Perhaps the biggest single technical issue bedeviling Android today is its app storage limit -- the fact that installed applications can only reside on internal phone storage, not on microSD expansion. Since devices usually have no more than a gig or two under the shell (and usually much, much less), that's been a serious showstopper for two reasons: one, it limits the raw number of apps you can install, but more seriously, it stops any single app (say, a game with a few hundred megabytes worth of textures and data) from effectively being possible. Happily, Google announced at its
Nexus One event today that this wrinkle will get smoothed out in a future release by enabling encryption on the card -- simple enough. It's not clear when this will be released, what version of Android it'll come to, or whether it'll be available to existing phones, but we're hoping the answers are "soon," "the next one," and "yes," respectively.
posted January 6th 2010 8:12AM
in which case, all the internal storage space currently reserved for apps could potentially be used for the OS?
therefore G1 / 32B magic could easily fit 2.1 and beyond...
Or, Installl your cooked Android flava, and have apps mounted on the sd card instead.
@m2h all good unless you use bluetooth/camera/whatever else is not working properly in a cooked rom...
Per drock:
Applications, contrary to popular belief, can have most of their DATA stored on the SD card. The fact they can only be “INSTALLED” on the on board memory is to keep piracy at bay (and security in the future).
Devs have the ability to keep all their data on the SD card (maps / graphics for games etc.) and pull it off when loading / as needed.
Google also stated today that it is working on allowing the INSTALLATION to be on SD card in the future
@Accidental still a good thing though, right? especially with apps like copilot taking up 18megs...
I'm fairly certain the author has not actually used Android. The whole app memory limit thing is WAY overblown. The core executable is all that needs to be in internal memory - the app can download everything else it needs (including those hundreds of megs in textures the author claims are impossible) to the SD card itself.
Yet another thing Windows Mobile has done successfully for a few years now: storing DRM'd apps and music on memory cards. My 8925 and Moto Q9h both did that with microSDs, and that's what enabled my free Napster subscription to work.
@Palomino
WM has always had lots of features, the problem is it's just the usual Microsoft way of throwing everything together, and selling it regardless of whether it works properly; several generations of bug-fixes later, you get something that resembles a half decent product, by which time there will be several other products that move the game in a different direction. WinMo5 was awful (I had a Treo750v), at least WinMo6 added some degree of software stability, 6.5 looks to have built on that foundation with some shinier graphics. I currently have a BB Bold9000 and an iPhone, both have their plus points and minus points, but both appear to at least look as if their manufacturers wanted a decent end product.
Why is this even an issue for Android? It would seem like a simple software solution like the one discussed in the article would work; they should have implemented this already.
@Palomino well its not really as simple. yes they could easily put that capability in android but they have to think of how everyday ppl may act and how to protect the users also.
you would have to account for many variables that could potentially harm the phone itself such as having several apps running and then taking out the sd card suddenly w/o closing those programs.
you would also have to take into account the security of those apps. ppl could try to share paid apps with their friends by simple copy/paste which would hinder sales of said app.
also i think they would have to find a way to where if they activate the kill switch on an app it must be able to delete it off the sd cards too. it only takes one malicious app to destroy everything the OHA worked for. so to be able to stop the spread of an app of that manner they would have to find a way to take off those apps when they activate the kill switch.
@lockridge You see, it really *is* that simple. Again, Windows Mobile has done this for a while. It's just like having a flash memory card in your camera or PMP- if you are listening to music or taking photos, do you remove your card? Further, the programs are loaded into the device's RAM and virtual memory during running- pop out the card after it's loaded in WM, and the program runs till you stop it. In WM the DRM files are ascribed to the OS's core (can't remember the name of the directory right now). This is not a hard solution and I further refudiate your claim that Android's users are dumb cows who cannot understand how to use multiple programs at once. Remember, multi tasking smartphone OSes were available long before the iPhone dumbed down the masses- WinMo, Palm, and BlackBerry...
@lockridge Basically every point in your argument from App sharing to task management to DRM and "kill switches" have been addressed for years in WinMo- Android should have this as should Blackberry!
@lockridge Basically every point in your argument from App sharing to task management to DRM and "kill switches" have been addressed for years in WinMo- Android should have this as should Blackberry!
@Palomino first of all, i never said anything close to calling android users "dumb cows." programmers have to account for all levels of users who may be using their products. from one who has just bought their first smartphone, to the seasoned ones. who's to say that a person would be informed enough not to do those actions, when they may not know better. i'm in no way saying the users are not intelligent, but i will say that some may not be as well informed on what or what not to do. a teenager who just bought their first smartphone may not have the understanding of them as say a businessman or a techie.
@Palomino you're right they should, however there are pluses and minuses to every os out there. yeah winmo did it and addressed it however this is not winmo, this is android. i'm not saying they shouldn't have already done it, but i will say they may have had other things to put ahead first that were more important in their minds to the overall advancement of the os.
A2SD = Apps 2 SD
Been around the block.
This will be a welcome change. This should make Android that much more of a viable alternative to the iPhone. Personally, I love my Droid. And with software updates, it just keeps getting better!
the pre just found a solution to this problem in 1.3.5
+1 palm.
I have 177 apps on my Droid, and I'm _nowhere near_ running out of space. They all use the SD card for storing media.
RIM, are you reading this? Hint hint. Get on the ball