How does one close tomtom 1.4.1?

[dvboy]

I know it sounds like a stupid question,but when use this application and want to close it down,I hit the little round button at the bottom of my iphone 4.This exits tomtom,but does not shut it down and I get warnings every few minutes that tomtom is still running and draining my battery.I navigate through the software but I cant find a close button??The only way I can find to shut er down is re-setting the phone?Am I missing something here?

 

[davidalan99]

Clear any route that is running
Button once to return to home scree
Button twice quickly that will bring up the multi task app screen
Hold down on the TomTom app till it wiggles and you see a minus sign in the upper left corner of the icon
Let go of the app then touch the minus sign and the app will go away
It is now not running

 

[dvboy]

Hey!!...that was very helpful.I find that clearing the rout and hitting the close button is enough to shut er down,but that tip about the multi tasking double click was good to know.Thanks very much

 

[runarg]

Clearing the rout and hitting the close button is NOT enough to shut down TomTom. It just puts it in the background. You have to do like davidalan99 said.

 

[Kolenka]

Clearing the rout and hitting the close button is NOT enough to shut down TomTom. It just puts it in the background. You have to do like davidalan99 said.

TomTom is actually pretty efficient on the RAM for a GPS app. As long as the route is cleared, TomTom uses 0 CPU while in the background... which is better IMO as it means you aren't having to wait for it to relaunch when switching back to it.

 

[daveoftruro]

TomTom is actually pretty efficient on the RAM for a GPS app. As long as the route is cleared, TomTom uses 0 CPU while in the background... which is better IMO as it means you aren't having to wait for it to relaunch when switching back to it.

But what about battery consumption? Is that exactly the same as CPU activity, or is my battery going to be flattened more quickly if I leave it running in background?

Incidentally, this question occurs so frequently, I think this thread should be sticky.

 

[Kolenka]

But what about battery consumption? Is that exactly the same as CPU activity, or is my battery going to be flattened more quickly if I leave it running in background?

Incidentally, this question occurs so frequently, I think this thread should be sticky.

If it uses 0 CPU cycles, it isn't running. Multitasking on the iPhone/iTouch/iPad works a bit like this:

When your app is put into the background, the device shuts off all messages to your app, and pauses it. Nothing runs. But because the app is multitasking aware, it will remain in RAM so that it can be unpaused when it is brought back to the front and save time. This saves a little battery, since you aren't spending time reloading the app into RAM, loading the user's state and data, and so on.

There are 4 exceptions to this rule. Task completion, background GPS, background audio, and background voip calls. The app has to enable this while it is running. In that case, the device will still pause the app, but still send it appropriate messages. These are messages like "user hit play/pause, next/prev", "feed me some audio to play", "here's the new GPS location", "here's some audio from the mic to send", and so on.

Task completion allows an app to complete a task that takes less than X minutes (I think the max an app can request is 10 minutes). This is like NewsRack finishing up marking articles as read as you leave the app, for example. Once the time requested is up or the task complete, the app is paused.

In the case of background audio and voip, only one background app is "unpaused" at a time. And only when there is activity (active call, music is actively playing). Pausing Pandora for example, causes it to stop running. Hanging up a Skype call does the same. An Internet Radio app and Pandora can't both be active at the same time.

For GPS, it is a little trickier, but not by much. The only real difference is that multiple apps can listen to the GPS information and act on it. And the app has to actively be doing something with the GPS information to be unpaused. In TomTom's case, that means having an active route (shown by the location services icon in the status bar when not in the TomTom app). If that icon isn't there when on the home screen for example, TomTom's code isn't running, because the device isn't giving TomTom a chance to do anything. It's simply not giving it any messages telling it your new GPS location.

RAM needs to be powered at all times, so RAM use by an app doesn't really affect battery life. It has to actively be doing something. Apple, by making sure apps that don't have something to do are paused and cannot run code, is protecting the battery life of the device.

That isn't to say that this is ideal. Accidentally leaving TomTom in a route can drain your battery (GPS draws a fair amount of power). Telling Trapster to run in the background can do the same if you forget it is running in the background. TuneIn Radio's recording abilities tend to mess with it's behavior in the background. But on the flip side, these particular issues would still be problems in an unrestricted multitasking environment like WM6 or Android. The key difference is that iPhone devs are sort of forced into the right behavior for battery life.

 

[daveoftruro]

Thanks Kolenka for your incredibly detailed answer. But one good answer always results in another question!

I had assumed that tomtom was taking raw gps data and making its own gps calculations, and it was that which was consuming so much power. But if it's using the same data as the maps app, it only has to keep track of its position on the route and run a low definition display with occasional voice. So why does it consume so much power?