mytouch 3g performing faster with no task killer

[Chidori602]

I've been doing some test, and it turns out my mytouch is running much faster and smoother with no task killer than with a task killer. I don't see a really big difference in battery life without the task killer. Anyways I am finally getting those email notifications, no lags in the keyboards, and apps are starting up faster and performing faster. I suggest you guys try it in any phone.

 

[sjabosi]

which task killer were you using?

 

[Chidori602]

it doesnt matter which, android phones are not supposed to use task killers. if they were, google would make its own and ship it with phones.

 

[Raven198]

it doesnt matter which, android phones are not supposed to use task killers. if they were, google would make its own and ship it with phones.

Why is it that, that just just doesn't sound right to me. It's like saying you don't need anti virus on your pc, cuz if you did Windows 7 would come with it.

You might be right, but for some reason in my mind it just doesn't sound right.

 

[gohausmachine]

I can see where this might work in theory. Let's just suppose there's an app that's always open when you go to your task killer. You may rarely use this app but it's always running because it has some sort of access that causes it to always run. If you're constantly killing it and then your phone is reloading it in the background multiple times a day I could see where that would actually cripple your speeds. Typically the reason for letting your apps run in the background is so they load quicker when you want to use them. Honestly though if you don't have the bad habit like I do (pushing home instead of back to actually close apps) you shouldn't need a task killer in the first place.

 

[fangorious]

The OS will put apps (not services) that have no visible windows on standby and leave their memory allocated. They aren't receiving CPU cycles and the memory region isn't actively being used by anything. When a new activity is started and there's not enough unallocated memory, the OS will fully kill the apps that are in standby to reclaim that memory for the new app that is visible. So a task killer that runs resident is actively taking CPU cycles and requesting memory that would have otherwise been available to visible activities and services you are intentionally running to do what the OS would have anyway done when resource availability made it necessary. As has been mentioned apps that are correctly running resident in the background (maybe you've told them to update every x minutes) will just restart themselves and end up taking more resources from the cat/mouse game than if you just leave them be (or disable their background data sync). The only time you really need to manually kill a task is when it has somehow run afoul of the prescribed lifecycle. And you don't need a task manager that runs resident in the background to do this. Or even one that launches at timed intervals, kills stuff, and the exits. Astro includes a task manager that you can manually open to kill things. Also Froyo (not sure about 2.0.1 or 2.1) includes task management in Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications.

So if you're using 1.6 then a non-resident task killer can be helpful for some rogue apps (which you should really just uninstall and find a functional replacement anyway), but on 2.2 that can be done with the stock firmware.

 

[Raven198]

The OS will put apps (not services) that have no visible windows on standby and leave their memory allocated. They aren't receiving CPU cycles and the memory region isn't actively being used by anything. When a new activity is started and there's not enough unallocated memory, the OS will fully kill the apps that are in standby to reclaim that memory for the new app that is visible. So a task killer that runs resident is actively taking CPU cycles and requesting memory that would have otherwise been available to visible activities and services you are intentionally running to do what the OS would have anyway done when resource availability made it necessary. As has been mentioned apps that are correctly running resident in the background (maybe you've told them to update every x minutes) will just restart themselves and end up taking more resources from the cat/mouse game than if you just leave them be (or disable their background data sync). The only time you really need to manually kill a task is when it has somehow run afoul of the prescribed lifecycle. And you don't need a task manager that runs resident in the background to do this. Or even one that launches at timed intervals, kills stuff, and the exits. Astro includes a task manager that you can manually open to kill things. Also Froyo (not sure about 2.0.1 or 2.1) includes task management in Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications.

So if you're using 1.6 then a non-resident task killer can be helpful for some rogue apps (which you should really just uninstall and find a functional replacement anyway), but on 2.2 that can be done with the stock firmware.

Kewl, makes sense to me. Thank you for the explanation.

Also since this thread started I got rid of ATK and have noticed my phone running a bit better. Thanks guys.

 

[SRLNCLT]

Why is it that, that just just doesn't sound right to me. It's like saying you don't need anti virus on your pc, cuz if you did Windows 7 would come with it.

You might be right, but for some reason in my mind it just doesn't sound right.

Windows 7 does. It's called Microsoft Esentials. And it's free!!!

 

[Chidori602]

so I brought back the task killer, but only to use it at school because my phone didn't last more than 5 hours and that's with no use, other than checking time. I will still try not to use the task killer other than school, because my phone is always plugged into my computer, so no worries.