3 days without a App/task killer...

[Ryjabo]

...and I've noticed:

1. No difference in performance, maybe a very slight increase.
2. The same or better battery life.

I'm familiar with how Linux operating systems work, so based on what I do know, I thought that I shouldn't need one, and I was sick of driving myself crazy opening it up all the time and killing things, and as it turns out, I was right, along with lots of other info I've read online about how they're pointless.

 

[BiGMERF]

its built in on 2.2, so there is no need for it anyway

 

[MartinS]

It never needed one. I don't use one and my N1 runs great.

 

[tcope]

You may have seen the thread and my comment but I think it's odd that some people say task killers are not needed... as tasks running in the background don't use CPU or battery but then there are other threads about programs that do just this and drain their battery down very quickly (the one in question I mentioned is Camera 360).

 

[odhinn]

Task killers are definitely needed, but in my experience only in limited situations. I keep Astro on my N1 for two reasons

- being able to explore my SD card file structure
- killing Pandora (or occasionally Google Maps) when it goes crazy and just won't go away

You definitely need one, but I think people use them more than they need to. I typically only have to use my task killer every 10 days or so.

 

[BiGMERF]

Again not needed in 2.2. You can kill anything.

 

[Roze]

You may have seen the thread and my comment but I think it's odd that some people say task killers are not needed... as tasks running in the background don't use CPU or battery but then there are other threads about programs that do just this and drain their battery down very quickly (the one in question I mentioned is Camera 360).

Well a lot of people that use app killers...use them religiously and basically auto kill apps hourly. This is what is not needed.

Yes...it's good to have an app manager app with app killing functionality around to monitor if an app is using up more resources than it should and depleting battery substantially, ie rouge apps.

 

[GSMGuy]

Have to say, uninstalled total app killer a few days ago, and phone has been much better since, no lag or lockups...

Mike

 

[nerdgang]

It's def included with 2.2 but I like just pressing 1 button and killing them all at once, can I do that with the stock 2.2 version? Also I only use it like once or twice a week

 

[grainysand]

just pressing 1 button and killing them all at once

That is an incredibly silly thing to do.

 

[nerdgang]

That is an incredibly silly thing to do.

please enlighten me why?

 

[grainysand]

Because you probably just killed processes listening for updates/push e-mails, your widgets, your launcher, and everything else. Now the phone has to restart all those processes again, defeating the point and slowing down the whole thing. Grats.

 

[Drhyde]

I keep System Task Panel around to monitor certain programs, even with the built-in task killer, but that's about all. I really wasn't aware that STP had the function till I looked. Other than that I've never felt the need to use a task killer (unlike the Behold II).

 

[bigfod]

I did a factory reset after falling foul of the googlemail.co.uk to gmail.co.uk bug, and didn't reinstall ATK or wavesecure. The phone is MUCH faster.

I was going to reinstall wavesecure, then I realised that I'd wiped the phone and restarted without so much of a "hello" from wavesecure.....

 

[techdaring]

You should to using some apps to kill process don't need because they don't auto exit when you press Home. It take much of memory and make your phone slow, very slow.

 

[turbosol16]

You should to using some apps to kill process don't need because they don't auto exit when you press Home. It take much of memory and make your phone slow, very slow.

No it doesn't, if you are on FroYo you can actually see all the apps that are using memory and the all the apps running in the background. Most apps running in the background are not using any memory.

I dropped my task killer after I realized I was obsessed with apps running in the background. Since then the phone seems much faster and I have received less errors and less random restarts.

 

[uoY_redruM]

I run TaskPanel 6.6.2 and I absolutely need it.

The whole "killing all apps is stupid" thing is a bit off. If you use it PROPERLY its perfectly fine. When I first boot the phone up, it opens a ton of apps. When I open my usual usage items, like gmail, market, etc, those will show up. Now looking at the list of open apps, I can see the "necessary" running apps. I whitelist (ignore) those apps so they don't get killed....because, as grainysand said, its pointless and would just re-open them again.

Once I've whitelisted all my necessary apps and auto-launch apps, I blacklist (auto-kill) everything else that may come up that I don't use (like stock weather/news, Amazon MP3, etc) so that when my phone goes to sleep it closes those apps.

Now that my white/black list is set, I run my phone normally. After I do a lot of web surfing, running multiple apps, using the market, etc, I do my one-touch "kill all" that kills all running apps....as most of them stay open even though you click exit.

If you use something like TaskPanel, you'd see the obvious difference. A fresh reset yields ~289MB of available memory. After running a ton of apps, and especially after downloading apps, it'll dip down in the 198MB range. One simple "kill all" brings this back up to ~280MB-275MB. After using the phone for a few days, it'll eventually max out around 245MB which is when I do a full reset and clear out the system to "refresh" the phone in a sense.

I can tell you first hand, a task killer is absolutely necessary in my eyes..

 

[grainysand]

If you use something like TaskPanel, you'd see the obvious difference. A fresh reset yields ~289MB of available memory. After running a ton of apps, and especially after downloading apps, it'll dip down in the 198MB range. One simple "kill all" brings this back up to ~280MB-275MB. After using the phone for a few days, it'll eventually max out around 245MB which is when I do a full reset and clear out the system to "refresh" the phone in a sense.

I can tell you first hand, a task killer is absolutely necessary in my eyes..

Having 83 MB or 270 MB of memory left hardly affects performance, as far as I've seen.

 

[gratti]

Having 83 MB or 270 MB of memory left hardly affects performance, as far as I've seen.

Im not a programmer or coder or I know shit about OS, but that makes at lot of sense. If you have 87 or 270 mb of free memory is the same thing, since is memory that is not being used and if the new programs use less than what's available you wont fell any kind of slow down. And i do know that linux OS auto manage memory usage so you 'll always have enough free memory.

I think we are too much use to the Windows way of life where stuff is just not smart enough to auto self manage. And that old thing "the bigger the better" but when u talk of free memory on smartphones 87 mb is a shit load already.

Btw I uninstalled my ATK and i didn't fell any changes aside my obsessive task killing just to see how much memory it had. So ya... I'm on the band wagon that think task killers are useless on Android.

 

[cyberbob25]

I run TaskPanel 6.6.2 and I absolutely need it.

The whole "killing all apps is stupid" thing is a bit off. If you use it PROPERLY its perfectly fine. When I first boot the phone up, it opens a ton of apps. When I open my usual usage items, like gmail, market, etc, those will show up. Now looking at the list of open apps, I can see the "necessary" running apps. I whitelist (ignore) those apps so they don't get killed....because, as grainysand said, its pointless and would just re-open them again.

Once I've whitelisted all my necessary apps and auto-launch apps, I blacklist (auto-kill) everything else that may come up that I don't use (like stock weather/news, Amazon MP3, etc) so that when my phone goes to sleep it closes those apps.

Now that my white/black list is set, I run my phone normally. After I do a lot of web surfing, running multiple apps, using the market, etc, I do my one-touch "kill all" that kills all running apps....as most of them stay open even though you click exit.

If you use something like TaskPanel, you'd see the obvious difference. A fresh reset yields ~289MB of available memory. After running a ton of apps, and especially after downloading apps, it'll dip down in the 198MB range. One simple "kill all" brings this back up to ~280MB-275MB. After using the phone for a few days, it'll eventually max out around 245MB which is when I do a full reset and clear out the system to "refresh" the phone in a sense.

I can tell you first hand, a task killer is absolutely necessary in my eyes..

Free memory is wasted memory. As stated above, there is no difference in how the phone performs whether you have 20MB free, or 200MB free...the only difference is how much memory you have left to open new applications in to.

The way Android memory management works, you will never run out of memory, as the system will automatically kill off background apps as is necessary in order to meet current memory demands.

Using a task killer does nothing for Android other than use additional CPU and battery (having to restart programs that you've previously killed).