I'm getting pretty annoyed at the self-indulgence of some Android apps. Facebook, gmail, and others.
Here's the deal. When I leave my home, I often turn off WiFi ... I've found that if I leave it on, sometimes my phone connects automatically to networks that need a signin, and because I didn't plan to connect, I don't sign in, and for a while any transfers are blocked. Eventually I might notice, but in the meantime an important email hasn't been delivered to me, or something I've sent hasn't actually gone upstream. So I turn off WiFi when I leave the house.
Sometime later, I want to do something that will use a fair amount of traffic, and deliberately connect to the local wifi where I am. Usually at a bar. Just thought you might like to know. :)
However,
after I connect, my phone basically stops working for a couple of minutes as every friggin little
pissant app I have on my phone decides
now is an
awesome time to sync. I watch the little traffic icon thing, and the up and down signals are pegged. In
both senses of that word. It's really annoying, and all because these crappy apps think their background transfers are the most important thing in my life right now. I couldn't care less about the 39 Facebook updates in my network. Not in the next few minutes anyway. I deliberately connected to a network because I wanted to get something done! And I can't.
I guess what I need to find is some app that doesn't completely disable background transfers .. but maybe delays some of them so they don't all go at once.
In the meantime, if the apps themselves would just wait a danged minute or two - you know, be polite - I'd be a lot happier. Catch the signal that the network is now present, and set a timer for yourself. Wake up in 1 to 3 minutes. Do your sync.
I'm frankly about 5 more episodes of this away from uninstalling Facebook from my phone.
