a noob question but.

[coroid]

when i check my settings>applications>running services the available mb in the lower left hand corner is going down even though i havent had anything new running/downloaded.

is this normal or something to worry about?

 

[sitlet]

Thats your RAM, and yes its normal.

 

[coroid]

Thats your RAM, and yes its normal.

whats a good number to try and keep it at, or what is a normal number for it.

 

[marefin]

whats a good number to try and keep it at, or what is a normal number for it.

Just don't mess with it, Android should take care of it for you automatically.

 

[mjschmidt]

Even though you might not have launched an app, or you might have closed an app, there are still apps and services running in the background always.

Not all devs make their apps to actually close when you "exit" them, and they continue running in the background. Some apps start themselves in the background.

You find on this forum a huge raging debate regarding Task manager apps. Some people swear by them, and some people swear about them. ;-)

I personally use a Task Manager for two reasons; 1. to free up memory (yes, in theory Android takes care of the memory for you, but I have a Magic, which can occasionally get sluggish); and 2. because I want to control which apps are running. In my opinion, that should be up to me, not the (especially if they might be using my data).

 

[coroid]

Even though you might not have launched an app, or you might have closed an app, there are still apps and services running in the background always.

Not all devs make their apps to actually close when you "exit" them, and they continue running in the background. Some apps start themselves in the background.

You find on this forum a huge raging debate regarding Task manager apps. Some people swear by them, and some people swear about them. ;-)

I personally use a Task Manager for two reasons; 1. to free up memory (yes, in theory Android takes care of the memory for you, but I have a Magic, which can occasionally get sluggish); and 2. because I want to control which apps are running. In my opinion, that should be up to me, not the (especially if they might be using my data).

yeah, ive been reading up on task killers and the such, but seeing as how ive only had the phone for less then a week(htc aria) i wouldnt want to use one and then mess something up. i was just getting worried because it dropped into the 40 range. so i cleared some cache and shutdown/turned on my phone and it jumped back up into the 130+ range. seems the fb htc sense takes up alot of memory because of the contacts from my facebook.

 

[mjschmidt]

Coroid: You won't "mess up" your phone with a Task Manager.

Rebooting your phone will always get back the memory that was being used, but as apps are run, or run themselves, you will, over time, have the same problem.

Also, widgets that are always on are using memory (I despise Sense UI personally. I don't care how pretty it looks).

You can turn of Sense UI by going into your phone settings > Applications > Sense and pressing the "default" button to make Sense UI not your default home. When you hit the Home button on your phone, you will have the option to switch to plain Android as your default Home.

 

[coroid]

i appreciate your help. is there a task killer app you can recommend that has a simple ui and is fairly easy to use?

ive read astro file management was fairly easy and nice to use?

 

[marefin]

advanced task killer is a good one. try not to kill services tho.

 

[mjschmidt]

I use TaskPanel, but it appears to be gone from the market. Pity, it's a good one.

Here's another I used to use: TasKiller free - Android app on AppBrain

It's called TasKiller. Pretty simple. You can set up Ignore Lists and Auto Kill lists.

TasKiller free by AxDroid LLC >250,000 downloads, 36954 ratings (4.5 avg)

Free