Instructions for clearing App switcher [was Re: Removing applications from App switcher in IPhone]
Hi Paula and Others, At the risk of adding to an already long thread, I thought I'd post instructions on how I remove apps from the App switcher window. 1. If you are currently in an app, click the Home button to return to the home screen 2. Double click the Home button, and you should hear VoiceOver say, App Switcher, then announce the name of your most recently used app, followed by double tap to open. 3. Perform the double tap and hold pass through gesture in the center of your iPhone screen. You should hear the burbly sound that indicates a successful execution of the pass through gesture, then VoiceOver should say, editing apps. Focus will be on the app in the bottom left corner of the screen. You don't have to locate this app before you do the pass through gesture, because it already had focus when you opened the App Switcher. So you don't need to worry about performing the double tap and hold gesture in any particular location on the screen -- I do this in the center of the screen. 4. Keep double tapping in the center of the screen to delete apps. As you delete apps, focus will stay on the bottom left corner of the screen, and the next app to be deleted will move into position here. (You don't actually have to wait for VoiceOver to announce each action's completed status as you double tap to delete.) 5. Eventually, VoiceOver will announce, App Switcher has no items. 6. Click the Home button to return to your home screen. You can also perform a variant of the above using a paired Bluetooth keyboard, but the double tap and hold pass through gesture must be performed on the screen, since there is no equivalent keyboard shortcut. The instructions would work as follows: 1. If you are currently in an app, press Control+Option+H to return to the home screen. On keyboards with a dedicated Home key (e.g. the iPad Keyboard Dock, and some third party keyboards, but not the Apple Wireless Keyboard) you can press that key to return to the home screen. 2. Press VO-H twice by holding down the Control+Option keys and tapping the h key twice to access the App Switcher. Again, on keyboards with a dedicated Home key, you can simply double click that key. 3. Perform the double tap and hold pass through gesture in the center of your iPhone screen. (This has to be done as a gesture, but you can do it anywhere in the center of your screen.) You should hear the burbly sound that indicates a successful execution of the pass through gesture, then VoiceOver should say, editing apps. Focus will be on the most recently used app, in the bottom left corner of the screen. 4. Use your keyboard to remove all the apps in the App Switcher window. I do this with VO+space bar, since I can hold down the Control+Option keys and just keep tapping the space bar until all the apps in the App Switcher window are removed and you hear VoiceOver say, App Switcher has no items. If you have a Keyboard without a Control or Option key, you can turn QuickNav on (by simultaneously pressing the right and left arrow keys), and then press the up+down arrow keys instead of using VO+space bar to delete apps. 5. Eventually, VoiceOver will announce, App Switcher has no items. 6. Press VO+H, or press the dedicated home key if your keyboard has one, to return to the home screen. I'll just add that the App Switcher window is really a list of your recently used apps, but doesn't tell you which apps are actively running. In the multi-tasking environment, as your iOS device requires more resources it starts dropping your previously used apps from its active list. If you happen to remove an app from your App Switcher window which is actively running, you'll stop it from running. Since VoiceOver requires more resources when it is running than the default iOS system without VoiceOver, users often want to release resources from currently running apps manually, hence the practice of clearing off apps from the App Switcher window. This is overkill in the sense that you're removing all your recently used apps in order to guarantee that the few that are still using resources are stopped. Another way to do this, without deleting apps from the App Switcher window, is to use an app that frees memory, like XSysInfo or System Activity Monitor. There are probab ly more updated versions of these apps that can be used to free memory. I usually use Activity Monitor Touch to check which apps are currently running. Another thing that may not be obvious: even when an app is not running, it still may locally store data in memory that gets used when you next launch the app. So even if you remove Safari from the App Switcher window, if you don't close additional tabs, or go to Settings Safari and use the options to Clear Cache and Clear History, that stored memory usage will still impact your resources. HTH. Cheers, Esther --- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net --- To reply to this post, please
Re: Instructions for clearing App switcher [was Re: Removing applications from App switcher in IPhone]
Thanks for that Esther, I will give this a go. Take care Paula On 20/12/2011, at 11:59 AM, Esther wrote: Hi Paula and Others, At the risk of adding to an already long thread, I thought I'd post instructions on how I remove apps from the App switcher window. 1. If you are currently in an app, click the Home button to return to the home screen 2. Double click the Home button, and you should hear VoiceOver say, App Switcher, then announce the name of your most recently used app, followed by double tap to open. 3. Perform the double tap and hold pass through gesture in the center of your iPhone screen. You should hear the burbly sound that indicates a successful execution of the pass through gesture, then VoiceOver should say, editing apps. Focus will be on the app in the bottom left corner of the screen. You don't have to locate this app before you do the pass through gesture, because it already had focus when you opened the App Switcher. So you don't need to worry about performing the double tap and hold gesture in any particular location on the screen -- I do this in the center of the screen. 4. Keep double tapping in the center of the screen to delete apps. As you delete apps, focus will stay on the bottom left corner of the screen, and the next app to be deleted will move into position here. (You don't actually have to wait for VoiceOver to announce each action's completed status as you double tap to delete.) 5. Eventually, VoiceOver will announce, App Switcher has no items. 6. Click the Home button to return to your home screen. You can also perform a variant of the above using a paired Bluetooth keyboard, but the double tap and hold pass through gesture must be performed on the screen, since there is no equivalent keyboard shortcut. The instructions would work as follows: 1. If you are currently in an app, press Control+Option+H to return to the home screen. On keyboards with a dedicated Home key (e.g. the iPad Keyboard Dock, and some third party keyboards, but not the Apple Wireless Keyboard) you can press that key to return to the home screen. 2. Press VO-H twice by holding down the Control+Option keys and tapping the h key twice to access the App Switcher. Again, on keyboards with a dedicated Home key, you can simply double click that key. 3. Perform the double tap and hold pass through gesture in the center of your iPhone screen. (This has to be done as a gesture, but you can do it anywhere in the center of your screen.) You should hear the burbly sound that indicates a successful execution of the pass through gesture, then VoiceOver should say, editing apps. Focus will be on the most recently used app, in the bottom left corner of the screen. 4. Use your keyboard to remove all the apps in the App Switcher window. I do this with VO+space bar, since I can hold down the Control+Option keys and just keep tapping the space bar until all the apps in the App Switcher window are removed and you hear VoiceOver say, App Switcher has no items. If you have a Keyboard without a Control or Option key, you can turn QuickNav on (by simultaneously pressing the right and left arrow keys), and then press the up+down arrow keys instead of using VO+space bar to delete apps. 5. Eventually, VoiceOver will announce, App Switcher has no items. 6. Press VO+H, or press the dedicated home key if your keyboard has one, to return to the home screen. I'll just add that the App Switcher window is really a list of your recently used apps, but doesn't tell you which apps are actively running. In the multi-tasking environment, as your iOS device requires more resources it starts dropping your previously used apps from its active list. If you happen to remove an app from your App Switcher window which is actively running, you'll stop it from running. Since VoiceOver requires more resources when it is running than the default iOS system without VoiceOver, users often want to release resources from currently running apps manually, hence the practice of clearing off apps from the App Switcher window. This is overkill in the sense that you're removing all your recently used apps in order to guarantee that the few that are still using resources are stopped. Another way to do this, without deleting apps from the App Switcher window, is to use an app that frees memory, like XSysInfo or System Activity Monitor. There are prob ab ly more updated versions of these apps that can be used to free memory. I usually use Activity Monitor Touch to check which apps are currently running. Another thing that may not be obvious: even when an app is not running, it still may locally store data in memory that gets used when you next launch the app. So even if you remove Safari from the App Switcher window, if you don't close additional tabs, or go to Settings Safari and use the options to Clear
