Suedo Solution for Background Tasks

[CrashRhin0]

As most of you already know, the HTC Hero is extremely customizable, however, it tends to run things in background that sometimes gunk up the system processes and available RAM. I've spent the last few days looking for apps on the Android market to solve this, and the best I had found was Advanced Task Killer and TasKiller. Both require manual operation to kill things like 'Messages', 'Sprint Navigation', 'IM', 'Voice Dialer' and many of the other applications that launch with boot or for some reason launch on their own.

Last night I found one that is free, automated, lightweight and has tons of features!

It's called TaskPanel.

TaskPanel allows you to set rules, through Auto-Killer. You have an Ignore List and a Wanted List.

Setting things like HTC Sense and Touch input (along with a few others) to the Ignore list is just fine for most app killing programs, but then this has a Wanted List.

The Wanted List allows you to tag a currently running process or app (sugestion is to install it and power cycle your phone to get everything that runs at startup listed) and when criteria is met, TaskPanel kills the Wanted List apps.

TaskPanel has an automated timer that has a few options' 5 minute intervals, 15 minute internals, 30 minute intervals, and 60 minute intervals. As well as only killing the wanted list when ram hits: Less than 70 MB, Less than 50 MG, and Less than 30 MB.

You can also register it as an ongoing task and startup item, so if you have to power cycle or your phone dies, once it reboots, TaskPanel comes back, with the same lists, and options saved and cleans out the pesky programs you don't want running.

This is by far the best solution I have found to the issue of automatically killing background tasks, all for free.

Let me know what everyone else thinks!

--Cheers
--Running Rhino

*On a side note, I spoke with Sprint Tech support last night, about the removal of Sprint Nascar coverage and other default installed apps. Apparently it's a current issue with Android (I spoke with a tech that has the HTC Hero) as their blackberry users can uninstall and delete those particular programs. They think the Android community is working on a way to uninstall or hide these applications and HTC is working on an update to help customize startup Apps as well as background tasks*

 

[Carl C]

Hi CrashRhino

Thanks for sharing this app you found , Personally I use Advanced task killer which has the Function to Auto-end apps.

Carl C


p.s. Have some Rep for sharing!

 

[pdragon]

*On a side note, I spoke with Sprint Tech support last night, about the removal of Sprint Nascar coverage and other default installed apps. Apparently it's a current issue with Android (I spoke with a tech that has the HTC Hero) as their blackberry users can uninstall and delete those particular programs. They think the Android community is working on a way to uninstall or hide these applications and HTC is working on an update to help customize startup Apps as well as background tasks*

That is some fantastic news! I thought it was some sort of marketing deal that wouldn't let these apps uninstall.

Again, though, BIG warning on the Task Killers, especially the automated ones. You could be interfering with the intended functioning of the phone and cause other issues. Loss of Internal Memory has been thought to be one of these due to killing the task before it could properly allocate/deallocate memory. These could also be a serious battery drain as you could force an app into a kill loop if it keeps starting back up because it's a core app or has some other automated function you don't know about.

 

[doanius]

Hi CrashRhino

Thanks for sharing this app you found , Personally I use Advanced task killer which has the Function to Auto-end apps.

Carl C


p.s. Have some Rep for sharing!

How do you auto end an app in ATK?

 

[romeosidvicious]

As most of you already know, the HTC Hero is extremely customizable, however, it tends to run things in background that sometimes gunk up the system processes and available RAM. I've spent the last few days looking for apps on the Android market to solve this, and the best I had found was Advanced Task Killer and TasKiller. Both require manual operation to kill things like 'Messages', 'Sprint Navigation', 'IM', 'Voice Dialer' and many of the other applications that launch with boot or for some reason launch on their own.

Last night I found one that is free, automated, lightweight and has tons of features!

It's called TaskPanel.

TaskPanel allows you to set rules, through Auto-Killer. You have an Ignore List and a Wanted List.

Setting things like HTC Sense and Touch input (along with a few others) to the Ignore list is just fine for most app killing programs, but then this has a Wanted List.

The Wanted List allows you to tag a currently running process or app (sugestion is to install it and power cycle your phone to get everything that runs at startup listed) and when criteria is met, TaskPanel kills the Wanted List apps.

TaskPanel has an automated timer that has a few options' 5 minute intervals, 15 minute internals, 30 minute intervals, and 60 minute intervals. As well as only killing the wanted list when ram hits: Less than 70 MB, Less than 50 MG, and Less than 30 MB.

You can also register it as an ongoing task and startup item, so if you have to power cycle or your phone dies, once it reboots, TaskPanel comes back, with the same lists, and options saved and cleans out the pesky programs you don't want running.

This is by far the best solution I have found to the issue of automatically killing background tasks, all for free.

Let me know what everyone else thinks!

--Cheers
--Running Rhino

Killing apps is generally not necessary and as has been pointed out can lead to your phone not functioning properly. For a full explanation read this thread. http://androidforums.com/sprint-htc-hero/12195-properly-close-app.html#post71111

*On a side note, I spoke with Sprint Tech support last night, about the removal of Sprint Nascar coverage and other default installed apps. Apparently it's a current issue with Android (I spoke with a tech that has the HTC Hero) as their blackberry users can uninstall and delete those particular programs. They think the Android community is working on a way to uninstall or hide these applications and HTC is working on an update to help customize startup Apps as well as background tasks*

Sprint reps are notorious for not having correct information. You couldn't remove these apps on the Mogul or TP and you won't be able to on the Hero. There is nothing in Android that prevents the removal of these applications. They are coded specially to not allow removal because Sprint wants them on your phone. Once the phone is rooted and can have a new ROM flashed you will be able to remove them but not before. Sprint won't "allow" their removal and if a tech told you it's an Android problem he pulled it out of his ass.

I highly doubt HTC will provide a task manager as it's generally unnecessary and I honestly don't see them providing a custom start-up application either but it would be nice to have. With as locked down as Sprint has required this phone to be I am willing to bet we won't have any more control than we already do until it is rooted.

 

[LTZguy]

I tried task killer several times. It makes MY phone worse off. What it does for you, may be different. Heres the issues i had: phone not sleeping, batt did not last long, and made the phone laggy. No most tak killers for me. Since i removed it, my phone works pleasantly, th battery lasts more han a whole day and it sleeps correctly. To each their own. In my honest opinion, i'd steer clear of that garbage.

 

[LTZguy]

o and another thing, the phone manages the programs open quite nicely on its own. if it aint broke....dont fix it.

 

[Sodbuster]

Yeah, I stopped using the Task Killer and the phone got smoother. Here's a video on how the OS manages applications. As I've been reading up on Android I've become progressively more impressed. Maybe all mobile OSes are like this, but they certainly don't openly talk about it.

Videos | Android Developers

It's my personal belief that once this phone gets 2.0 most of the laggyness will disappear. I'm not that bothered by it myself. I really, really like the Android system... it's neato.

 

[doanius]

Yeah, I stopped using the Task Killer and the phone got smoother. Here's a video on how the OS manages applications. As I've been reading up on Android I've become progressively more impressed. Maybe all mobile OSes are like this, but they certainly don't openly talk about it.

Videos | Android Developers

It's my personal belief that once this phone gets 2.0 most of the laggyness will disappear. I'm not that bothered by it myself. I really, really like the Android system... it's neato.

same here... Phone works perfectly after I got rid of ATK and rebooted. There are some hint of slowness once in a while but it picks back up..