general questions

[KSUgirl]

Hi all. I am new to Droid (as of today) and very new to this forum, as well, so sorry if I'm repeating typical annoying questions.

First off, my brother warned me about the data/battery usage and told me to get the task killer, which I did... but more open up right away, why is that? is it normal?

He also said his Droid won't fully charge unless it's hooked up to a PC, normal?

Also, I have tried numerous times to set up my standard google email account. I keep getting errors, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong?

And, on the Facebook app, when I tried to view my notifications I get an error every time saying; "cannot retrieve notifications. Please try again later"... I suppose this could be a Facebook error?

And lastly, I just want to make sure I'm thinking about this correctly.. my brother told me you can't actually CLOSE the tasks, hence the need for the task killer app. Is this true? They're just gonna keep running and running and suck up my battery no matter what I do?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[DF Smod]

First :welcome: to the Forum

Second:

I hate to break the news, but your brother is wrong, task killers will waste your battery and cause performance issues within your system. Android has a very effective Task Managment process built right in and any third party app that claims to do the same just causes problems

Apps in Android aren't actually running in the background, they are frozen until you open it again, my best advice is to uninstall all task killers and let Android do it's job

And lastly, you will never get a better charge than you will from the factory OEM wall charger

 

[guidot]

Unless there is something wrong with the charger I see no reason that it would only charge through the PC. It will also take forever that way.

 

[KSUgirl]

First :welcome: to the Forum

Second:

I hate to break the news, but your brother is wrong, task killers will waste your battery and cause performance issues within your system. Android has a very effective Task Managment process built right in and any third party app that claims to do the same just causes problems

Apps in Android aren't actually running in the background, they are frozen until you open it again, my best advice is to uninstall all task killers and let Android do it's job

And lastly, you will never get a better charge than you will from the factory OEM wall charger

Wellll then, haha. So why do so many people post in the comments of the app that it majorly affected their battery life?

I'm happy to hear the news- just confused as to why so many say it really makes such a big difference.

 

[Dragoro]

Wall charging is much faster and does charge the battery fully.

Youll have to get more specific with what problem your having with gmail.

Facebook error sounds like a temporary error that will sort it self.

No need for a task killer. Apps only use battery when they are actually used (except for widgets, they will always use a certain amount of battery) Some apps do use alot of battery, but only when your actually using that app, and a task killers not going to help ya there anyways.

 

[guidot]

Normally a properly written third party app will work just fine. It's the bad ones (that are constantly probing the cloud) that eat battery life and keep the phone from "sleeping".

 

[DF Smod]

Wellll then, haha. So why do so many people post in the comments of the app that it majorly affected their battery life?

I'm happy to hear the news- just confused as to why so many say it really makes such a big difference.

this link might clear up some confusion----> http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/65483-task-killers-answer-google-developers.html <----watch the video also and you will understand the background processes of the Android System

Anything else you might have some questions about, this is definitely the best place for real time feedback and information on the web, please feel free to ask

 

[KSUgirl]

Wall charging is much faster and does charge the battery fully.

Youll have to get more specific with what problem your having with gmail.

Facebook error sounds like a temporary error that will sort it self.

No need for a task killer. Apps only use battery when they are actually used (except for widgets, they will always use a certain amount of battery) Some apps do use alot of battery, but only when your actually using that app, and a task killers not going to help ya there anyways.

I guess maybe the widgets is what I meant. Sorry, I'm not quite up to date on the lingo... but things such as the analog clock, bookmarks, calculator, calendar, etc... all those things under the widget list.. Are they always running? Facebook, Fm radio, Latitude (whatever that is, GPS?), etc.

 

[KSUgirl]

Wellll then, haha. So why do so many people post in the comments of the app that it majorly affected their battery life?

I'm happy to hear the news- just confused as to why so many say it really makes such a big difference.

this link might clear up some confusion----> http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/65483-task-killers-answer-google-developers.html <----watch the video also and you will understand the background processes of the Android System

Anything else you might have some questions about, this is definitely the best place for real time feedback and information on the web, please feel free to ask

Thanks for much for your help

 

[guidot]

If you have the widgets loaded on your homescreen, yes they are running. If you don't want them running, don't leave them on your homescreen. You should get a full day (I get 18+ hours on my fully charged battery) with moderate usage. I do about 100-150 texts a day, a few pics and about 1 hour (on and off) of web browsing.