yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Vibrant General] Dougefresh91:
System Panel is nice, I just downloaded it. This morning I had DL'd Advanced Task Killer, on someones recommendation, and it kept telling me apps that I've never even opened were running. e.g. Daily Briefing, Slacker, AmazonMP3. System Panel is saying the same thing, only that they're cached. It still doesn't make sense to me, but this app seems more accurate.

Rooting and removing the crapware is getting really tempting.
[Vibrant General] jblade1000:
this thread is interesting and i dont know who's ultimately right, but i do know from my personal experience in day to day use is that when i look at my available ram and observe my performance (lag, responsiveness, etc) before and after i kill things via task panel x, there's a serious difference. period. 34mbs free vs 160 to 170 free? yeah im keeping my task killer, i just dont have anything set to auto. works fine.
[Vibrant General] s15274n:
because all of that unused ram is a good thing, ha.
[Vibrant General] Argusi:
I'm with you on this. It's just modifying the thresholds/rules Android itself is using to kill things. Find the right balance and your golden. You want enough available so you don't get sluggishness, but not so much you are ending apps prematurely. For the Vibrant, I set it for Aggressive and it keeps available memory at about 90-100. That's my personal sweet spot. Your mileage may vary. I've been using it for a long time (G1 too) and it has never failed me. I've had more problems with rogue apps slowing down my phone, than I have with AutoKiller.
[Vibrant General] AndroidZ28:
I own(ed) a G1, Google Ion, myTouch, CLIQ, Behold II, Nexus One, myTouch Slide, GARMINfone, and Samsung Vibrant.

I have never used a task killer / manager on any of them and have never experienced lag on any of them.

My battery has also lasted from wake (9am) to bed (im usually in the bed by 11pm, sleep comes much later) on all of them and that includes at least 2 hours of stereo Bluetooth music. WiFi, GPS and Sync on all day. Bluetooth and brightness are managed as needed.

I'm no developer, but I have flashed my fair share of roms, and run plenty of tests. I don't know what is best, but I do know that they are NOT NECESSARY. Are they helpful or useful to you? Possibly. If you want to use one, have fun. I see no reason for me to start now...

EDIT: I also play a fair bit of SNESoid, GENSoid, and now PSX4droid....

Also, I don't have a car charger or office charger. I only charge overnight.

If you have to use a charger during the day, you blew it. ;)
[Vibrant General] jblade1000:
:confused: since this is the interwebz i cant always tell when someones being sarcastic or not...so...um...(here it goes) it gets used up after i free it to do something else (like gameloft games, for instance)
[Vibrant General] frankencat:
I like ATK because it's one click to see what apps are running and one click to kill them if you want/need to. I don't see what the harm is personally as long as you are just killing apps that are standing bye. I wouldn't kill something in the middle of a process unless it was causing a severe problem. But hey, I am just a corporate software dev so what do I know. ;)
[Vibrant General] junkdruggler:
free ram is wasted ram.... said it before, Ill say it again

when you go from less than 40 available ram to 170 available ram your phone doesnt speed up... infact it slows down everytime you reopen one of the apps that was taking up that ram, because now it has to go through reopening the app.. instead of just bringing up a cached version of it that was "asleep" in the background...

if you went to a task manager and closed the browser after everytime you used it, it would use more resources to start back up than to just sit there in the background...
[Vibrant General] s15274n:
I guess this ^ is a lot better for people than my "because all that unused RAM is a good thing" stab at one poster.... Good post man.
[Vibrant General] kolyan:
This sounds right. The only issue is if an app had a leak and never goes to sleep and uses cpu, that's when a task killer becomes useful and can kill an app. But u don't really need a taskkiller for that, just make a shortcut to app manager and kill it from there.
[Vibrant General] nbs11:
I use a task killer at boot and that is it. I do not do it for battery life, I do it so the phone can work without being sluggish. Once we get Froyo and get the extra RAM that has been disabled by eclair we will be better off. I am on a Captivate though.
[Vibrant General] junkdruggler:
I don't think unlocking the himem will make the phone faster... Just more free ram sitting around...
[Vibrant General] nbs11:
It would help at boot and for gaming etc.
[Vibrant General] gunks:
Same discussion over on reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/cwhm6/i_stopped_using_a_task_killer_last_week_to_see_if/
[Vibrant General] Ok_Kaleidoscope5109:
lulz. And Apple told you pre iOS4 that you don't need to run simultaneous apps. Microsoft tells you people don't use copy and paste which is why WP7 won't have it.

Google tells you this because it wants to create a memory management scheme by Android that's foolproof. Fact is no one can make it perfect. Not especially with millions of app developers churning out some stuff thats not compliant with the way Android works. Some like LauncherPro already push the system to its limits with widgets and memory use.

Task killers if used correctly are fine. For people who always troll and post the same link to DroidForums where some idiot said its unnecessary and everyone started repeating it like it's the Bible is really just dumb. You need to make an informed decision about it. I believe it can be used correctly, but for most people it's probably not necessary. Given many of us are modders/tweakers, I see it as useful here. It's just like overclocking. 95% of people don't need to overclock their systems. Heck, 99% even. But the people who do it and do it well at like XtremeSystems have every reason to do it. They KNOW what they're doing. Not stupid gamers who just slap a system together so they can play Starcraft II. They overclock the first day and never look back again. They just do it because its so easy and "cool" now. Could you argue its pointless for them? Probably.
[Vibrant General] MV10:
Cliff's Notes:

A) Don't trust Google telling you they're unnecessary.

B) "but for most people it's probably not necessary"

"lulz" indeed. :rolleyes:
[Vibrant General] s15274n:
dmo580, though your rant was amusing, it was pretty off. Cyanogen (and Google), whom I consider absolute authorities on Android (rather than some poster on XDA I have never seen), state to not use a Task Killer. Besides seeing the differences myself (and I know how to use a TK), I don't need any other reason... the people who know android the best tell me (those who make the OS, and those who tweak the OS to run as optimal and stable as possible).

Your rant was at least amusing though....
[Vibrant General] darkknight49:
I haven't been running a task manager and have not noticed any slowdown or lag. The only "task manager" i use is restarting the phone when i change batteries.
[Vibrant General] jackhuny:
Andorid OS will start killing app automatically if needed (ex. lack of RAM).

It is possible killing unused app may save some battery, I don't how significant it will be but I found it to be a waste of time to manually killing apps.
[Vibrant General] XfooYen:
Every time one of you kills an app prematurely, God kills a baby. It's true. I just made that up.
[Vibrant General] orells:
I use ATK on autokill everytime I lock the phone and I'll be damned if I didnt start seeing my battery life double. Ive had sluggish moments, pulled up atk killed the 5 apps I just finished using and exited with the back button, and wouldnt you know my hummingbird kicked into high gear. To each his own, but for me and mine atk was the best market purchase Ive made since louder volume hack for my g1... Now how will I exit this app? Oh yea AT m.f.n K.

Oh and I dont have system issues I know not to kill my processes, and for those that don't they get a nice little warning before they do.
[Vibrant General] Shagman68:
I find it so amusing, that everyone is rushing to put a lag-fix rom on their vibrant to speed it up, but think task killers are useless. I'm using Taskkiller Full by AxDroid LLC, It was great on my G1, and it is awesome on my Vibrant. It was scary at first, seeing that you have to set about 50 apps to ignore, because they are system apps. But hey, everytime I see my available memory drop to low, or it gets laggy, bam, I hit my kill all button and I'm back to speed racer. Do whatever you want, but you are gonna have to pry my task killer from my cold dead hands.

(Disclaimer: Some results may vary, may cause whooping cough or diarrhea, take as needed every 6 hours.)
[Vibrant General] s15274n:
The lag fix has absolutely nothing to do with the android os, and if you look around I am not an advocate for it yet. I have faith cyanogen and crew are going to have the Vibrant humming.

Ps, task killers are not needed ;)
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
Even Samsung is including a task manager on later TW firmware
[Vibrant General] s15274n:
So does stock android, point?
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
Which build of stock Android gives the end-user a task manager? I've never seen that before!
[Vibrant General] s15274n:
Haha, go to running services... Your phone can right now. Again though, this is not needed, unless you have a crap app, in which you should email the developer instead of using a tk. It does not help battery either, how could killing background apps that are going to have to reopen help a battery?

Even the developers of these apps have admitted with newer devices, especially those with froyo do not need a tk.

G oggle says no.

Cyanogen says no.

The majority in xda says no.

Why is this still debated?
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
Haha, that's not the same thing and you know it.

I don't really care what Goggle or Cyanogen says. It has nothing to do with what I said. I said Samsung is including a Task Manager w/ later TW versions, they MUST see a use for one
[Vibrant General] masterotaku:
The reason why answers to this question are all over the place is simple. Everyone is not running the same 3rd party apps. DUH!

It's the same reason why you cannot give a definitive answer to "Why is my PC running slow". The problem is you're asking the wrong question.

Android OS has excellent task management capabilities, providing that all apps play fairly. Given that we're not in a walled environment where all developers are forced into a very constrained set of application rules, it's no wonder that there are apps that can cause you grief. There seems to be this mistaken belief that because we're all using something based on Linux that it's all going to be sunshine and rainbows. In the grander scheme of things however, we're all really just guinea pigs involved in a massive beta test of the most significant Linux based platform in history that RUNS ON BATTERIES. This may have a linux kernel, but it ain't Ubuntu. :)

Using task managers without understanding WHAT you are killing CAN indeed make battery life worse. Many 3rd party and core system processes are interrelated so it is easy to cause more problems than you are solving if you get hamfisted with task killing.

I do not use auto task killers. But I do use the built in battery statistics, my body (it's not too hard to tell when that 1ghz Hummingbird CPU is baking your thigh), and a dose of common sense.

In my experience the biggest indicator of activity that has a huge effect on battery life is PARTIAL WAKE USAGE. You know, that time when we've locked the screen and stuck our superphone back in our pocket and THINK we're saving the battery?

I routinely experiment with half a dozen new apps a day, because that's how I roll. I've been a hardcore "tinkerer" for the better part of three decades and that has taught me that the number one creator of my own gadget grief...is me. So, I pay attention. When I find a situation where an app is pan frying my thigh when it shouldn't, or when something is erroneously creating high amounts of partial wake usage? That app gets uninstalled. There are close to 100,000 apps to choose from, so you can almost always find something else.

The rate at which app developers update apps also plays into this as well, so periodically I'll test apps again (and again and again).

Don't forget that batteries are drained by things that use them. And that is the fault of the apps we run, and the walking meat popsicles that install them. :)
[Vibrant General] drhonk:
Very nice explanation .. :)

Sometimes changing application's settings can also help, at least with a well coded app.
[Vibrant General] masterotaku:
Indeed, this is another obvious thing that people can easily miss. If you have an app that is updating it's data every 15 minutes and you could get by with updates every...say....4 hours, you've just decreased it's running time by a factor of 16!

An extreme non-example, but the point is quite valid! :)
[Vibrant General] Shagman68:
I don't know about anyone else, but Skyfyre web browser is a prime example to why a task killer is necessary. When I go on a 3 hour binge with it, it starts to go wacko if I don't kill it off and restart it
[Vibrant General] BigWorldJust:
You don't need it, point blank.
[Vibrant General] zaduma:
This morning my phone was at 100%. three hours later i came across this thread, my battery life was at 89%

I made the jump I uninstalled my task killer. It has been 5 hours and and I'm at 80% with increased usage in those 5 hours.

In Summation:

With task killer:

-3 hours ran on idle

-drained battery 11%

Without task killer:

-5 hours ran with moderate usage

-drained battery 9%

YMMV
[Vibrant General] joshthewaster:
This is an issue with Skyfyre. If an app causes problems delete that app! There are so many to choose from that you can surely find the features you want without the problems of a bad app.?

I got my phone and right off my friends with android devices told me "get an app killer to save battery" so I got ATK. Thought it was great to be in control. Started having issues with lag and odd behavior and did some reading. The taskkiller was causing my problems. Deleted it. Since then I haven't noticed any change in battery life but performance is much better. Now I do make sure that I only use apps that have a good reputation or I make sure to pay attention and see if a new app causes problems so I can delete it.

No reason to tell people they need one.
[Vibrant General] dcontrol:
Coming from my G1, it was one of the first things I installed. I just kept the widget on a screen and pressed it when free ram got too low.

About a week back I just removed the widget from the home screen and I stopped paying attention to it and I haven't noticed anything different either way. I didn't uninstall it though just because sometimes I wanna kill a specific app that may be misbehaving or just that I need to restart it or something, its still useful in that sense.
[Vibrant General] iwillkillyou:
i completely agree with it, im new to the android community, i stared using advance task killer and startup something cant remember then name, it cause one major problem. everytime my screen went dim, it froze, i had to reboot the phone. got annoying, once i deleted those two apps, everything went back to normal
[Vibrant General] p()()pypants:
I also came from a G1 where it was absolutely necessary....

Is it absolutely necessary on the vibrant??? Maybe not in the end...... BUT what I do know is what I can see numbers wise with my widget, as I use Taskiller, the same I used back on my G1, and its great for just managing my ram on 3rd party apps that aren't specifically vibrant friendly and going to close on their own. Apps that I use to tether, widgets for viewing the weather, services run by my OS and necessary apps like calendar, alarm clocks and my launcher are all of course ignored.

I have noticed as will many people that responsible task management can be done through google's own application manager so why not have a widget handy for me to use offered through a task managing program?

A lil test;

Reboot your phone, leave all start up services running as well as any apps that come on board at startup. Let it sleep for 10 min (screen off) bring it to life go through and start up 4 of your most used apps (2 google, 2 3rd party like a game or radio station) .... And let it sleep again to see what google/android takes care of on its own.

Now if you can check your free ram and run quadrant standard n mark down you phones score.

Now open up that dreaded task killer/manager and kill ALL apps, view current ram available and run quadrant again....

I regularly gain another 30-100m of ram and improve my quadrant score by 200-300 points.... And that's just during regular use of my phone then checking up on it later when I notice my battery is just being sucked down faster then normal...

There's definitely a benefit to responsible task management outside of what these phones can do for us, to not take advantage of these programs and just let rouge apps take up all your ram (regardless of how much there is to begin with) is just foolish..... As is irresponsible willy nilly full bore kill all apps and services crap use of these task killers....

I think taking an all out nothing stand for or against these types of apps is downright ignorant and as with all things in life moderation is the key.

P()()p rant -out
[Vibrant General] lmlloyd:
I really don't get the reasoning of the people preaching the "task managers are bad" gospel.

Let's take this out of the realm of techy talk for just an instant, since there isn't a single person here saying from any direct personal knowledge that they know for a fact it is bad for your phone, but rather saying that is what they have heard from people they think know more than they do. Let's look at this from just a common sense point of view.

If I go to the store and buy a picture frame I want to hang on the wall, and I call the manufacturer of the frame and ask them if I need a nailgun to hang this frame, even though it came with adhesive hangers, they are going to tell me that I don't need a nailgun, because the adheasive hangers are more than adequate to hold up the frame. If I ask them why I can't use a nailgun, they will explain to me that I can use a nailgun if I want, but you can do a lot of damage to yourself and the wall if you don't know what you are doing with a nailgun, so they would recommend using the provided adhesive hangers.

Now, none of this means that if I happen to have a nail gun, and I happen to prefer hanging things on a nail, that it is somehow going to damage the frame to hang it on a nail. The frame will work perfectly fine hanging on the nail I drove with the nailgun, and depending on my criteria, might actually be better with the nail holding it up, than with the adhesive hangers.

This task killer argument is no different. No, you do not need a task killer. Yes, task killers can do damage. That is a far cry, however, from saying that it is categorically a bad idea to ever hang a picture on a nail driven with a nailgun, because the manufacturer said so. Just because it is possible to use the phone without a task killer, does not mean that a task killer is completely useless. It just means that whatever functionality it provides is not absolutely essential to the functioning of the device. There is also a huge difference between the possibility of an improperly used task killer causing problems, and the certainty that any time a task killer is used, it is doing more harm than good.

I don't know if you people are being purposely iconoclastic about this for some reason, or if you just have a hard time with subtle distinctions, but I have yet to hear anyone give a single technical reason why task killers are categorically a bad thing to use. All I am hearing is a lot of "well, so and so said so, and my dad can beat up your dad, so there." It is completely understandable why Google would say you don't need a task killer, especially at a time where the #1 criticism of Android from the Apple-loving tech press is that Android is already too complicated. It is also completely understandable why developers who code specifically depending on the memory management system available in Android would say that they would prefer you let their program spawn and die as they intend, not at the users discretion. None of that means that there is any harm, nor any lack of utility, in a user being able to selectively kill apps at his or her own discretion.
[Vibrant General] hockeyrcks9901:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html

I believe someone has posted this before but it needs reposting. Again, this is directly from a software engineer at Google. Stating that using a task killer will almost guarantee a slower experience on the phone. But yes, if you have an app that is not running properly than a task manager may help, but using it to kill apps that are properly being managed WILL slow the phone down. Period.

Quoted here:
[Vibrant General] gicgi:
the ram s we are talking about here are "random access memories" arent they? if so, those devices cant store data permanently unless they are fed by energy rapidly. if we are storing data in rams, arent we supposed to feed them with battery rapidly? how came more data storage results in less battery use?
[Vibrant General] novafluxx:
That memory is being polled/strobed regardless of the data in there, AFAIK anyway.

Volatile memory, like RAM in the phone, and in your computer, is constantly powered, regardless of the data being stored. The only justification for killing apps running is to save CPU cycles (which will use battery power), and to free up RAM for something else
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kindakrazy:
I am running baked snack and cant seem to pass 40 fps is it just my phone or do i have some setting messed up?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] twigums:
sorry i cant be of much help but how are you testing your fps?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kindakrazy:
fps2d from the market place, i think i fixed it just had to tamper with set cpu a bit
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] adeyo:
I loved advanced launcher when i had my vogue. It runs alongside any other launcher, only adds some features i can't seem to find anywhere now, especially the ability to group apps in the drawer into folders WITHIN the app drawer itself...thus, no long lists of apps to scroll through. I was also able to temporarily hide apps that weren't used, putting them into a hidden file. Available to reuse whenever i wanted. Is there any way to bring this to 2.1 or Froyo? Here is the link to the original post of irrenhaus... http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=540880 (of few of his screenshots below)
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] adeyo:
or just import utilities portion?

I guess it is possible to include the launcher utilities into another launcher...

(post #879) ...but has anybody attempted this? or is anyone with knowledge willing to try to import it into one of the currently popular launchers that are incorporated into CM6?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] adeyo:
really nobody can point me in any direction??
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] DraginMagik:
not sure if this is what your looking for, but i posted something that may be related to your request. I'm guessing that advanced launcher is different than ADW.Launcher. if yes, don't forget that adw allows for an extra set of menus by doing an upward swipe over the 'app drawer' icon.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=7312516#post7312516

i'm thinking that QuickDesk and/or SmartShortcuts may be of help.

quickdesk basically creates a desktop that is visible after a long press on the search button. you can can access this desktop at any time.

smartshortcuts allow you to 'group' applications, bookmarks and/or contacts.

the link above has some screenshots.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] DraginMagik:
duplicate post...
[Captivate General] YellowGTO:
Check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNCnnHnoQfU

PSX4Droid