confused! task killer or not ?! my evo had 20 apps running!

[EvanTribley]

My personal favorite Task Manager is "Automatic Task Killer." It creates a list of applications on your phone and you star the apps that you want your phone to kill EVERY time you put your phone to sleep. It makes sure all the fluff and junk is closed. It does a great job of not listing essential processes, so it is kind of fool proof.

In a perfect world we wouldn't need any task killers, but not all these apps are designed correctly. I have experienced a noticeable difference since using the app in the positive.

[JaredC01]

Originally Posted by JZ*

+1 ^

Today I read alot about, and found a really well written, great looking app (and a geeks dream imho) called Systempanel. You need this app guys/gals...if your a PPCG, and you must be if your reading this...you need this app. I could not find anything else like it on the Market...yes it "can" kill apps (although the Dev says he does not believe it to be needed except as above) but it shows so much info of the phone, cpu cycles, "Active, inactive and system apps" etc so it is now clear to me that a routine TK is not needed for these programs that are just sitting, not consuming (ihmo of course )

I included the below link, to a pretty good overview review so you can see some of the things that the app can do...There is a ad-free, lite version, but if your geeky at all...spring for the paid version. Oh, and I HAVE NO AFFILIATION with this app/dev (or linked site) in any way...this program is just plain cool, and I wanted to share!...it will help identify what apps are running and consuming power, so you can deal with them appropriately...check it out

http://www.hardcoreware.net/android-...tempanel-beta/


Here is the dev original thread...or one of them. Some basic insight to his thinking:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/app...k-killers.html

The thanks button helps!

I use OSMonitor (similar to what you posted based on the description) from the market... Shows everything you could want to know about your phone and then some, and there's no ads.

[JZ*]

Originally Posted by JaredC01

The thanks button helps!

Done...

[sorge]

I dont think there is anything wrong with using Task Killer, just be careful with it. My theory is the EVO is so beefy, it barely ever needs kills apps...Keep in mind I don't have one, but the kind of battery drain people are talking about it makes sense to me. Hero and now droid can go full day with HEAVY usage, but EVO is suffering.

[JaredC01]

Originally Posted by sorge

I dont think there is anything wrong with using Task Killer, just be careful with it. My theory is the EVO is so beefy, it barely ever needs kills apps...Keep in mind I don't have one, but the kind of battery drain people are talking about it makes sense to me. Hero and now droid can go full day with HEAVY usage, but EVO is suffering.

You do realize that the app data is loaded up at phone startup and stored in memory from there? Once your phone is loaded up, you actually HURT battery life by killing the programs you frequently use... Every time your task killer kills an application, it takes CPU cycles (and battery) to do it. Once the task is killed, when you start it up again, it has to load all of that data back into the memory of the phone which also takes CPU cycles (and battery) to do.

It seems to me that most people don't restart their phone more than necessary, so chances are your phone has been turned on since your last charge. If that's the case, then any drain on the battery the phone had from loading the programs in the first place no longer comes into play either.

Basically, as I said before, the ONLY reason I even have a task killer installed, is to kill problem (read: poorly coded) apps that won't force closed by themselves. If your phone is running so many background apps that the system is running low on memory, it will automatically kill background processes as needed to free the memory it needs (yes, the UNIX core is intelligent that way!).

If rumors are true, once we have Froyo for our phones, we will get the full 512MB of RAM available that our phones have in them. Chances are, when that happens, more RAM will probably be used up on phone startup for the same reason posted above. More RAM = More initial allocation space for frequently used applications in the kernel's eyes.

[thecalip]

The # of apps running in the background has nothing to do with battery life or slow down the problem. See my screen shot for proof.

My settings:
No task killer
Disable Google Talk
Disable GPS
Disable Facebook sync
Disable News Sync
WIFI enable
Screen set to 30% bright (i believe this kill battery more than anything else if set at auto which the phone set it at 100% all the time)

[rhaley10]

Nice unplugged hours but whats your up time and what do you do while the phone is up?

[meccadon123]

I finally let my phone sit unplugged with 19 apps open(with the task killer off) As sure as the sky is blue, i wake up with a full battery and half the apps/activities that were open CLOSED. My phone has not been charged for over 2 days.Now granted at night the phone is just sitting, but that proves that all these apps that are "open" in the task killer menu are NOT using any resources per the battery indicator reading 49% cell standby 48% phone idle(which i thought were the same thing) and 1%android sys.

[JZ*]

Originally Posted by meccadon123

I finally let my phone sit unplugged with 19 apps open(with the task killer off) As sure as the sky is blue, i wake up with a full battery and half the apps/activities that were open CLOSED. My phone has not been charged for over 2 days.Now granted at night the phone is just sitting, but that proves that all these apps that are "open" in the task killer menu are NOT using any resources per the battery indicator reading 49% cell standby 48% phone idle(which i thought were the same thing) and 1%android sys.

Yup...that's my observation as well...I also have a paid for TK...I uninstalled it...I do still recommend SystemPanel though, very imformative! (and it can kill that crappy app when needed)

[psrobinson]

I use Startup Auditor to keep apps that I don't want to run from starting. it can even shut down apps that start themselves. I have SystemPanel which works well for closing stubborn programs.