App question

[pinback]

I was curious which task manager, and/or battery saver apps people use and prefer. I personally stopped using any at all for a while cause there are too many!
What are the programs you guys use and have success with? (Rooted or not)

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[DF Smod]

I can probably speak for the majority when I say none, task managers use resources and do nothing more than the native OS already does on it's own

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[DaddysDroid]

I can probably speak for the majority when I say none, task managers use resources and do nothing more than the native OS already does on it's own

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Second this...

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[NoBloatware]

Automatic task killers kill apps which just start up again which get killed which start up again...It never ends and it runs down your battery and slows your phone. Uninstall! Uninstall any apps that run on boot for no good reason and find an alternative. Just ignore stock apps that run on boot as most/all of them are designed well and simply sit in memory using no resources. Android kills apps as needed and doesn't need help!

Battery monitoring apps can similarly drain the battery. Uninstall!

 

[REMilk]

I use no Task Manager that runs in the background. I do have an App Manager that will quickly kill a runaway app: I rarely encounter these. I do not use a battery manager. I am rooted so I use the "SetCPU for Rooted" to slow down the cpu when my Droid is resting.

I manually "take charge" of apps, tasks, and services, to improve the time between recharging the battery and to ensure that I have access to appropriate data as I need. This is a balancing act.

1. Turn off "Auto Brightness" and turn down the screen brightness while indoors to 25%. This is more than adequate for me, even when reading in bed and all the lights are turned off.
2. Turn off Bluetooth when not in use - no need to constantly search for Bluetooth devices when I only use this when traveling and I remember to bring my Bluetooth device and have it charged.
3. Turn off WiFi when not using a WiFi connection - no need to constantly search for WiFi connections when I am away from a WiFi location
4. Use WiFi instead of 3G when possible - My unscientific experience shows that WiFi is better than 3G when data access is needed. While at home, I use WiFi exclusively. The benefit of WiFi is that your data utilization does not count against your 3G/4G data plan
5. Weather updates - I have my weather set to update every 3 hours and upon 'waking up'. Do you really need the weather updated every 15 minutes? I will increase the frequency during upcoming weather events such as hurricanes or during tornado warnings.
6. News Updates - I have the news updates set to never sync. I sync this at my leisure. I will change this if there is a major event and I want to stay abreast, but normally I do not.
7. Stocks - I set this to never sync as I find this too depressing right now, but again, when I set this to sync, it is only 1 to 3 times a day
8. Social Media (Twitter, FaceBook, Google+) sites - I set these to sync manually, I do not expect any earth shattering announcements from these sites, that I need to know immediately.
9. Corporate Email and Calendar, when possible, I have set to as available/sent and/or poll every 15 minutes. This is the primary communication for me as a Management Consultant.
10. Personal Email calendar, where possible, I have set to hourly. Some of my colleagues and clients contact me via personal email; I could set this to manually sync.
11. No Live wallpapers - Some are battery hogs!
12. Turn off window animations
13. Screen Timeout - I think the default is 30 seconds, even thought this save battery life, it was too quick for me and I changed it to 2 minutes
14. Battery and Data Manager (Droid 3) - Establish the settings that work best for you.

There are many ways to quickly and easily control Screen Brightness, Bluetooth, and WiFi. Some examples include:

1. Android Power Control widget (included with Android)
2. Tiny Battery Widget (I use this as it display remaining battery as a single digit% and includes airplane mode control)
3. Toggle Notification app with Brightness Control app (this is my 2nd favorite approach to use for these functions)
4. Beautiful Widgets
5. Dazzle
6. Many, many other options available - I do not intend to slight any developer's product, there are many quality ones available that can handle these items, either individually or in groups.

Find the approach and apps that work best for you.

Good Luck,
Bob

 

[SupperDroid]

+1 to REMilk almost a carbon copy of my D3.

 

[pinback]

Thanks for your replies. I have to agree I see a lot better performance without using any auto task killer. However, I use GoLauncher, and there's a tab to see all running programs, and you can click and stop all running programs. Is that also something I shouldn't bother doing?

On a side note; does anyone use some kind of cache clearing program? One that deletes cache from all programs? Or is that also not suggested?

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[NoBloatware]

Thanks for your replies. I have to agree I see a lot better performance without using any auto task killer. However, I use GoLauncher, and there's a tab to see all running programs, and you can click and stop all running programs. Is that also something I shouldn't bother doing?

On a side note; does anyone use some kind of cache clearing program? One that deletes cache from all programs? Or is that also not suggested?

If you're killing tasks that start up by themselves then you are wasting your time and battery power and slowing down your phone. I would only kill an app in the rare circumstance that it is frozen or otherwise acting strangely. If an app has an "Exit" or "Quit" button, it's not a bad idea to use it--especially Google Navigation's "Exit" button. However, for almost all apps you can just press your home button. Some people insist that they press the back arrow to back out of every app, but I find this to be completely unnecessary (at least for the apps I use).

I don't clear caches unless there is a specific problem with an app. Otherwise, what's the point? The cache will just have to be rebuilt--slowing your phone and using battery power in the process.

Really, just use your phone. Don't worry about all of this task killing and cache-clearing stuff. The phone handles this on it's own really well without any extra apps or input from you. Here's the maintenance that I do on my phone:
1) once every 2 months run the battery all the way down and charge it all the way up nonstop to calibrate battery meter
2) once every month dial *22899 (from a place about equidistant from work & home--not sure if it matters though) and wait for it to hang up
3) clear cache and kill an app only when there's a specific problem with an app

***

EDIT: I focus on the privileges that apps require and whether or not they run on boot. If an app wants unneeded permissions, I uninstall it and find an alternative. If an app runs on boot for no reason, I do the same: rate it poorly, leave a comment in the market, uninstall it, find something better.

Also, I try to run lean. For example, I don't need a widget to tell me my battery percentage. Why waste battery power with that function? If you'd really like a widget that will do that then I support your decision, but I recommend that you find one that is lightweight (doesn't use a lot of resources). My philosophy is to cut down on the bells and whistles and focus on having a fast phone with long battery life while still having all of the functionality that I really want. I guess I'm a conservative guy. Sure, I'll install fun widgets, etc. once in a while but as soon as I get bored of them I uninstall.

No auto task killers, no antivirus, no BS.

 

[REMilk]

pinback,

I agree with NoBloatware's post. Only do these when problems occur and limit to the specific app when possible.

Are you referencing the "Running" tab in the App Drawer area. I see that it is a task killer, but you cannot pick and chose which tasks or services to stop. I see widgets and services that I do not want stopped so this is no good for me.

On my Droid 3, I could use the included Android app "Task Manager". By long pressing on an individual app, I can stop it. As of this moment, I have had no reason to stop or kill any app that is running on my Droid 3.

When 'unrooted', I use the app "1 Tap Cleaner' to clean out the application caches; this does not appear the clean the 'app market download' cache. While unrooted, I power down/power up to clear the 'app market download' cache. When rooted I use the app "CacheMate for Root." This app also seems to clears the 'app market download' cache.

The 'app market download' cache may not be the correct name. Whenever I get a no space condition when downloading apps from the App Market, (I see this occurring after downloading several large apps), I use either Cachemate (rooted) or Power Down/Power Up (unrooted) to clear this cache and I can resume downloading apps from the App Market.

Bob

 

[Fr33dom]

As has been said, the only reason for a task manager is to take care of an out of control application--one like VTOK that just won't stop when you tell it to.

Most of the battery savings apps appear to have been made obsolete by the settings in Battery and Data Manager. About the only thing not included is turning off your WiFi when you're not connected or reducing its search time if it cannot connect. Setting it to sleep while the screen is off may be a good alternative.

Clear cache only when you have trouble with an app.

These things will make your phone more responsive and help save battery. If your battery is not lasting long enough, reevaluate the apps and widgets you have as well as accounts you sync and consider an extended battery.

 

[NoBloatware]

I leave WIFI toggled on all the time. Sure, shutting it off when not in use will save some battery power but really not that much in my experience. Why:
1) I already have it turn off when the screen is off via wifi > menu > advanced > wifi sleep policy
2) forgetting to turn on WIFI means I'll be using 3G, which can really burn through battery
3) it's a pain to remember to turn it on and off. Sure, I could get an app that monitors my location and turns wifi on and off but then that would burn battery.
Do what works for you, but I just want to suggest leaving WIFI toggled on if you're around WIFI throughout the day and set sleep policy to turn off when screen turns off. Try it out different ways and see what works best for you.

 

[pinback]

Appreciate your feedback, guys! I guess I don't really realize how sweet my phone is by managing running apps and storage on its own. I will let my phone do its magic and only kill a process if it's acting up.

But again, great replies. Very helpful. Thanks again!

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