Advanced Task Killer reports numerous apps running I don't start?

[Lock-N-Load]

So I notice that when I open Advanced Task Killer I see all kinds of apps I never started up and ran, even if I kill them, the next time I open ATK, after the phone goes to sleep or I go off to something else and come back, there some of them are again.

Here are the/some culprits I often see:

Alarm Clock - and this has an icon (red bell) next to it that is NOT the Alarm Clock apps icon (white face clock) that comes on the phone so kind of curious what the heck it is?

Corporate Calendar - never use this, never use an Exchange server, don't want it to run

Messaging - I never use this, I use Handcent SMS so why is this running?

Settings - I use, but after you close, why is it reported as running

Car Home - never use this. maybe opened it 2 times to see what it was/does and sometimes it is in my list??

So my quesiotns are:

1. why do they just decide to run when I never opened them?

2. is there a way to stop some of these from starting and wasting background power and memory?

3. why sometimes some of these are listed and other times not? For example, 5 times today I saw Corporate Calendar, now the last 3 tests I do not? And now, I closed ATK and went and did nothing, came back and there it is again????

 

[alostpacket]

Alarm Clock
- dont worry about the icon confusion, it's the same alarm clock and it needs to run
Corporate Calendar
- dont worry about it it's not sucking resources,I believe this is just the name that the regular calendar runs under because motorola added the corp cal in as a partial 'replacement' of the regular cal.
Messaging
- im 90% sure handcent utilizes services from the stock messaging system. in other words, dont worry about it.
Settings
- dont worry about it, it's a system app
Car Home
- dont worry about it. it runs when you open maps but it wont suck up resources unless it actually opens 'visually'.

As far as I know, the reason these all run is because the receive Intents from the ActivityManager. In english that means they just are listening to certain actions you perform and are ready to spring into action if the Android OS requests it of them. But just listening to the Intents does not suck up resources, it's just the Android OS way of helping pre-cache things you may need in the future.

 

[Lock-N-Load]

wow.. very good explanation. thanks!

so, the reason why sometimes some of these are there and "running" (and sometimes not) is that you think I performed some action that lead the system to believe I "might" want to use them so it started them up? Interesting theory...

the odd thing there is, if you think they do not use resources, why would ATK list them? It is not listing Browser as I did not use it so it is not loaded and taking resources.

Also, if you look up in the left hand corner it says Available Memory: xxM - well, kill these items and that xxM grows, which kind f tells me, it is taking mem and resources, agreed?

 

[peskemom]

Actually I have gotten into the habit of ALWAYS opening Ad.TaskKiller after every use of my Droid....see what apps have self-started, and shut them down until I'm left with very few 'on'. I have extended my battery life every day by hours. Everytime you install an app or even upgrade an app ....they tell you the phone resources that will be drawn when you open the application. Even making a regular phone call opens other apps. I have just decided this 'extra step' I do everytime I am working with my droid is part of my routine.

 

[alostpacket]

It might be taking minute amounts of memory but not really, It's hard to explain kind of but it's the way android works under the hood. Android will shit shut (oops) down an application, pause it, or take memory away from it if another more pressing application needs it. It's just the nature of the system.

There is this state where the OS "readies" and app to run but doesn't run it fully and it takes probably in the single digit kilobytes of memory.

There actually isn't a "running" and "not ruining" state for an application in the traditional sense. But rather there are these various states of use and actually no single point of entry for an application to start with. Therefore, all applications are constantly listening for the Intents they have stated that they can handle (think of an intent as a user action like sending an SMS, or opening the maps application)



Here's a chart to see what the life cycle actually looks like:

All you need to take away from all this though, as a user, is that task killers are mostly unnecessary. The one situation they help with would be if a process gets stuck open due to some bug and you want to kill it. (happens to me with Last.fm a sometimes)

 

[alostpacket]

Actually I have gotten into the habit of ALWAYS opening Ad.TaskKiller after every use of my Droid....see what apps have self-started, and shut them down until I'm left with very few 'on'. I have extended my battery life every day by hours. Everytime you install an app or even upgrade an app ....they tell you the phone resources that will be drawn when you open the application. Even making a regular phone call opens other apps. I have just decided this 'extra step' I do everytime I am working with my droid is part of my routine.

This is actually probably causing you a bit of lost battery power because a lot of those apps will restart themselves immediately after closing.

 

[messenger13]

Here's a chart to see what the life cycle actually looks like:

All you need to take away from all this though, as a user, is that task killers are extremely necessary.

Fixed.

 

[alostpacket]

haha, well I guess that's one way of looking at it

 

[G1Bodie]

So I notice that when I open Advanced Task Killer I see all kinds of apps I never started up and ran, even if I kill them, the next time I open ATK, after the phone goes to sleep or I go off to something else and come back, there some of them are again.

Here are the/some culprits I often see:

Alarm Clock - and this has an icon (red bell) next to it that is NOT the Alarm Clock apps icon (white face clock) that comes on the phone so kind of curious what the heck it is?

Corporate Calendar - never use this, never use an Exchange server, don't want it to run

Messaging - I never use this, I use Handcent SMS so why is this running?

Settings - I use, but after you close, why is it reported as running

Car Home - never use this. maybe opened it 2 times to see what it was/does and sometimes it is in my list??

So my quesiotns are:

1. why do they just decide to run when I never opened them?

2. is there a way to stop some of these from starting and wasting background power and memory?

3. why sometimes some of these are listed and other times not? For example, 5 times today I saw Corporate Calendar, now the last 3 tests I do not? And now, I closed ATK and went and did nothing, came back and there it is again????

I am wondering the same thing also...everytime i open advanced task manager i see the amazon app running.. thing is i have never opened that app before..ever

 

[alostpacket]

Dunno about amazon, when was the last time you rebooted?

 

[carrot]

Alarm Clock
- dont worry about the icon confusion, it's the same alarm clock and it needs to run
Corporate Calendar
- dont worry about it it's not sucking resources,I believe this is just the name that the regular calendar runs under because motorola added the corp cal in as a partial 'replacement' of the regular cal.
Messaging
- im 90% sure handcent utilizes services from the stock messaging system. in other words, dont worry about it.
Settings
- dont worry about it, it's a system app
Car Home
- dont worry about it. it runs when you open maps but it wont suck up resources unless it actually opens 'visually'.

As far as I know, the reason these all run is because the receive Intents from the ActivityManager. In english that means they just are listening to certain actions you perform and are ready to spring into action if the Android OS requests it of them. But just listening to the Intents does not suck up resources, it's just the Android OS way of helping pre-cache things you may need in the future.

I've seen hitting "Home" will start "Settings". Not too sure exactly why.

 

[Jinnai]

+1 on the flowchart and answers...I've been wondering about this since I got my Droid a couple of weeks ago. There still seems to be some debate around a task killer is beneficial or useless though...hrm.