Update: Apology…
I sincerely apologize for erroneously portraying what happens when you don’t wait for a phone to boot up as a problem with multitasking, and please allow me to clarify the intentions behind the article in question.
Many suggested that I wait for the media scanner to finish before attempting to use the device since clearly that process was not finished and that’s what was slowing the operating system down. In other words: do not attempt to multitask by interacting with the device or by launching programs until the currently active process is finished (specifically the start up processes). This is very good advice and will be very helpful in keeping my Android phone from slowing down after a reset. Average users are sure to realize this and would adjust their personal behavior accordingly.
Others suggested that the Media Scanner background process that appears in the notifications area after booting is actually part of the boot sequence. If this were true, then why does the device tell me to “Sweep Screen to Unlock”? That would be a separate usability issue if it was telling me to log-in before it was finished booting, but I maintain that the Media Scanner process is a start-up process not a boot process since it can be disabled using the Startup Manager app.
For those insisting that I wait for the media scanner to finish before using the device, we’ve recorded a new video that does just that:
As you can see, waiting for all startup processes to complete DOES have a dramatic positive impact on device performance. I wrongly portrayed my impatience as a reflection of the multitasking-ability of the vibrant.
I sincerely apologize for offending the Android community. At pocketnow, we believe that it is important for us to push these devices to their limits in order to show exactly what they are capable of. On the editorial end, it’s important that we correctly title the articles and test the devices as objectively as possible, and I #failed at doing this. In reality, Android devices are extremely capable of multitasking, just not while running a process that takes up too much of the CPU. For this, I apologize.
Brandon note: As punishment, Adam is forbidden from filming the boot sequence of any Android phone for a period of six months. Just kidding. We all make mistakes, and we’re sorry for any anger this article has caused. It wasn’t a fair article, and we never want to provide our readers with misinformation. Hopefully we can look past this situation and get on with our love for smartphones.
Original article…
I was reading an article by Shawn Wildermuth about what he learned about Windows Phone 7 from Android. Shawn had a problem where his Motorola Droid’s performance become very slow after upgrading the OS to version 2.2. He had to do some very geeky detective work in order to figure out that a specific application, that he had installed before the upgrade, was now causing major CPU usage in the 2.2 update. He goes on to call this a “Big Bucket of FAIL.”
In my experience, I’ve seen a lot of errors and slow-downs on Android devices as well. Here’s a video of my experience on a top-of-the-line Samsung Vibrant Galaxy S phone:
That happens every time I turn on the device. Sure, there’s probably some way to disable the media scanning auto-start “feature” which is obviously looking for media on my storage card at boot up, but then would I still have a music library? The point is that anyone else who experiences this problem would have to do a bunch of research to figure out how to fix it.
Microsoft has already been down this same exact road for the past 10 years with Windows Mobile, and most of us are used to that kind of detective work. Android has inherited all of the problems (and more) that people hated about Windows Mobile. Yet, Verizon’s marketing prowess has turned it into quite a success.
As Shawn points out, Windows Phone 7 will carefully protect the sandbox thus finally fixing the problem of rampant multitasking applications that has plagued Windows Mobile for so long.
Will Android continue to follow in the footsteps of classic Windows Mobile? Or are the spiffy “Droid” commercials and Google fan-base the differentiating factor here?
Originally published on Pocketnow on August 26, 2010.