Google emp on storing apps to SD Card

[J. Cook]

Here's an interesting exchange that explains why it might be a while before we can put apps on the SD Card, but they are working on it - the "Road Map" covers changes they plan to make to Android through 1st Qtr 2009 - so it's going to be at least sometime after that...(unless it's accomplished through some 3rd party app)

http://groups.google.com/group/andro...6154436e203b11

For me, it's not that big of a problem for now because there aren't that many great apps yet - but as more non-market apps become available and particularly when the paid apps come to the market in Jan, it's going to be a lot harder to pick and choose to stay within the limits of the internal memory. Of course you can always try your hand at the whole root access/hack thing, but I'm not familiar with Linux so I think I'll probably wait it out...

[CJ Chitwood]

Thanks for the post. But are these guys in Google Groups really the developers? Or just enlightened individuals who have thoughtful ideas? Either way, I'm keeping track of that and this thread.

Thanks again! Will be interesting to see the outcome!

[Crashdamage]

Everyone who's been screamin' for 'Apps-on-SD!' and asking 'Why wasn't it there from the start?' should read that link. Maybe then they'll have a better understanding of what a huge problem it is to do in a really fool-proof fashion.

I don't think not including apps-on-SD was necessarily a mistake. No doubt Google/T-Mobile wanted to get the G1 out in time for the holiday season and some things had to be left out to make it. My only criticism is that since it is such a sticky problem there should probably have been more internal memory installed in the G1 to compensate. Everything's a cost vs benefit trade-off though. I've had no problem running out of space, but I bet the next-generation 'G2' will have either apps-on-SD and/or much more standard memory.

[J. Cook]

Thanks for the post. But are these guys in Google Groups really the developers? Or just enlightened individuals who have thoughtful ideas?

I agree that it's hard to tell who's legit in message boards, but in this case it appears to be the real deal - the second post in the linked thread is from a woman named Dianne Hackborn and she does work for Google on the Android Platform.

[NetCom]

If you install app on the SD Card and then take the card out and then install app into internal memory of the phone and then you put the card back into the phone - it may be a mess...

IT IS SIMPLE: DO NOT TAKE SD CARD OUT!

[henchman]

Ok, reading that, I wouldn't expect it untill mid next year.
I personally think the concerns regardiung installing apps on an SD card, then removibng it, is a bit siilly.
A. Who is swapping SD cards out on a regular basis. Not I
B. Anyone who creates proiblems by doing it, deserves whatever happens.

Wh should everyone else be held back because of a few idiots.

C. Yes, if it was such a big deal, the phone should have shipped with at least 4 gig internal memory

[JohnnyLicious]

sounds good

everyone just gotta be patience.

we will be able to save apps to our sd card in the near months ahead.

[Frito]

I've been thinking the main reason they haven't done it yet is due to the fact that one could steal apps by saving them to the card then copying them to the pc etc. other problems seem a little less of a real problem, who pulls out they sd card while they are doing things on their phone, i have only pulled out mine once and that was to be a new bigger card in hehe

The filesystem security issue could be be a problem, i think though an easy fix would be for the phone to format the sd card with a set partition that is its native filesystem for app storage only and then a normal windows pc would not beable to access it as easily but it could still be done, allthough i'm not sure if you can partition the data on a flash card the same way you can on hard disks etc that might be the problem with that idea

all in all this sheds allot of light on this issue, i personaly have not ran out of room on my phone yet , i have came close with 10mb free but clearing up cache and removing useless apps from time to time has fixed any storage issues for me so i dont see it as a huge problem as of yet (to me at least)

[TheLibraryDude]

From what I understand WM devices can install to removable storage. How does WM handle the issue of sd cards being removed and the copy protection of the apps?

[slnmt]

I purchased 2 games and installed them on my SD card they run great. So it must be a "how to secure purchased apps" issue.