Apps in baground

[ejc1214]

I have tried to get this question answered by seaarch but have not really found a good answer.
I installed ATK just to see what was really running in background and then I killed everything that was running and got out of the screen after leaving the settings on manual kill and not auto.
I discovered apps, like news and some other apps that I never use that were set to not sync, actually start on their own. I kill them and a few minutes later they are back up.
So here is my question: I know that Android is supposed not to require ATK and handles everything in background, but if theses junk apps start back up by themselves, aren't they using battery juice? If not why start back up on their own? I figure they must sync somehow.
Are they really not doing anything? Anyone really know?

 

[ejc1214]

I just checked and I have 37 apps running according to ATK and I only used maybe 8 to 10 apps. Why do all the others open?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

There are threads that explain it better, but....

Empty memory is, for the most part, wasted memory. A byte of empty memory (0) uses no more power than a byte of "used" memory (X, or 3). So Android loads into, or keeps in, memory things it thinks might be used soon. Some of those 37 may provide services that other apps use. For example, weather bug seems to use RSS, so even though I haven't started an RSS app, it's running because another app needs it.

ATK shows you what's in memory, but not what it's doing. Install the System Panel app, and you'll see that most of those apps are using no cpu at all. If they're not using cpu, they're not using battery.

That said, if apps that are actually transferring data are running in the background, that can use battery. That's why you should set make sure you're logged out of Gtalk and have it set to not run in the background. Other apps, like the market, run in the background so they can update you as necessary. Most use very little power.

Most apps, however, can sit in memory forever without using a milliamp.

 

[ejc1214]

Thanks for the info. I do have System Panel and I do see that the GPU jumps from 6.6% to sometimes 50% while I am looking at it and staying around the 10 to 15% mark pretty much all the time. is that normal?

 

[Holsum]

Thanks for the info. I do have System Panel and I do see that the GPU jumps from 6.6% to sometimes 50% while I am looking at it and staying around the 10 to 15% mark pretty much all the time. is that normal?

Yeah completely normal the snapdragon processor haas built in throttling as to not use a lot of battery. In the cases where it jumps it could just be checking for and update and then just going back to sleep.

 

[ejc1214]

Thanks. I am a former Blackberry user and I got a lot to learn. The Storm 2 was a lot easier to adjust. Loving the Evo!

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Yep, Android can be complicated, but that's its strength, too.

 

[Paladin]

I was wondering this exact same thing! Today I had stuff running that I have not used in ages. I honestly would rather see empty memory and let it fill with items I actually launch. That damn MP3 store always being there bugs the hell out of me for some reason.

I just checked and Sprint navigation is there, WTF I don’t use that! FM radio, why???
Fouresquare, Astrid tasks and about 30 more! I have not used any of them for a long time. This is really annoying to me, I don’t care what the reason is. If it does not need the application for a specific reason, it should not load it, period!

My problem is I KNOW that some of these can bog the Evo down a bit and it behaves much better after I manually kill them. So why does it launch them? They need to work on that. Now to be honest it does not always launch bad ones all the time but I really think it should just fill the memory with apps you use as you launch them and not assume to run others just to do.