[Ethrem]

This is something that bugs the heck out of me with BlackBerry. You're limited to installing to main memory only, which limits how many apps you can have on the device.

Why is it that Windows Mobile (which I hate, don't get me wrong) allows apps to be installed to microSD but BlackBerry OS doesn't? It really doesn't make sense!

I was hoping they'd fix it in the Tour or OS 5 but it doesn't look like they have ANY plans to do so... This SEVERELY cripples the phone as anyone knows what happens when that available RAM dips down...

[_StephenBB81]

One, it isn't RAM, it would more be a ROM,

2 there is an application that allows you to Run apps off of SD Cards as long as you have the free space in the device memory,

I don't think RIM will do it for a while as Applications running from an SD card will run slower then from device memory, what they need to do is create RAM in the device to run apps from SD cards while retaining ROM for device stored apps.

[oakindustries]

This is something that bugs the heck out of me with BlackBerry. You're limited to installing to main memory only, which limits how many apps you can have on the device.

Why is it that Windows Mobile (which I hate, don't get me wrong) allows apps to be installed to microSD but BlackBerry OS doesn't? It really doesn't make sense!

I was hoping they'd fix it in the Tour or OS 5 but it doesn't look like they have ANY plans to do so... This SEVERELY cripples the phone as anyone knows what happens when that available RAM dips down...

I always thought that was funny, my palm centro could install apps on sd card and not my blackberry.

[Sooks]

Here is the thing , it really isnt a need , i mean for people that have 600 useless apps , maybe , but for most , 256 is plunty of room , and as mentioned above , the apps will run much slower from the media card

[Crucial_Xtreme]

This is something that bugs the heck out of me with BlackBerry. You're limited to installing to main memory only, which limits how many apps you can have on the device.

Why is it that Windows Mobile (which I hate, don't get me wrong) allows apps to be installed to microSD but BlackBerry OS doesn't? It really doesn't make sense!

I was hoping they'd fix it in the Tour or OS 5 but it doesn't look like they have ANY plans to do so... This SEVERELY cripples the phone as anyone knows what happens when that available RAM dips down...

How does this cripple the device? What are you going to do with the room that you otherwise wouldn't be using since you could save to sd card??

[Sooks]

How does this cripple the device? What are you going to do with the room that you otherwise wouldn't be using since you could save to sd card??

And this is my point as well , you have more room , but who cares ??? your never going to fill it

[fizzlefist]

As I've never had a BB before my Tour I can't really say if this is a big deal, but on my WinMo phone I've never bothered with installing apps to my MicroSD card, and it's only got 47MB program memory and 150MB system storage.

[SprintDaddy]

I'm sure it might have to do to security also.

[Ethrem]

I thought about the security point...

Anyway, as a previous WinMo user I installed apps to the SD card all the time. Maybe back in the day of 2MB/sec data transfers on SD cards, it would be a lot slower but with 6MB/sec, not so much.

The whole point of running apps off the SD card is to make the device run faster. As I stated, its really easy to bring a BlackBerry below 30MB which is when performance starts to suffer.

I installed every application I had (except ones that didn't work too well with going to sleep) to my microSD in my Windows Mobile phones and as such, the phone always performed far above what it would when I'd install the apps to the phone's main memory.

Some might not understand because they haven't really thoroughly used a WinMo device but think about how much more robust apps for the BlackBerry could be if you could run them from the SD card? Lets face it, 256MB is NOTHING these days.

[_StephenBB81]

I thought about the security point...

Anyway, as a previous WinMo user I installed apps to the SD card all the time. Maybe back in the day of 2MB/sec data transfers on SD cards, it would be a lot slower but with 6MB/sec, not so much.

The whole point of running apps off the SD card is to make the device run faster. As I stated, its really easy to bring a BlackBerry below 30MB which is when performance starts to suffer.

I installed every application I had (except ones that didn't work too well with going to sleep) to my microSD in my Windows Mobile phones and as such, the phone always performed far above what it would when I'd install the apps to the phone's main memory.

Some might not understand because they haven't really thoroughly used a WinMo device but think about how much more robust apps for the BlackBerry could be if you could run them from the SD card? Lets face it, 256MB is NOTHING these days.

I Run both a WinMo and a BB currently,

it very much has to do with how the OSs work. as to why WinMo seems to act faster then applications are run from SD Cards, but if you install a single application and do tests you will find they run faster from device memory then from SD Cards.

Blackberry doesn't allow applications to run off of device memory as it is easier for them to control the memory, and as a result, less leaks ( though still too many ) 256MB is TONES for Applications, it isn't much for Media, but you can run Media from a SD Card, How many applications are over 3MB? not many if any.


Also, 6MB/s is how fast the fastest current SD cards run, but the phones don't necessarily support that transfer speed, it is suspected actually that the BB tops out at 4MB/s but I don't have the proof to back that up as of yet



All that said, I still would like the option, to run applications from the SD card, but only if it wont sacrifice performance.

[ArGiEs]

The advantage of memory cards & apps isn't so much running the app off the card, but storing large amounts of data on the card, that the apps draw on, leaving more device memory free. In my Palm, I have an unabridged dictionary, a DeLorme mapping program, and a document converter/reader (Repligo) - all of which have their data -many megabytes worth- stored on the card. The shift has been, with the advent of easy & speedy internet access on mobile devices, is to web-base services, like Google maps, WhitePages, & so forth; I found a free Bible app in CrackBeryy app store recently. All these apps have a usually quite small footprint in the device but quickly draw on their data from the web. It still would be nice if you could do the app-data in the card thing in BlackBerries as well. But this is why I'm upgrading to a Tour -LOTS of app memory. I have a 8830 right now...you talk about limited!

[_StephenBB81]

The advantage of memory cards & apps isn't so much running the app off the card, but storing large amounts of data on the card, that the apps draw on, leaving more device memory free. In my Palm, I have an unabridged dictionary, a DeLorme mapping program, and a document converter/reader (Repligo) - all of which have their data -many megabytes worth- stored on the card. The shift has been, with the advent of easy & speedy internet access on mobile devices, is to web-base services, like Google maps, WhitePages, & so forth; I found a free Bible app in CrackBeryy app store recently. All these apps have a usually quite small footprint in the device but quickly draw on their data from the web. It still would be nice if you could do the app-data in the card thing in BlackBerries as well. But this is why I'm upgrading to a Tour -LOTS of app memory. I have a 8830 right now...you talk about limited!

I do agree with you on this part very much

I would LOVE to have a GPS tool for my BB that used onboard Map data like my Garmin GPS unit in my truck, I would gladly swap out cards for Maps like you do with C-Map in the Marine world, I don't use my BB GPS because of the amount of data it uses, and I wouldn't want an application that had to keep all that data on my device always.

[Ethrem]

That was one of the uses I was referring to.

Really there are a TON of uses people would find for app storage on SD cards. I can tell you that Garmin took up 2GB on my SD card in my Mogul... Can't even get it for BB for this very reason.

[StayFly]

yeah this is a problem I had no problem doing it on my treo but when i came over to bb I thought it was complete dumb to have to buy a app to put apps on my micro sd.

[ArGiEs]

Aerize has an app that allows one to copy apps to the card when they are downloaded, or, brought from the BB desktop manager. You can't run them from the card, only store them. I used it for awhile as a redundant backup for the apps; but after a point, the limited practical use that I had for it didn't justify the space the app took up in device memory

[Ethrem]

Aerize has an app that allows one to copy apps to the card when they are downloaded, or, brought from the BB desktop manager. You can't run them from the card, only store them. I used it for awhile as a redundant backup for the apps; but after a point, the limited practical use that I had for it didn't justify the space the app took up in device memory

Yeah so that's just a backup solution then?

It would be okay if it copied them to main memory and then launched them... But its kinda pointless to just put them there and leave them there.

[kurpaige]

I think a few things are missed here. It's not a WinMo or Palm device. It handles memory different and the programs are much smaller in size. 256 for blackberry programs i more then enough and when its not enough then OS will be changed to allow installing on cards. It's not a hardware problem so they can easily add it whenever they want.

[Madness87]

If RIM actually allowed that in a future update... There will be no reason for me to ever upgrade my Bold for the nest 3 years.

The only thing that hampers the Bold, is the 2.0 mp camera and the 128 mb app memory. Other than that, it's still the most powerful blackberry available.

[yapkuen]

That was one of the uses I was referring to.

Really there are a TON of uses people would find for app storage on SD cards. I can tell you that Garmin took up 2GB on my SD card in my Mogul... Can't even get it for BB for this very reason.

The BlackBerry version of Garmin is nowhere near as big. I don't have it anymore because I simply don't have a need for it, but when I had it on my device, I don't recall the download size being at all out of the ordinary for BlackBerry apps - though don't take that as gospel because like I said, I currently don't really remember. It definitely came nowhere close to even putting a dent in my app memory (in terms of installing it - didn't make any observations on how it allocated memory when running), though.

[kingzee]

As I've never had a BB before my Tour I can't really say if this is a big deal, but on my WinMo phone I've never bothered with installing apps to my MicroSD card, and it's only got 47MB program memory and 150MB system storage.

Same here. I have a MicroSD card on my WinMo phone and NEVER installed to it because 1) apps run faster installed on the actual device and 2) I only install a small list of apps. Everything else like files, and such I save to the MicroSD.

256 megs should be more than enough for realistic use.

[Dr.Sadistic]

I have a lot of apps on my Curve, and performance has never suffered... The Tour boast 4 times the memory as the Curve.... Guys, I think we'll be okay with memory.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[plyallstar]

Here is the thing , it really isnt a need , i mean for people that have 600 useless apps , maybe , but for most , 256 is plunty of room , and as mentioned above , the apps will run much slower from the media card

i agree...i have about 10 apps that i dl on my 8330 and everything works fine..i still have plenty of room to install more apps..The Tour only has more memory so this isn't really an issue for me and most people for that matter

[Sith_Apprentice]

Applications can store DATA to the media card, while the app itself is installed to the device memory. Epocrates does this and works very well. The reason it doesnt exist is because developers do not write the apps this way.

[Fbrn]

I think the OP is completely right. If our blackberries are going to have the quality games and programs that the competition has then we need to be able to install programs to the sd card. This issue has been highlighted by so many members here on crackberry. I think the tour is a step in the right direction with the 256mb but a long way from the problem.

I have an ipod touch and honestly love the thing for games and music. Some of the games on my ipod touch would max out the entire memory of the tour.

[DolfanCole#CB]

Applications can store DATA to the media card, while the app itself is installed to the device memory. Epocrates does this and works very well. The reason it doesnt exist is because developers do not write the apps this way.

It appears as it Slacker does this as well. Very good use of application/device memory and external memory/storage IMO.