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palmOne responds to memory concerns
 palmOne this evening confirmed that the Treo 650 has a reduced effective memory size because of the new NVFS file system, and commits to a ROM upgrade that will help reduce the NVFS overhead. In addition, a free 128 MB SD card will be sent on request to Treo 650 users with memory management issues.
palmOne has also posted a very detailed explanation of NVFS in their Knowledge Library. The article address the NVFS issue in a very straightforward way, with very little marketing spin. A highly recommended read.
"palmOne implemented a non-volatile file system (NVFS) in the new Treo 650 because of the strong benefits it provides: preserving data and applications if the battery runs down, and the ability to change the battery on the fly. The tradeoff for these benefits is that the NVFS uses additional overhead, which results in records on the Treo 600 taking up more space when transferred to the Treo 650.
We believe there is ample memory in the Treo 650 for new users to store their contact and appointment information as well as email and other applications. We do recognize, however, that there is a small percentage of Treo 600 owners who have almost filled the memory on their device, and they will likely have a problem upgrading to the Treo 650 because of the reduced effective memory size in the new file system. Fortunately, there is a relatively straightforward solution: Treo 600 owners can move applications and files to an SD card before beginning migration to a Treo 650. This should make the upgrade process go more smoothly.
We understand that this is not an optimal solution for our power users, and palmOne is committed to providing a great experience for all our users. Therefore, we will work to improve the user experience by doing the following:
- Work on a system software (ROM) upgrade that will increase memory use efficiency to allow users to recapture most of the NVFS overhead space currently lost to them; and
- Make available a free 128MB SD expansion card to Treo 650 purchasers on request to help with memory management until the ROM upgrade becomes available . (Details on this program will be posted on the support site in early December.)
To ensure that Treo upgraders take best advantage of SD expansion cards to save data and applications, palmOne will post additional tips on its Customer Support site.
Last month the company released a Software Developer Kit to help software developers take full advantage of the Treo 650 and the Tungsten T5, including memory optimization.
palmOne is committed to providing a great user experience. We will work hard to make the upgrade experience better."
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