Apps - FAO iPhone & Android users

[Rob13]

I'm looking into getting the latest Android handset - HTC Desire, however I've found on the web that you can only save the apps to the internal memory - 512mb in this case. I know the iPhone has no restrictions to its storage accessibility so the question I was asking is, how big are these apps and theoretically, is 512mb enough storage space for them? I'm looking to get into this Apps thing but dont want to be buying a handset which isnt capable of doing what I want it to!

[amir_j]

Yes more than enough.

Its something that looked strange to me when in got my hero but realised the apps themselves are tiny and any serious data storage eg gps maps is done on the memory card.

[Blue Meanie]

There are small apps, and there are large apps. I know monkey island is fairly large for an app at 334mb, but that is a game. Most apps are a few mb, nothing to write home about.

Edited by Blue Meanie on Tuesday 23 March 02:23

[sadako]

Most apps that are large will also put their resources on the SD card so only the executable part is in that memory. The largest app I have is CoPilot at 18.5mb, and that keeps its hundreds of megs of maps on the sd card. The next biggest is k-9 mail at 5mb, and all the rest are around 0.5mb or smaller. 512mb really does go a long way.

People who modify their phones to have root access can also move all this stuff to the SD card, although this is more a necessity for people like me with G1s that have much less storage space.

[Rob13]

How easy is it to allow root access to the phone? Im fairly adept with tech so im not fazed by playing around

[Ordinary_Chap]

Blue Meanie said:

There are small apps, and there are large apps. I know monkey island is fairly large for an app at 334mb, but that is a game. Most apps are a few mb, nothing to write home about.

Edited by Blue Meanie on Tuesday 23 March 02:23

334? Is that a typo?

If not, then damn!

[mouseymousey]

Rob13 said:

How easy is it to allow root access to the phone? Im fairly adept with tech so im not fazed by playing around

Very easy if you're reasonably technically competent. There loads of info over on xda-developers and once you have root you can use 'Apps2SD' which will allow you to install apps on the SD card rather than internal memory.

[ShadownINja]

Tell me to bugger off back to the Victorian days if my comments are irrelevant: two programs on my Windows Mobile (HTC Tytn) take up 1Mb each and reside on the memory card. Given what they do, I'm not surprised, though.

[Chris_H]

I have the Nexus One and I am now saving apps to SD card. I am using the CyanogenMod ROM which allows for this (plus a lot more over the stock ROM) providing you have an ext4 partition on your SD card.

I believe the Desire runs the same hardware as the Nexus One so I'm sure that before long, there'll be a ROM along with this functionality. Of course, you have to root the phone first thus invalidating the warranty. There is already a Desire ROM available on XDA which can be flashed onto the Nexus One. I tried this and it looked really good but they haven't got the Bluetooth working properly yet!!

[Rob13]

ah so it invalidates warranty? Is it a case of flashing the biop? Ive heard that the iphone can be returned to manufacturers settings if its jailbroken?

[Ordinary_Chap]

Rob13 said:

ah so it invalidates warranty? Is it a case of flashing the biop? Ive heard that the iphone can be returned to manufacturers settings if its jailbroken?

Yes the Iphone can be returned to standard but Anroid device's can not.

[Chris_H]

You root the phone first (dead simple if you are a bit techy and can use DOS commands). then you flash a recovery image which is also easy. Full instructions are on the xda-developers site. Then it's a matter of choosing which ROM you want. I've tried four so far and have settled on the Cyanogen one for it's stability and mass of additional functionality.

I don't know about the iphone, but once the N1 is rooted, that's it. It cannot be reversed!!

[cyberface]

Chris_H said:

You root the phone first (dead simple if you are a bit techy and can use DOS commands). then you flash a recovery image which is also easy. Full instructions are on the xda-developers site. Then it's a matter of choosing which ROM you want. I've tried four so far and have settled on the Cyanogen one for it's stability and mass of additional functionality.

I don't know about the iphone, but once the N1 is rooted, that's it. It cannot be reversed!!

Why would you want a Unix phone without root access?

Will have to take a look at newer ROMs... currently running an oldish rooted rom on my Nx1 and I'm loving everything about it other than the userland... really needs a Debian port or something, I think Saurik (Jay Freeman, developer of Cydia on the iPhone) has done a bit of hacking on Android for this... would like to have the same unix userland on my Nx1 as I have on my iPhone...

[tinman0]

Rob13 said:

I'm looking into getting the latest Android handset - HTC Desire, however I've found on the web that you can only save the apps to the internal memory - 512mb in this case.

dayam, 1980's all over again! No one will ever need more than 640k ram!

And you guys give the iPhone a hard time??

Edited by tinman0 on Tuesday 23 March 17:02

[randlemarcus]

tinman0 said:

Rob13 said:

I'm looking into getting the latest Android handset - HTC Desire, however I've found on the web that you can only save the apps to the internal memory - 512mb in this case.

dayam, 1980's all over again! No one will ever need more than 640k ram!

And you guys give the iPhone a hard time??

Edited by tinman0 on Tuesday 23 March 17:02

Ah, but luckily if you do need more than 512Mb for the plethorae of apps you've installed that aren't quite so control freaked, there's a replaceable Storage Card for that