Under a Gibbous Moon

One thing that I have read over and over again with regards to getting an Android smartphone is that the first thing that you’ll want to install is a task manager application to kill applications after you have finished with them. This is simply incorrect.

I’m not sure where this idea got started but I believe that it is an assumption based upon the fact that Windows Mobile and even Blackberry require aggressive task management.

Android, on the other hand, handles tasks in a different manner from those OSes. When an application is no longer in focus (the one being currently used) and does not require constant resources (like playing music in the background), the task is put to sleep.

What this does is very similar to what happens when you hibernate your computer. The current state of the application is written into memory and then the memory’s resources are released back into the OS where they can then be reassigned. In this way, it is possible to have a lot of applications “running” but not have an effect upon system performance. But what about all the anecdotes about killing tasks improving performance. There are two things that can short circuit the OS’s resource management.

First, is having many applications running in the background that require constant access to system resources (for me Locale was a major culprit). Because these programs will not allow themselves to be put to sleep, the put a constant drain on the phones resources.

The second is simple poor application development. Some programs do not go to sleep even if there is no need for them to be running. They weren’t written to release resources properly and therefore use far more resources than are necessary. A good example of this is a social network application. It only updates every X minutes and therefore should be put to sleep and woken up via a chron job to perform an update.

So, barring running a high number of resource intensive tasks and poorly written programs, Android does not require a task manager to function properly. Using one will not yield any performance gains and will actually hurt your batter as constantly running it to kill applications will use up your battery with no actual benefit.

After having spent several months being teased by Verizon’s promise to release the Android 2.1 update for the Droid, I decided that I was done waiting and rooted my phone.

What is that you may ask? Rooting refers to root access (administrative privileges on Windows machines). With root access you are free to do essentially anything you want to the phone. For the rooting process, I used DroidMod. I won’t get into the exact details but instead point you to the tutorial that I used.

After I was done with that, I had a brand spanking new rom on my phone. So far, it has been excellent. I have all the promised feature that were coming with the 2.1 update (live wallpapers, 3D photo gallery, voice dictation, etc…) plus some nice extras.

I have overclocked my phone’s processor from 550 MHz to 1 GHz. I also have the option to tether my phones 3G connection with another device(s) via WiFi. The number of home screens went from three to five, giving me more room for the various widgets I have placed everywhere. I installed a new theme which, unlike the non root themes, actually replaces the old one and does not simply run on top of it.

Some of the tweaks are more minor. The YouTube application now defaults to the high quality video. The old unlock screen is back and it gives you the ability to turn on vibrate with the wheel instead of just silent. I also pulled off the Verizon Visual Voicemail app that I was never going to use but couldn’t otherwise uninstall.

So, in conclusion, was it worth it? Hell yes. Was it without risks? No. There is always the risk of screwing it up and bricking your phone but the improved features and added functionality made it worth the relatively small risk that something would go wrong.

Randall Munroe (in case you didn’t know) is the author and illustrator of the hilariously funny xkcd. He has assembled a list of Android bugs that have effected him. Though only two (4 and 12) have effected me personally, the list is funny to read.

So go read it.

Now.