Free memory: The Achilles heel of BlackBerry App World
Hip hip huzzah! BlackBerry App World has been with us for over three weeks and no doubt a lot of the World’s 25 million BlackBerry users have jumped on the wagon and taken it for a spin or two around the block. But after playing with it for a while, we’re quite sure that there are plenty of people whose puppy-love infatuation quickly turned to irritation. Why? Errors, bugs and high costs aside, it’s likely that App World users discovered the reality that BlackBerrys have a bit of an issue when it comes to dedicated application memory. This, coupled with the infamous memory leaks that sadly seem to be oh so prevalent on every BlackBerry model since the Pearl 8100, make for a device that isn’t anywhere near capable of handing as many apps as competing smartphones. Put simply, the more contacts, phone logs, saved messages and of course installed applications a user has on his or her BlackBerry, the less free memory the device has to dedicate to new apps.
It really doesn’t take much of effort at all to eat away at the 128MB of app memory on both the Bold or the Storm. In fact, we took a peek at one of the Bold’s at BGR HQ that was running OS 4.6.0.247 and found that it had a paltry 4MB of application memory left. After a battery pull it jumped up to 20MB but then quickly started its descent. The saddest thing is that this Bold only had a Twitter app (more on this some other day), Google Maps, Viigo and a few IM clients installed.
So what can be done about this? Well, for starters, RIM could not only bring its devices into the modern age by giving them 512+ MB of application memory, but it could also do something that we’ve been clamoring for for the longest time and allow users to install applications to their memory cards. And no, we don’t buy it for a second when RIM says it can’t do this securely (surely they can encrypt a microSD card). Other than that, RIM could put some serious work into its aging OS because for the life of us we cannot think of any other platform that has so many updates to fix major bugs and niggles (it seems like for each new device there is a new update, be it a leaked private beta or an official update from a partner carrier, each and every week like clockwork).
Truth be told, we think RIM can be pretty ass-backwards at times, especially considering that it spends a meagre 7-8% on R&D while its competitors spend the 11% industry standard, but it does make a damn fine product nonetheless, one that we couldn’t live without. All in all, it’s just such a shame to think that it can’t do apps right.
I use this too and it works just fine. I have 92 MB free and never a problem.
Agreed they have the resources to do so but there is no reason to completely start over. RIM will always have their business end going strong, at least here in North America for many years to come.
However, I believe they should 100% start fresh with a consumer division and I would be surprised if it wasn’t all ready in the works.
The Storm would have been the perfect start had the OS been designed from the ground up as a touch interface instead of adapting an existing OS to work on a touch device. Other than the bugs and lag (that aren’t there all the time or even on every unit) the Storm is a pretty great device. I know “other than the bugs and the lag.” I said but if they took the time and did it right or if Verizon didn’t push them (I don’t know really who is to blame on that one, probably a little of both) in the 1st place it would have been a great device and a perfect launching point for a line of consumer specific BlackBerries.
ust because they screwed this one up doesn’t mean they’re down for the count.
I accidently found a huge memory hog on my 8130. I was noticing that pulling the battery was freeing less and less RAM each time. Then, I was trying to upgrade Google Maps, and the upgrade bombed for some reason. So I uninstalled it completely. My free memory went from 2MB to around 15MB! GM had been sucking up all the RAM. I had been making sure to clear its cache too. I still installed the upgrade, but I rarely use it anymore. Especially since VZW unlocked the GPS in Blackberry maps.
Installing apps on the memory card is a good idea, however I would be afraid the apps that leak memory would eventually just fill it up. And also is it possible to jack an app up by taking the card out if the app is holding leaked RAM on the card?
Google Maps will use up more and more space over time as it caches maps, tracks, etc. It installs onto the SD card very nicely (as do all of the Google applications, Mobi reader, WSJ, New York Times, Twitterberry, YATCA, Facebook, YouMail, Slacker, Pandora, Poynt, SMap, Capture It, ShoZu, Flickr, GPSed, Opera, Bolt, Loopt, Viigo, RoboForms, Pocket 12SE, Trapster, QIK, Speedtest, and App World, plus a number of others I don’t use regularly). And I have 15MB or so of application RAM left.
When an application loads (to run), it loads into the primary memory, regardless of where it is stored. So if it leaks memory, it will pull down the available memory for other things, until the memory is cleared.
If the application is well behaved, when it is shutdown, all of its use of primary memory is cleared, and anything it wants to keep/store is written to wherever it is installed (unless it allows you to specify otherwise). If the application has leaked memory, when it is shutdown, the leaked data stays loaded in the primary memory until it is reset (by reboot, quick pull, etc.). The leaked memory will not affect the SD card at all.
Removing the SD card with the blackberry running is a bad idea in general. If you are running an application off the SD card and remove it, I assume it will at least lock up (unless Aerize managed to put something in their application to allow it fail gently – I doubt it), and could have problems rebooting, but I have no intention of “break testing” it to see what happens.
“VZW Girl Said:
Just to let everyone know……the reason VZW doesn’t allow wi-fi is due to a contract they have with RIM… Every user must have a data package ($29.99 unlimited for personal email/web).”
This is not a true statement and has been talked to death by Howardforums, Crackberry, BG and others. VZW does allow wifi. There is no CDMA RIM device with aGPS AND WiFi.
wow~~~ cool