Basic Questions

[myet01]

I am currently a Blackberry User thinking about buying an HTC Hero from Sprint. I have some basic questions that will probably seem dumb to most of you.

1 - What is the difference between a Gadget and an application?
2 - If you are running an application, how do you close / quit is so that it is not running and taking up memory anymore?

Thanks in advance,

Tony

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

1. A widget is a small "slice" of an application designed to display a certain bit of info on your desktop. Imagine if the BB banner was clickable, and you could get a preview of an email you've received without opening up your mail application.
2. You don't. Android manages it's memory like a PC or Mac does (sort of). When it needs more memory it will close the app you haven't used the longest and open a new one. Android does have it's shortcomings...but memory management isn't one of them. The days of making sure all apps get closed so your phone doesn't sit and churn when a call comes in are over. Android is a stand alone operating system, and not just a java application server.

And no questions are dumb. You don't get flamed here for asking something. Jeremy and crew have made us a nice comfortable little home.

One thing I want to add -
Unless you absolutely have to upgrade now, hold off until early next year. Sprint has done an about face on their opinion of Android, and it stands to reason we may see some of the new devices come to Sprint in the near future. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE the Hero, hands down best phone Sprint has ever offered, but you know how technology is...the next big thing is usually right around the corner.

 

[myet01]

Thanks very much for getting back to me so quickly.

So, on applications.... If I boot up an application, lets say a third party Mortgage Calculator for demonstrations sake, when I am done and don't need it anymore I don't close or quit it -just leave it running forever or until the OS closes it?

New Android Phones - I am a premier customer with Sprint and have not bought a new phone in 2 years (the last and current one is a BB 8330) and I am getting anxious and the money is burning a hole in the pocket! When do you think the new Androids might start showing up, January, February, March, etc...?

Thanks,

Tony

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

The app developer has the option (and responsibility) to free up resources when the app isn't running in the foreground. In your example, lets say the mortgage calc uses gps data to find rates and prices based on where you are. When you back out of the app, it SHOULD :
Free the GPS sensor
Halt calculations to free the processor
Stop drawing and refreshing itself (you're not looking at it anymore!)
And basically sit idle.
It would sit active in memory, but not be using any resources. If you fire up the browser, and the OS says -"hey, I could use a bit more memory so I'm going to close you completely. Nobody will miss you because you haven't been used in a while. Now shut yourself off gracefully for me please." the app should exit completely and free the memory for other uses. Android does this very well. Most apps do this very well. When you come across one that doesn't, you'll see the users screaming bloody murder at the dev to fix it. Usually they do

When an app doesn't close up nice and tidy, Android can use a Linux command (kill pid) to forcefully close it. There are numerous apps that provide a GUI to do this easily, but for the most part they aren't needed.

As for when any new devices are coming out...it's anybody's guess. Rumors say 10-15 more Android devices before April of next year, and I'm sure some of those will show up at Sprint. Maybe, just maybe, one of those will be the "Google Phone" that's supposed to be the game changing device we all want.

If it were me, I would consider waiting until the end of January (that +30 days means you're safe until almost March lol) but no longer. Trying to beat the cycle of new devices is a losing battle!

 

[myet01]

Thanks very much for your help, it is very much appreciated!

Tony

 

[talltubatom]

On the topic of questions about Android, does anyone know if Imap is fully supported? I know on my BB it is a one way sync so all the messages read on my computer never show as read on the device. Also I like to use advanced imap in gmail and the latest version of BIS does not suppor that either.

 

[Go Hard or Go Home]

As for when any new devices are coming out...it's anybody's guess. Rumors say 10-15 more Android devices before April of next year, and I'm sure some of those will show up at Sprint. Maybe, just maybe, one of those will be the "Google Phone" that's supposed to be the game changing device we all want.

If it were me, I would consider waiting until the end of January (that +30 days means you're safe until almost March lol) but no longer. Trying to beat the cycle of new devices is a losing battle!

This is tough waiting so long. I was going to use my xmas bonus to get a moment, now I might have to wait a bit longer.

 

[talltubatom]

So how much free device memory should I have to have the phone running smoothly? Right now I am at 44 megs and things are running great. Is there a number that anyone knows where performance becomes and issue? I remember on my curve if memory fell below 10 mb if would start deleting messages and such off the phone to free up resources.

 

[Jaredhumphrey]

Hey everyone, I have been looking at android for about a week and after finding out the droid/milestone is coming to canada i am completly sold on android.. the only problem is I need a WinMo phone for work as our company has developed software for it and I need to use the program on almost a daily basis, is there/ is there ever going to be, a way I can run it on android,