which is better to install to?
Makes no difference, especially if you got a higher class SD.
There are games and apps that NEED to be installed on the phone memory (they will notify you during the instalation), but EVERYTHING else can be installed on the SD.
I got over 500 apps and games installed and 450+ of them are on the SD. I haven't had a single problem and the phone is as fast as anyone's.
i guess the only problem is if you remove the card then u can use anything
Don't remove the card then . Get an eight or even better - 16GB card and enjoy yourself.
i got a few questions...
1) i have on average 36m of available memory, is this normal? i got task manager app and seem to be at my optimization limit..
2) im on stock 1.5 now, what is the fastest and most efficient firmware out now that reduces the bloat and optimizes the phone, and how do i put it on the phone
3) what else can you do with the usb cable, is there a 3rd party android client for pc or something like that? anything interesting like that
thanks
1) I assume you mean 36 MB of RAM available? Not internal memory? If so, yes that is actually very good, I average less than 25 and tend to stay under 20 MB
2) There are ROMs on the G1 going all the way up to 2.2, I for one have chosen to stick to 1.6 because, I know many people will disagree with me on this, but I simply just believe the G1's hardware wasn't really meant to go anywhere above 1.6. 2.2 and anything above 1.6 in my opinion is a bit too slow and cumbersome for me. I believe you should make the move to 1.6, maybe SuperD which is what I have been using for half a year now. 1.6 more closely integrates the search function and search tools, when you upgrade to 1.6 you will quickly see what I mean by that and it tends to cause a bit of lag and takes a large chunk of memory, though it is more convenient.
3) Well... you can use it for ADB (Android Debug Bridge). You can use it with Android ScreenCast, which is a program that allows you to use your G1 from your computer as long as it is connected to your phone, you can see whats on the screen, click, etc.
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In continuation of 2:
I don't know if you have rooted your phone or not, but you will definitely need to do that first. Find instruction for that, there are only like a couple dozen threads telling how on XDA.
Find your ROM, again I recommend a 1.6 ROM, but feel free to give 2.2 a try and see if you like it. Install it, do be careful and read the instructions very carefully, especially when it comes to flashing a new radio image, you can brick your phone rendering it unusable.
So just look those things up, follow instructions carefully, reread everything in the instructions before doing anything and of course, in the case you do mess up, I can't be held responsible, I just provided you with a start. Best of luck!
there was an update to 1.6 so im on 1.6 now
since the g1 appears to have a limited amount of ram, is apps2sd worth it, say if i get a class 6 sd card of newegg, how difficult is it to install apps to the sd, and what is the performance
will the sd card deteriorate over time and lose performance?
i just want to put together the most efficient longest lasting setup
btw my i was checking my ram i guess through the task manager app, my free internal memory is like 50+mb..i dont see the point of an sd card if its not even being used, so running apps off the sd is what interests me, i dont have much other reasons to root
RAM really doesn't have that much to do with Apps2SD. I believe you should go ahead with the Apps2SD, but it really depends on how many applications you have. If you have anymore than 30 or so applications, you should go with Apps2SD. I for one am not certain about the effects of low internal memory, except that it gives you an alert every once in a while. My phone has "grown up" with Apps2SD from the start, so I don't have much experience on how a phone runs without it. The thing with Apps2SD is that it might be a hair slower than storing in internal memory, but that is a given. I use a Class 4 SD card and it still runs really nicely, a Class 6 SD card should definitely be good.
The lifetime of an SD card is pretty dicey, it really depends. SD cards have a certain amount of read and write cycles they can do before they finally kill over. Using Apps2SD will be a bit more harder on the SD card, especially if you use a Swap partition too. I use both, and my SD card is still working even a year and a half later.
One benefit, though I don't know how much this means to you, more internal storage data gives you more storage for system applications, such as for Contacts, text messages, etc.
A word of warning though, as using these features like Swap and Apps2SD does put more work on the SD card, the chance of error and corruption on the card itself increases a bit too. So far, I have had two instances in the year and a half where my SD card simply just blanked out. The first time around I lost everything that was on it, music, pictures and all my applications and application data and my phone could no longer boot (this was an issue with older ROMs back in the day of Android 1.0 and when everyone though Cupcake was a myth, when running Apps2SD, the phones would need the SD card to boot, it is no longer a problem). Just a suggestion, backup what is on your SD card every once in a while. I don't mean to scare you with that, it is extremely rare for that to happen, I believe I was just unlucky.
With Apps2SD, I actually feel a lot more free on my phone. I can install tons of applications and not have to worry about running out of memory, I have over 100 applications installed, which the internal memory (because of the applications I have) can't even hold.
So to wrap it up, I apologize for the long winded explanations, I say go Apps2SD, it really is worth it. Most of the ROMs today support automatic Apps2SD, whenever you install an application it just automatically goes onto your Ext3 partition. (Yes, you will need to repartition your SD card to have an Ext3 partition as well as a Swap partition if you want, this can be done really easily with Amon's Recovery Image.) In some ROMs, you can just go to the settings/ Spare Parts section and check Apps2SD.
so basically app2sd has only to do with the internal memory...it will not help free the ram even with a swap drive, is this what your saying correct
it will help only with installed applications
Yes that is correct, Apps2SD is designed to keep internal storage memory free and open for other things like text messages, call logs, internet data (cache, cookies, etc) and cache data for other applications like Google Maps and the Android Market.
where are the text messages stored by default, in the internal memory or the sim card, cause my old phone could hold only 25 messages in the sim card, how does this work on here
Messages are stored in internal memory and no where else, they can be moved to the SIM card with other applications, though space is extremely limited there.
hitman3x said:
1) i have on average 36m of available memory, is this normal? i got task manager app and seem to be at my optimization limit..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a linux based system.. "free" memory is pretty much meaningless. Stop worrying about it. Task manager apps are a waste of time and actually cause a lot of problems in android.
hitman3x said:
2) im on stock 1.5 now, what is the fastest and most efficient firmware out now that reduces the bloat and optimizes the phone, and how do i put it on the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't you root your phone and find that out for yourself? Everyone has their own favourite build so you won't get many meaningful answers here.
hitman3x said:
3) what else can you do with the usb cable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Err.. I don't know.. lace your shoes with it? That's an odd question.
hitman3x said:
3) what else can you do with the usb cable, is there a 3rd party android client for pc or something like that? anything interesting like that
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well once rooted, with most roms you can tether your pc to your phone for internet access (using the phone as a modem so to speak). useful if you are in dire need of internet access using a pc/laptop with no current available wired connection.
alright i figured most of this out i tried thedudes lite and dwang 1.17.1 build
the only problem i have is any build on donut (1.6) makes my camera not work the camera closes unexpectedly all the time (full wipe)
on cupcake its completely fine
Ok, for some reason my ROM thinks its an awesome idea to store crap(Apps data) on my external sd card while having 2GB of dedicated internal storage left untouched. I dont quite get why people love this App2SD bulls*** but I loathe it. Apps performance suffers because external sd cards are never quite as fast as system ones, and a whole load of reasons more.
I like to format my external SD quite a lot and find that 30-40 of my apps are now useless, and I have to reinstall them. How do i stop this from happening? I dont want my system to install ANY app on my SD card, EVER. And if it must, let it be the internal one, not the external. I'm on 2.3.4 Thanks in advance.
I'm also interested in this. Dunno why it can't be switched off especially with the huge amount of free storage on the SGS....
I would really like the answer to this, since I have yet to find a fix. Please anyone, this is a very annoying issue! And it should be simple to tweak, since its just a command probably.
With people trying different ROM all the time would it affect the lifespan of the internal storage? If so, can you replace it then whenever it gives out? Cheers!
No, it is soldered down. Desoldering it would be more-or-less akin to performing the miracle of walking on water.
andruyd said:
With people trying different ROM all the time would it affect the lifespan of the internal storage? If so, can you replace it then whenever it gives out? Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I'm sure that there is a finite limit to the amount of read/write cycles that can be done on the memory of the phone, if you are really worried, you can just load all of your apps onto a microSD (and just tear up that memory instead).
While I am not sure if it is possible to run the whole OS from the microSD slot, it has been done on other devices but would be slow and buggy.
However, if you want to only limit the total number of read/write cycles on the physical memory, a great way is by moving apps to external storage, but bear in mind they will run slower.
Also, you will probably upgrade your phone far earlier than you might have a problem with the internal storage corrupting.
In terms of flashing ROMs, this is somewhat of a valid point, but once there is a stable ICS rom of your liking, chances are at least some of us will be flashing much less
Thought of sharing this if anyone wants to increase device RAM. I am not selling this product. I find it useful.
It is too expensive though.. Search Play store for Ram Expander. I expanded my RAM with external sdcard crearing a swap fle of 4gb. Now my device avaialble RAM is 6.38gb. It helps apps to load fast and also less lag in system response.
Keep in mind the following when using such a program:
1) All this does is to create a swap file on your SD card, it doesn't increase actual RAM of the device.
2) This can hit your SD card HARD with writes. Each cell in a SD card has a max number of writes it can perform before it wears out. If you use this and create a swap file on your SD card, it will cause the device to wear faster, which could cause the card to go bad faster than it normally would.
3) SD card random write/read speed is much, much slower than system RAM. Random write/read is pretty bad compared to system RAM, so you may not see the performance you are looking for.
Anyone is, of course, free to decided for themselves if it is worth the $9, but for my device I'm not going to take the chance.
hbar98 said:
Keep in mind the following when using such a program:
1) All this does is to create a swap file on your SD card, it doesn't increase actual RAM of the device.
2) This can hit your SD card HARD with writes. Each cell in a SD card has a max number of writes it can perform before it wears out. If you use this and create a swap file on your SD card, it will cause the device to wear faster, which could cause the card to go bad faster than it normally would.
3) SD card random write/read speed is much, much slower than system RAM. Random write/read is pretty bad compared to system RAM, so you may not see the performance you are looking for.
Anyone is, of course, free to decided for themselves if it is worth the $9, but for my device I'm not going to take the chance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Wonderful write-up. I didn't realise this fact. Micro sdcard is cheaper now days and worth wearing out.