iOS 4 Jailbreak Experiment: Using Backgrounder to limit multitasking and save RAM
The Backgrounder svnr513-1 beta by Lance Fetters (@ashikase) has a pretty neat new feature that helps you specify whether to background an app in jailbreak style, multitask the way Apple does it, or promptly kill an app when you press the Home button. I’ve even read on Ashikase’s Twitter account that the most current beta (which I can’t seem to find) can force apps that aren’t iOS 4 Fast App Switching compatible to become, well, Fast App Switching compatible. But that’s neither here nor there.
What I want to focus on is the neat Overrides list that has always been in Backgrounder.
Now that the whole package is iOS 4 compatible, you can actually tell Backgrounder to kill apps with a press of the Home button, even when they’re built for Fast App Switching. This is useful for apps that you’ll only load up every once in a while, since these tend to use up your multitasking RAM quite quickly. A couple of the apps I’ve specified are MoneyBook, Clock, App Store, and Ego.
This won’t actually make apps use up less RAM, but if I can nail which apps I really don’t require Fast App Switching for, then I should be able to decrease the number of apps that take up my memory at any one time. This means less time spent on manually quitting apps through the multitasking bar or SBSettings, and fewer resprings to reclaim RAM that has been hopelessly lost.
iOS 4 is supposed to free up RAM dynamically, but there are still times when my system gets down to about 5MB and the whole phone just slows to a crawl and doesn’t ever quite recover. I’m hoping Backgrounder can help me with all of these issues.
I’ll make sure to post an update if I notice any changes. If you’d like to try the beta out for yourself, just load up Cydia and search for Backgrounder.
The link to the latest beta (515~b1) was included in the tweet that announced it:
http://twitter.com/ashikase/status/19751140266
(Direct link to deb file: http://db.tt/fKph6S)
I thought about this today and I tried. Now I googled to see if someone else thought of it, and I found your site. Have you notice any improvement? I think things are less sluggish now.
I haven't noticed a really discernible difference, no. But the new Backgrounder beta (which isn't even on Cydia yet, I don't think) might work. Check @Ashikase out on Twitter if you're looking for the link.