Right before i gave up on the samsung captivate I had froyo 2.2.1 on it with a custom rom.
one of the benefits of this rom was when you held the home button, you got a list of recent apps (which we have now on the streak).. and a button shortcut to the samsung "Task Manager".
I for one do not believe in task managers, but this feature was very useful when I had apps like NFL gamecenter keep the gps on after close, or if an app just would not close properly. It was very easy to just hold the home button, go to task manager and kill that app.
Is there anything like this that can be linked to the home button? I don't want to use one of those resident task managers that sit in notification or run all the time in the background.
thanks
Check out Free Advanced Task Manager. You can close it so it doesn't run in resident memory all the time. Also, it merely links to the apps "Application Info" system page. There is also a home-screen "shortcut" for "ATMF Press to End" that bulk kills all apps to free system resources. I find it invaluable to end some persistent apps like Angry Birds or Xfinity.
I have the app "Android System Info" from the market and placed its widget which shows battery, ram, and sdcard memory on my homescreen. If i want to kill something and not go all the way into settings-manage applications, i just tap the widget, opens up ASI and kill things from there.
Whats also cool about the app it shows percentages for how long your CPU has been at different speeds, helpful to see how the different governors work on setcpu.
Has anyone found a way to do this yet?
I'm also looking for a way to have a dedicated recent apps icon so I don't need to long press the home button all the time.
HTC Evo 3d Myn's ICS stock kernel
Related
Ok I have looked around and have not found the answer. SO here Goes
In windows if you want to keep the memory that you have clear of background applications, you can run system configuration and just remove the check-mark for those items you dont want to auto start.
I have Advanced Task Killer installed and will set it up to auto kill and will manual kill apps as well. Instead of consistently looking at ATK to shut down apps, is there a way to just keep all the apps you not using nor have ever started from suddenly being there and sucking the life out of your battery?
Having applications "running" in the background (i.e., still in memory but in a suspended state) does NOT negatively affect your battery life. These applications are actually just remaining in memory because that memory does not need to be used by anything else at the moment. If an active application gets to a point where it needs more memory, Android will automatically close applications that are in a suspended state (i.e., not actively being used) to make room.
In other words, using an app killer is NOT necessary and I definitely recommend NOT using one. By closing the application repeatedly, you are just causing the application to take a longer amount of time to start up next time you use it. You're making your Android experience worse by using one, not better.
There is one caveat to this, and that is when you have an application installed that doesn't play nicely -- i.e., even when you stop using that application, it will continue to use up CPU cycles (never go into a suspended state). This is actually pretty rare unless you are installing really poorly written programs, but it can happen to some popular apps too (usually the result of a bug). In this case, you should either uninstall that application or use an app killer to only kill that one app.
I've heard both sides of this argument, and don't know who to believe. I didn't think I needed a Task Killer, but then I saw it repeatedly on "top 10 apps for Android" and "must have Android apps" lists from respected sites like cnet... who to believe?!
Cnet ≠ respected
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App
drumist said:
Having applications "running" in the background (i.e., still in memory but in a suspended state) does NOT negatively affect your battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I need to confirm this. Anyone? I dont care about memory because I bet Android excels at that, and at any rate, memory is there to be used, not to keep it empty.
But I come from a Symbian smartphone and "minimized" applications DO uses battery. Maybe little, but noticeable.
Anyone can confirm that background apps consume negligible battery juice?
Additionally, is there a nice task changer? Like windows Alt+Tab. I feel my Android like an iPhone, that I need to press the home button to move to another already opened app and that's just plain stupid. So far I'm using Multitasking Lite, but it can get sluggish once there are too many apps opened. Any suggestion would be warmly welcomed.
"Running" background apps DO NOT consume battery life unless they're actively syncing. If it's just in the memory saving the state of the app then that is fine.
As far as using a task killer, if you are manually killing apps and they keep starting back up then that is a bad thing for your battery. The app uses cpu cycles everytime it starts up again and syncs data. You can use a task killer to close apps that opened on startup or when you're done with them. If they stay closed until you choose to open them again then you're saving memory, but nothing to do with battery life.
ocswing said:
"Running" background apps DO NOT consume battery life unless they're actively syncing. If it's just in the memory saving the state of the app then that is fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for confirming ;]
Darius_bd said:
Additionally, is there a nice task changer? Like windows Alt+Tab. I feel my Android like an iPhone, that I need to press the home button to move to another already opened app and that's just plain stupid. So far I'm using Multitasking Lite, but it can get sluggish once there are too many apps opened. Any suggestion would be warmly welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously you can switch over to some apps by pulling down the notification menu and selecting the appropriate app. That only works on apps that put themselves in the notification menu though (multimedia apps and things like Google Nav usually do this).
Otherwise, you can press and hold the home button to bring up the list of 8 most recently opened apps without exiting the active app. This works but like I said, it's the 8 most recent apps, so it will list apps that aren't necessarily still running anymore. It's more of a shortcut to having to go search in your apps menu or home screens to find a recent app than a way to see what is currently running.
drumist said:
Otherwise, you can press and hold the home button to bring up the list of 8 most recently opened apps without exiting the active app. This works but like I said, it's the 8 most recent apps, so it will list apps that aren't necessarily still running anymore. It's more of a shortcut to having to go search in your apps menu or home screens to find a recent app than a way to see what is currently running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What can I say, I hate pressing the home key to hunt for the icon that opens the app I already opened more than 6 other apps ago ;] Guess I'll stick to Multitasking Lite for the time being. Thanks!
Hi, so a long press on 'home' brings the last 6 apps used. It's so basic it's sad. Is there a way to replace this with a better task switcher? Yes I know how Android manages RAM. I do not want a task killer, but a task switcher that replaces the existing one.
Does that exist? Thank you!
Tried searching the Market?
Task Manager ?
Ok obviously this is frustrating, I think my question has merit and I get the rolling eyes smileys.
Yes I have searched the market. From the ones I tried (must have tried 5 or 6 of them) *not one* of these apps replaces the 'hold home for 2 seconds' behaviour. Not one.
Further more, a lot of them *do not work* on the SGS2. Perfect task switcher fails to render the screenshots for example, other freeze, other are plain broken - displaying all running processes including 'android system'.
What I'm looking for is something that replaces the 2 sec long press and display the most recent used apps.
Maybe try quickdesk.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
LauncherPro has such a feature. You can set one of the dock buttons to "recent apps" and it'll fill your entire screen with your recent apps, not just 6.
does anyone know how to clear the recent apps so there is not a long list? is there anyone that I could shorten it to only show my last 3 apps?
thanks again
Freak
tab 10.1
If you hold your Power button down a while, a list of options will come up. Select Power Off. This will power down your tablet. When you restart it the list will be cleared.
What type of things do you have on your recent list "sexfreak"?
there are things there that are adult oriented, I also dont like how it shows the last picture taken. I was hoping for something a little more slick then powering it off and on, like maybe shortening the list that it would display, or a "app" or link that would clear it out.
sexfreak said:
does anyone know how to clear the recent apps so there is not a long list? is there anyone that I could shorten it to only show my last 3 apps?
thanks again
Freak
tab 10.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just use one of the Task Manager apps then kill all the processes.
i use advance task killer, it free's the memory up but still leaves the "history " should I use a different task killer?
Developers can mark their apps to not show in recent apps list, but the list itself is only modifiable by android OS. So I think there is no a task killer/manager which can help you.
You can reboot tab or open as many app as needed to hide your problematic app from the lsit
So far Task manager will not clear your recent app list. Only solution I have found is rebooting the device.
Does anyone know where the data is stored? Would it be possible to navigate to the location of the file and clear it that way?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
has anyone noticed that after you kill an app that it will start on its own? gmail, books, clock, browser, craigslist, google voice and others will start up after I "kill" them
I just installed a ROM (Senseless ROM 1.1) and I'm liking it a lot. But I noticed something odd when pressing and holding the "home" key to bring up the "recent apps" list. Every few minutes the oldest items drop off the end of the list.
So initially maybe I have 4 apps in the list, then after a while of switching between apps 1 and 2, suddenly there are only 3 apps in the list, then 2. And eventually it even drops down to 0 so the app I'm currently running isn't even in the list. Does the stock phone do this too and I only just now noticed it or is this feature only an issue with my particular ROM? What aspect of android controls the app switcher (if that's what it's called).
I'm using launcher-pro if it matters, and I haven't installed any task switchers from the market. I might consider getting one of the market task switchers as a decent workaround, but I'm not necessarily keen on the interface they all seem to use (tap home -> task switcher; tap home twice -> home screen of your launcher that you would otherwise get to with a single tap).
I haven't yet found any settings for controlling the app switcher. Are there any, and where do they live?
I almost can't imagine that this is an intentional design feature of the "recent app" history, but after an LED "notification" light that turns off after 5 minutes, anything is possible.
For what it's worth I started using the market app "PreHome" as a task switcher and am finding it a good replacement for the default. Now I just hit [home] once to bring up the PreHome app which maintains a good history, and never use the hold [home] to get the default android task history.
Oddly enough I haven't been able to reproduce the original problem I had reported, even when I do use the default switcher for a while.
I knew this would happen.. as soon as I reported that it wasn't reproducing anymore I started hitting the problem again. At least the part where semi-old items start dropping off the history list. I still haven't yet reproduce a history list containing 0 items.
Browsing the web seems to be the most reliable way to make older apps fall off the end of the list. Specifically I was browsing m.zedge.net listening to ringtones.
Anyway the only new news is that when an item drops out of the traditional app history list, it also dropped out of the PreHome app's list.
Is there a way to remove apps from showing up in the stock Task Manager?
For example, I am using LauncherPro. Every time I quickly want to end all Apps (Sometimes have 10+ open), I hit "Kill All." This also kills my LauncherPro, however, as it continually shows up in that window. So then when I click Home, I have a 2 second delay until my home is displayed (normally instant if the app was running).
How do I prevent my LauncherPro, or any App for that reason, from showing up?
Thanks in advance for your time!