OS Monitor

Summary

Have you always been curious to see what your system is actually doing? Always wanted to know which use up the most memory and with what your apps are communicating? Isn’t it scary to think what your apps are during in background mode while you sleep? OS Monitor is just the right tool to empower you to take control of your apps. Find out more details in today’s test.

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With OS Monitor you can look at the inner workings of your Android system. This app is your Swiss army knife tool to finding out about what your apps are really up to.

First off you can view a list of all your processes: you can view all the currently running processes (system processes can be deselected if needed) sorted by memory or CPU use. Tapping a specific process opens up a pop-up window where you can kill it, change it or view the process’ log. You can also select multiple checkboxes to mark several processes at once.

The second tab is called Network and lists all of your phone’s network devices including all the available information. You are going to be surprised by just how many of them there are! The most relevant to you are the Wi-Fi and mobile networks because IP and MAC addresses aren’t very exciting.

Moving on to the third tab called Connect. Here you can view all of your current connections and what apps are behind them. That way you can see exactly where your data is being sent to or received. Tapping one of these starts up whois search including a detailed map so that you can see where the other servers are located. (Warning: this feature is experiencing problems at the moment, which are due to the API being used and not related to OS Monitor itself. The developer is currently working on a solution).

The Misc tab shows all sorts of different system information such as your CPU frequency range, your battery status as well as other system data.

Last but not least, the Messages tabs lets you look at the system log.

I’m still not quite finished with the app. If you have a rooted phone, you can also freeze your CPU. If you want to save on battery life this slows down your CPU’s frequency. You can also go in the opposite direction, but at your own risk.

The app gives you a lot of options that are all clearly laid out. You can embed an animated CPU meter to your status bar. You can also configure to have OS Monitor start up automatically when you boot up. I could go on and on, but I think you get the gist of it.
 

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OS Monitor looks neat and meticulous. No space is wasted and everything is easy to locate. The controls are extremely intuitive and the app is simple despite all the options and configurations available. I don’t what they could’ve done better in this respect, but I’m hoping future versions will be a pleasant surprise ☺

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I've been using OS Monitor for over two months now and it hasn't crashed a single time! Everything was always smooth and fast.

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OS Monitor can be downloaded for free from the Android Market. Let me give 5 stars here because of the fact that the developer instantly responds to any questions, comments or concerns. Good customer service!