What would you do? Wait to purchase the reported Verizon IPhone, or get the Motorola Droid X smartphone now? I am leaning toward the Droid X now.....

Verizon's iPhone plans haven't been released. They have been rumored for over 2 years. If you need/want a phone now, get the Droid. The X is big though. You should check them out.

Considering the X is a better phone in every category except for screen resolution, I'd get X even if they were both out.

thanks for the advice.... I am checking out the Droid X and becoming a heavy lean to purchasing now....

Its an awesome phone! If you are unimpressed with the battery life, look at the extended battery. It only adds 1mm to the thickness and I can go almost 2 days without charging.

Just picked up the droid X off dell for free. I haven't figured out what the catch is if there is one.

http://mobility.dell.com/eCommerce/SpecialOffer.aspx?cid=35693_4cbd8f4bfea5479fa9b532b2adc3e90c

Andy there might be a catch if your phone doesn't work and need to replace it.

Dunno if the X is better, but I have an older motorola droid and hate it. Whoever thought running multiple apps was a good idea clearly never thought about battery charge

Multitasking has very little to do with battery life...

Then why does it decharge in a matter of 12 hours when my old iPhone (1st gen) never had that problem even in high dead zone areas?

You're comparing apples and oranges.

I'll stick with the apple. The only reason why I don't have an iPhone is because AT&T sucks (long before the iPhone came out)

Here's to hoping the iPhone has limited impact on verizon's awesome network

HTC thunderbolt will be greatest phone ever released. It's specs are insane with Verizon 4g LTE. If you can wait a few months it is worth waiting for. New android phones will stream your entire music library from home to your phone almost instantly without having to waste space on your memory card.

Scimitar, download Advanced Task Killer. Use it. Problem solved. Stop *****ing. Everyone's happy because you stopped *****ing. Back to topic of thread.

WTF good is killing apps? If I have an email, I want to know. If I g a Facebook message, I want to know.

The topic of this thread is which phone to get. I support post-AT&T iPhones

Because there are always a bunch of apps that run in the background whether they're sposed to be or not (due to poorly written programs not the android OS). You kill those and the battery life will improve significantly.

But I suppose you just like to complain, so what's the point in giving you advice that may actually help. You aren't the type who wants to fix the problem.

Right now I have all my apps killed but will still get my emails and facebook crap, etc. Because the apps that I have closed aren't running, the battery life is significantly better.

Sir, I am fully prepared to eat crow if your suggestion works

Will report back in a week

DON'T USE A TASK KILLER! Good lord, would people stop spreading this garbage? Task killers don't speed up your phone or save battery life, anymore than taking a placebo sugar pill cures the flu.

There isn't a single competent Android developer that supports the use of task killers. They might have offered a minor benefit in early versions of Andrdoid (1.5 and below), but they simply don't do **** except screw up the already good method that the operating system itself has to handle processes.

If you think your task killer is getting you better battery life, I assure you, it's not. Nor is it speeding up your phone. You can think it is all you want, but it's not. Task killers negatively impact the entire operation of the operating system. This has been proven time and time again. Yet some people out there still try to argue that their task killer is somehow magically making their phone better. If you understood how Android worked at a lower level, you would realize this.

http://www.tested.com/news/android-task-killers-are-deadheres-what-you-should-be-doing/923/
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/android-task-killers-explained-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
http://www.infoworld.com/t/smartphones/myth-android-devices-need-task-killers-609
http://androidspin.com/2010/05/25/why-you-dont-need-a-task-killer-app-with-android/
http://androinica.com/2010/08/09/froyo-update-kills-android-task-killer-apps/

If you're having issues with your battery not lasting very long, then you need to find the source of the problem, not just throw a task killer on there and expect the problem to magically disappear. Later versions of Android have menus for doing this.

Read this too while you're at it: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html

Wow. So much anger and sensitivity here. Taking things personally are you? Forgive me for trying to be helpful. Oh, and this is just based on observation amongst myself and a few coworkers with the original Droid. We had battery issues initially, but then once using that program we were able to close programs that continued running in the background even when not in use. And even once closed sometimes they'd reopen somehow. Quite annoying, but the battery life seemed to improve significantly once these were better managed. Placebo or not, it seems to have helped. Either way, you can get off your high horse dude. If someone wants to try something, then let them. Don't get upset about someone trying to help fix a problem.

I laughed.

For the OP,fwiw my Android phone sucks.

[This message has been edited by MiniShrike (edited 1/1/2011 9:25p).]

I honestly really like my Droid. I just got off a 3 hour phone call and have used it off and on all day, still have 70% charge. If you use video all day, then of course the battery's gonna die. Same goes for all phones. I've honestly never had the battery die unless I used the Navi app intensively. Turning the GPS off really helps with battery life too, fyi. Otherwise, on average, when I put it on the dock to charge at night it's usually at about 50%.

As an apple user, I love the android system. I live in a part of the country where at&t gets zero signal (**** you Luke), so verizon is my only option. After using android for the last year I don't think I'd go to the iphone even if verizon got it. I guess I just prefer the flexibility. Oh, and having an app that lets you download free music also gets bonus points.

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Wow. So much anger and sensitivity here. Taking things personally are you? Forgive me for trying to be helpful. Oh, and this is just based on observation amongst myself and a few coworkers with the original Droid. We had battery issues initially, but then once using that program we were able to close programs that continued running in the background even when not in use. And even once closed sometimes they'd reopen somehow. Quite annoying, but the battery life seemed to improve significantly once these were better managed. Placebo or not, it seems to have helped. Either way, you can get off your high horse dude. If someone wants to try something, then let them. Don't get upset about someone trying to help fix a problem.

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If you were in my shoes, you would understand my frustration with the issue. I've been developing ROMs and other software for Android phones for almost 2 years. And there's nothing more frustrating than people that know very little about their phones to refuse to listen to what more knowledgeable people tell them. You work your ass off to make good software for people's phones for absolutely no money, and then they ***** and whine about issues when they install your ROM. One of the things that cause problems are task killers. But do these people listen to you when you tell them to remove the task killer? Nope. "Well the Verizon salesman told me to use it" they say.

Yes, I suppose I'm taking some of that frustration out in this thread, directed at you. But this is an issue I've been dealing with for a long time with people, and it's very irritating when I see people recommending task killers still.

Perhaps you should read some of those URLs I pasted in my previous reply? At least one of those URLs would likely explain the difference between a process and an application. Just because you see a process running in your task killer doesn't mean it's actually doing anything. Let me illustrate this for you. Here is a screenshot of a process list on my desktop.



At the top you can see processes that are using CPU cycles. Mostly a few core services, and a few applications I'm currently actively using. I'm running a linux system, so this works exactly the same on Android. Now the further down the list you get, you can see there are processes currently loaded in memory that are using little or no CPU cycles. That list is actually a couple pages long, you can only see the top processes in the screenshot. But there's pages of processes that aren't doing anything on my computer.

Now, if a process is just sitting in your memory not doing anything, it's not using any battery power. What drains your battery is CPU cycles. So if a process is just sitting there not actively doing anything, it's not draining your battery, OR slowing your phone down. Granted, if you had so many processes running that your memory became full, your phone would slow down. That's where Android's core operating system functions come in. If your memory is approaching it's maximum capacity, the operating system automatically terminates older processes. There's also a time limit, where after a process has sat idle for a maximum time, it will be terminated as well.

But you think that just because your task killer app shows you these "applications" (actually processes) are running on your phone, that they're slowing down your phone and draining your battery. Nope. The processes are lying dormant until they awaken to do an activity. Say the Facebook app is set to check for updates every 30 minutes. It lies dormant doing absolutely nothing, not using battery, not slowing your phone down, and then it will awaken, use a few CPU cycles to do what it needs to do, and go to sleep again.

Now, when you use your task killer to kill these apps, you're using CPU cycles, which are draining your battery, to remove a PROCESS that isn't actually doing anything. And what else? After that 30 minute interval when it's time for Facebook to check for updates, the process will automatically be restarted, which uses MORE CPU cycles than it normally would, and will then go to sleep again.

Basically, what I'm saying, is that task killers do the exact OPPOSITE of what they're advertised to do. People will swear up and down that their phone is lasting SOOO MUCH longer, but it's not. Either your use of the phone the day you're "timing" it's battery life is different, or it's simply all in your head.

I'm not trying to be insulting, but those are cold, hard facts. All I'm trying to do is slow the spread of misinformation, because that kind of stuff gives me and a lot of other people plenty of headaches.

EDIT: Oh, and like you did mention earlier, there are applications that are poorly programmed. Ones that run processes that fail to lie dormant, and continue to use CPU cycles, doing absolutely nothing. They also don't allow your phone to go into sleep mode. You can let your phone sit for hours, check the sleep timer, and it will show nearly 100% awake time. Using a task killer on these applications is pointless. Every time you use the application, or whenever it's scheduled to do anything, it will start up it's process and begin eating up your CPU again. You can keep killing it's process over and over if you want, but that's pretty tedious to ensure the proper operation of your phone. Not to mention your task killer app will be eating MORE CPU cycles by constantly having to kill the process. You can also kill the process directly in your Android settings menu as well, without even using a task killer app. You won't encounter this problem typically with any mainstream or quality applications, though. If you do, you need to submit a bug report and stop using the application until the issue gets resolved.

[This message has been edited by 99CentBeer (edited 1/1/2011 10:45p).]

Interesting read and good explanation 99centbeer. I've got a Galaxy Mesmerize that I'm still learning. It's quite a leap forward from the $15 track phone I've had. The woman at the phone store put that task killer on there and said the phone would run faster. I'll get rid of it and see if it works any different. So far, the phone does everything I want it to.

So...if i play a game, then do something else and assume that it is no longer running (but in fact it is still running in the background and you yourself are now admitting that it is effecting battery life), then you are saying that using a task killer to actively close it has no merit? You say that it is pointless to kill it because it will just turn on again the next time you use it. Does that not seem like a silly comment to anyone else? If it is still running after you are done using it then you have two options...either kill it so it doesn't keep running, or stop using the program altogether. Right? Well...most people don't realize that this is even an issue (not everyone is as much a genius and wants everyone else to know it as you), hence why their battery can be effected. Hence the point in killing the app when it is running while not actually in use...

[This message has been edited by WoMD (edited 1/2/2011 12:58a).]

Apparently you listened to nothing I said. If you did, remember when I said this, "And there's nothing more frustrating than people that know very little about their phones to refuse to listen to what more knowledgeable people tell them."

Well, I believe you just proved my point.

Let me illustrate what happens with a game. It's the same as an application.

Here is a snippet from the process list on my Android phone while I'm actively running Angry Birds.

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User 82%, System 8%, IOW 0%, IRQ 0%
User 279 + Nice 0 + Sys 30 + Idle 27 + IOW 1 + IRQ 0 + SIRQ 0 = 337

PID CPU% S #THR VSS RSS PCY UID Name
26304 77% S 13 256796K 52164K fg app_84 com.rovio.angrybirds
142 10% S 71 323012K 36776K fg system system_server
26339 6% R 1 940K 388K fg root top
21 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kswapd0
405 0% S 31 192828K 20304K fg radio com.android.phone
6 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root khelper
7 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root suspend
8 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kblockd/0

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Ok, Angry Birds is at the very top of the process list, using 77% CPU. This is just a snippet of my process list, FYI. There's tons of stuff after it that I cut out obviously.

Now, if I press my Home key on my phone to go back to the home screen, here's what happens to my process list.

quote:

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User 3%, System 4%, IOW 0%, IRQ 0%
User 10 + Nice 0 + Sys 15 + Idle 288 + IOW 0 + IRQ 0 + SIRQ 0 = 313

PID CPU% S #THR VSS RSS PCY UID Name
26340 4% R 1 940K 388K fg root top
142 3% S 71 323012K 37284K fg system system_server
25763 0% S 7 9084K 556K fg radio /system/bin/rild
4 0% S 1 0K 0K unk root watchdog/0
5 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root events/0
6 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root khelper
7 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root suspend
8 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kblockd/0
9 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kmmcd
10 0% D 1 0K 0K fg root bluetooth
11 0% D 1 0K 0K unk root kinteractiveup
12 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root knteractive_dow
13 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root smd_tty
14 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root qmi
15 0% D 1 0K 0K fg root rpcrouter
16 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root detection/0
17 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root krpcserversd
18 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root button/0
19 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root pdflush
20 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root pdflush
21 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kswapd0
22 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root aio/0
32 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root panel_on/0
33 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root cabc_work_q
1 0% S 1 320K 232K fg root /init
39 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root rmnet/0
40 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root mtdblockd
41 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root gs_tty
42 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root USB mass_storag
43 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root synaptics_wq
44 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root melfas_wq
45 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root microp_work_q
46 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kstriped
47 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kondemand/0
48 0% S 1 0K 0K unk root ksmartass_up/0
49 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root ksmartass_down/
50 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root hid_compat
53 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root binder
54 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root krfcommd
55 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root mmcqd
87 0% S 1 840K 192K fg system /system/bin/servicemanager
88 0% S 3 3768K 316K fg root /system/bin/vold
89 0% S 3 3756K 284K fg root /system/bin/netd
90 0% S 1 952K 432K fg root /system/bin/debuggerd
92 0% S 1 120064K 11656K fg root zygote
93 0% S 12 41264K 2208K fg media /system/bin/mediaserver
94 0% S 1 1300K 212K fg bluetoot /system/bin/dbus-daemon
95 0% S 1 864K 244K fg root /system/bin/installd
96 0% S 1 1648K 156K fg keystore /system/bin/keystore
97 0% S 1 1092K 264K fg compass /system/bin/akmd
101 0% S 4 3412K 216K fg root /sbin/adbd
137 0% D 1 0K 0K fg root snd_rpc
396 0% S 11 186200K 28196K fg app_60 com.touchtype.swiftkey
405 0% S 31 192828K 20372K fg radio com.android.phone
408 0% S 22 194312K 20912K fg app_45 android.process.acore
441 0% S 31 258096K 21680K fg app_0 android.process.acore
625 0% S 13 193924K 15828K fg app_32 com.android.mms
943 0% D 1 0K 0K fg root audmgr_rpc
8247 0% S 21 173896K 12936K bg app_75 net.bajawa.battery
21268 0% S 70 228240K 15924K bg app_53 com.levelup.beautifulwidgets
22069 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root loop0
22070 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kdmflush
22071 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kcryptd_io
22072 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kcryptd
23646 0% D 1 0K 0K fg root audmgr_rpc
25532 0% S 24 185836K 15792K bg app_20 com.google.process.gapps
25927 0% S 16 174676K 14160K bg app_55 com.google.android.apps.googlevoice
25991 0% S 7 159684K 12152K bg app_71 com.imgurforandroid
26250 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root loop1
26251 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kdmflush
26252 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kcryptd_io
26253 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kcryptd
26281 0% S 14 170204K 13068K bg app_51 com.ebay.mobile:remote
26304 0% S 12 251168K 52052K bg app_84 com.rovio.angrybirds
26337 0% S 1 772K 328K fg root /system/bin/sh
38 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kadspd
2 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root kthreadd
3 0% S 1 0K 0K fg root ksoftirqd/0

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Notice what happens to Angry Birds? Does this not illustrate the point that I made on my reply last night? Just because it's a game doesn't mean it works any differently than an app. The process goes into sleep mode and lies dormant doing absolutely nothing until it is revived (you switch back to the game), or it reaches its time limit and the operating system auto kills it.

quote:

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not everyone is as much a genius and wants everyone else to know it as you

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I'm not trying to show off here. But in this particular matter I do believe I have a bit more knowledge in the area than you. So when you reply and essentially tell me that the point I'm making is incorrect, I feel obliged to elaborate on the issue, because I am not wrong in this case. I'm sure you have an area of expertise in whatever you do for a living as well, so if you tell me something to do with that, I'm not going to attempt to correct you and say you're wrong.

EDIT: Ok, damnit, the forum doesn't like multiple spaces, so it made that organized table process list look all cluttered and smashed together. But you can still get the gist of what it's displaying. You can see Angry Birds using 0% CPU usage in the bottom one.

[This message has been edited by 99CentBeer (edited 1/2/2011 12:14p).]

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Turning the GPS off really helps with battery life too, fyi.

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Only very minimally. GPS doesn't run nonstop in the background, it only runs when a program (such as nav) requests it. Some location based programs may randomly run GPS quickly during the day, but that won't account for any great battery loss.

quote:

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Only very minimally. GPS doesn't run nonstop in the background, it only runs when a program (such as nav) requests it. Some location based programs may randomly run GPS quickly during the day, but that won't account for any great battery loss.

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This is also true, and another common misconception. Just because you enable GPS doesn't mean it's in use draining your battery. It's only draining your battery when you see the little GPS indicator icon at the top of your screen telling you that GPS is active.

[User banned--Staff]

[This message has been edited by TexAgs staff (edited 1/2/2011 1:54p).]

quote:

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All those words...I wouldn't care about what you have to say either.

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Well, it's a good thing I wasn't talking to you then!

quote:

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And task killers DO have merit, just not for the reason most people use them.

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Out of sheer curiosity, what merit do task killers have in your opinion?

We all gotta object to all of his posts. We need to let staff know. 2 objections is the trigger. I just objected to his last one here.

quote:

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Task killers are not needed; this has been proven.

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Ever had an app go rogue? Task Killers ARE a very useful utility. Like I said, however, they aren't useful for just trying to free up memory and CPU, but clearly you can't read.

I agree with Ogle about that. A task killer is a quick way to take care of that. No way you need to use it on any kind of regular basis though.

Still a dick though.

[This message has been edited by wealeat09 (edited 1/2/2011 1:35p).]