How to save power?

[dan0zone]

I keep asking you guys to READ and be informed ,.,....,., here's some reading
AndRS Studio
this should you how useless task/app killers are .,.,.,..,. Stop confusing windows with android ,,,
Killing Hours,, the point is why have another program running playing watchdog , when you already have this same thing built in ???
What you guys should do is download the SDK and run ddms in the tools folder or just run logcat in your terminal app on your phone,,and watch android at work , . There you will see what we are trying to tell you ,,,...,., THERE is no need for task/app killers....

 

[yatimameiji]

Sorry Killing Hours, I couldn't be bothered to read your entire thread. I've said my piece and thats that. And dan0zone is right, why do something the OS and all the contributors to Linux and the engineers at Google have worked on to do automatically?

 

[spiz]

Stop arguing over semantics people. There is one simple fact that remains, regardless of biases. Android is Linux based. This means that you do NOT need task killers NOR do you need to worry about what's running and what's not.

So let's stay on topic about saving battery life. Task Killers hurt your battery life and don't make your system any better. Period.

 

[Killing Hours]

Sorry Killing Hours, I couldn't be bothered to read your entire thread. I've said my piece and thats that. And dan0zone is right, why do something the OS and all the contributors to Linux and the engineers at Google have worked on to do automatically?

Don't blame you... it is difficult to explain your position with linking information so that others can be informed as to how the operating system works.

but since it's to much for you...

Per the link provided by dan0zone (thanks... that was what I was looking for the entire time), I stand corrected in my line of thought and how android manages itself.

1. the "thread" is loaded however put on the back burner pulling squat for resources and can be unloaded quickly due to the way android is coded.
2. task killers "DO" do more harm (if you will) by unloading the thread which android will only start again thus causing the system to continually load things over and over again instead of leaving them on the back burner and calling them as needed.

This post helped me to come to that conculsion.

I haven't killed a single task in almost 7 days. Before that, I was opening AvancedTaskKiller almost every thirty minutes to kill a multitude of processes that I ignorantly believed were slowing down my phone and sucking up battery.
After a week of not killing a single task, I'm floored. Not only is my battery lasting at least 25% longer than before, but the phone almost NEVER glitches or lags. It is snappy, responsive, and stays alive for much longer than before.
This is because Android behaves differently than an OS like Windows, for example. Whereas Windows will open a wholly dormant program once you access it, thereby using system resources to open and operate and then freeing up resources totally once closed again, Android instead has all of the tasks "peeking" open, so to speak. They aren't necessarily in full operation, just standing by on low power for later use.
By constantly killing all of these tasks and applications with a task killer, all we're doing is forcing the system to open them back up again right away. We're thinking now, oh look! We have so much memory free! But all that memory is immediately sapped away again by the system restarting all of these tasks, which lags the phone up and slurps up battery faster than your mom.
Such a huge difference.
TL;DR: Don't use a Task Killer. You're only making your phone work harder to immediately reopen everything anway, which kills memory and battery. You're giving your phone alzheimer's every time you do it.
EDIT 1: Lots of people are saying that Task Killers tend to work for them due to varying types of phones, earlier iterations of Android, misbehaving apps etc. If you try out not using a task killer and it just kills your phone, then by all means, keep using it. I should've clarified before that I was not intending or attempting to make some end-all statement about Task Killers being from the devil. It was just my experience.
EDIT 2: aftli posted this great explanation on proper use of Task Killers. Give it a look!
EDIT 3: The AndroidDev Twitter just linked to this post! Thanks for the heads up, starnix17!

I stopped using a task killer last week to see if there is a difference. There is, and it's huge. : Android


More or less... in android 2.x... they started using a different method of handling threads than they used in previous versions of android. This would have been useful info to know from the bat since not all of us are linux guru's nor do we all have android backgrounds. (could have saved alot of back n' forth)



In reading through the comments on this post... I came across what "seems" to be the answer to one of my questions regarding an option to keep things from "auto starting" on the phone that don't really need to be running at all anyhow.



dan0zone... since you don't seem to mind helping someone who is new to the android o.s., I would like to ask your opinion on an app called "autostarts" and if you've had any dealings with it. Your insight would be appreciated. Thanks.


(unistalling ATK as we speak ;-) .... thanks dan0zone for the reference and taking the time to help a android n00b see the error of his ways)

 

[yatimameiji]

Glad to see someone else convinced of the task killer craziness, wither by me or anyone else, don't matter. Go forth and enjoy a properly running os. And I can't wait for Android 2.2 where they introduce their new JIT(Just In Time) compiler for the virtual machine(which runs the apps) which gives much better performance and thus the more efficient an engine, the more power you save.

Here is a link Going Deeper With Android 2.2’s JIT Compiler | Android Phone Fans

 

[Killing Hours]

Glad to see someone else convinced of the task killer craziness, wither by me or anyone else, don't matter. Go forth and enjoy a properly running os. And I can't wait for Android 2.2 where they introduce their new JIT(Just In Time) compiler for the virtual machine(which runs the apps) which gives much better performance and thus the more efficient an engine, the more power you save.

Here is a link Going Deeper With Android 2.2

 

[stutteringp0et]

I know this is my first post, but I can't stand when people brag about things they obviously know nothing about.

... as Android is Linux, we don't need silly things like that....

(Referring to task killers)

I don't know about you, but I've been using only Linux for over 12 years (on actual computers and servers, not phones). In fact, I don't use Windows at all on my personal systems. I kill processes on a fairly regular basis using kill and xkill. Some apps just don't obey.

I use Advanced Task Killer (ATK) on my Vibrant because there are several apps that run without my knowledge and ATK will auto kill them.

For example: Visual Voicemail - I've never started this app or signed up for the service, but it's constantly running. Same with Amazon MP3, Slacker and a few others. Don't ask me why they're running, I don't even want them on my phone.

Many other apps don't quit, or have no option to quit.

ATK autokills these apps. Is it better to have 4 or more unknown programs running, or 1 automatic task killer?

 

[yatimameiji]

Then you should under stand the difference between a running process and one that is simply asleep(thus using no resources except memory). If we could run something like 'top' on Android, we would see these processes were simply all in a sleep state. These task killers do not make this distinction, they simply show whats been loaded into memory. Also if you use Linux, you know how well it handles its resources. Read the link posted by dan0zone above for more information.

As for apps that don't behave, then yes, by all means kill them. But again just because 'atk' shows it doesn't mean its running. In fact the phone comes with the ability to show background running services. Go to Settings > Applications > Running Services to see what is truly running in the background. You can stop them from there.

 

[dan0zone]

That's a good example ... Visual Voicemail -
Did you know, that Visual Voicemail is tied into, your regular voicemail and that's why it runs, on start up,. I know on the behold2 if you delete that apk your dialer will force close every time you try to retrieve your voicemail... till you reinstall the V VM app... SO just because you don't want it don't mean that the system don't NEED it ..... some of these apps are deeply integrated into the OS so , killing their process in that manner will only cause some other process to malfunction ....
now don't get me wrong some apps are useless ... I agree , but you need to look at the app info to tell which ones are tied into the OS and which ones are not .. and instead of using ATK..;... JUST delete them .... simple ...
Edit:"Many other apps don't quit, or have no option to quit."
This is where android and Linux is a little different .... Yes there is no Quit option in some apps , but thats what the back button is for .,.,, in most apps hitting the back button will pause it then it goes into sleep mode ... then if that resource is need the system clears that sleeping app and loads the one that called for that resource .... I said most app because media apps can run even if you hit the back button , thats because they come with their own pause button and when pressed it does the same thing , puts that media app into sleep mode .....
NOW if you have an app that is not closing when you hit the back button and or does not have a pause option , then my friend ,, that app is no good ... All of Android API(s) has the base code for the system , so if a dev makes an app that don't follow the API rules then uninstall it , and let the dev know its broken .... using ATK to kill its process is pointless ,,
Its like having a flat tire and you use a compressor to pump it up , then it goes flat again , so you pump it up again .,..,., wouldn't just changing the tire fix the issue ....? Well thats what you guys are doing with these Task/App killers .....

 

[stutteringp0et]

There are a great many apps that cannot be removed from vibrant. Vvoicemail, amazon mp3, slacker, the tv app (forgot its name) and others came bundled so they're staying until an update removes them or I root the phone and manually update it.

 

[yatimameiji]

An update would rarely remove an app. If you really feel you need them gone, then root the phone and use adb to remove them. Thought I would recommend using adb pull to make backup copies of the apps on your computer first. As it was mentioned before, some of the apps are vital to other functions of the phone(ie dialer fc when there is no visual voicemail app found). Also you could flash BH_MAN's Vibrant1 rom which looks to have some of the bloat removed.

 

[sixstringsam]

In summary, it sounds like I should just uninstall ATK or just never use it...... does it come with an uninstaller?

 

[yatimameiji]

In summary, it sounds like I should just uninstall ATK or just never use it...... does it come with an uninstaller?

There are a few ways to uninstall apps. There are uninstallers on the market, or you could even use the market to uninstall an app. Go to Downloads and select your app and select uninstall. Or if you go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, then select your app and select uninstall.

 

[rlb4]

There are a few ways to uninstall apps. There are uninstallers on the market, or you could even use the market to uninstall an app. Go to Downloads and select your app and select uninstall. Or if you go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, then select your app and select uninstall.

Is there any advantage to using one way to uninstall vs another?

 

[yatimameiji]

Not that I know of. If you use the market, it will ask why you are uninstalling. Other then that, the process is the same.

 

[sixstringsam]

There are a few ways to uninstall apps. There are uninstallers on the market, or you could even use the market to uninstall an app. Go to Downloads and select your app and select uninstall. Or if you go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, then select your app and select uninstall.

Thanks yati.

 

[llblwskydrgn]

This was an informative thread to read. I am new to Android and smartphones in general and I still have ATK installed but am not allowing it to run in the background. I will definitely let others know about this because I have seen ATK running on other's phones and am perplexed as to why they would want that running all the time.

 

[the1who]

To be honest, I have just skimmed through the replies here, so I may have missed something. I understand what is being said about ATK, coming as a Window user, thought it was a need. Uninstalling ATK after I type this. It was never on auto-run just when I felt the need to check as well as others have stated.

My other reason for reply is that in another forum they talk about a part of the GPS fix that may help, which is running startup auditor. It will stop Telenav from running and then any other time it tries to execute, in the last 2 hours, I have only used 3% of battery compared to the 10% yesterday. Not sure why difference, I am led to believe by that bit I may have helped. Help me understand if I am wrong please, because it just doesn't make logical sense, aside from the ATK.

 

[dan0zone]

Q 1.' Do you use telenav?
Q2.' Did you know there is a "one click RooT and UN-RooT app for the vibrant?
Q3.' Do you know enough about RooTing to use that app to root , delete telenav , then , UN-RooT ( if you not comfortable with having your device rooted all the time ) ?

 

[llblwskydrgn]

Q 1.' Do you use telenav?
Q2.' Did you know there is a "one click RooT and UN-RooT app for the vibrant?
Q3.' Do you know enough about RooTing to use that app to root , delete telenav , then , UN-RooT ( if you not comfortable with having your device rooted all the time ) ?

Would you be so kind as to direct us to said app?
Is it available in the market? Is there a website to download it from?

 

[dan0zone]

It's here on this forum , but here's the link to xda ....
One click root/unroot for galaxys no computer needed - xda-developers

 

[heybk]

i went 10 hours today and got to about 40%
only thing i really changed was keep brightness at the lowest setting (for about 6 hours) then went outside and turned it to maximum and forgot to change it back
and selected 2G only
no live wallpaper

 

[jjroid]

Oh, DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS!! This is bad thinking that comes from people from the Windows world. Do Not Use.

I'm glad I came across this thread as I've been using ATK for months now. You're all totally right though, I come from the "Windows world" and just assumed that in order for my phone to run correctly, I would need to do this. I'm uninstalling ATK now and we'll see how much better battery life gets...

 

[the1who]

Q 1.' Do you use telenav?
Q2.' Did you know there is a "one click RooT and UN-RooT app for the vibrant?
Q3.' Do you know enough about RooTing to use that app to root , delete telenav , then , UN-RooT ( if you not comfortable with having your device rooted all the time ) ?

Q1, No, I accidentally opened it on the Behold 2 I had, not realizing I would get charged $10 in the next bill! Oh well, rather Google Map navigate or use now, Google Navigation heh. I hated using the Google Map way because the screen would always have to be touched or pressing the menu key.

Q2, I did, but didn't know too much about it. Kind of just waiting for 2.2 before I really worry about it.

Q3, I knew could root and un-root, didn't know that I could un-root and still have telenav off. I prefer this method as I really would not want to be rooted unless of course, I had a explosive good time.

 

[sherylannw]

All of a sudden, the sync icon has seemed to be running all of the time. I have turned it off a couple of different ways, but it keeps reappearing. Could this be why I'm getting such short battery life? I've been running thru 3 batteries at full charge per day.

I like the phone, but am frustrated by the battery life, and seriously have considered going back to my Blackberry because of this, along with a couple of other reasons.