the 'Services' tab will show all the user app services that are running, but I am not sure if you can permanently prevent them from starting back up with ICS. I have seen task manager apps in the market that can prevent services from starting up. In all reality though, if you are concerned about background services draining your battery, the Prime has excellent battery life to begin with, especially if you have the dock, so if I was you I wouldn't get too worked up over the background services. Now if we were talking about a smart phone here (like my Thunderbolt for example which has horrible battery life), I would be much more concerned about this type of thing as I would want to do anything possible to squeeze as much life out of my battery just to get through an entire day.
3) Closing apps: should I care about it or not?
From my understanding swiping an app on the Recent Apps tray won't actually kill the process. Swiping an app from the Recent Apps tray more or less just removes the app from the list of Recent Apps. ICS automatically takes care of shutting down processes and releasing memory when appropriate. If you want to manually kill an app you can Force Close it from the list of apps from the Settings -> Applications menu. But again, my personal preference is to let ICS do its thing and take care of process management. I will remove apps from the Recent Apps tray just keep the tray less cluttered with apps that I don't use or need to switch to that often but I normally won't kill apps manually from the task manager.
On a side note, I would think removing an app from the Recent Apps tray would signal the OS that I am not going to be using the app again any time soon and the OS is free to shut down the process and release its memory, but I am not sure if this is what happens or not. All I know is that I have read elsewhere that removing an app from the Recent Apps tray will not immediately kill the process.
4) Launcher: Is ICS launcher the best for tablets?
Personally, I really like ICS so I haven't tried any of the other launchers that are out there (on the tablet side of things anyways). I used the GO Launcher on my phone for a little while but ended up switching back to the default HTC Sense launcher. This is one of the things I love about Android though; the ability to totally change the look and feel the device by simply customizing and switching between different launchers. If I ever get tired or bored with ICS, I can download a new launcher and just like that, everything will seem new and fresh again.
5) Tablet-optimized apps???
This is one of the big problems with Android and the Android Market right now; not just the small selection of tablet optimized apps but being able to find these apps in the Market. There is an 'editors top picks for tablet apps' section or something like that in the Android Market that I have used. Unfortunately, many of the apps in there are not that great, but at least they are optimized for tablets. Typically I will just do a google search for 'top android tablet apps' to get a feel for some of the best tablet optimized apps that are out there.
Try the Tablified website or app to find tablet optimized apps. Can't download directly from there, but the install link will take you to the market page for whatever app you want.
http://www.tablified.com
jordache16 said:
1) Shut it down or not?
Personally, I always leave mine tablet running. There is a price to pay from a battery perspective when shutting down / starting up, so unless you know you are not going to be using it for an extended period of time, I would recommend leaving it on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, thanks for taking the time to reply me! Anyway, my point was exactly about the times when I will not use it for an extented period, like when I go to bed or something... But I guess since I don't want any notifications when I'm sleeping, I think it is wiser to shut it down. On the other hand, is there a quick-way to completely silence the tablet, i.e. turn off the volume AND the vibrations?
jordache16 said:
2) Services: my battery and OS responsiveness
I believe the 'Services' tab will show all the user app services that are running, but I am not sure if you can permanently prevent them from starting back up with ICS. I have seen task manager apps in the market that can prevent services from starting up. In all reality though, if you are concerned about background services draining your battery, the Prime has excellent battery life to begin with, especially if you have the dock, so if I was you I wouldn't get too worked up over the background services. Now if we were talking about a smart phone here (like my Thunderbolt for example which has horrible battery life), I would be much more concerned about this type of thing as I would want to do anything possible to squeeze as much life out of my battery just to get through an entire day.
3) Closing apps: should I care about it or not?
From my understanding swiping an app on the Recent Apps tray won't actually kill the process. Swiping an app from the Recent Apps tray more or less just removes the app from the list of Recent Apps. ICS automatically takes care of shutting down processes and releasing memory when appropriate. If you want to manually kill an app you can Force Close it from the list of apps from the Settings -> Applications menu. But again, my personal preference is to let ICS do its thing and take care of process management. I will remove apps from the Recent Apps tray just keep the tray less cluttered with apps that I don't use or need to switch to that often but I normally won't kill apps manually from the task manager.
On a side note, I would think removing an app from the Recent Apps tray would signal the OS that I am not going to be using the app again any time soon and the OS is free to shut down the process and release its memory, but I am not sure if this is what happens or not. All I know is that I have read elsewhere that removing an app from the Recent Apps tray will not immediately kill the process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hum, ok, I will try to freak out less about open apps. What's still bugs me, for instance, is the behavior of Google Talk vs. Skype. After turning the tablet on, Skype doesn't open automatically, and after I open it, it will gracefully inform-me of its status on the notifications bar. However, today I just got surprised by a incoming IM from Google Talk, even if I did'nt open it! I realized that it is hidden under "Google Services" in the app list, but there is no setting in the app to disable it from running on start-up! I can only "sign out"... Anyway, on the other hand, there's no setting to have Skype launch automatically on start up...
jordache16 said:
4) Launcher: Is ICS launcher the best for tablets?
Personally, I really like ICS so I haven't tried any of the other launchers that are out there (on the tablet side of things anyways). I used the GO Launcher on my phone for a little while but ended up switching back to the default HTC Sense launcher. This is one of the things I love about Android though; the ability to totally change the look and feel the device by simply customizing and switching between different launchers. If I ever get tired or bored with ICS, I can download a new launcher and just like that, everything will seem new and fresh again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll second that. I've quickly used the Iphone 4 a couple of times and its dullness just bores me to death... hehe
jordache16 said:
5) Tablet-optimized apps???
This is one of the big problems with Android and the Android Market right now; not just the small selection of tablet optimized apps but being able to find these apps in the Market. There is an 'editors top picks for tablet apps' section or something like that in the Android Market that I have used. Unfortunately, many of the apps in there are not that great, but at least they are optimized for tablets. Typically I will just do a google search for 'top android tablet apps' to get a feel for some of the best tablet optimized apps that are out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I saw that, but I hate that I cannot filter that list between apps and games... stupid Google or stupid me? hehe
wikedawsum said:
Try the Tablified website or app to find tablet optimized apps. Can't download directly from there, but the install link will take you to the market page for whatever app you want.
http://www.tablified.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip! I'm cheking it out right now...
reguarding open apps
At times i noticed my stock launcher was laggy to switch between screens. After swiping to close the recent apps it was a lot more responsive, so i think that swiping the apps from the recent list does close them, at least in mose cases.
As to optimization apps, usually they are intended for phones running older software. You need to remember that every phone (aside from the google phones) is running a slightly different version of android.
Since each version of android is different, even between the Froyo on my phone and your phone, because they have different modifications on them there is a chance that the customized software on my phone may be better at handling unused tasks than your phone (in fact HTC phones by default have a LOT of running processes in the background, whereas Samsung phones generally have fewer).
A lot of these optimization apps do several things:
Turn off wifi and bluetooth when not needed
Close tasks when they are unused
lower screen brightness
turn off 3g and use 2g if available and not in a call
Now this may be excellent for your phone, it spends most of its time in your pocket, soon as you unlock it it can connect to wifi again, turn on bluetooth, etc.
HOWEVER!
If you have, say, the weather widget, or a clock, or in my case battery monitor pro, and the task killer is killing those tasks those widgets will no longer update.
Some tasks, like Maps, tend to start up automatically, meaning your wasting MORE battery life closing this app and then it restarts and you have to close it again. It takes less battery life having it run in the background.
Sometimes an app will close (like the browser) that your not fully done using. Theres a difference between the app being frozen in memory and fully closed. Both do not require much power, however when you open that process again the frozen one takes a LOT less battery than the unfrozen one.
On a tablet, having a case that has a magnet in the apropriate spot and, say, tasker (very good app for custimizing your own triggers to turn things on and off) to detect that sensor and shut off wifi, gps, bluetooth, etc. would be very cool. Many apps use the proximity sensor to detect if its in a pocket and shut off everything, or the lockscreen. Because the way a tablet is used many of these battery saver apps will actually use more battery than what would be used in the first place.
You also have to remember that as android advances there are more tweaks for battery life put into them. For instance, you can have ICS close tasks that are not being used right away to save memory and its pretty good about freezing things in background memory.
Older versions of android lacked these features, or they were poorly implimented. I remember on my vibrant i was always going back to make sure all my tasks were closed properly when i was done with them. With newer devices its not an issue android takes care of that for me.
TLDR: Try as many battery saver apps as you like, just be warey as to what devices they are designed for and what version of android they were made for. Doesnt mean they wont work, just means they may do something thats useless for using on a tablet.
1) Shut it down or not?
Never. We got the companion core for a reason.
2) Services: my battery and OS responsiveness
No, everything is shown except core processes. You can get systempanel if you want to see.
3) Closing apps: should I care about it or not?
Don't unless you somehow got froyo or eclair onto your tablet.
4) Launcher: Is ICS launcher the best for tablets?
Depends on your tastes. I would suggest trying all of them.
5) Tablet-optimized apps???
What the other people said.
1) Mine is always on. I shut down when I expect it to be idle for a long time or when I want maximum battery conservation while idle. Pressing the power button is as close as you get to hibernate, officially with Android. I'm interested to know if any of the usual Linux power management stuff applies to these systems or if it's tied to ACPI (A PC thing), and if there would be a way to wake the system. It's certainly not supported by ASUS .
2) Google how Android services work and about the application life cycle. For the most part things like Facebook don't do all that much harm, unless it is dealing with a lot of data. If you do not want it to run and the application lacks a setting for turning the service off, uninstall the app. A startup manager may or may not be able to help but be warned: auto task killers are generally bad, you would actually want to manage the startup services not auto kill them!
3) No. Android will take care of this OK. Closing apps generally refers to the "Activity" not the service. Android has taken decent care of that since at least version 2.2 and this tablet runs 4.0.3 . Swipping stuff out of the multi-task menu is most useful for keeping it tidy, it will not generally improve your life in most cases. For a good explanation you should look for a post Dianne Hackborn reshared on G+, I believe Android Police even carried it.
4) Depends on what is best for you. It's great except for the lack of customization. Nova Launcher offers a bit more. ICS's launcher versus e.g. GB's is almost what could be called a basic custom launcher, i.e. all the important stuff is there but you can't tweak the hell out of it. For more serious work try ADW Launcher Ex (scrolling widgets currently broken) or Go (not quite fully tablet optimized yet but works). I use ADW Launcher Ex, and there is a free version with less features.
5) Tablified Market and XDA usually helps I guess. I rarely have problems except with rarely updated stuff.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

[Q] Sygic stops GPS tracking in background after a while, yours too?

Hi,
recently I tried out Sygic which works really nice except for one thing:
when Sygic is running in background after a while (seems randomly) the GPS message disappears (upper message in attached pic), the Sygic message remains (lower message in attached pic).
When I click the Sygic message, the app behaves as if I restarted it (says "initializing" on top right). Luckily, it remembers the old route.
Yet sometimes I don't drive myself and would like to do other stuff and have Sygic tracking in the background.
It works fine with Google maps.Yet not with Sygic. Especially when I launch any other app (even the browser, a video or something), Sygic stops tracking immediately (not always but often) or some time later.
GPS is set to never turn off in Sygic and all settings are set to "optimal".
Could that be the Android OS turning something off for Sygic as it might believe it's no longer used or something?
Sygic is more sophisticated than Google maps and uses more ram. If you start opening other apps after Sygic then they will get higher priority in ram. Sygic doesn't really stop so much as get pushed out of memory until it gets switched to again. Not much you can do about it really.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Ah that explains the issue, already feared something like that.
The only annoying part is that it no longer tells me where to go when that happens.
Does anyone know whether this happens with other apps such as Navigon as well?
Since the newest update (at least I didn't notice it before) Sygic has an option "Run navigation in back..." under Battery management.
Haven't tested it yet but that supposedly sets the oom_adj values low enough for the app not to get killed.
Ah thanks, that is new indeed.
Yet I tried this and eventually the same thing happens sooner or later. :/
Open Sygic.... go to SETTINGS than go to BATTERY MANAGEMENT (i don't know witch is the correct option in english as my SYGIC is in ITALIAN)... the first setting that is show to you is the opportunity to deactivate the GPS signal after a definite time.... change it!
Yeah that option is now replaced, you can only check/uncheck it. I checked it so it keeps running in background but still shuts off after a while when using other apps.
You're right. I have the same problem. This is ridiculous. You are running navigation and expect it to give you the directions at the right moment, but you don't know that in the meantime, while you got a phone call and checked your messages it was turned off silently and no longer working.
Without an option to guarantee it's working and can't be stopped in the background, you're as if you have no navigation at all.
If this can not be fixed it's better not to even install Sygic, cause this takes away a major part of what this app is meant to do. So stupid.
I have tried Igo and it was the same. How serious is that?! To have a navigation, which can stop while you're using it and need it, without warning!
Did anybody find a solution to this?
Not really.
Either simply leave Sygic running in foreground / don't leave it running in background for a while or use a different app.
After I purchased it I also noticed some other annoying issues, e.g. voice says "take exit number 24" instead of how we navigate here "take next exit to A2" (our motorway navvigation signs do not show the exit numbers anyway), forcing me to look at the app way more often when there is an exit leading to 2 different motorways.
Due to such issues as well as this annoying "I die if you leave me running in background" I decided to switch to Navigon. Nicely, this app even tells you which motorway to take AND where it leads to, so I don't even need to look at it.
I haven't run a full test yet. Yet I left a video running in full screen and Navigon kept running in background navigating. Once I know more, I report back (if I don't forget). In any case, I wished I didn't have spent the money for Sygic after all. What do free map updates any good when the app isn't suiting oneself.
P.S.: I did inform Sygic support about the background issue and they requested more information as they didn't experience this issue yet. I provided that but didn't get another reply, the thread was then archived.
Landorin said:
Not really.
Either simply leave Sygic running in foreground / don't leave it running in background for a while or use a different app.
After I purchased it I also noticed some other annoying issues, e.g. voice says "take exit number 24" instead of how we navigate here "take next exit to A2" (our motorway navvigation signs do not show the exit numbers anyway), forcing me to look at the app way more often when there is an exit leading to 2 different motorways.
Due to such issues as well as this annoying "I die if you leave me running in background" I decided to switch to Navigon. Nicely, this app even tells you which motorway to take AND where it leads to, so I don't even need to look at it.
I haven't run a full test yet. Yet I left a video running in full screen and Navigon kept running in background navigating. Once I know more, I report back (if I don't forget). In any case, I wished I didn't have spent the money for Sygic after all. What do free map updates any good when the app isn't suiting oneself.
P.S.: I did inform Sygic support about the background issue and they requested more information as they didn't experience this issue yet. I provided that but didn't get another reply, the thread was then archived.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you also for the way Sygic works. It's s not that great. Thanks for sharing about Navigon. Please, test it and post here if the situation with "silent background death" is the same. I would appreciate it if you let me know and will be checking to see how you feel about it when you post your comments.
tiho5 said:
I agree with you also for the way Sygic works. It's s not that great. Thanks for sharing about Navigon. Please, test it and post here if the situation with "silent background death" is the same. I would appreciate it if you let me know and will be checking to see how you feel about it when you post your comments.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using Sygic for quite a long time and noticed that on my Galaxy Captivate, after initialization, if you switch to some other app then return to Sygic (either from the app icon, or from the task bar) it always restart.
However on my Galaxy S3 after switch back to Sygic it just continues wherever it left off. I guess that my Captivate had less memory to run Sygic while I have plenty on the S3.
Also in Sygic, go to Settings / Notifications and Sounds / Advanced and turn "Sound always on" would let Sygic to continue to turn-by-turn announcement even if it is not in the foreground, even when the screen is off.
I have plenty of free memory (using HTC one x) and still it's killed. But this is not a problem of sygic. it's a problem of Android. Or may be indrrd sygic didn't make the right settings for the memory registration of this app (if that's something that they could do). As I see the oom values of this app are pretty high usually when I check.
Also about the voice: I have this option checked. But I never had an occasion when it spoke to me when it was killed. I'll check again. May be I didn't notice it...
Thanks for your comment on that. I'm surely going to test this.
tiho5 said:
I have plenty of free memory (using HTC one x) and still it's killed. But this is not a problem of sygic. it's a problem of Android. Or may be indrrd sygic didn't make the right settings for the memory registration of this app (if that's something that they could do). As I see the oom values of this app are pretty high usually when I check.
Also about the voice: I have this option checked. But I never had an occasion when it spoke to me when it was killed. I'll check again. May be I didn't notice it...
Thanks for your comment on that. I'm surely going to test this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably you haven't set the option to switch off GPS after a certain amount of time. Go to Settings /Battery management / Switch GPS off after... then move the slider until you see "never".
pentel1954 said:
You probably you haven't set the option to switch off GPS after a certain amount of time. Go to Settings /Battery management / Switch GPS off after... then move the slider until you see "never".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for trying to help. This option is set properly to "never" with me.
Hey all,
sorry for the late reply.
Sad news: Navigon dies in background as well. Just like Sygic, it doesn't always happen. But once you start using other apps actively it will eventually kill Sygic and Navigon silently. As someone already pointed out, it's likely an issue due to how Android works.
I had the relevant options ticked to never disable GPS or anything and it made no difference.
So you can use another app but you can't actively use your smartphone, e.g. I can have Poweramp run in foreground and switch tracks without Navigon dying (it also keeps talking to me via voice, even when the screen is turned off). But if you're not the driver and want to do more than just that then you'd need a second device or so.
Cheers,
Landorin
P.S.: at least now I could test both apps and personally, I'll stick with Navigon. Navigation by voice is so well developed that I don't need to look at the app while driving and if I do look at it, track assistant is better developed too (it shows you the motorway signs). With the app "Directory Bind" I was also able to move the whole big app + maps onto the external SD card.
Hopefully, the Sygic devs will listen to the community feedback and catch up in development over time.
Landorin said:
Hey all,
sorry for the late reply.
Sad news: Navigon dies in background as well. Just like Sygic, it doesn't always happen. But once you start using other apps actively it will eventually kill Sygic and Navigon silently. As someone already pointed out, it's likely an issue due to how Android works.
I had the relevant options ticked to never disable GPS or anything and it made no difference.
So you can use another app but you can't actively use your smartphone, e.g. I can have Poweramp run in foreground and switch tracks without Navigon dying (it also keeps talking to me via voice, even when the screen is turned off). But if you're not the driver and want to do more than just that then you'd need a second device or so.
Cheers,
Landorin
P.S.: at least now I could test both apps and personally, I'll stick with Navigon. Navigation by voice is so well developed that I don't need to look at the app while driving and if I do look at it, track assistant is better developed too (it shows you the motorway signs). With the app "Directory Bind" I was also able to move the whole big app + maps onto the external SD card.
Hopefully, the Sygic devs will listen to the community feedback and catch up in development over time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this elaborate report. It will be useful for many.
And yes, the navigation soft producers must make some conclusions.
If I find a good way to protect an app from being killed, I'll post it here.
You can try Fameelee - Family Locator app and you will never get such problems. 24/7 real time accurate gps location tracking, ability to see location history of your app members for the last 30 days, get notification once your app members reach some specific places (that you match by yourself), sms and call logs tracking and a lot of more. App is free and avaiable on appstore and google play market

Battery life (or, why is maps running so often?)

Hi,
I've recently installed CM10 and for the most part have been happy with the battery performance, however, if I don't remember to switch to airplane mode overnight, the battery drops by almost half by the time I get into work again.
I've noticed that Android OS, System Standby and Maps are all using a lot of battery, which is weird because I haven't used maps, nor have I (to the best of my knowledge) used any apps that would require my location (other than the camera, to take two photos)
http://i.imgur.com/5sWn58I.png
Greenify also backs this up, with maps waking up my device a ridiculous number of times, and Facebook Messenger (which I'm now tempted to uninstall) along with BBC Weather which I have no idea why it's running so frequently that I'm also tempted to uninstall.
http://i.imgur.com/uZQ45Gh.png
Any suggestions on how to optimise things a little here please? I hate the idea of things running in the background and it's something I'm really struggling with since moving from iOS.
Thanks
blizeH said:
Hi,
I've recently installed CM10 and for the most part have been happy with the battery performance, however, if I don't remember to switch to airplane mode overnight, the battery drops by almost half by the time I get into work again.
I've noticed that Android OS, System Standby and Maps are all using a lot of battery, which is weird because I haven't used maps, nor have I (to the best of my knowledge) used any apps that would require my location (other than the camera, to take two photos)
http://i.imgur.com/5sWn58I.png
Greenify also backs this up, with maps waking up my device a ridiculous number of times, and Facebook Messenger (which I'm now tempted to uninstall) along with BBC Weather which I have no idea why it's running so frequently that I'm also tempted to uninstall.
http://i.imgur.com/uZQ45Gh.png
Any suggestions on how to optimise things a little here please? I hate the idea of things running in the background and it's something I'm really struggling with since moving from iOS.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with es task manager you can enable and disable start up apps or running apps. this helped me from time to time. good luck
Use Greenify and Autostarts
Thanks both! Will get ES Task Manager now and mess with the startup apps... Autostarts looks fantastic, but since ES is free it edges it for me
blizeH said:
Thanks both! Will get ES Task Manager now and mess with the startup apps... Autostarts looks fantastic, but since ES is free it edges it for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Free does not mean best but try it .
jje

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