[Pre] External Memory Card Slot

[Noodle]

I just have never been able to start a thread in an empty forum. I can't wait for the Pre.

Has anyone heard any more about the possibility of a memory card slot or it it pretty much a done deal that we will be stuck with 8GB of internal memory.

[pcsperson]

While we were told at a meeting with the company that the Pre would sport a microSD slot, apparently someone got their wires seriously crossed. The device won't have expandable storage -- which is kind of a disappointment.

From here on Jan 13 2009

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/13/palm-pre-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know/

[yabo]

8gig is more than fine... as long as it'll actually work with my Mac, unlike my Instinct.

[abarrera]

8gb is more than enough...sure the slot would be nice...but it's no dealbreaker!

[ame]

8gig is more than fine... as long as it'll actually work with my Mac, unlike my Instinct.

I am in the same boat, but I can't imagine it wouldn't. If it's just set to be a usb drive when connected, it would be just fine on a mac.

Id LOVE a card-slot but I won't die without it.

I am hoping that they put out a Centro2 that loses the button pad and just makes the screen a little bigger and a small gesture area go there right above the keypad.

[NM08SRT8]

8gb is more than enough...sure the slot would be nice...but it's no dealbreaker!
Exactly. I think this term "deal breaker" is widely used. People use their nit picky-ness to say "oh well thats a deal breaker since it doesn't make coffee". I say 8 gigs is enough. I only use 2 gig cards max in my phones. Never bother spending the money on extra space since the prices of them chance to rapidly.

[laursifer]

8GB is definitely plenty, I think, but at the same time I can understand people who won't purchase the Pre if it doesn't have an external memory slot. Some people use their phones as their phone, PDA & media player. Those who use more than 8GB in their phones already, which have external media slots, might just hold out on the Pre until a webOS phone with an external media slot comes out. I can surely understand that. For me, 8GB is plenty since I don't ever have music or movies on my phone. Just lots and lots of screen savers ;)

[NM08SRT8]

8GB is definitely plenty, I think, but at the same time I can understand people who won't purchase the Pre if it doesn't have an external memory slot. Some people use their phones as their phone, PDA & media player. Those who use more than 8GB in their phones already, which have external media slots, might just hold out on the Pre until a webOS phone with an external media slot comes out. I can surely understand that. For me, 8GB is plenty since I don't ever have music or movies on my phone. Just lots and lots of screen savers ;)
I feel that having removable storage is good, but in no ways can be considered a "deal breaker", IMO. I mean it's a phone, yes.. but shouldn't be used to replace your MP3 player. I mean that just uses and kills the battery more so your phone/sms features won't be worth anything. Know what I mean? I'm trying to keep the battery life lasting as long as possible, especially if I'm not going to be home for the day. So using up battery on music, etc just isn't "smart" IMO, therefor I'm getting my 32gig iPod Touch to do my video/movies/music functionality.

But to each and their own I guess

[laursifer]

I feel that having removable storage is good, but in no ways can be considered a "deal breaker", IMO. I mean it's a phone, yes.. but shouldn't be used to replace your MP3 player. I mean that just uses and kills the battery more so your phone/sms features won't be worth anything. Know what I mean? I'm trying to keep the battery life lasting as long as possible, especially if I'm not going to be home for the day. So using up battery on music, etc just isn't "smart" IMO, therefor I'm getting my 32gig iPod Touch to do my video/movies/music functionality.

But to each and their own I guess

Oh, I agree 100%. I'd rather carry 2 devices (phone + iPod) than have my phone be both for me, but I think with the "younger generation" (it scares me using those words because I realize more and more that I no longer fit into that category lol) they are moving in this direction. I see kids around all the time using their phones as MP3 players. I suppose financially, it's easier for them to do it since being able to pay for a phone plus an MP3 player is expensive. Hell, if my iPods haven't all been gifts, I probably wouldn't have one because they're so expensive, but I also refuse to use any other kind of MP3 player lol.

For me, not having an external media card slot definitely isn't a deal-breaker at all, but all I was saying is that I can understand that for some people it is. The only "concern" it has raised for me is backing up the phone. I hope to the sweet Lord that there is a way to do it wirelessly. NVBackup on my Palm is just about the only way my phone gets backed up. If I'm going to have to connect my Pre to my comp everyday to back it up, I'm going to be a very unhappy camper. I'm sure a 3rd party app for wireless backups will come out eventually, but out-of-the-box is where I'm curious right now. I don't use my computer everyday, and having to boot it up just to backup my phone will a) piss me off and b) probably not even happen.

[parazitu22]

I feel that having removable storage is good, but in no ways can be considered a "deal breaker", IMO. I mean it's a phone, yes.. but shouldn't be used to replace your MP3 player. I mean that just uses and kills the battery more so your phone/sms features won't be worth anything. Know what I mean? I'm trying to keep the battery life lasting as long as possible, especially if I'm not going to be home for the day. So using up battery on music, etc just isn't "smart" IMO, therefor I'm getting my 32gig iPod Touch to do my video/movies/music functionality.

But to each and their own I guess

I respect the industries desire to move to all in one devices, but I just don't think the tech (at least monetarily) isn't there yet. A lot of phones can do it all, but that doesn't mean they do it well. I never listen to music on my phone, but I guess i'm just not that big of an audiophile. I have a 80GB Zune that does the trick perfectly.

We need to get much more efficient batteries in order to have the perfect all in one device. I must say though, that the Pre is the best attempt I have seen in this area.

[Awake]

8gb is more than enough, if someone wants a device they can primarily use for music and media then the Pre is not for them. Palm desperately wants to take back the business customers it lost to Rim, I highly doubt a business customer will be crying over spilled milk. If someone is filling up 8gb on a cell phone they seriously need a job!

[ame]

The reason a memory card slot is important to me is more for backup, not so much space.

[NM08SRT8]

But as noted, what's the point of backing up on a SD card, when you loose your phone? I highy doubt they would neglect users of Desktop syncing support and/or wireless data backup of contacts and calenders. If it's not out at launch, it will be available through Open source SDK eventually. Judging from how "easy" it is to write a program for this phone, such as it taking Pandora 3 days to write a working program for the Pre/webOS, This shouldn't be hard at all. I'm thinking they will do something with the things that are interegrated into the phone, ie. google. Even tho that's more of Androids ballpark, Google doesn't mind helping out others as well. Anything to make them and their product (Google, not android) look good for others, they will do.

[laursifer]

Wirelessly posted (Palm Centro: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D062; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

Well, I think ame and I come from the same place with the card backup since I know we both use NVBackup religiously. I have, quite a few times, hard reset my phone & restored it while I'm out somewhere. In a matter of minutes, all because of NVBackup. Additionally, I am fairly sure we both use the backup-to-FTP feature. So if I lose my phone and get a new one, I have a backup still on my FTP even though my card is lost with my phone.

Being able to backup and/or restore anytime, anywhere is very important to me. It won't stop me from buying a Pre but I just hope it's something Palm addresses themselves instead of leaving it up to developers out there.

[Park]

I'd hope that since Palm is trying to compete with the iPhone market (as well as re-assert themselves in the business market) they would incorporate a rich backup utility.

I was just playing around with GooSync on my Treo and it seemed to work really well. Insofar as that program's been out over a year (I think), I can't imagine there won't be something even better on the Pre.

I made the comment earlier about how a backup on your SD card is useless if you lose your phone, but I used BackupMan on my Treo and I've never heard of a backup-to-FTP feature like you mentioned Laursifer. If it does a full backup--and it sounds like you're saying it does--that would seem to take care of the problem.

[gedansky]

One more chime in for, "it would be nice to have but it's not a deal breaker."

I'm also not sure I care if it's MAC compatible, though I can't imagine why Palm which has been MAC friendly for many years, wouldn't be. A removable drive is a removable drive, so that shouldn't be an issue. If they put together some kind of sync capability (still not sure if they will, OR why they wouldn't), I assume it will be MAC friendly or MarkSpace will make a Missing Sync app for it. Ironically, I've gotten so lazy about syncing, that I tend to do double entry before I sync, so it really won't matter to me. I was all set to buy the Treo Pro and go to WinMo when I saw the Pre.

[ScrapMaker]

The reason a memory card slot is important to me is more for backup, not so much space.

Same here, but if they make a seamless online backup... for more than just contacts, I would have no complaints.

Wirelessly posted (Palm Centro: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D062; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

Well, I think ame and I come from the same place with the card backup since I know we both use NVBackup religiously. I have, quite a few times, hard reset my phone & restored it while I'm out somewhere. In a matter of minutes, all because of NVBackup. Additionally, I am fairly sure we both use the backup-to-FTP feature. So if I lose my phone and get a new one, I have a backup still on my FTP even though my card is lost with my phone.

Being able to backup and/or restore anytime, anywhere is very important to me. It won't stop me from buying a Pre but I just hope it's something Palm addresses themselves instead of leaving it up to developers out there.

I keep hundreds of applications on my card, along with other backed up data.. for me, it's not only about restoring data, it's also being able to MIGRATE data easily. I can pick up ANY WM device with a slot, and be up and running in 5 minutes--like having a SIM card for other phone users...

Hopefully Pre has a good solution for backup/restore, but I don't expect some amazing data migration/portability in the way I have been using it right now. I can adapt though--given the platform is good enough, which I think it might be.

[Noodle]

Wirelessly posted (Noodle's Phone: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

I agree. Not a deal breaker for me it would just be nice. I have 2 gigs of data just for iGuidance and while it wouldn't be used just for music multimedia it would still be nice to have separate expandable memory.

[sfhub]

I would like the SDHC card support as well, but I can live without it if they provide the following:
1) USB mass storage support so you can plug your phone in your computer and it shows up just like a flash drive. It sounds like they are doing this.
2) A portion of the 8GB area survives hard resets. It sucks to have a backup on your phone and if the phone crashes, you lose your backup, even if you keep it remotely, you may not have network access where you are. I think they will probably have this because they plan to support OS upgrades via wireless data connections.
3) Availability of network storage to offload backups and data while travelling. As noted earlier, it is nice to have a solution if you lose your phone. I don't consider this one feature by itself a complete replacement for SDHC card support because a) you may not have network support where you are b) you might have network support but only 2.5G c) even with 3G support, if you have large files to backup it'll take forever and potentially kill your data plan's implicit unstated limits.

[ScrapMaker]

I would like the SDHC card support as well, but I can live without it if they provide the following:
1) USB mass storage support so you can plug your phone in your computer and it shows up just like a flash drive. It sounds like they are doing this.
2) A portion of the 8GB area survives hard resets. It sucks to have a backup on your phone and if the phone crashes, you lose your backup, even if you keep it remotely, you may not have network access where you are. I think they will probably have this because they plan to support OS upgrades via wireless data connections.
3) Availability of network storage to offload backups and data while travelling. As noted earlier, it is nice to have a solution if you lose your phone. I don't consider this one feature by itself a complete replacement for SDHC card support because a) you may not have network support where you are b) you might have network support but only 2.5G c) even with 3G support, if you have large files to backup it'll take forever and potentially kill your data plan's implicit unstated limits.

If it's like the Diamond, I believe the larger-memory section is EXACTLY like having an SD card, (could be similar type of memory even,) and is treated as such. Not connected to the main 'partition,'

That doesn't mean they could make it the other way, but let's hope not--especially without removable storage.

[the.traveller]

I think the disconnect probably occured somewhere with mistinterpretation of a 'microUSB slot for Mass storage'. I know that's phone lingo for 'you can connect it to your computer' but I can understand how someone may think (or even if you quickly skim over it) that it's SDHC type.

Not even 6 years ago I used to travel and carry at least 4 devices on my person (dedicated camera, non-camera phone, mp3 player, palm tx). Ideally I would like to shrink down to one multifunctional device even if it won't have the 30gb storage of an ipod, or 10MP's like a camera.

I think this phone is a good compilation of features (at least on paper) and though it's not going to put apple out of business, I think it will help Palm re-establish a foothold. And if sales don't go as hoped, I'm sure we'll either see a fixed16GB option or a microSD slot option 12 months after it's release.

Now...who's going to make my PBJ sandwich into a small pill so I can carry that around in my pocket as well?

[ame]

But as noted, what's the point of backing up on a SD card, when you loose your phone?
Loss is different, but if you have a situation where you have to wipe the phone...very necessary.

Wirelessly posted (Palm Centro: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D062; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

Well, I think ame and I come from the same place with the card backup since I know we both use NVBackup religiously.

Being able to backup and/or restore anytime, anywhere is very important to me. It won't stop me from buying a Pre but I just hope it's something Palm addresses themselves instead of leaving it up to developers out there.
Exactly.

Same here, but if they make a seamless online backup... for more than just contacts, I would have no complaints.

That I could handle. If I could sync contacts, messages, calendar...great.

[Soup]

I think that it's a dumb move on palm's part to not have an SD card slot. I understand that it's not a necessity for a lot of people but could it really hurt that much? The way I see it is, palm is struggling a lot and so now in an effort to turn everything around they've released what seems like it's going to be an absolutely spectacular phone but the problem is there are a lot of other "spectacular" phones out there right now (although I feel if the pre comes out and works like it's supposed to there's nothing that's out at the moment that could even come close to the pre). The other spectacular phones already have a huge following and of course set the standards for the phones that follow (i.e. iphone, g1, storm), I feel that a lot of the more biased reviewers will pick the pre apart for the lack of sd card slot, it always seems that reviewers love to find the slightest crack in the pavement on each phone (besides the iphone) and turn it into a national crisis. I feel that for as simple as it'd be to go back and throw that SD card slot in they could save the trouble of having reviewers pick them apart for the lack of sd card slot which would help them sell a few more pre's I'm sure. Good reviews generally amount to good sales. That and it'd always be nice to be able to fit unlimited amounts of music onto my phone, I love my music. I still plan on buying the pre the day it comes out, but if it had an SD card slot in it, idk I'd buy like 2 haha.

[NM08SRT8]

Boom, Problem solved..

http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=181207

[NM08SRT8]

Listen, stop thinking Palm will fail because they didn't put a SD card slot on one stupid device.. This isn't the final version of this device, there WILL be other webOS phones, maybe even on Sprint for all we know. Does Centro 2 ring a bell? You guys are sooo critical and nit-picky, just get over it, learn to wing it like the rest of us do and just accept the 8 gigs of internal memory it has. M1 was so popular with its internal storage, give this a chance.

It hasn't even been released yet and already you are jumping all over Palms backs for every single little thing. It has no SD card slot, It won't sync to anything, what about the keyboard, No video?!? LED notification? I mean the list goes on and on and on and on. Holy smokes..

[NM08SRT8]

Here, Ladies...

Palm: lack of microSD slot on the Pre purely a "design" decision

Palm Product Manager Matt Crowley is holding a week-long Q&A session about the Pre on Facebook, and some pretty interesting discussions are taking place. Most interestingly, so far, is Crowley's answer when questioned about the (for many) cringe-inducing lack of a microSD slot on the company's much-hyped device in-the-making: "Design was the highest goal on the Palm Pre project. The phone has to look and function great in the hand and up against the face on a call. The decision to include or not include expandable storage is an easy one when design is the highest priority. The physical size of the device would have been compromised if we added another physical component to Pre. Just a millimeter can seriously impact the curvature of the design in a way that minimizes the design intent. We wanted to maintain a slick curved slider design without building out too much thickness. When you look at the two parts of the product and see how thin they really are, you may be amazed that we were able to fit everything in. And yes, all the stuff does fit." Now, we're pretty into the design of the Pre, but this kind of strikes us as a lame answer. Regardless, you can toss your own questions into the ring until January 28th.

Source: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/01/23/palm-lack-of-microsd-slot-on-the-pre-purely-a-design-decision/

[laursifer]

Boom, Problem solved..

http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=181207

Syncing solved more or less, yes--I also hope the Pre's syncing capabilities are enough that most people won't need to dish out $50 for that program. I'm still curious what options, if any, will be available shortly after release for a full backup (completely different thing than syncing) without needing to be connected to a computer. As I said earlier, this won't be a deal-breaker for me at all, as I imagine (hope) something will eventually be developed to handle this a la NVBackup or Resco Backup for Palm OS.

[NM08SRT8]

Syncing solved more or less, yes--I also hope the Pre's syncing capabilities are enough that most people won't need to dish out $50 for that program. I'm still curious what options, if any, will be available shortly after release for a full backup (completely different thing than syncing) without needing to be connected to a computer. As I said earlier, this won't be a deal-breaker for me at all, as I imagine (hope) something will eventually be developed to handle this a la NVBackup or Resco Backup for Palm OS.
Yeah, I've never paid for a program like this in my life, who knows.. I'll have to see how it works. Maybe they have a beta version of this, or a trial so we can check it out before purchase

[parazitu22]

Here, Ladies...

Palm: lack of microSD slot on the Pre purely a "design" decision



Source: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/01/23/palm-lack-of-microsd-slot-on-the-pre-purely-a-design-decision/

God, reading all of the comments over on engadget made my brain hurt. Some of the people commenting are HUGE IDIOTS! I can't remember which person said it, but they said they would rather have the Pre not include the built in 8GB and offer an SD card slot, why would you want to pay more for something when it can be included in the phone?

I'm sorry, but if I need more then 8GB of music/photos with me, I'll carry around my Zune 80. I am so sick of people that want every single feature on a phone, and when one little thing isn't included they go and blast about how that phone sucks.

Rant over and I won't be visiting engadget for a while.

[sfhub]

Here, Ladies...

Palm: lack of microSD slot on the Pre purely a "design" decision

Source: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/01/23/palm-lack-of-microsd-slot-on-the-pre-purely-a-design-decision/
If they really wanted external storage and it was just a form-factor design decision, they could alternately have made the micro-USB port support host mode instead of just client mode. In host mode, you could plug in those USB dongle flash memory devices (or any other USB device assuming the OS had drivers). I think it would be really cool to have a phone with USB expandability.

[Nater]

8gb is more than enough, if someone wants a device they can primarily use for music and media then the Pre is not for them. Palm desperately wants to take back the business customers it lost to Rim, I highly doubt a business customer will be crying over spilled milk. If someone is filling up 8gb on a cell phone they seriously need a job!

Really? Then why do you think they gave this phone a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and what's been called by many observers a "gorgeous" screen?

The expandable memory in my Cowon D2 mp3 player is a key reason that chose it. It would be nice to have the same option in the phone, but I understand that trade-offs need to be made. I'll bet we a see a MicroSD slot in the 2nd-generation Pre.

[ScrapMaker]

I'll bet we a see a MicroSD slot in the 2nd-generation Pre.

Yup.

I know most people would have accepted a 1% increase in size to get expandable memory...

[laursifer]

Really? Then why do you think they gave this phone a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and what's been called by many observers a "gorgeous" screen?

Screens like this on phones like this aren't there for videos. Their main purpose is for screen real estate. In the Pre's case, mostly viewing web pages and emails. Giving a phone a standard 3.5mm headphone jack is something more and more devices are including because of customer needs. I would venture to say most, if not all, cell phone users (not even limited to PDA users) have a great aversion to 2.5mm headphone jacks.

8GB is still PLENTY of space for putting some music and videos on the Pre. Arguing that it was designed with one of its primary uses being for music and video because it has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a large screen is, in my opinion, way off-base.

[Nater]

Screens like this on phones like this aren't there for videos. Their main purpose is for screen real estate. In the Pre's case, mostly viewing web pages and emails. Giving a phone a standard 3.5mm headphone jack is something more and more devices are including because of customer needs. I would venture to say most, if not all, cell phone users (not even limited to PDA users) have a great aversion to 2.5mm headphone jacks.

8GB is still PLENTY of space for putting some music and videos on the Pre. Arguing that it was designed with one of its primary uses being for music and video because it has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a large screen is, in my opinion, way off-base.

Of course it's plenty of space for some music and videos. That's not a debatable statement. It's also not debatable that some people would use more than 8 GB, and would appreciate the option to expand their storage.

By the way, Palm encourages customers to use the "Pre for music, websites, photos, and videos in full widescreen glory."
Source: http://palm.com/pre

[melanie_mbg05]

I have to admit that when I saw that the pre wouldnt have the external memory slot I was a little discouraged. I believe that its just the fear of change. I always get a little scared when looking into a different phone... you worry that you wont have the same options that you had before, so when you're use to something... like the memory card slot.... and then you see that your replacement doesnt offer that, just kinda sucks, but I agree that the 8g is more than enough, and just something that Ill get use to. Its hardly a negative when looking at all the pre is offering.

[mrstak]

I don't mind that the Pre doesn't have external storage. It would've been nice but if they'd have to sacrifice some of the design of the Pre then I'd rather not have that option. Besides...8GB is plenty...even if you use up 3 gb for music....you still have 5 gb for anything else...I think 8gb more than enough. To those who would've wanted more...what do you put in your storage cards that needs all that extra space?

[Exit24]

The phone I have now has an SD card slot, so I went out and bought a 2GB card, the biggest SD card that my phone would support. How much of that space do I actually use? 540.5MB for music. That's it!

The only thing I could see myself needing more than 8GB of space on a Pre would be for movies (A collection of movies). I have a palm now with tons of apps, TV shows, and games. I only use a 4 GB Compact Flash Card, with space to spare.

[cwfluke]

Yup.

I know most people would have accepted a 1% increase in size to get expandable memory...

Whilst it would be nice, I kind of like the small size. It appears to be very similar to the Diamond in size but actually a bit thinner. Form factor is definitely a decision that goes into me buying a phone. I couldn't even think about the Touch Pro because I carry my phone in my pocket and it was too thick. When I saw the "thinness" of the Pre, I was quite impressed and excited. Although i do realize that its not too late for them to increase the battery size to get more battery life out of the phone if they find that battery life is too short. I know there was reports of a specific kind of battery that was going to be used - but still.....until it comes out - the battery size wouldn't be hard to change. I hope it stays just like it is. 8GB is plenty for me - about 5 gigs of music and 3 gigs of extra space.

[ScrapMaker]

Whilst it would be nice, I kind of like the small size. It appears to be very similar to the Diamond in size but actually a bit thinner. Form factor is definitely a decision that goes into me buying a phone. I couldn't even think about the Touch Pro because I carry my phone in my pocket and it was too thick. When I saw the "thinness" of the Pre, I was quite impressed and excited. Although i do realize that its not too late for them to increase the battery size to get more battery life out of the phone if they find that battery life is too short. I know there was reports of a specific kind of battery that was going to be used - but still.....until it comes out - the battery size wouldn't be hard to change. I hope it stays just like it is. 8GB is plenty for me - about 5 gigs of music and 3 gigs of extra space.


Hell yes, it is thin, with a large screen.... and a frikkin' keyboard!

I wish I could stop obsessing about this phone :(

[d12a60n]

Hell yes, it is thin, with a large screen.... and a frikkin' keyboard!

I wish I could stop obsessing about this phone :(

Me too :mad: I even set this forum as a default to open home page on my Google Chrome browser at work.

[cwfluke]

Me too :mad: I even set this forum as a default to open home page on my Google Chrome browser at work.

Now THAT'S FUNNY! (As I post for about the 20th time about various subject matters related to a phone that may or may not be out before June) :1zhelp:

[ScrapMaker]

Now THAT'S FUNNY! (As I post for about the 20th time about various subject matters related to a phone that may or may not be out before June) :1zhelp:

... or ever ;)

[Exit24]

Me too :mad: I even set this forum as a default to open home page on my Google Chrome browser at work.

lol, nice.

[cwfluke]

... or ever ;)

:bawl::weeping:

[88jr]

The problem is, one's going to always fill up whatever memory they have. Then if they have to downgrade, they'll freak out, not knowing what to give up. With 16gb cards just getting mainstream, most people who move to 8gb internal will see it either as an upgrade or lateral move. That's why I don't think it's a huge deal. I see the iphone with 16gb though and wish they had put a slot in the phone. Being able to swap out 16gb cards would have been crazy cool. You could have one LOADED with music and another card with TONS of movies....it would have been cool...