Task Killer question

[shel312]

Hi-I am new here and new to the smartphone world. I have had my Eris for about 2 weeks. I use it to check email, facebook, to go online occasionally, and games. When I bought the phone, the Verizon salesman put ATK on my phone--said I needed it. I didn't question it, but I read so many opinions on the forum in regards to task killers--much of which I don't understand.

Basically--what does it do? From what he told me at Verizon, it closes the programs I am no longer using. If I do get rid of it (please tell my in simple language why I should or shouldn't) how do I close the programs?

Thanks in advance for being patient with me. As I said, I have entered an entirely new world with this phone!!

 

[Bishop]

Myself, I don't think you need it. And even if you really wanted to stop some apps from running in the background, (if you have 2.1) just go to 'running services' and stop them there. That program is automatically installed on your phone with 2.1.

 

[smacky]

If you're on OSX, press "command," "option," "esc."
If you're in Windows, CTRL Alt Delete.

That is a task manager. The task killer on your phone is no different, and you can set it so it kills tasks automatically, or at the press of a widget "button."

No one has yet to provide a convincing argument for either side of the issue. It just turns into people quoting articles and it turns into a shitstorm after that.

I recommend Advanced Task Killer by ReChild. Try it and see if you like it. If you notice nothing different, delete it and forget it.

 

[Bishop]

Well that's two against one so far.

But really, it's up to you. I had one, then unistalled it just cuz the one that's already on the phone worked better for me. But then again, I've only tried one other one, so I don't have much else to compare to.

I think having something to stop non-needed stuff from running in the background is a cool feature either way.

 

[srmccoy]

I'm another one against task killers. You can terminate running processes in Android by going into Settings --> Applications ---> Running Services. This is sufficient for stopping hung applications or freeing up memory.

I found that using a Task Killer made me somewhat neurotic about killing tasks. In the end, I found no difference in battery life or performance between using one and not, and I'm no longer constantly checking and killing.