Do I really need a "task manager" on my Fascinate?

[oleandere]

Hi,

I have limited data minutes, and am obsessive about both getting my new Fascinate to default to Wifi and also about saving the battery. (Long days away from home, often in nature with no plug-in.)

Someone suggested downloading Juice Defender and Advanced Task Killer Free. OK, great. So I got those, but now I wonder if they are redundant and/or conflicting, or if my current software (Froyo 2.2.2) with its built it "Task Manager" can already handle battery-drain management without those add-ons?

Thanks!
Lisa

 

[MaxOmus]

Task managers cause more trouble then there worth on 2.0 above, just do a quick google search on task mangers & you'll find a slew of info on/about them & why they are not recommended. As far as wifi, try a wifi manager, something like "wifi manager", "wifi buddy", etc. you can set them to scan & automatically connect to open networks or any others you set it for. Also maybe try doing some research on "Tasker" & "Locale" & the slew of add ons for it, you can set rules, customize them to all types of stuff pertaining to how you would like to set up or restrict your data usage among other things.

 

[oleandere]

Thank you for setting me straight on task killers. I deleted mine.

Meanwhile, I didn't know how to program Juice Defender, but then I found this incredibly useful thread on that topic:

http://androidforums.com/nexus-s-4g/413550-juicedefender-ultimate-settings.html

Love the Juice Defender.

Thanks!

 

[skooternb]

I've had Advanced Task Killer on both my Fascinate and Tab 10.1 and I recently deleted it from the tab and am on my way to deleting it from my Fascinate. I find myself using it less and less and it actually bothering me because sometimes it pops up as running in the background.

 

[lightningdude]

Man, I'm tired of reading the generalized statements about the task managers/killers. There's no problem with running the task killers, it's when you set everything to bare bones and run them on a schedule that causes problems. Android doesn't kill apps until the memory used by those tasks is required, but there isn't necessarily any control over data use when those apps are in the background. There are two options when you are faced with this situation. First of all, you can uncheck the background data option in your account/sync menu. That will stop all apps from using data when you are not using them. This will, however, bork your widgets or whatever that actually uses data behind the scenes, such as a weather widget. Your other option is to use a task killer and be smart about using it.

Oh, and keep your sync turned off. That will drain battery and data if you leave it on.

As for that task killer, I would suggest downloading the app called Android Assistant. It has a startup manager so that you can keep apps from starting up as you boot your phone, a mode to display running services, and a whole lot more. The startup manager and services manager selects the recommended services for you to either stop or prevent, and will allow you to deselect or select more options. So again, task managers aren't all bad, and this one will set you straight on using one correctly.

Afaik, you can get a data usage widget from Verizon (if that's who your service is through) that will help you to keep track of how much data you've used. I can't tell for sure, because I personally don't use it.

 

[Piiman]

Hi,

I have limited data minutes, and am obsessive about both getting my new Fascinate to default to Wifi and also about saving the battery. (Long days away from home, often in nature with no plug-in.)

Someone suggested downloading Juice Defender and Advanced Task Killer Free. OK, great. So I got those, but now I wonder if they are redundant and/or conflicting, or if my current software (Froyo 2.2.2) with its built it "Task Manager" can already handle battery-drain management without those add-ons?

Thanks!
Lisa

Have you tried running it stock? Why worry about something you may not have to worry about? You can monitor data use and have it warn you. I'd set it to 1/4, then 1/2 etc of your total and see how long it last. You may be surprised how little you use.

second no task manager. Since 2.1 all they really do is restart apps. Google actually took out the ability to kill apps.

You may also be surprised at your battery life.

In other words don't worry about something you may not need to worry about.

 

[exzacklyright]

I only use cache cleaner ng. It wipes all of your apps cache and you an set it to run whenever each day. If you don't do this, data/data will get full and start causing you to have force closes.

 

[lightningdude]

I only use cache cleaner ng. It wipes all of your apps cache and you an set it to run whenever each day. If you don't do this, data/data will get full and start causing you to have force closes.

She's not talking about data storage, she's talking about data use, as in what is allowable over 3G.

 

[EdNerd]

I just found this for app management:

Active Apps / Task Manager
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wMSwiY29tLmVsbndhcmUuQWN0aXZlQXBwc1dpZGdldCJd

Ed