Top 2 iOS annoyances?

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Kmax82

Diamond Member
Feb 23, 2002
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www.kennonbickhart.com
If you have to manually close apps via the app drawer, then the OS isn't doing it's job. Optimizing for fast switching is obviously a good thing, but any time the user has to manage resource that's a sign of a huge fail. I never kill or close anything on my Android phone and it performs exactly the same throughout the day and I don't think I've ever seen an app fail because of lack of memory.

The only app that I ever need to close in the switcher, is Skype. That seems to be the main app that always runs away with my phone.
 

ChAoTiCpInOy

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2006
6,442
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If you have to manually close apps via the app drawer, then the OS isn't doing it's job. Optimizing for fast switching is obviously a good thing, but any time the user has to manage resource that's a sign of a huge fail. I never kill or close anything on my Android phone and it performs exactly the same throughout the day and I don't think I've ever seen an app fail because of lack of memory.

You don't have to manually close apps. You can keep all them open if you want, the OS will automatically remove apps out of memory. The app drawer serves two purposes. Gives you access to the apps that you use most and gives you the ability to close apps when you're done with them.

I understand maybe you have never had to kill or close anything on your phone, but other people have issues with their phone getting bogged down. Is this stock Android? And you have no task killers installed?
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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The only app that I ever need to close in the switcher, is Skype. That seems to be the main app that always runs away with my phone.

Not surprising considering the things I've heard about Skype. =)

ChAoTiCpInOy said:
You don't have to manually close apps. You can keep all them open if you want, the OS will automatically remove apps out of memory. The app drawer serves two purposes. Gives you access to the apps that you use most and gives you the ability to close apps when you're done with them.

I understand maybe you have never had to kill or close anything on your phone, but other people have issues with their phone getting bogged down. Is this stock Android? And you have no task killers installed?

I thought Apple's App Store vetting process was supposed to weed out apps that cause problems? =) I'm not denying the fact that some apps are shitty on either platform, but recommending someone use a task killer or manually prune their running task list is a terrible workaround and totally defeats the fact that phones are supposed to "just work", which mine does 99% of the time.

Not stock AOSP, CyanogenMod, but that doesn't affect how the apps that I have installed run. An app is going to behave the same regardless of the ROM you're using. I had a task killer when I first had my phone, but then I learned how the system worked and realized how stupid they are and removed it.
 

manly

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
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I thought Apple's App Store vetting process was supposed to weed out apps that cause problems? =) I'm not denying the fact that some apps are shitty on either platform, but recommending someone use a task killer or manually prune their running task list is a terrible workaround and totally defeats the fact that phones are supposed to "just work", which mine does 99% of the time.

Not stock AOSP, CyanogenMod, but that doesn't affect how the apps that I have installed run. An app is going to behave the same regardless of the ROM you're using. I had a task killer when I first had my phone, but then I learned how the system worked and realized how stupid they are and removed it.
Walled garden or not, it's virtually impossible for an Apple screening department to weed out buggy apps out of a total of 400,000+. They mainly seem to check that developers adhere to the terms of service. To date, they haven't had to use the kill switch to revoke apps that sneakily violated Apple's conditions.

I'd venture to say the vast majority of iOS 4 users don't close apps in the bottom drawer. The "quit" sequence isn't obvious if one doesn't look it up and as ChAoTiCpInOy said, iOS will kill tasks to free up memory when necessary (there is no swapping to disk).
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
30,672
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Walled garden or not, it's virtually impossible for an Apple screening department to weed out buggy apps out of a total of 400,000+. They mainly seem to check that developers adhere to the terms of service. To date, they haven't had to use the kill switch to revoke apps that sneakily violated Apple's conditions.

I'd venture to say the vast majority of iOS 4 users don't close apps in the bottom drawer. The "quit" sequence isn't obvious if one doesn't look it up and as ChAoTiCpInOy said, iOS will kill tasks to free up memory when necessary (there is no swapping to disk).

Except his previous statement of "4 & 7. Close apps. Everything is saved in ram so when you switch back it comes back quickly. iOS is designed to fill up the ram so you have that capability. Close the apps you're not using." contradicts his other statement that he thinks "iOS is extremely more efficient than other mobile oses".

I'm probably picking nits here, but one of my pet peeves about Android is how so many people recommend task killers without an understanding of why they're bad and it really surprises me to see someone recommending something similar, if in a manual way, for iOS. And as much as I dislike Apple and iOS, I don't want to see those myths perpetuated there because that'll keep them alive for Android even longer.
 

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
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Just thought of another. It would be nice to see apps separated into sub-categories on the iPad app store. The iPhone store does this for games by genre. Would make it a lot easier to find stuff.