Longpressing home is cool and all, but pales in comparison to WebOS and even some iOS jailbreak offerings.
I'm currently loving SwipePad which allows me to see several custom apps and actions with one bezel swipe. CM7 allows you to set only one custom action to 'long press home.' I prefer using long press home for recent apps and SwipePad for frequently used bookmarks and apps.
Perfect Task Switcher offers an alternate UI to see recently opened apps, and allows you to kill the tasks like in iOS.
They're both free and in the market and worth trying. For me, SwipePad makes me not miss the card view task switching of WebOS even though it only shows icons and not previews.
Related
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
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.
Sometimes i forgot i left some apps running in the back ground.
and not all apps can hibernate, some of them cause wake locks.
so it will be nice if there's a widget that display how many apps are currently running.
the default touch widz has a widget called "active applications"
it works and get the job done, tapping on it launches the task manager, another good thing about it.
the problem is, why on earth is it a 2x1 widget?
its a real waste of screen real estate.
is there any widget out there in the market that is 1x1 and does the same function?
Closest thing I know to what you're looking for is this. Install System Tuner Pro from market (costs a few bucks. This might even be possible with the free/non-pro version). Once installed, you can put a shortcut to Task Manager on your homescreen which is a 1x1 icon.
From task manager you can show only non-system apps currently running, or you can include system apps & even kernel processes. Click on an app/process & you can kill it with one button press.
Hope this is kinda what you were looking for
Edit to add - This is possible with the free version, but you have to put up with annoying ads :-/
Ray1 said:
Sometimes i forgot i left some apps running in the back ground.
and not all apps can hibernate, some of them cause wake locks.
so it will be nice if there's a widget that display how many apps are currently running.
the default touch widz has a widget called "active applications"
it works and get the job done, tapping on it launches the task manager, another good thing about it.
the problem is, why on earth is it a 2x1 widget?
its a real waste of screen real estate.
is there any widget out there in the market that is 1x1 and does the same function?
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Click to collapse
I'd been a big fan of ADW Launcher EX for a long time.
It seems the development has died unfortunately though.
My favorite feature was the ability to quickly switch between 2 dockbars. One had the standard 4 + app drawer button, and the other was a scrollable dock which effectively could contain many more.
This was great for phones (not really needed in tablets) where I needed 6-8 quick access apps.
The very last versions of ADW completely removed this feature, inexplicably. I'm running the version that last had this feature, which runs okay, but was hoping for more ICS features.
I cannot find any currently maintained Launcher that also has this feature (Apex and Nova Launchers don't to my knowledge). Many/most have scrollable dockbars, but no quick-switch alternate ones.
Anyone know of any?
I know Zeam Launcher (free from the market) has scrollable dock, but not sure what you mean with alternating docks.
Zeam's a known entity. Nice and quick. But no alternate dockbar.
The dockbars can be switched with a button press, or gesture. I linked mine to home. Press home while in launcher-->5 other apps pop up as a dockbar. Press home again-->back to the original 4+app drawer button. Repeat.
Ah,never knew this was in the old ADW Launcher! I use CircleLauncher to popup more apps from my home. But can't use hardware button.
waylo said:
The dockbars can be switched with a button press, or gesture. I linked mine to home. Press home while in launcher-->5 other apps pop up as a dockbar. Press home again-->back to the original 4+app drawer button. Repeat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried out TSF shell briefly, still needs some development but was a nice change from the norm
Has all apps on the main home screen with some great looking scrolling animations
What is the fastest and easiest way way to switch between four apps in the car. For example Google Nav, Poweramp, Trapster, and a speedometer app. A wave of the hand would be nice. I have looked at several and used a few. Smart Task Switcher, a reviewer said “Was warned about this app due to access to contacts permissions which dev says is used in China for advertising”. AppSwipe only does two ( the last opened). The “car apps” say nothing about task switching or is it shown in the Youtube videos. It would be nicer if an app would isolate and load these four programs from one key push then allow fast switching. A snap of the fingers would be another way to switch between these four apps. Also, a slideshow type thing of these four apps with the option to stay on the current one showing might be an idea. Or, one app that puts to the front the needed app, like the media player about the first and last 5 seconds of a song, trapster like app that would popup during notifications, navigation about 10 seconds before and after turns, and the speedometer the rest of the time. I'm just thinking out loud. Holding down the home key is not a good fit. Bottom line is I need a better task switcher (not killer) for the auto. An app that would allow me to map a steering wheel button in my 2011 Ford Fusion SEL for task switching would be golden! A friend's suggestion was to get four phones, so that one is already out there.
I tried Car Dock Home v3. It works by using a launcher that uses the back key to return to it's home screen, then another task can be selected via a shortcut. Unfortunately it cancels Google Navigation when the back key is hit to go to CDHv3 home screen. This would have been a better solution as it takes two key presses. It would be the best solution to perform one action to cycle through the desired programs. I installed Smart Task Switcher and that was good in theory but I could not find how to configure correctly and the floating button is far too small and often requires several taps, and that is sitting at the desk. There is a paid version where some of this is supposedly settable but from my experience with this app I don't think this is a solution.
The car was the first place that came to mind. But the need to quickly and efficiently switch task is useful in several environments.
I have hit a dead end and any suggestions would be appreciated.
Hey man,Im surprised you expect a phone to act as a tomtom,mp3 player and christ knows what else simultaneously.
theunderling said:
Hey man,Im surprised you expect a phone to act as a tomtom,mp3 player and christ knows what else simultaneously.
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Click to collapse
The S2 runs everything just fine, there is just not an efficient way to switch between them.