Advanced Task Killer

[Ghostwheel]

THIS! For once I agree in full with the Curmudgeon. Although he is more like a scalpel when describing things. Me I am more the sledgehammer. I would have just said "Remove it! BURN IT WITH FIRE! Task Killers BAD!" Sometimes that works but having a reason why you need to BURN IT WITH FIRE!!! is needed. I couldn't agree more though. If you search the forums there have been endless posts with many of us repeating the mantra that task killers are not needed at all.

Thanks for the kind words, buddy. I think one of the main reasons that this topic never seems to die is that the Droid doesn't provide much if any view into the operation of the phone in a fashion that an average user can understand. And apps that do nothing but take a snapshot of processes "in memory" provide a highly misleading view of what is going on.

I've wondered if peoples' perceived need for a task killer comes from their experience with computer operating systems. Since some flavor of Windows constitutes that experience for the majority of folks, they're probably used to having to go in and manually kill a lot of useless programs that start themselves automatically on bootup.

On the other hand, most people have never used linux before, so the concept that an operating system doesn't require that level of micromanagement to function optimally seems counterintuitive to them. And I think this practice flows over into their use of Android.

 

[Darkseider]

Ya'd think that wouldnt ya.. but no, its not perceived, and I didnt do any test on it, just easy to tell. Yea, android closes apps when it needs space, but until then, you still have all this other crap running in the background.

So then it is completely perceived as all you have is anecdotal evidence. You have done NO testing and cannot provide any empirical data at all. Many of us that say "Just say no to task killers" have tested this extensively, myself included, and know, without a doubt that they are not needed at all.

Yep, completely perceived, and on a side note, I'll use phonemypc just as an example, that sometimes when an app freezes, and you don't get a FC, it sits in limbo, I also use ATK for 'clean' that up..

Which is NO reason for ATK. What it does call for is removal of the app and a note to the author stating that it isn't working right. Again you are treating a symptom and not the cause. You can also go to you settings, manage application and kill it there as well. So again. Perceived.

 

[Shadez]

So then it is completely perceived as all you have is anecdotal evidence. You have done NO testing and cannot provide any empirical data at all. Many of us that say "Just say no to task killers" have tested this extensively, myself included, and know, without a doubt that they are not needed at all.

Yep, completely perceived, and on a side note, I'll use phonemypc just as an example, that sometimes when an app freezes, and you don't get a FC, it sits in limbo, I also use ATK for 'clean' that up..

Which is NO reason for ATK. What it does call for is removal of the app and a note to the author stating that it isn't working right. Again you are treating a symptom and not the cause. You can also go to you settings, manage application and kill it there as well. So again. Perceived.

Yea but hitting ATK is easier.. and you may be right, I'm not gonna argue about it because its just not that important to me, I was just offering 'my' opinion

 

[jsh1120]

Been using ATK since I got my phone... and I dont care what other people say, it helps. At least for me, and Im not rooted.. so, I guess it all depends on your perspective..

I am willing to bet the improvement is either perceived and not real OR you have some apps installed that aren't playing nice. I have tested damned near every one of them and every time performance was either the same as without as it was without it or worse.

Ya'd think that wouldnt ya.. but no, its not perceived, and I didnt do any test on it, just easy to tell. Yea, android closes apps when it needs space, but until then, you still have all this other crap running in the background.

In fact, they're not "running in the background." If you check the information provided by SystemPanel, you'll see that they are almost all "inactive" in cache, not "running at all." And even most of those that are "active" in "background" are not running. They're simply sitting there.

For example, at the moment I have the following apps "in memory."

Active Apps

Battery Left: No cpu cycles (i.e. not "running.")
Calendar Widget 2: No cpu cycles
Google Voice: No cpu cycles
K-9 Mail: Momentary use of cpu then off
Maps: No cpu cycles
News and Weather: No cpu cycles
Screebl Pro: No cpu cycles
Screen Mode: No cpu cycles
Swype: No cpu cycles
SystemPanel: Running in Foreground (I'm looking at it to do this.)
Y5 Battery Saver: no cpu cycles.

Inactive (Cached) applications. None are using either cpu cycles or
Alarm Clock
Android Agenda Widget
App Brain Market Sync
Beautiful Widgets
BlueTooth Share
Corporate Calendar
MP3 Store
My Uploads
Pandora
Shop Savvy
RememberTheMilk (appeared briefly in active apps and then moved to cache.)

In addition, there are four Internal System Processes, each of which "turns on" every once in awhile.

android.process.acore
com.google.process.gapps
Dialer
System

My free memory has varied between 35 and 47 megs while I've been typing this and in no case does the amount of free memory affect the performance of the phone.

As this suggests, all of this "stuff" is not "running in the background." This "stuff" runs for a second or two every once in awhile if it's needs to do so. Once it has run, it either sits in memory consuming no cpu cycles and no battery in the "background" or it is moved to "cache" or ultimately out of memory altogether if the phone needs the space.

If I "kill" any of these apps, it opens more free memory for a few moments but serves no real purpose to do so. If I just leave those apps alone, they are sent to "background," assigned to "cache," or swapped out of memory as the o/s needs additional memory.

P.S. As I've been typing this, I noticed that MLB At Bat suddenly appeared in memory, then moved to cache then disappeared. This was the result of my setting that automatically updates results every once in awhile. The same pattern occurred for Facebook.

 

[unholy2012]

Update for those interested: I've been running with any kind of Task Killer for about 15 hours now, with around half of those on the charger while i slept the other half off the charger. My phones battery still sais it's at 100% charge, which was rare with the task killer, and on top of that, I almost always have 3g now whereas before I only had it 30% of the time. Not sure if that can be related to the task killer, but so far I'm thinking uninstalling Advanced Task Killer was a great idea.

 

[Darkseider]

Update for those interested: I've been running with any kind of Task Killer for about 15 hours now, with around half of those on the charger while i slept the other half off the charger. My phones battery still sais it's at 100% charge, which was rare with the task killer, and on top of that, I almost always have 3g now whereas before I only had it 30% of the time. Not sure if that can be related to the task killer, but so far I'm thinking uninstalling Advanced Task Killer was a great idea.

Hallelujah! He has seen the light and is now in the promised land! A land free of evil :icon_evil: a land of Happy Dancing dancedroid.
(queue gospel music)

 

[butch350]

Want to save Battery...

Shut down your syncing,

I shut down facebook, email, and any apps that require updating
in the backround, such as Weatherbug and the like. I only do this
when i listen to mp3's - and it saves battery power considerably.

However, if your gonna text, listen to music, write emails, download apps
and updates from the market place - then your battery gonna get drained!

I don't understand how people can complain about the battery
not lasting when they are constantly using the functions of the
phone to the max!?

 

[jsh1120]

I don't understand how people can complain about the battery
not lasting when they are constantly using the functions of the
phone to the max!?

Really? You really don't understand that?

 

[unholy2012]

Shut down your syncing,

I shut down facebook, email, and any apps that require updating
in the backround, such as Weatherbug and the like. I only do this
when i listen to mp3's - and it saves battery power considerably.

However, if your gonna text, listen to music, write emails, download apps
and updates from the market place - then your battery gonna get drained!

I don't understand how people can complain about the battery
not lasting when they are constantly using the functions of the
phone to the max!?

Uh... I do all of that and my battery has usually been decent, and it improved after I got rid of the task killer. I'm thinking the folks saying shutting down stuff manually is worse than letting OS handle, plus it takes less effort. Win/Win

 

[jsh1120]

Shut down your syncing,

I shut down facebook, email, and any apps that require updating
in the backround, such as Weatherbug and the like. I only do this
when i listen to mp3's - and it saves battery power considerably.

However, if your gonna text, listen to music, write emails, download apps
and updates from the market place - then your battery gonna get drained!

I don't understand how people can complain about the battery
not lasting when they are constantly using the functions of the
phone to the max!?

Uh... I do all of that and my battery has usually been decent, and it improved after I got rid of the task killer. I'm thinking the folks saying shutting down stuff manually is worse than letting OS handle, plus it takes less effort. Win/Win

Bingo. Trying to outsmart the o/s just annoys it. :icon_evil:

 

[Backnblack]

I do all of that and my battery has usually been decent, and it improved after I got rid of the task killer. I'm thinking the folks saying shutting down stuff manually is worse than letting OS handle, plus it takes less effort. Win/Win

We've been telling people for months about not needing ATK...:icon_ banana:

Looks like we were ahead of our time