How do you get by without a task killer?

[mikes]

These tasks are started and sit in memory so they'll open faster when you decide to use them. In the meantime, the resources they're using are wasted.

No, the resource they use (RAM) would be wasted if it didn't hold anything at all. RAM doesn't consume any more power due to an app being loaded into it.

If you're rooted and do a "ps", you'll see that just about everything which is loaded is also sleeping, doing nothing. An app which wants to do occasional updates (i.e. check email), will ask the OS to wake it up periodically. This is done through ScheduledExecutorService. While it's sleeping, it is not wasting resources.

It takes more resources for an app killer to occasionally sweep through processes and kill them than to just leave the process alone, sleeping.

Yes, there certainly exist apps which are incorrectly or poorly written, and which you might want to kill. If you find one, uninstall it and don't look back.

I've never had any issue with Maps running the GPS when it's in the background. I changed my browser home page to be empty, so no Google page polling for location (you can also close windows if you want to be sure).

 

[tktouch12]

i'm split on the use of them. i do sometimes and dont others. i have startup auditor and it helps a TON. i suggest trying it first. sometimes i might need to kill a bunch of stuff if i just downloaded a bunch of programs and opened each one and stuff, then ill do a quick, manual kill. i also have minfreemanager and i think its supposed to help.

 

[Droid928]

I tried TaskKiller and I it caused my android not to run well at all and found it useless when I can just go in to running apps and end the app that way. It actually made my android run slower and after I uninstalled it, my android ran back to normal. I noticed the difference. I also did some research and everyone pretty much concluded that its not needed as the person who posted before said. Just think about it, its an app that you need to open (and keep open) in order to kill other apps, sounds a bit redundant to me.

 

[cereal killer]

I'd like to echo what somebody has already said because it is rooted, no pun intended, in truth.

If you are having to kill apps to get your device to run faster something is wrong. Find the app(s) and delete them.

 

[Mojo]

As everyone else said task killers are un needed and I do not use them

 

[RW-1]

Yeah, it's funny!

 

[PhontomF]

I never noticed the need, however, I do run minfreemanager now that I am rooted(basically just makes androids built in task killing more robust).

+1 been using this for a couple days and my phone runs just as smooth as when I was using advanced task manager. Best part about it is it doesnt take up more RAM itself like a task killer program and it does everything for you.

 

[nphil]

As someone stated before, killing every running app via a task manager only speeds up your phone momentarily. It's the cpu time used by apps that make your phone lag, NOT memory use. Unless ofcourse, you completely run out of memory and the phone has to write to swap.

Download OSMonitor, and check out what apps are using most of your cpu time. It's most likely going to be android system and your home screen.

 

[jsh1120]

These discussions would be immensely more valuable if those who maintain that using a task killer "speeds up" their droid could actually document such behavior with hard data. In fact, I suspect much, if not all, of the claimed improvement is a placebo effect; much like the effect of pushing the "close door" button on an elevator where the button has been disconnected.

 

[droidkm]

when you turn your phone on after rebooting it always takes a minute for it to get going. it's loading all your widgets and programs and whatnot. then after everything is all going there should be no slowdown. i could imagine that if you first turn your phone on and kill all apps before they load then it would make it start faster. but alternately, you could just wait 30 seconds and let them load, then it would be going just as fast as the cpu would no longer be doing anything with them.

 

[streetkid]

I haven't installed one or found a need, yet. I've only had it for 2 weeks though. This does remind me of a lot of conversation I read about Windows 7. People with 4+ gigs of ram were noticing that there was only < 100mb available! What it turned out being was superfetch figuring out what should be most ready to load, and once it learns what you're doing it, it actually is faster. What I learned from all that reading is that unused memory is wasted memory, if it is there.. use it!

 

[asmallchild]

I love this phone

I use apps as I need them and just make sure to exit to the home screen when I'm done

Battery life isn't great but I recharge nightly anyway so I always have enough power to get thru one day even with monster use

 

[takeshi]

If you are having to kill apps to get your device to run faster something is wrong. Find the app(s) and delete them.

Bingo. Task Killers treat the symptom -- not the cause.

These discussions would be immensely more valuable if those who maintain that using a task killer "speeds up" their droid could actually document such behavior with hard data. In fact, I suspect much, if not all, of the claimed improvement is a placebo effect; much like the effect of pushing the "close door" button on an elevator where the button has been disconnected.

There's a lot of oversimplification in the task killer threads. Task killers aren't all bad nor are they a cure-all. A lot of people also aren't very good at distinguishing causal from coincidental relationships or troubleshooting. Without all the details of a given person's situation it's impossible to really assess what's actually going on.

However, as cereal killer said, if you're relying on a task killer then you have a problem that you need to address.

 

[qoncept]

Using memory to cache apps you're never going to use IS a waste. And half of the apps in that list I don't use. I'll do some digging today to see if I can find a single app that's causing a problem, or maybe a conflict between a couple. In the meantime, a task killer sure is easier.

 

[deadernie]

I have never used any task killers and have not had any issues. I do however use the stock power management widget to turn off and on the GPS and Wi-Fi and control screen brightness. IMO task killers are just something to obsess over. I let android do it's thing.