Sense 4.0 multitasking - hands on impressions?

[billgio]

Those of you who have been able to play with it for a day or so...what are your thoughts on how the phone handles multitasking?

 

[NicksGarage]

It's working ok for me. Only a few times did I notice that it restarted an app that I was using. The browser looked like it was restarted but it returned to the page I was on and even the zoom level of the text.

 

[bc2k]

Performed a little test with Endomondo, browser, settings, Play Store, Wordsmith, messaging and an outbound phone call. Flipping among these apps, all except Endomondo seemed to do a "refresh" almost every time it got focus. The refresh / repaint? showed me the same info as the previous time in, so while it looked like the app had been kicked out of memory, either it wasn't completely unloaded or it was restored to last-seen by some means.

Mostly I cared about Endomondo; if that had been reset or restarted with live data loss I'd seriously consider returning the phone. Since it stayed alive and kept tracking over the seven-plus minutes of this test, I feel pretty comfortable with how the multitasking is implemented. Can't say this is definitive but for the one app that really mattered in my use, the phone behaved well.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mikey47]

It works exactly like webos did when it came out - if you stray away from and app for long when you go back to it the app "refreshes". I think HTC should be able to address this issue in a future update.

 

[cloak.n.dagger]

While I don't like the refreshing at all, it's not as bad as I thought it be. I really want it fixed though cuz it's a major annoyance for me.

Sent from my E4GLTE geniuses phone!

 

[Xiphias]

Flipping through the play store, setting, the browser, gmail, the camera, and messenger during normal "oh boy new phone must do everything" usage I was having no problems, although task-switching back to the browser seems to make it refresh/reload the page.

 

[othersteve]

Audible is totally broken on this phone. Most of the time receiving a text message stops the playback of the audiobook and closes the application.

 

[kbp08tls]

The only annoyance for me comes during games. Last night I got a text while playing Bejeweled (I know, stupid game but for some reason extremely addicting for me). Paused the game, answered the text, and when I came back to the game it completely reloaded instead of returning to where I was paused. I haven't tried other games under that scenario yet so I don't know if it's game specific or the OS.
Lesson learned I guess is to make sure you're at a good stopping point that can be recovered before leaving a game to do something else. Although my daughters Optimus S, in all its single core, 600 Mhz, 512 MB RAM, pink leopard print encased glory can deal with the above scenario just fine.

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums

 

[Clocks]

The only annoyance for me comes during games. Last night I got a text while playing Bejeweled (I know, stupid game but for some reason extremely addicting for me). Paused the game, answered the text, and when I came back to the game it completely reloaded instead of returning to where I was paused. I haven't tried other games under that scenario yet so I don't know if it's game specific or the OS.
Lesson learned I guess is to make sure you're at a good stopping point that can be recovered before leaving a game to do something else. Although my daughters Optimus S, in all its single core, 600 Mhz, 512 MB RAM, pink leopard print encased glory can deal with the above scenario just fine.

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums

I think that answers my question, it is still "tweaked" by HTC at this point. Maybe an OTA will "untweak" it.

 

[jnl813]

I do think that HTC will fix this with an OTA here in the next week or so. Most new gadgets tend to have updates pretty quick after release.

They should also include an update for the camera shutter button. To make it auto focus when holding it down half way.

 

[cloak.n.dagger]

I think a tweet flood to @HTC may be in order here. Let's make sure they know it's a problem and we the users want it fixed. Launching Twitter now...

...I did my part. I hope more join in and help to make HTC aware of this. They redesigned this feature, so I don't think it's broken in their eyes. It wont get fixed unless enough people tell them they don't like it.

 

[billgio]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I was a little spooked by the news last week but it seems like it is not as bad as reported.

 

[kbp08tls]

I think that answers my question, it is still "tweaked" by HTC at this point. Maybe an OTA will "untweak" it.

Or better yet a good ROM. I got this phone mainly for the hardware. Software is relatively easy to fix.

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums

 

[bc2k]

I think you should still try to change the settings, see what happens. Better to have more "data" on what works and what doesn't.

 

[Caleb Morris]

I looked through my developer settings for my EVO, and there is a setting at the bottom that allows you to choose how many apps the multitasking let's you keep in the background. I don't know if it'll help, but hopefully it will.

Sent from my EVO 4G LTE using Android Central Forums

 

[bc2k]

I looked through my developer settings for my EVO, and there is a setting at the bottom that allows you to choose how many apps the multitasking let's you keep in the background. I don't know if it'll help, but hopefully it will.

Sent from my EVO 4G LTE using Android Central Forums

I changed that setting; didn't seem to make any difference. Read something in another thread that said the # in background setting doesn't affect the overarching changes made by HTC.

 

[Caleb Morris]

Oh okay. I just figured I would try and put my two cents in. I just got in today to try it out, and have been for about three hours now.

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums

 

[shadowhawk2020]

The worst thing for me so far is the dropbox. Since using the phone as usb storage wasn't working I decided to transfer some music through dropbox. I clicked export on a bunch of files and like normal switched over to do something else. Problem is, when I went back all the exporting had stopped. Basically if you are going to export files from dropbox, you have to sit on the dropbox screen and wait for it to completely finish.

I am going to test this method and see if helps fix the issue until we et something more official or a Rom that fixes it.

I think I have found a fix for the multitasking! (Video inside) - xda-developers

 

[Sh3ngLong]

Besides some of the annoyances that has already been discussed here, one thing that annoys me is that when I try to swipe left or right to the next "card", it's like I get denied and I just go back to the same card I was just on. I think it's because I don't lift my finger fast enough when I swipe. I'm sure I'll get it down someday.

I kinda wished they replaced the Recent Apps button with Menu or Search, and have the Recent Apps screen come up by swiping from the bottom of the screen upwards (similar to the way you bring down the Notification screen, but the opposite). Maybe a custom ROM can do this.

 

[cloak.n.dagger]

They seem to still be working on things, but looks like they are heading in the right direction! At least SOMEONE is working on the problem. There's always a reason to root and ROM and this is one for sure!