App Storage for EVO

**arkarkwin** · 07-14-2010, 08:24 AM

Hi,
I am a Nexus one user and a Noob, I have a question about app storage for HTC EVO. Since HTC EVO has internal memory, I like to know whether we can use that space for installing App. I understand that EVO has 1 GB compares to Nexus One 512MB. Even on Froyo, my Nexus one has limited space for installing app and I am just curious how EVO handle it. Did EVO used its whole 1 GB for Apps or is EVO apps storage is as limited as Nexus one?
Thank.

**TWC_SouthPhilly** · 07-14-2010, 08:38 AM

Yep the EVO use most of its 1gb of it's internal storage for applications.

But I thought the Nexus One had the ability to install apps to the SD card in 2.2???? I could be wrong.

**Maven454** · 07-14-2010, 08:44 AM

My understanding was that the Evo only had 512mb internal, not 1gb...?

**breakinghbts#AC** · 07-14-2010, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by Maven454

My understanding was that the Evo only had 512mb internal, not 1gb...?

I believe he means internal hd, not memory. The evo has 512mb of mem, but 1gb off internal storage.

**Maven454** · 07-14-2010, 09:30 AM

Yeah, I thought that the Evo specs listed it as 512/512. But when I go look at the specs now it's listed as 512mb / 1gb. So either I was hallucinating or someone's got it wrong somewhere. Thanks.

**arkarkwin** · 07-14-2010, 10:12 AM

It does, Froyo gave us option to move to SD but only a handful of apps in market enable this option. It is totally depended on Dev to enable this.

**Brainerd** · 07-14-2010, 11:08 AM

From HTC's Web site:

-- Internal Memory: 1GB ROM / 512MB RAM

The ROM is for storage. However, somewhere in the area of 500-750MB of it is taken up by Android and Sense. I ran out of app storage somewhere near the 250MB mark (got a system warning).

Right now, some developer's with large program files (like graphic intensive games) will have the core file stored in the ROM and have the bulk of the files on the the SD card. However, not all do this. Backbreaker football takes up a whopping 34MB. And I have a bunch of apps in the 6MB range. It adds up fast.

2.2 should will give us the ability to store the all of the app on our SD card. I'm guessing, and this is just a guess, that, in 2.2, the ROM will have a very small "shortcut" file that will direct the OS to the SD card for a program that is stored there.

**Paladin** · 07-14-2010, 11:18 AM

We need PowerRun for Android! That was a PalmOS program that basically put a shortcut on your home screen that basically ran PR which then simply copied the data from the SD card to RAM and ran the program. Then when you exit the program it copied any changes to the SD card and removed the app from RAM. It worked in the background and you never really knew PR was doing anything except a slight delay in launching.

This is my main complaint about Android! Even with 2.2 only a few programs will take advantage of the SD card. This has REALLY been limiting me with what software I can keep on my phone.

**Kevin O'Quinn** · 07-14-2010, 11:21 AM

Wow a problem that Palm actually fixed and does better than Android.

**dkotoric** · 07-14-2010, 11:46 AM

oooh and on 2.2 there are barelly any apps you can actually move to sd card, developers have to update their apps in order to do that and I have barelly found any that you can do that with.

**Paladin** · 07-14-2010, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by iamlilysdad

Wow a problem that Palm actually fixed and does better than Android.

I understand that Android programs don't always close so you could not use it for everything but there should be a way to do this for a lot f programs like games. Anything that does to have to launch services or run in the background should be able to do this. There are a lot of games and simple programs that could be ran from the SD I am sure.

I have been tempted to look into Apps to SD a few times now but never got around to it. It requires root and some setup etc...

**Kevin O'Quinn** · 07-14-2010, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by Paladin

I understand that Android programs don't always close so you could not use it for everything but there should be a way to do this for a lot f programs like games. Anything that does to have to launch services or run in the background should be able to do this. There are a lot of games and simple programs that could be ran from the SD I am sure.

I have been tempted to look into Apps to SD a few times now but never got around to it. It requires root and some setup etc...

Palm had the same problem with webOS at first (limited amount of storage for apps) but then they released an update that allowed the full amount of built in storage to be used for apps. The best part? It didn't require anything on the part of the developers to implement. It happened automatically.

They figured out a way so that when you mounted your Pre or Pixi as a USB drive it encrypted the portion of the storage used for apps. I wish Google could just copy that.

**Paladin** · 07-14-2010, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by iamlilysdad

They figured out a way so that when you mounted your Pre or Pixi as a USB drive it encrypted the portion of the storage used for apps. I wish Google could just copy that.

I thought the same thing but the WAY WebOS does it, encrypt it when the device is mounted, won't work. The problem with that is when a Pre is mounted as a USB device it becomes unusable. Android devices can still be used while mounted so there is that!

There still has to be an easy way to create an encrypted file on your SD card like a Truecrypt volume that has a master key tied to the device id or something. Maybe have the user input a master password, that gets encrypted, and that along with a code provided by Google, unknown to the user, could lock it down. That way the developers or even Google could not get the key as half of it is provided by the user and the user cannot know it as the other half is provided by google.

This could then create an encrypted volume that could be allocated by the user (adjustable in size) that apps could be stored on and only available to the apps/system. If you look at the data while being mounted it will just be encrypted gibberish.

It is not perfect but would accomplish security for the majority of users that developers should be happy with.

I am unsure why they worry so much about pirating etc...That will happen no matter what. You cannot stop it no matter what you do because some users will always find a way, just like they find a way to root. All it does is mess it up for us honest users!

Keep the apps reasonable and the majority of people will buy them. I already bought over $30 worth just in this first month.