Task Killer OCD!

[Vihzel]

Anyone else feel like they have to kill tasks every once in a while on their phone? Every time I use my phone, I feel the need to kill tasks when I turn it on, mess with it for a few minutes (over and over), and then before I turn it back off. Very often when I just think about it, I stop whatever I'm doing on the phone and go to the little ATK widget and kill tasks. I feel like I have OCD... or an addiction. Not exactly sure what it's closer to. lol

 

[330D]

I used to, before I found out how bad they can be for your battery life. You don't need to run a task killer.....

 

[gmaellex01]

I used to, before I found out how bad they can be for your battery life. You don't need to run a task killer.....

What if you have the task killer kill itself every time you run it? Still bad?

 

[Frisco]

What if you have the task killer kill itself every time you run it? Still bad?

lol (sorry)

 

[gmaellex01]

lol (sorry)

Ok... So nobody knows the answer? I've asked this question a few times and everybody seems pretty stumped.

 

[Xyro]

I believe the reason people say they're bad is because, if you keep killing apps, they just restart themselves. (Which uses more power than just leaving them alone). So whether the task killer is running or not isn't important.

Either way I don't use one; auto killer does the job just fine.

 

[Frisco]

Ok... So nobody knows the answer? I've asked this question a few times and everybody seems pretty stumped.

Nobody is stumped about this, gmaellex.

There is so much discussion and debate about task killers here at these forums that perhaps the silence of "weary" can appear as "stumped" to some who have not sought out (via the search features here) the multitude of posted experiences and opinions on the subject.

 

[330D]

I believe the reason people say they're bad is because, if you keep killing apps, they just restart themselves. (Which uses more power than just leaving them alone). So whether the task killer is running or not isn't important.

Either way I don't use one; auto killer does the job just fine.

The way I understand it, Xyro has it right. It takes more battery to restart the apps that shouldn't be killed than the taskkiller is gaining by killing all the rest. So, unless you go through and completely customize whatever app you are using for a killer to only kill certain apps, (which kill themselves when you back out of them using the return arrow, anyway), then they actually can use more battery than running without one.

The first week I had my phone, running a taskkiller that Sprint recommended, my battery would last about 11 hrs with moderate use. Now, I can get 16 hrs out of it using it heavy to moderate. I turn off the mobile web, when I don't use it, and back out of tasks manually. I run the music player about 5 to 6hrs a day. I don't have a taskkiller installed.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

I used to, before I found out how bad they can be for your battery life. You don't need to run a task killer.....

I have horrible battery life. The only way to fix my battery life is to tether my phone to the Android SDK Developer's kit and view the logs over a period of time.

There are so many apps that start by themselves and run processes all on their own. E.G. VLC remote, iTag. I have to get rid of those stuff. I let my phone tether in debug mode (while in sleep mode) and I can see all the crap running. I now, just remove all those offending apps.

I also don't know why the OS has to shut-down wifi and bluetooth as processes when I clearly have them turned off. I see it happen a dozen of times in a period of 15 minutes.
There is simply no quality control on reviewing apps by Google. The end-user has to do this themselves.

 

[SB13X]

Used to do it but not anymore only way I kill tasks on my Desire is by using the Applications section of the Settings Menu. My battery life is fine and can get me through the day with moderate wifi, mobile data connected most of the time and all my data syncing apps sync every hour as well as some gaming. Nearly every app that appears in most top app lists will close themselves upon backing out using either the return arrow or menu options. Only badly designed ones don't.

 

[LoyalServant]

Used to do it but not anymore only way I kill tasks on my Desire is by using the Applications section of the Settings Menu. My battery life is fine and can get me through the day with moderate wifi, mobile data connected most of the time and all my data syncing apps sync every hour as well as some gaming. Nearly every app that appears in most top app lists will close themselves upon backing out using either the return arrow or menu options. Only badly designed ones don't.

There are some badly designed apps out there.
An example of bad apps are all the storm8 games that keep running and consuming CPU after you exit them.
Fire one up, run DDMS and watch it keep running.
Since they do mostly iPhone stuff they may simply assume the tasks get killed but they don't die when you back out of them.

There are others but I forget which ones.

 

[SB13X]

There are some badly designed apps out there.
An example of bad apps are all the storm8 games that keep running and consuming CPU after you exit them.
Fire one up, run DDMS and watch it keep running.
Since they do mostly iPhone stuff they may simply assume the tasks get killed but they don't die when you back out of them.

There are others but I forget which ones.

Spot on. Thats why I make use of Android System Info and the currently running apps in the HTC Settings section. If I notice anything that continues to run its immediately removed from the phone and a relevant comment left on the market.