Comments on: Free memory: The Achilles heel of BlackBerry App World

By: R6

R6 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:02:38 +0000

wow~~~ cool

By: Antonio

Antonio — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:41:30 +0000

“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.

By: johnzog

johnzog — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:08:38 +0000

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.

By: Zap B.

Zap B. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:28:08 +0000

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?

By: Mik

Mik — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:49:30 +0000

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.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:15:23 +0000

I use this too and it works just fine. I have 92 MB free and never a problem.

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:31:42 +0000

^Thanks for clarifying perfectly that the term ‘carrier-level’ is simply beyond your comprehension.

Like to take a stab at how frequently EAS goes down, SirTrollAlot?

By: Don Louie

Don Louie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:19:58 +0000

That it happens, often, at all is my point. I don’t care that BES doesn’t have that problem, it cost more for that anyway. If carrier level means only one carrier looser BIS then this site is wrong or buddy needs to get facts straight

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:07:08 +0000

^Thanks for confirming my point that BIS only goes down at the carrier-level. Got evidence that the outage went further up the chain? No? Didn’t think so, BitchBoy …

By: Don Louie

Don Louie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:04:57 +0000

4/13 BGR reported BIS dead everywhere, all carriers U.S. and Canada is one

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:54:33 +0000

I downloaded yesterday a software called Quickpull off the App World thingy. Seems to help with the free memory, although I’d like to find a workaround that doesn’t require any kind of real or simulated battery pull.

By: PacketRat

PacketRat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:53:47 +0000

I’ve been working with mobile devices since the apple newton. Doesn’t matter what platform your on there will always be something better tomorrow. The major players have all hit a special niche in their market. Get the device that fits your needs. I carry a 3g Iphone and an 8900 Blackberry. Why? Because I support both. Which do I use the most? My Blackberry, for me it does more of what I need it to do. The Blackberry is changing with each new model. The 8300/8310/8320 has 64 MB, 8330 has 96 MB, Bold and Storm 128 MB and the 8900 has 256 MB. As new models come out you will see them with more memory. In the mean time what can you do? Like some folks have recommended there is an app that will let you load your applications in the SD memory or just keep an eye on what you have loaded. The more high tech our handhelds get the more issues we will see with stability. I can remember the days of the rock solid 850, but then again it didn’t do everything for me.

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:53:46 +0000

^Show me a single incidence where BIS went down outside of the network-level. Just one, BitchBoy. Go for it …

As if you have any clue how many times EAS goes down, you insignificant-Troll …

By: Don Louie

Don Louie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:51:23 +0000

So because it was only one segment, of two and who cares how long, makes it not an outage? It wasn’t carrier specific either.

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:35:28 +0000

BIS is the only segment which has had outages and these have always been at the carrier-level for a matter of only several hours. How many times has GMail been down over the past 3 years? BES has yet to go down.

Truth’s a bitch you -still- cannot handle, BitchBoy.

By: Don Louie

Don Louie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:31:46 +0000

No matter how functional these BB’s are there is always some new bug or outages at least 3 times a year for both the latter and former

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:17:57 +0000

An imperfect, but perfectly viable management solution.

http://aerize.com/blackberry/software/loader/

By: Rico u Lame

Rico u Lame — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:11:44 +0000

The internal memory on these things suck. I installed twitterberry on my 8320 and removed other apps like docs2go just to get some extra memory. After that helped for a few days I installed the beta (.95 or something like that)version of twitterberry which gives you the option of caching the icons on your bb or sd card and it seems to be paying off. Just my 2 cents RIM slap somemore ram in theses things or let us use at least some of the SD card for ram. Is it that d*mn hard?

By: Levell

Levell — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:24:14 +0000

Maybe it’s me but besides running the iPod function in the background, what other iPhone native apps will run in the background. It seems to me that the only example iPhone users can come up with serves as the execption as opposed to the rule…ie iPhones, cannot multitask. I don’t understand why iPhone users get upset when we make that statement, it is what it is. That just happens to be one of the iPhones weaker areas. And can somebody who still has an iPhone check to see if you can go to a web page, switch to the homescreen and do something else, and return to the browser with the web page now being fully loaded…or does it just pick up where it left off?

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:48:34 +0000

@MBettiol: ShuuuuutUp!

By: blah

blah — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:43:30 +0000

bottom line:

every phone multi-tasks… but some expose more of it to developers… RIM and WinMob expose a lot, while iPhone uses multi-tasking for it’s proprietary apps.

Even some feature phones will now support some level of multi-tasking (dropping apps into background).

Maybe Apple will get it right in 4.0

By: Michael Bettiol

Michael Bettiol — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:20:59 +0000

@backbeat

Watch your language and stop with the anti-social behaviour.

By: bobdog

bobdog — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:28:01 +0000

This shit is all free somewhere else. Why pay?

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:07:49 +0000

@DavidThande: You bore the shit outa me. Eat it, bitch.

By: David Thande

David Thande — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:01:55 +0000

I feel like your cheating on me now Beatoff…in fact I think you like Jake. Maybe even want “Him” to sit on your face instead of me…:oh well….I’m far too independent for ya beatoff….

By: Rey

Rey — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:36:11 +0000

RIM? waiting for a proactive plan on this issue. always love blackberry nonetheless

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:29:36 +0000

Yes, disrespectful, given that this was your first post wading into this blog post:

“Ok… First of, I agree with DVT, and backseat is an uninformed user who has no need to discuss this topic further. What DVT has stated is a TRUE definition, available in ANY comp sci text. What backseat is mislabeling and mis-defining is “multi-user” computing.”

-No- degreed IS professional would have made such an errant statement. Care to disclose who you work for so I can insure we never employ them?

… You ignorant slut.

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:04:49 +0000

It’s humor. Look into it.

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:00:44 +0000

Me?? Disrespectful???????????????

Quote [asshat] “No, Jake, you ignorant slut…”

By: backbeat

backbeat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:57:03 +0000

@Jake: There is no difference between your statement: “Play a song, and hit the home button, the song continues to play. Try that with a 3rd party app, and it closes, not goes to the background. The blackberry lets the developer decide whether or not the application will go to the
background or not. BeeJiveIM is just one example.” … and mine: “To varying degrees mobile smartphone OSs are capable of the same process, limited by available memory and processing power”.

If you fail to follow the logic, you can ask a proper question without the snide, disrespectful attempt to address me. Clear?