http://www.everythingliveon.com/google-now-expands-with-70-new-app-cards-including-spotify-and-feedly/

Google Now expands with 70 new app cards, including Spotify and Feedly

When Google opened up Now’s helpful, context-sensitive cards to third-party companies earlier this year, about 40 apps took advantage of the functionality. Three months later, that total has surged with numerous newcomers.

Seventy to be exact – Google announced the additions today, bringing the tally of third-party apps that play nice with Now beyond 100. And many of the apps are headline options that you may already have installed on your Android phone.

Spotify, for example, can now suggest playlists that match up well with your own musical tastes, while apps like Circa and Feedly will shoot you breaking news cards and Runkeeper, Jawbone, and Adidas will prompt you to get back to your fitness goals. OpenTable, meanwhile, will let you pay your bill at a restaurant by tapping the Now card.

Some of these sound totally helpful – like U.S. car sharing service Zipcar using cards to show your car reservation details and the drop-off location. Something like Spotify’s, on the other hand, has us thinking back to our earlier concern back in January: will all of these added messages start to become a bother as inessential notes stack up?

We’ll have to see how it all pans out, but hopefully it’s a net positive overall. You’ll need to update the Google app and any compatible third-party apps, and then be sure to check out the listing of new Now-compatible apps to see which might be sending you cards in the coming weeks.

[Source: Google – Inside Search]

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http://www.everythingliveon.com/how-to-stop-android-apps-running-in-the-background/

How to stop Android apps running in the background

The hunt is on for background apps. But before we go on an app massacre, let’s remember that many apps run in the background for good reason: they are syncing, providing location data or otherwise doing what they were designed to do. But not always. If you want to know which apps are running excessive background processes or you want to stop apps from running in the background entirely, then we’ll show you how.

 Apps are great, but like all things they need to be kept on a tight leash.

Process stats and battery usage

First of all, if you want to know which are running background processes and how power hungry they are, both in terms of processing power and impact on battery. Android has these monitoring options built in.

Enable Developer Options by going to Settings > About Phone and tapping the Build number until you are notified that Developer Options have been enabled.

Process Stats lets you know which apps are running all the time. Some should, others shouldn’t.

Go to Settings > Developer Options > Process Stats to see how much of the time your key apps are running. Tap any app to see how much RAM it’s using.

Next, go to Settings > Battery then tap the individual apps to see how much battery they’re using.

Which apps should I stop running in the background?

A big culprit of background memory and battery usage is games you’re not playing, and music players you’re not using. If you can see no logical reason for an app you know well to be running in the background, then you should probably close it.

As a general, you should leave most apps/services starting with the word ‘Google’ running. So DON’T STOP THE FOLLOWING APPS (really essential services won’t let you force stop them anyway):

Google Search, Google Play services, Google Contacts Sync, Google Keyboard, Google Play Store

In the Process stats list, you should have a pretty good idea of which apps you want to leave running in the background simply by knowing how much you use them. The list is a good place to stop bloatware from running (like Moto Care, which you see in the picture), or services you might not use like Google Play Music.

Digging into your Battery settings, you can see which apps are keeping your device awake, as well as how much battery and processor power they are consuming.

How to disable, stop and uninstall background apps

If you have an app that you think is using an unreasonable amount of processor power or seems to be running in the background way more than it should, then you can either:

Disable it in your App Manager by going to Settings > Apps, tapping the app, then tapping Disable.

Since the Lollipop update, you can close recent apps easily by tapping the Recent Apps navigation button on your phone (to the right of the home button), then swiping left or right to close apps you ran recently.

Delete it from your phone by going to Settings > Apps, tapping the app, then tapping Uninstall

Or Force Stop it by going to Settings > Apps, swiping right to the Running tab, tapping the app, then tapping Force Stop

Remember, if you have no clue what an app or service is, then you probably shouldn’t stop it, unless it’s using up a lot of RAM or battery, and you don’t mind risking your phone crashing.

Less crucial apps (left) can be uninstalled. Crucial system services (right) can’t.

Greenify

Greenify is an app hibernation app, letting you put apps to sleep when you’re not using them. It’s basically an automated version of force closing or disabling apps every time you stop using them and then turning them back on when you need them. But doing that manually is a pain. Hence Greenify is one of the best app management apps around.

Greenify makes app management a breeze. / © Oasis Feng

             Greenify

To get the full benefits of Greenify you need root access, and we have guides on how to root your Nexus 5, HTC One M8 and Galaxy S5, among other phones. Just search for them at AndroidPIT.

Non-rooted users, for example, won’t be able to automatically hibernate apps, but can simply flick a widget switch to put your apps to sleep (not a bad fix if you don’t want to root your device). If you’re serious about managing your background processes, Greenify is the tool you need.

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