User's Guide
Table Of Contents
- About this guide
- Android basics
- Starting Android for the first time
- Getting to know the Home screen
- Using the touchscreen
- Using the phone’s buttons
- Using a trackball
- Working with menus
- Monitoring your phone’s status
- Managing notifications
- Using the onscreen keyboard
- Entering text by speaking
- Editing text
- Opening and switching applications
- Locking your screen
- Customizing the Home screen
- Connecting quickly with your contacts
- Optimizing battery life
- Managing how applications use memory
- Managing downloads
- Connecting to networks and devices
- Placing and receiving calls
- Searching by text and voice
- Contacts
- Accounts
- Gmail
- Gmail version and availability
- Gmail is different
- Opening Gmail and your Inbox
- Reading your messages
- Composing and sending a message
- Replying to or forwarding a message
- Working with Priority Inbox
- Working with conversations in batches
- Starring a message
- Labeling a conversation
- Viewing conversations by label
- Synchronizing your conversations by label
- Reporting spam
- Searching for messages
- Archiving conversations
- Appending a signature to your messages
- Using keyboard shortcuts
- Changing Gmail settings
- Calendar
- Viewing your calendar and events
- Working in Agenda view
- Working in Day view
- Working in Week view
- Working in Month view
- Viewing event details
- Creating an event
- Editing an event
- Deleting an event
- Setting an event reminder
- Responding to an event reminder
- Synchronizing and displaying calendars
- Changing Calendar settings
- Google Voice
- Google Talk
- Messaging
- Browser
- Maps, Navigation, Places, and Latitude
- Opening Maps
- Viewing My Location and location services
- Searching, exploring, and starring places
- Using the Places feature in the Launcher
- Changing map layers
- Getting directions
- Navigating with Google Maps Navigation (Beta)
- Previewing and changing views of your route
- Finding your friends with Google Latitude
- Camera
- Gallery
- YouTube
- Music
- News & Weather
- Clock
- Car Home
- Calculator
- Tags
- Market
- Opening Android Market and finding applications
- Downloading and installing applications
- Managing your downloads
- View your downloaded applications
- Set whether an application is updated automatically
- Respond to a notification that application updates are available
- Set whether you’re notified about updated applications
- Uninstall an application
- Request a refund for an application
- Rate or comment on an application
- Flag inappropriate applications
- Settings
- Opening Settings
- Wireless & networks
- Call settings
- Sound settings
- Display settings
- Location & security settings
- Use wireless networks
- Use GPS satellites
- Set up screen lock
- Set unlock pattern
- Change unlock pattern
- Use visible pattern
- Use tactile feedback
- Set unlock PIN
- Change unlock PIN
- Set unlock password
- Change unlock password
- Turn off screen lock
- Set up SIM card lock
- Visible passwords
- Select device administrators
- Use secure credentials
- Install from SD card
- Install from USB storage
- Set password
- Clear storage
- Applications settings
- Accounts & sync settings
- Privacy settings
- Storage settings
- Language & keyboard settings
- Voice input & output settings
- Accessibility settings
- Dock settings
- Date & time settings
- About phone
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AUG-2.3.4-105 Android User’s Guide
Managing how applications use memory
As described in “Opening and switching applications” on page 41, you typically don’t
need to worry about managing applications beyond installing, opening, and using
them. The operating system manages how they use memory and other resources
automatically. But there are times when you may want to know more about how
applications are using the memory and other resources in your phone.
Applications use two kinds of memory in your phone: storage memory and RAM.
Applications use storage memory for themselves and any files, settings, and other
data they use. They also use RAM (memory that is designed for temporary storage
and fast access) when they are running.
All phones have internal storage. This is the memory where most applications and
many kinds of files and data for those applications are stored. The operating system
manages and carefully guards internal storage, because it can contain your private
information; you can’t view its contents when you connect the phone to a computer
with a USB cable.
Depending on your model of phone, your phone also has either internal USB storage
or a removable SD card. This is the memory whose contents you can view and copy
files to and from when you connect your phone to a computer (as described in
“Connecting to a computer via USB” on page 67). Some applications are also
designed to be stored in this memory, rather than in internal memory, by default or as
an option.
The operating system also manages how applications use your phone’s RAM. It only
allows applications and their component processes and services to use RAM when
they need it. It may cache processes that you’ve been using recently in RAM, so they
restart more quickly when you open them again, but it will erase the cache if it needs
the RAM for new activities.