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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Related
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.
I just discovered that you can get rid of apps from the recent apps menu (the square button next to the home button) by swiping them to the side. I don't know why this makes me so retardedly happy, but I am sure that SOMEONE else out there will also appreciate this tidbit of information.
Anyone else have any nuggets of joy to share?
I liked that trick also when I first found out. Another thing too is that you can hold down the app in recent menu and a quicksetting will come up to let you remove it from list or look at app info.
Remember though, this only removes it from recent apps list. It doesn't close down the app itself.
Does it really matter though performance wise? I Always thought Android puts background apps into an "idle" state where they dont take up any resources until used? Although it is cool for people with OCD like me
demandarin said:
I liked that trick also when I first found out. Another thing too is that you can hold down the app in recent menu and a quicksetting will come up to let you remove it from list or look at app info.
Remember though, this only removes it from recent apps list. It doesn't close down the app itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does close the app. It just doesn't close background processes of the app.
Swiping an app from recent apps menu removes the app from cached memory, but keeps the background sync's (if it has any) still running. So you can kill off Facebook, but it's background sync (that would be started during system boot up anyway) remains.
You can test it, if you swipe browser from recent app's memory, it has to reload the page it was on. Same with Facebook app. But Facebook app's background process keeps running until you 'force stop' it.
Android application architecture runs in two layers, foreground and background processes. UI and the things you can use are written to memory when focus is lost from those apps, clearing them from recent apps also clears the memory those apps take at the time.
Is it useful? Yeah, for some things. But it won't improve your performance in any real noticeable way. Best you can do is swipe away apps that you don't need, keeping only apps that you want to keep in memory should you re-open them again. But that's usually too much micro-management to be worth it.
kristovaher said:
Yes it does close the app. It just doesn't close background processes of the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps, BUT, not every app in the recent apps list is actually running. That's why many times (most of the time?) the screenshot isn't what you actually see when you select an app from the list--you're really restarting it.
I think it's safest and easiest to just assume that you're really only removing apps from the recent apps list, not actually managing what's running in any way.
DroidHam said:
Does it really matter though performance wise? I Always thought Android puts background apps into an "idle" state where they dont take up any resources until used? Although it is cool for people with OCD like me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it doesn't make any difference performance wise, but it makes the menu much more useable for me =D
Thanks for this message, this is my first android device and I've been trying to figure out how to "close" applications. Did a search in here (I think), prime manual search and googled it. I am slightly OCD and like to "close" thinks that I'm not using. Harkens back to my early Windows days when you closed apps to conserve memory.
In the manual it says to close application by clicking on an X in the recent apps menu. Though unless it is super tiny, there isn't one.
redandblack1287 said:
I just discovered that you can get rid of apps from the recent apps menu (the square button next to the home button) by swiping them to the side. I don't know why this makes me so retardedly happy, but I am sure that SOMEONE else out there will also appreciate this tidbit of information.
Anyone else have any nuggets of joy to share?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you have the dock, 2 finger gestures on the touchpad act as screen swipes. i.e. swipe two fingers across the tab, the tab changes screens. Also, if you want to actually kill the apps, add teh asus task manager widget to a screen. works great!
elybug said:
In the manual it says to close application by clicking on an X in the recent apps menu. Though unless it is super tiny, there isn't one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was an ASUS Honeycomb customization. It went away in ICS...
redandblack1287 said:
I just discovered that you can get rid of apps from the recent apps menu (the square button next to the home button) by swiping them to the side. I don't know why this makes me so retardedly happy, but I am sure that SOMEONE else out there will also appreciate this tidbit of information.
Anyone else have any nuggets of joy to share?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you have the dock, 2 finger gestures on the touchpad act as screen swipes. i.e. swipe two fingers across the tab, the tab changes screens. Also, if you want to actually kill the apps, add the asus task manager widget to a screen. works great!
kristovaher said:
Yes it does close the app. It just doesn't close background processes of the app.
Swiping an app from recent apps menu removes the app from cached memory, but keeps the background sync's (if it has any) still running. So you can kill off Facebook, but it's background sync (that would be started during system boot up anyway) remains.
You can test it, if you swipe browser from recent app's memory, it has to reload the page it was on. Same with Facebook app. But Facebook app's background process keeps running until you 'force stop' it.
Android application architecture runs in two layers, foreground and background processes. UI and the things you can use are written to memory when focus is lost from those apps, clearing them from recent apps also clears the memory those apps take at the time.
Is it useful? Yeah, for some things. But it won't improve your performance in any real noticeable way. Best you can do is swipe away apps that you don't need, keeping only apps that you want to keep in memory should you re-open them again. But that's usually too much micro-management to be worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's what I meant. I should of been more clear then. just swiping it doesn't close down app "Completely", meaning no background process either. you have to use a task manager or Force stop in order to "Truly" close n stop an app from running.
elybug said:
In the manual it says to close application by clicking on an X in the recent apps menu. Though unless it is super tiny, there isn't one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There isn't any in ICS, only in HC.
i didn't know that either until last week! ice cream is awesome :]
Conduitz said:
if you have the dock, 2 finger gestures on the touchpad act as screen swipes. i.e. swipe two fingers across the tab, the tab changes screens. Also, if you want to actually kill the apps, add teh asus task manager widget to a screen. works great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know.....that Asus task manager widget does not work on mine. It doesn't matter if I press x next to one app or select kill all - nothing happpens. I think mine is broken
I removed it from one of my home screens, no need to have it if it doesn't work
demandarin said:
that's what I meant. I should of been more clear then. just swiping it doesn't close down app "Completely", meaning no background process either. you have to use a task manager or Force stop in order to "Truly" close n stop an app from running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a bit different though, because those background processes will (likely) already be running even if you don't start the app. Most of those background processes are started by boot activity in Android and others are started by scheduling activities (such as alarms or certain notifications and sync). These will be usually restarted once app is started again too (after Force Close) and if they are not already running (and they usually are).
Force Close is unnecessary unless you know that a certain app is bad for the system and was run accidentally, etc.
I won't be using S Voice a whole lot, and would rather repurpose my home key double click to something useful - such as recent apps/multitasking (as this would be much faster than holding home down). Is there a mod for this?
Also, I'd like to double click home to wake phone and unlock screen - any mods for this?
I'm on Omega v6.0, just flashed it.
Also, I'd like to do something about the wake-up delay. When pressing power or home to wake the screen up, there's a wait of a good half a second - I want it instantaneous, like my old phone was.
Any ideas?
Bump.
Afaik this delay is caused by waking up from deep sleep. There isnt much you can do, unless you want to force your phone to stay awake it will drain the battery quickly, though.
Try apex or nova launcher..
For multitasking try "wave launcher".not an ordinary launcher, check market
Editr try gesture launcher
Edit 2: or dock4droid also cool 4 multitasking
setspeed said:
I won't be using S Voice a whole lot, and would rather repurpose my home key double click to something useful - such as recent apps/multitasking (as this would be much faster than holding home down). Is there a mod for this?
Also, I'd like to double click home to wake phone and unlock screen - any mods for this?
I'm on Omega v6.0, just flashed it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bump for this.
I'd really like to be able to open the multitasking menu, with a single press of the home button.
Home2 shortcut in the market is.pretty useful.for key shortcuts like double click home or double click search key. Check it out
Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2
Home2 Shortcut seems like it should work (if and only if S Voice is disabled). If you have Nova Launcher installed, task switching is one of the shortcuts Nova has (so within Home2 Shortcut when you choose the app you'd like to be run, choose "Shortcut->Nova->Task Switcher"). If you don't use Nova as your normal launcher, I might be concerned about whether this causes Nova to be loaded into memory--this is a very simple test, but I can't do it because Nova is my launcher so it's already in memory.
The above technique has two disadvantages: you lose the ability to press "home" when you're already at the launcher (it does nothing), and there's an added delay before opening the launcher. I mitigate this delay by setting the double-tap time to a fast setting.
Another idea I had that might work:
- Uninstall S Voice (I think you can also rename the .apk to .apkbackup).
- Install a task-switching app (there's a very simple one on the market but it's not free--it just triggers normal Android task switching)
- Decompile the task-switching app
- Change the app namespace to S Voice's namespace
- Recompile and install the modified app.
This might make double-home-tap automatically trigger task switching without the disadvantages that come with using Home2 Shortcut. Unfortunately, I haven't yet decompiled/recompiled an app, so I probably can't give this a try until the weekend.
Edit: If technique 2 works and we want to share it as a mod, our only choice is to rewrite the app. There's no way we can condone pirating somebody's paid app.
fenstre said:
Home2 Shortcut seems like it should work (if and only if S Voice is disabled). If you have Nova Launcher installed, task switching is one of the shortcuts Nova has (so within Home2 Shortcut when you choose the app you'd like to be run, choose "Shortcut->Nova->Task Switcher"). If you don't use Nova as your normal launcher, I might be concerned about whether this causes Nova to be loaded into memory--this is a very simple test, but I can't do it because Nova is my launcher so it's already in memory.
The above technique has two disadvantages: you lose the ability to press "home" when you're already at the launcher (it does nothing), and there's an added delay before opening the launcher. I mitigate this delay by setting the double-tap time to a fast setting.
Another idea I had that might work:
- Uninstall S Voice (I think you can also rename the .apk to .apkbackup).
- Install a task-switching app (there's a very simple one on the market but it's not free--it just triggers normal Android task switching)
- Decompile the task-switching app
- Change the app namespace to S Voice's namespace
- Recompile and install the modified app.
This might make double-home-tap automatically trigger task switching without the disadvantages that come with using Home2 Shortcut. Unfortunately, I haven't yet decompiled/recompiled an app, so I probably can't give this a try until the weekend.
Edit: If technique 2 works and we want to share it as a mod, our only choice is to rewrite the app. There's no way we can condone pirating somebody's paid app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the name of that app. I cant seem to find it
jgrimberg1979 said:
What is the name of that app. I cant seem to find it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Multitask Shortcut. Perhaps there are other apps that do this, but I haven't looked.
But it's still at least 2 button press. I'm lazy, so I'll continue with "wave launcher" that's just a swipe over screen and all your selected apps appear.
zodiaxe66 said:
But it's still at least 2 button press. I'm lazy, so I'll continue with "wave launcher" that's just a swipe over screen and all your selected apps appear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found a way to swipe into multitasking, so I won't bother with the Home button:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=28899928#post28899928
I'm not sure if it is possible but I have an idea of a widget:
It's a widget that contains another widget that will auto after a specific condition (perhaps with llama/tasker?)
Examples:
hide music widget of choice if there's no music playing or headset plugged in.
Hide (school) timetable if you're not at that location.
Show GPS/traffic widget if not at home/school/work.
You might think of another great use yourself.
This is just an idea, and since I'm no app developer myself, (at least not yet) I hope one of the great android developers that are on these fora will take an interest in this project.
Sent from my SHV-E160L 32GB with XDA HD
But why hide the widget? That space where the widget that hid the other widget is still unusable because the widget can become transparent, but it can not remove itself from the home screen and then put itself back, since adding widgets is a system level command. And if it could do what I just said it can't, what if you put apps/shortcuts/widgets in its place, where would they go? I might be over thinking this whole idea a little but that's just my two cents. I do have a similar idea now that I read this, though. Use Tasker to restore backed up Nova/Holo/Adw/Apex/Etc, settings and home screen layouts based on what you said in your first post. That is probably going to take way longer to do, but it get the same effect and could probably save battery that way too. I mean, if I make a Tasker profile set up so that whenever I connect to my schools wifi, that it restores a previous backed home screen and settings layout. My phone always dies at school, so my home screen would become blank, with no dock or status bar, and just have gestures set up so that I can still get to my apps (swipe up for drawer, down for notifications, two fingers up for phone app, and two fingers down for messaging). With nothing on my home screen, I save battery because the Launcher does not have to load any thing. Android itself might be a limitation for what we're saying here, but maybe Key Lime Pie could bring us closer to that.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
Thanks for the reply!
PenguinxEnjoi said:
But why hide the widget? That space where the widget that hid the other widget is still unusable because the widget can become transparent, but it can not remove itself from the home screen and then put itself back, since adding widgets is a system level command. And if it could do what I just said it can't, what if you put apps/shortcuts/widgets in its place, where would they go? I might be over thinking this whole idea a little but that's just my two cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply, PenguinxEnjoi
I can see now that my idea can be a bit confusing.
I just had the idea to hide the widget when I don't need it so it doesn't clog up my lock/home screen.
If it means turning it invisible I'd like that just as much as removing it. I just don't want to see it.
PenguinxEnjoi said:
I do have a similar idea now that I read this, though. Use Tasker to restore backed up Nova/Holo/Adw/Apex/Etc, settings and home screen layouts based on what you said in your first post. That is probably going to take way longer to do, but it get the same effect and could probably save battery that way too. I mean, if I make a Tasker profile set up so that whenever I connect to my schools wifi, that it restores a previous backed home screen and settings layout. My phone always dies at school, so my home screen would become blank, with no dock or status bar, and just have gestures set up so that I can still get to my apps (swipe up for drawer, down for notifications, two fingers up for phone app, and two fingers down for messaging). With nothing on my home screen, I save battery because the Launcher does not have to load any thing. Android itself might be a limitation for what we're saying here, but maybe Key Lime Pie could bring us closer to that.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this is possible it would totally be an option. Especially since I'm using widgetlocker and nova launcher.
This will probably be done using intents (if it's supported) but I've only begun using tasker (after llama) so I'm still not sure how they work.
Have you found the way to auto hide widgets for example with Tasker?
extension!?
I have been trying to find a way to recreate a menu pop down resembling the app drawer menu on my desktop and yes...there are many hurdles to be made through an auto hide feature. Why there cant be an app writin that works along with zooper pro or uccw (or done internaly themselves) that can acknowlege a widget name and link it to a static bitmap/icon within another widget as in a"press on" action is beyond me. I know that is probably the last thing those two companies wanna do but it would really make it fun for the average joe just trying to create something fresh and different for their own pride and joy. I havent had much luck getting any reaponse on this. Lol obviously due to a lack reason. And no im not talking about the chocolate covered carmel candy. Bit if any of you developers out there want to take a stab at it. Looks like there is a code writtin in a somewhat similar context that i believe could work. In the end. Its us vs. Them. Hope to see something more happen with this.
And of course..i am mot allowed to copy and paste outside links yet. Thanks XDA. but if you type in."auto hide widget" in google it should be the second link you see. Hope someone makes this a reality. Will be watching for developments.:silly:
Pop up widgets from the developer of the sslauncher. Does the trick nicely. Also you can use swipepad with the widgetpad addon. Works nice for me. Widget here, widget gone
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
tie7 said:
Have you found the way to auto hide widgets for example with Tasker?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you could use overlays (paid version) which integrates in tasker (free version does not)
Hi,
I'm looking for a way to create a shortcut enabling me to put my smartphone to sleep simply by tapping on it. The reason I want to do that is because I don't really like the idea of pulling down a pull-down bar and tapping on the icon there. I would also like to avoid pressing the ON/OFF physical button to prevent it from breaking or getting loose.
I was wondering if there's an app that can do that or some system tweak maybe? I found a couple of apps, such as AnyCut and QuickShortcutMaker, but neither of them lists a system event like that, i.e. hibernation. I'm also aware of the Greenify + Nova/Apex launcher trick, but that involves installing a new launcher and a new app, which is not something I really want.
Please, note that I'm not looking for any third party solution, such as a widget or an app, either. All I want is a shortcut on my home screen, that's it.
Thanks!