installing apps to the Eris SD card?

[gotwood3001]

Is this true you can not install apps to the SD card. If so that is pretty lame. what is the point of having extended memery, if you can not properly utilize it. Oh for what pictures and movies... Please. If this is true and no way around it, that is a pretty big set back for this phone.

 

[tropper]

Some people store an transport files from email and to and from work ? Iss not so bad the phone stores plenty of apps, anything more than what space you have is just wasteful.

 

[gotwood3001]

well I am not most people. I just find it to be a setback for this phone. I thought these phone were all about customizing. I guess not. I am not trying to bitch I still love the phone. just a little restricting in that department

 

[tropper]

well I am not most people. I just find it to be a setback for this phone. I thought these phone were all about customizing. I guess not. I am not trying to bitch I still love the phone. just a little restricting in that department

True, restrictions are for iphone users!

 

[Comineeyeaha]

I have this same complaint with my storm. Really, though, how many apps do you even need?

 

[nscates2]

If we were all concerned about pure necessity, then we wouldn't have even spent the extra money on a smart phone and gone with a cheapo camera phone. Smart Phone users don't spend all of this money to run into a problem such as this.

 

[chdtpn]

Here is an article on it but this wont show you how to do it. Want to Install Apps to your SD Card? OK. | Droid Life: A Motorola Droid Blog

 

[gotwood3001]

I just read that. I am just wondering if that this go to ALL phones or just the major hitters on android devices. I feel pretty left out in the cold of all these devices getting all these updates and the Eris getting no love.

Yea I know the Eris is becoming a EOL device. But don't mean they still can not support it for little updates like these. Still the same OS.

 

[doogald]

I don't think that the Android 2.1 update is a "little" update. Based on three leaked 2.1 ROMs, it's pretty clear that HTC and Verizon Wireless are working on an upgrade.

 

[gotwood3001]

I don't think that the Android 2.1 update is a "little" update. Based on three leaked 2.1 ROMs, it's pretty clear that HTC and Verizon Wireless are working on an upgrade.

No, I wasn't talking about the 2.1 update. I was talking about the installing the apps to the SD card. I would hope to see this type of date on the Eris. Because the Eris lacks the space for apps

 

[chdtpn]

How many apps can one person need/use? lol

 

[mitchell.23]

How many apps can one person need/use? lol

I agree. I've got about 30 that I've installed from the market and other places. Use maybe half on a regular basis. Yet I've still got 80mb of storage left. Most of these apps are pretty small so I'm sure I could fit another 50 on my phone but what would be the point of that? Its overkill installing to an sd card I think. Maybe I'm wrong though.

 

[gotwood3001]

SOunds like the concensus is most people feel the need not to have more space. I just feel to use the phones full potental might as well use that space for other stuff. IE SD CARD.

 

[doogald]

SOunds like the concensus is most people feel the need not to have more space. I just feel to use the phones full potental might as well use that space for other stuff. IE SD CARD.

The problem, as I understand it, is that Android uses Unix style permissions for the area where applications are stored. Unfortunately, the SD cards are formatted with FAT32, which has no support for that sort of strict user, group and everyone permissions that are necessary to protect the applications from being modified by other apps while they are running, from being deleted by other apps, etc.

If the SD cards are formatted using a file system that supports Linux/Unix permissions, then perhaps they could be used for application installs. It may be that Android will do something such as create a flexible virtual partition in a file on the SD card to allow something like this, or allow a user to format the SD Card using a different file system, but there are risks there as well. With the first, users or other apps may delete that file accidentally; with the second, users may not be able to mount the card in their desktop OS when they are attached by USB. Maybe there would be a way to partition the SD card into a user-defined space for app storage with the rest for data in a FAT32 partition, but perhaps we'll soon see what Google will do.

I think that the best solution from the beginning would have been to build the phones as the Incredible is, with a big flash internal memory space for storing apps.