Apps open spontaneously

[nerdherd]

I have noticed this as well. My phone randomly opens "Corporate Calendar" in the background, and I don't even have Exchange set up. I use Advanced Task Manager Free and notice that it is always opening.

[DesertFox]

Yeah Coporate Calender is always popping up in the background. My camera does occasionally start by itself. It's not too big of a deal, since I just kill it with task killer. 500x better than what I have to deal with on the imagio. At least when i kill the tasks I get all the memory back and it's smooth again.

[ahearn]

I scan the Droid forum because I'm trying to make sure I make the right decision either to return my Imagio and pick up the Droid, or not. This problem with unintended app startup sounds like a BIG problem to me -- a deal killer. Any fixes? This would drive me crazy.

BTW, the reason you don't get all your memory back on the Imagio with WinMo is called memory management. You close the app but it keeps the app's temp files around in case you open the app again (faster). If another app comes along and needs that memory, it gets it. Pretty cool, actually.

However, on the Droid, from what I've read here, apparently randomly opens up real programs which use real memory.

[IbenJakinov]

I'm starting to think it's so normal phone functions like messaging and email work properly. The apps themselves don't open, more like a process in the background. The phone still runs amazingly smooth, but if you close some of the background stuff...ie corporate Calender, etc, it will free up some memory. Free memory with the background stuff going is still around 80 MB.

[nerdherd]

@ahearn: Even though my corporate calendar opens up randomly, it doesn't affect the performance of the phone at all. And since I'm not using it I don't think it would really affect the battery life either. Don't let a minor thing like this deter you from seriously considering the Droid!

[IbenJakinov]

Originally Posted by nerdherd

@ahearn: Even though my corporate calendar opens up randomly, it doesn't affect the performance of the phone at all. And since I'm not using it I don't think it would really affect the battery life either. Don't let a minor thing like this deter you from seriously considering the Droid!

I agree...this phone is amazing and this issue does not effect performance.

[ironi]

i'm almost positive that, like others have suggested, the recurring programs on the applications list in advanced task manager are not the actual executables, just their prefetch parameters. if you click on the processes tab, you'll see that some of the apps are running in foreground, some in background and some are idle. the idle ones aren't using any resources other than keeping their temp files in ram. the phone experiences no slowdown whatsoever when these processes are open. it only slows down somewhat when you start to multitask with running applications, like playing music and browsing the web simultaneously. the system is also smart enough to start killing cetain less essential processes when more cpu-heavy apps demand the resources. all in all, i highly doubt that repeatedly killing these reoccuring tasks will really improve the phone's performance. infact, i would guess that the phone will probably experience a few seconds of slowdown after every flush, because the system will rush to prefetch the killed apps again, taking up cpu cycles. as of now, i've set up an ignore list in advanced task manager, consisting of the following:

-motorola.hiddenmenu
-google talk storage
-alarm clock
-calendar
-corporate calendar
-settings
-messaging

the other apps don't seem to reoccur as insistently as these, which makes me believe they are non-essential but sometimes the system bumps up their priority depending on their use frequency (say if you use the camera, or the picture viewer which is part of the camera app, often, it will bump up the camera app on the prefetch priority list and you'll see it start to reoccur more often). i don't care that much how quickly the picture viewer or the browser or the market app, etc. start up, so when i see them pop up on the prefetch list, i choose to kill them.

of course i'm just guessing, but this makes more sense to me than a bug in the system that makes apps start up randomly by themselves. i think we would see major lag after a few hours of every reboot if that were the case.

[DesertFox]

Originally Posted by ahearn

I scan the Droid forum because I'm trying to make sure I make the right decision either to return my Imagio and pick up the Droid, or not. This problem with unintended app startup sounds like a BIG problem to me -- a deal killer. Any fixes? This would drive me crazy.

BTW, the reason you don't get all your memory back on the Imagio with WinMo is called memory management. You close the app but it keeps the app's temp files around in case you open the app again (faster). If another app comes along and needs that memory, it gets it. Pretty cool, actually.

However, on the Droid, from what I've read here, apparently randomly opens up real programs which use real memory.

I just ditched my Imagio for the Droid, and I dont regret it one bit. Even with a ton of apps running in the back It still runs a lot faster and smoother than the Imagio. I just got a task killer app for the droid and everything has been fine and dandy, no soft resets or hard resets after 3 days and still runs smooth as ever. When i close the programs I actually get all my memory back unlike the POS imagio. The droid is just a much better phone and a lot more useable out of the box. I didn't feel like waiting for the imagio locker.

The unintended apps popping up from now and then isnt a big deal. On the imagio I would have nothing running and memory usage creeped up to 70% anyways, thats with all the current tweaks... My only gripe with the droid is the camera doesnt focus, but it should be fixed in their next update on dec 12th.