1. rhcreed's Avatar
    This is a question from my brother, he has an LJ vortex, I'm a BB user.

    He's using app killer a few times a day to keep his battery life under control. He's got a couple apps he installed, like NHL and weather channel, but he can't see where to stop them from loading all the time.

    Is there a central place where you can stop apps from starting in the os?

    Thanks!
    02-14-11 11:18 AM
  2. xliderider's Avatar
    Tell him to lose the appkiller, Android manages memory just fine without one.

    Any weather app will need to have a data connection to "update", He can minimize the battery hit by selecting an update frequency that isn't too often (say 30 minutes).

    Turn off any services that aren't being used (WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth), the power control widget is great for doing that and to see the status of everything.

    Minimize the use of onscreen widgets, as they stay active and provide live updating constantly.

    This isn't a Blackberry, tell him not to obsess over apps that "appear" to be opening on their own all the time. Most of them will be services that don't take up much battery and CPU resources. He can check what's using his battery under Menu, Settings, About, Battery and see that most of his resources are used by the Android OS and the screen.
    02-14-11 11:43 AM
  3. SevereDeceit's Avatar
    Tell him to lose the appkiller, Android manages memory just fine without one.

    Any weather app will need to have a data connection to "update", He can minimize the battery hit by selecting an update frequency that isn't too often (say 30 minutes).

    Turn off any services that aren't being used (WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth), the power control widget is great for doing that and to see the status of everything.

    Minimize the use of onscreen widgets, as they stay active and provide live updating constantly.

    This isn't a Blackberry, tell him not to obsess over apps that "appear" to be opening on their own all the time. Most of them will be services that don't take up much battery and CPU resources. He can check what's using his battery under Menu, Settings, About, Battery and see that most of his resources are used by the Android OS and the screen.
    I agree with everything, also if they are going to use widgets be sure to check how often they update. Many News and Social Network widgets update by default every 10-15 minutes. So check the update intervals on the widgets.
    02-14-11 11:49 AM
  4. rhcreed's Avatar
    thanks for the advice, as a BB user, this android OS is very different.

    His main concern is keeping his battery life up. without the app killer doing its thing a couple times a day his battery is dead before the day is up.

    Anywhere I can find a list of processes that need to be running vs ones that are for bloatware apps?
    02-14-11 12:30 PM
  5. xliderider's Avatar
    Just because something is listed in the processes list, doesn't mean it is "running". Tell your brother to ditch the appkiller and install Watchdog Lite instead. He can see what's actually using system resources with that app, and can set CPU resource limits that will notify him when any app or process exceeds those thresholds. Then he can choose to selectively terminate any app that is misbehaving.
    02-14-11 12:38 PM
  6. xliderider's Avatar
    thanks for the advice, as a BB user, this android OS is very different.

    His main concern is keeping his battery life up. without the app killer doing its thing a couple times a day his battery is dead before the day is up.

    Anywhere I can find a list of processes that need to be running vs ones that are for bloatware apps?
    The biggest problem with using an appkiller is that most will kill apps/processes, then the Android system opens/loads them right back up. This tug of war between the appkiller and the Android OS is very counterproductive.

    If your brother installs Watchdog Lite, he can easily see that most of the processes listed under CPU don't take up any CPU resources and are listed as 0.0% or 0.1%

    Again, he should look at his widgets and stuff like news and weather apps and email polling frequency to try and save battery life.
    02-14-11 12:47 PM
LINK TO POST COPIED TO CLIPBOARD