Android tablets - the Nice and not so nice features

[MyWorld]

I have my Ideos S7 Slim for just over 2 weeks now, and I was thinking of the nice and not so nice experiences I have had with this. I would think this is related in general to all other Android devices and would probably end up being a wish list for future tablets.

The nice:
Compact
Powerful enough to do just about everything I need from a hand held
Android

The not so nice:
Not real multitasking - this has to be one of the greatest let downs at this stage. You need to close an app to quickly jump to another app to do something.
Multitasking, I don't think I have mentioned that yet...

So what is your pro's and cons of the tablets with Android?

 

[genetic]

I have my Ideos S7 Slim for just over 2 weeks now, and I was thinking of the nice and not so nice experiences I have had with this. I would think this is related in general to all other Android devices and would probably end up being a wish list for future tablets.

The nice:
Compact
Powerful enough to do just about everything I need from a hand held
Android

The not so nice:
Not real multitasking - this has to be one of the greatest let downs at this stage. You need to close an app to quickly jump to another app to do something.
Multitasking, I don't think I have mentioned that yet...

So what is your pro's and cons of the tablets with Android?

Unfortunately the Ideos S7 is severely underpowered when compared to other Android tabs out there - hence why it might not be able to multi-task.

 

[MyWorld]

Is there an Android device on the market that can multi task? I have yet to hear or see one personally therefore if I do not know of one it is out of pure ignorance.

I should probably better explain true multitasking for there to be a better understanding.

When you open YouTube to watch a video, it may take some time to load, so you quickly switch to your email to check something out, but in my experience once you switch back to the YouTube app the video never loaded or refreshes.
Same with web browsers on Android, quickly switch from you web browser to email or SMS service and you lose your current browsing session.

True multitasking would allow apps to continue working in the background and not just keep the app itself in the background for faster load times.

 

[Elimentals]

Multitasking is real, blame the developer for not catering to your needs.

I can totally code an app that stays open all the time.

Edit: aaah just seen your explanation.... sorry to say but that was an Android decision. If you use the internal libs for media playback they decided (for better or worse) to suspend media playback.

You can still write your own media app that use your own media playback that does not do this

 

[Richardxtc]

Is there an Android device on the market that can multi task? I have yet to hear or see one personally therefore if I do not know of one it is out of pure ignorance.

I should probably better explain true multitasking for there to be a better understanding.

When you open YouTube to watch a video, it may take some time to load, so you quickly switch to your email to check something out, but in my experience once you switch back to the YouTube app the video never loaded or refreshes.
Same with web browsers on Android, quickly switch from you web browser to email or SMS service and you lose your current browsing session.

True multitasking would allow apps to continue working in the background and not just keep the app itself in the background for faster load times.

Samsung galaxy p7500 does that brilliantly

 

[TJ99]

Is there an Android device on the market that can multi task? I have yet to hear or see one personally therefore if I do not know of one it is out of pure ignorance.

I should probably better explain true multitasking for there to be a better understanding.

When you open YouTube to watch a video, it may take some time to load, so you quickly switch to your email to check something out, but in my experience once you switch back to the YouTube app the video never loaded or refreshes.
Same with web browsers on Android, quickly switch from you web browser to email or SMS service and you lose your current browsing session.

True multitasking would allow apps to continue working in the background and not just keep the app itself in the background for faster load times.

Yes, tablets and Android phones do have true multitasking, are you kidding?? The apps just get closed if you don't have enough memory to keep them all open at the same time. Or if you press and hold the back button. You can also use a task manager to force certain apps to remain in the foreground, or assign higher priorities. When the memory is full, the ones with the lowest priorities get closed or suspended first. It works the same with tabs within the web browser, if you open a few of them, the first ones will be cleared to free up memory. I'm sure there are ways around that as well.

 

[Elimentals]

See http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaPlayer.html for more info re Media and Android it was a design decision.

Edit: To understand media playback you have to understand the underlying hardware design. The media decode/encode part of the cpu is not part of the main core and can not be cycled like normal. When an application call it and gets granted access it has sole ownership of that section. if you tried to start another application they would fail to access it and Force close.

As a developer you have full right to use software fore encoding/decoding media and thus not use that section of the CPU. This will enable your application to play in the background and be cycled like any normal calculation. Only limitation is because of the weak power in the cores this could make the system seem slow and unresponsive(Will probably be better when the new quad core systems become the norm)

 

[rorz0r]

Never had an issue with browser sessions on my desire. Are you holding down the home button to switch apps? I ask because if you're going to the home screen then launching it from a shortcut some apps will then go to their default state and not as you left them.
As for YouTube, because all apps generally stay open in the background as opposed to being closed like you'd normally do on windows if it loses focus it assumes you're no longer interested. It wasnt really written with us third world peeps in mind, performs just fine if you have a fast connection that doesn't need an hour to buffer.

Are you also not maybe running any battery saver or task killer type apps?

 

[EchoZA]

Testing the waters... anyone interested in a Galaxy TAB 7 with SAMSUNG cover and stylus? +-3 months old, hardly used. PM me with an offer if your interested.

 

[kolaval]

So you have a device with limited CPU power, limited screen real estate, limited battery life, limited ram and you expect it to be a desktop equivalent?
Apple had the same non multitasking limitations(only with iOS 4 i think did they start changing this, and even now with iOS 5 widget behavior is limited), and for good reason.
You would buy your tablet(android or iOS) open a bunch of apps/web pages/emails/videos/mp3's/widgets, choke your CPU(which cannot compete with the desktop since it is not cooled by fans), kill your battery and then complain that the thing is useless/slow/battery sucks.

 

[Elimentals]

So you have a device with limited CPU power, limited screen real estate, limited battery life, limited ram and you expect it to be a desktop equivalent?
Apple had the same non multitasking limitations(only with iOS 4 i think did they start changing this, and even now with iOS 5 widget behavior is limited), and for good reason.
You would buy your tablet(android or iOS) open a bunch of apps/web pages/emails/videos/mp3's/widgets, choke your CPU(which cannot compete with the desktop since it is not cooled by fans), kill your battery and then complain that the thing is useless/slow/battery sucks.

iOS is way more limiting than Android when it comes to multitasking.

It only allows for certain services (Modules) to run in the background where Android will allow full applications to run, well all but media d/encoding. Windows phone has the same limitation as iOS, both only allowing for Audio, Notifications and file transfer to run. In essence they fake multitasking by suspending applications and restoring them on focus.

 

[Elimentals]

Oh forgot to add, 2 applications to look at for easy switching between applications check out:

SwipeSwitch Free, dont know how good it is but seen it the other day in a review

and Tasking a paid for add-on for SwipePad. I personally use SwipePad on my phone as it is a great launcher seen in action on my MIUI demo video. If you dont mind paying the R15 I would also recommend this route.

 

[MyWorld]

So you have a device with limited CPU power, limited screen real estate, limited battery life, limited ram and you expect it to be a desktop equivalent?

You forgot, with a limited OS, yes, I would expect it to multitask better.

Thanks for the explanation Elimentals, shone a light on the whole subject!

 

[veethree]

iOS is way more limiting than Android when it comes to multitasking.

It only allows for certain services (Modules) to run in the background where Android will allow full applications to run, well all but media d/encoding. Windows phone has the same limitation as iOS, both only allowing for Audio, Notifications and file transfer to run. In essence they fake multitasking by suspending applications and restoring them on focus.

You are, of course, right about the way Android handles multitasking but my irritation is that it actually leads to more inconsistent results than iOS. I suspect this is because of the way that it is handling the open applications in the face of memory limitations, but it means that on one day I can leave something in the background while attending to other things and it's fine, while on another day I try to return to it and find that it has closed (or force closed) and my work/position is lost.

I can't do the same kind of multitasking on iOS, it is true, but the fact that it is very consistent in its behaviour means that actually working with it is less irritating. Predictability means a lot.

I don't know whether it's the OS itself or the app developers that are the cause, but I am starting to think that I would trade some flexibility for a little more predictability when it comes to Android's multitasking.

 

[genetic]

My Android phone is very apt at multitasking.. Having said that, it has a dual core processor and 1GB of RAM.

My only complaint is battery life.