Closing applications

[sushidushi]

This is a very basic question, but can anyone please tell me how ot close an application?  Do you just push the back button to close applications?  I wonder because my old phone (Nokia 5800) allows one to have more than one application open at the same time, and it has a function to enable one to check what's running and to close anything that you don't want to run.

Is it the same on the X10?  If it's only possible to have one app open at the same time, that answers my question, I suppose - if I open another application, the previous one will be closed.  That seems to be the case, but I checked the other day what was consuming so much battery and it turned out to be a game (Labyrinth Lite) which seemed to be running in the background.  I've deleted it now, but I'd like to have a clearer understanding of how to check easily what is open.

Thanks!

S

[#2]

Some apps have a quit or exit option available when you press the Menu button or double tapping the Back button but otherwise you will probably have to close apps manually using an app 'killer' program, such as Advanced Task Manager Free or the Astro File Manager. The only difference between the free version and paid version of Advanced Task Manager is that there is no ad and that you can use the 'auto-kill' function. Read up more about these for youself to see which one suits you best.

I can tell you from experience that the X10 can indeed multitask as the other night, I was running Mediascape, Timescape, and the Browser all at the same time and was easily able to switch between them without even a hiccup. To see what programs are running (or what have been run recently), you just need to hold down the Home button and then the list will show up. I used this method to switch between my running apps. Hope this helps!

[sushidushi]

Thank you.  Is there any way of telling, using your menu button trick, which of the applications are running and which have simply recently been running?  Or, even better, to set it so it only shows the open apps?

I had installed Advanced Task Killer earlier, but have since uninstalled it, as it seemed difficult tio close - I had to go to the application settings and close it from there.  I'll give the Advanced Tasdk Manager a try...

Thanks again.

[#4]

Not that I am aware of (re: discerning between running and recent apps). I'll look into it and see if I can find anything else out about it and let you know if I do.

So far both of those apps I suggested have worked well for me. For Astro, just double tap the Back button to exit and for Advanced Task Manager just pressing the Back button will exit it. Though you may have to stop it manually, I can't remember. The way I have it set up is that it exits (closes) once I return to the Home screen.

[sushidushi]

Thank you.

I now have the Advanced Task Manager.  It seems to be saying that i have literally dozens of applications open, many of which I don't have any idea about - such as 'Wiper App', but also lots of phone functions like Mediascape, phone book, and quite a few with android at the beginning of their name.  I'm sure thaty they can't all be running at the same time!

[#6]

I'd stay away from killing anything that has 'android' in their name. The X10 is comparable to a simple computer - if your computer's task manager shows more than a dozen of processes running, you won't go kill them all. The Advanced Task manager I use has a nice separation between 'processes' and applications.

There are a lot of applications (Maps, Mail, Moxier) that run automatically when you start your phone. You can kill those, no problem, and start them when you need them. But things that have the little Android box and they have names with dots (android.bootinfo, sonyericsson.learningclient) you probably don't want to kill.

[#7]

Agreed, rali. With this App manager programs, you have to be very careful about what you close as it could damage your phone if you close the wrong thing. So make sure you know what you should be closing and what you shouldn't. As rali said, everything is nicely sectioned off for Apps, Processes, etc. So I would stay away from the Processes section until you know what is needed and what isn't. Be careful apps too since some of them are required for your phone to work (e.g. Home). Anyway, as long as you are careful and do some reading up on what stuff is necessary, you should be fine.

[sushidushi]

Many thanks for that.  I have the Advanced Task Manager, and I'll certainly only close stuff from the top left tab (Apps), and then only things that don't look too scary!  It seems that if one marks something with a red cross, it won;t close, but other stuff will.  I am keeping a tick by Advanced Task Manager itself, so I can get it to close.  I don't want it to exacerbate the battery life problem...!

Thanks again to you and to jrdwn.