ICS Task Manager Widget

Posted by: Himanshu June 3, 2012 in Android App Reviews, Tools Leave a comment

Managing the running apps and processes on the android OS has always been a debate. Some say its good to let the android system manage the activities efficiently and not aggressively kill tasks while others feel apps with full multitasking capabilities can run your phone out of juice if not stopped when not needed. But the first question is, do we actually need a task manager/killer? Yes users who heavily use the phone with wide variety of apps, games and other background processes do need task killers to keep the RAM unsaturated, processor running at low speeds and ultimately conserving battery and improving performance. Though we have seen some of the most popular and efficient task killers in past, but there’s one thing most of them do lack and its the look and the feel of the latest ICS theme to offer a consistent UI experience. Well if you have a similar requirement but do not want to spoil the elegant ICS themed interface then ICS Task Manager Widget is a great way to keep up with all the happenings on your android phone as well as quickly and conveniently manage them from the homescreens.

Being a widget ICS Task Manager has its own set of advantages over apps. Like being easily accessible with a flick on the homescreen panels, direct management from homescreen and quick and easy configuration by just adding the widget to the homescreen of your choice makes ICS a great way to match your needs and style. The widget is scrollable, yes that means you will be able to scroll through the list of all apps running on your device which cannot be accommodated in the display section of the widget. Though the widget will be actively updated there refresh keys handy to observe any recent change like activity start/stop. The close button sits closely to the refresh button to stop all activities/tasks at once. Though this will only kill all the non system app. System apps like face unlock, dialer, system UI will not be affected and will restart even if killed. So you are typically clearing all the unwanted 3^rd party apps with the close all button to reduce memory usage and spare some more for the next game you are going to launch. The Task list shows up with the thumbnail, name of app and memory used by it giving you clear picture of the most memory savvy tasks. Tapping on any task brings you a small menu with switch to task and stop task options to individually take care of each of them. ou will also be show the total number of tasks running on the system at the top of the widget.

Currently the widget is available in one size of 4×4. Yes that consumes your entire screen but there is tap and hold to resize the widget, though it is not working in the current version and will see its functionality in the next update probably.

The widget is almost perfect in its looks and offers a native ICS experience with a transparent panel. Though we still believe ICS Task Manager Widget can be improved with abilities like ignore list, selection of apps to kill and widget sizes to come in next updates.

Overall ICS Task Manager Widget is a convenient to use and beautifully themed task manager that can help you sort out what you are running and want to carry on with without sacrificing the performance or extra battery juice.