10-13-2006, 03:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Sorry, Not Even Close
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2006/10/05/The-Emperor-Has-No-Close.aspx
Mike Calligaro has written up a blog post called "The Emperor Has No Close." It is the latest apologetic work :wink: on why the Pocket PC has a button that looks like a close button but is really nothing more than the equivalent of the minimize button.
Over three years ago I wrote an article about the lack of a close button and except for the logo requirements changing, the article and most of your comments are right on point. I don't really see a need to rehash all of the points brought up in that thread, though you are certainly free to do so. :devilboy: I do know from a user point of view, the memory management is not any better than it was then - at least from my observations. I have to forcibly kill PIE at least once a day to get my K-Jam back up above 2MB of free RAM, which seems to be the magic point at which it runs like it has a 16MHz 286 processor with the "turbo" switch off.
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10-13-2006, 03:43 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 20
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2Mb? What are you running. I've just popped up the task manager on my XDA mini s and it has 10Mb of program memory free with the following applications open: activesync, calendar, excel mobile (twice!) file explorer, haali reader, internet explorer, notes, outlook email, task manager and tcpmp.
I've found that it copes much better with the day to day load of programs than any other Windows Mobile device - and I've not ever had to reset/force close apps.
Not that I disagree with you mind, I'd like to be the one that decides whether a program is closed or minimised and not leave it up to the OS...
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10-13-2006, 05:35 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Right now, it shows 3.1MB free.
Running apps are:
ActiveSync (syncing with Exchange 2003 SP2)
Pocket Informant
Internet Explore
Inbox is running
That's it. I have Resco's Today plugin instlled and in use. That's it. Note - I have no doubt if I did a soft reset and relaunched these same apps, I'd have over 10MB free, but after a few hrs of launching apps and using the device, I'd be right back where I am, fighting with the OS to close things so I can work.
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10-13-2006, 05:53 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 34
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Contacts
Ed do you have a lot of contacts stored on your device. If you do, this is known to be a huge memory hog, especially on the KJams. Buddy of mine had the KJam with over 5,000 contacts (realtor) and the unit crawled. He widdled away at the contacts and got it under 1200 and now the unit runs at a decent speed.
Hope that helps.
Rick
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10-13-2006, 06:10 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
ActiveSync (syncing with Exchange 2003 SP2)
Pocket Informant
Internet Explore
Inbox is running
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I've always found ActiveSync to be a resource hog. I always kill the process. Still only running WM2003SE, though, so I don't know if it's still as bad on WM5
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10-13-2006, 06:24 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Re: Contacts
Quote:
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Originally Posted by posiedon7
Ed do you have a lot of contacts stored on your device.
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less than 700.
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10-13-2006, 08:44 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 307
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Back on topic...
(1) Is there anyone on God's green Earth who doesn't already know that the "Close" button doesn't really close anything without a third-party app installed, and that the WM OS is supposedly watching your memory for you? Did we need another article about this subject?
(2) Isn't there enough evidence already that WM should have a real "Close" button? I use Spb's Pocket Plus, set to close things when I click the "Close" button, so this isn't an ongoing issue for me. Whenever I poke around the Pocket PCs at the local Comp USA or Best Buy or whatever, the devices always have 16 apps currently running. Whether or not those apps are actually doing anything at that precise moment, and whether or not the device still has memory and horsepower to do more, shouldn't WM be closing down some of these things over time?
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10-13-2006, 09:59 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by SteveHoward999
I've always found ActiveSync to be a resource hog. I always kill the process. Still only running WM2003SE, though, so I don't know if it's still as bad on WM5
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You need ActiveSync running if you're using it for push email, as I do...
Anyway, I agree with Ed: this article is apologetic, but not particularly insightful. When Microsoft's own bundled programs do not work correctly without the ability to close, their credibility is shot on this discussion.
--janak
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10-13-2006, 10:02 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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The scary part of the blog posting is this line from Mike in the responses:
"Zacho, I know you feel strongly about this, but I'm sorry to say that the chance of the icon being changed is pretty small. A more likely long term change is to move toward the Smartphone and Symbian model (yes, Symbian doesn't let you close apps either) where there's no button at all and the only way to put the app away is to navigate to a different one."
So, it sounds like they are thinking about taking a bad decision and making it worse by not even giving us a button to gripe about -- or modify to CLOSE for that matter. I've never used a Symbian device, so have no idea if they do a decent enough job of managing memory that this isn't an issue. But I've owned close to a dozen PPC/WM devices and I have yet to find one that does it acceptably. Sounds like MS is intent on dumbing down the OS enough that no power user will even want to buy a device running it.
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10-13-2006, 10:38 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
You need ActiveSync running if you're using it for push email, as I do...
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Yes I know. But a resource hog is a resource hog, no matter what work it's doing.
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Linear Mode
