Task Manager - its what the SPV really needs!

[Guest KeithH]

I've got the UK Upgrade and I've just unlocked my SPV (after about 300 tries) and the first App I got working on it is a Task Manager.

It is the application the SPV has desperatly needed since the day I bought it and it makes it a 1000 times more useful.

No more turning it off and on again after every time I use the camera/open an app/write an SMS/listen to an mp3/take a call

I'm happy with the SPV and wouldn't go back to my old Nokia/Handspring combo. However it is a little rediculous that:

a) I should need to hack the phone to use such an essential application

:) That a device like a phone should ever need a task manager

I need task manager on my laptop, I need it on the big servers I manage for my job, but do I really need to worry about resource hogging multitasking apps on my phone?!

So nice work M$/Orange, but

a) why lock it? What the hell do you gain by this? Forget it, rhetorical question. You locked it because your're paranoid corporate types

;) Really really, learn from Palm OS. Get by the fact that your products need 10 times the computing power for multitasking bloat and you'll really finish them off.

c) Why is the rom full of files only useful in PocketPC (like a how to use a stylus guide) or debug files?

Ok rant over. probably off topic or such.

[Guest Beardyboy]

I voted "Don't Care" which was the closest to "Got an unlocked phone with the 3rd party app installed" that you gave as an option... :)

As for "Multitasking Bloat", one of the main reasons I bought a Smartphone was for exactly that. I like being able to play MP3's/WMA's in background whilst still using the phone for contact management etc etc.

Dave

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

It's something that should have been included with the phone from the start

[Guest Bazz]

Maybe don't need a full blown task manager (as default anyway, perhaps as an extra on the SD card), but certainly need a quit option as part of all apps...

[Guest KeithH]

Beardyboy - Added that option.

I'm not saying we don't want multitasking, But the OS should handle it more intelligently. The windows way is "Leave all tasking up to the apps and provide a Task Manager", which is great in a PC and makes new apps easier to write, but in a phone that stuff should be better handled.

Yes, you should be able to play Mp3s while editing contacts, but when you stop listening to Mp3s the player is still there, running in the background.

To see what I mean restart a hacked SPV with task manager on it. Open an SMS, take a call, listen to a tune and play a game or two, then exit all of them and look at task manager and most of them will still be there! Thats the problem, and without Task Manager it means regular rebooting of the phone is the only way.

I'm happy now I got that, and it should be there as standard with every new app, but a device such a phone shouldn't need it, any more than a DVD player or a Microwave oven should. I'm fine with Task Manager, but 90% of PC users never use it and 99% of Phone users (ie not use BB posting lot, but the rest of 'em) will never get their head round it, and shouldn't need to!

[Guest Bazz]

In theory Smartphone 2002 should quit unused apps as and when the memory is needed, so a Taskmanager shouldn't be necessary. In practice it ain't too hot at it...

[Guest KeithH]

Yeah. 'cos that method worked soooo well with Windows 95, 98, 98se, NT, 2000, ME, CE, pocket PC and XP.

You'd think they'd have learnt by now

[Guest Bazz]

Eh? Desktop Windows doesn't attempt to quit unused apps does it?

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

NT based windows releases have perfectly good memory management imho, it was the 9x series that was atrocious at it.

Assuming you haven't de-certified your phone i don't think as of yet there is any need for a task manager. It's only with the wide scope and tempermental reliablity of uncertified home-creations that may require some encouragement with a task manager...the OS manages quite well with the current range of programs that are certified.

[Guest KeithH]

It attempts to manage a memory pageing file. Use it all up and you'll start getting messages telling you to shut down apps (or, if Win95 you get a BSOD).

Windows doesn't close apps, but then it does proper multitasking (well, NT/2000 does anyway)

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

I read KeithH's last post as memory managerment in Windows in general, not compared with SmartPhone OS, and no, it didn't, hence the need for a virtual memory swap file on your hard drive...

edit- damn distractions heheh, i'll catch up eventually ;p

[Guest KeithH]

Assuming you haven't de-certified your phone i don't think as of yet there is any need for a task manager.  It's only with the wide scope and tempermental reliablity of uncertified home-creations that may require some encouragement with a task manager...the OS manages quite well with the current range of programs that are certified.

Try a hard reset+hack and put no applications on except Task Manager and try SMS, MP3 Camera etc

Most still leave behind some kind of footprint

It attempts to manage a memory pageing file. Use it all up and you'll start getting messages telling you to shut down apps (or, if Win95 you get a BSOD).

This was in refence to win9x/NT and the way they handle memory+swap. Sorry if that was confusing (and a little off topic)

I really like the smartphone, over say the XDA or a Palmtop+phone combo, but the idea behind it and its target market (apart from us geeks who will never buy more than a few) was more phone, less OS, simplified to work primarily as a phone.

If you want OS first, Phone second then maybe an XDA is better for you. However the Phone market is a hell'uv a lot bigger than the PDa market, and thats what M$ want to hit here.

Sure they can take on XDA/Big-Nokia-clamshell-brick/ericsson-Psion-mess with the SPV, but if they want to beat the Nokia 8*, 6* and 3* brands they have got some useability work to do