[IGoDwnTwn34]

After recently getting a replacement 800w, it was so easy to just slip my 4gig card in with all my saved info and settings from my old 800w. ...and just restore right there in my car just outside the Sprint store. That's my main reason for wanting an SD slot.

IGO

[TurboTiger]

2G is plenty enough for my (Scan Disk)

Good Luck

[dbpaddler]

I actually try to find reasons not to bring the laptop. The more basics I can do from my phone the better. Swapping cards from camera to phone to mp3 player allows great versatility. Class 6 mSDHC's are fast enough for casual picture taking so one of those with an adapter in a real camera works really well to then pop in the Centro and upload to online galleries, facebook and such. No laptop needed. With the nicer graphical interface, doing that on the Pre would be sweet.

lol, but usually when you travel, you bring a laptop with you, no?

In the absence of a card slot I think they screwed up in making the memory just a solid 8 gigs because if you do run into a hard reset situation, you lose everything or I imagine you do. The 8 gigs should've been separate and left strictly for storage with another gig or two strictly for the OS and programs with the ability to backup to the storage side. Yes, expandability would still be an issue, but it would've alleviated people's stability and backup fears in the absence of connectivity.

I know I've also mentioned (as have others) about USB host support. With flash drives being made smaller and smaller, having one on a keychain in the car or somewhere always on you is an easy thing to do. You'd have it for backup and exapandable memory. You'd also have the ability to connect your still or video camera, mp3 player and such to swap content. That capability would easily trump the competition.

I also love how people who are happy with the status quo of the Pre like to dictate what people should and shouldn't use their phone for. Like it's blasphemy for us to want something else, something more, something we already have on a $99 aged smartphone, something that already exists on much of the current competition.

People also talk about the masses not needing expandable storage and the many who have bought iphones. I think people forget how many dumbphones there are out there that have microSD slots. Verizon (since you can search by that feature) has over 20 phones with expandable storage. That doesn't include smartphones. So the rationale of the masses, middle america, the average janes and joes don't want expandable storage in their phone just doesn't seem to make sense.

lol, but usually when you travel, you bring a laptop with you, no?

[sbrad425]

Here is what I'm hoping for when I see the NEW Pre, can I browse the internet using Live Mesh, can Live Mesh actually see the Internal Memeory and Folders on the device. If it can, you can use Live Mesh to Synch any folder on your Pre. So for an example, you take a picture, and it stores it on the Internal Memeory, and that folder it hook up to Live Mesh, it will will auto sync to my Live Mesh account, which I can get to on any computer using the cloud method. The same with all my Media, Documents and Apps.

[SolarPlexus]

I'm concerned about that too, although my concern is because of the constant crashes that I'm used to on Garnet and doing frequent hard resets. If the phone is actually stable (and that's an "if" that'll just have to be a wait and see), then I won't mind not having the sd.

Until I see that the phone has a horrible method of initially putting my movies and music onto the phone (because those are the files that take up the majority of the space), then I'm just in wait and see mode, and not angry about the missing expansion.

wow......I have had several palm powered devices ending with a Palm Centro and I have NEVER had a crash so bad that it required a hard reset. And I use a lot of programs........... I must be extremely lucky. The only time I have done a hard reset was to flash the firmware. I guess if WebOS is as stable as PalmOS I don't need to worry about backing everything up.

[ADGrant]

I have a Centro with a 4GB card which is plenty because I do not use my Centro as a media player. That's not really something it is suitable for.

[Gerorne]

wow......I have had several palm powered devices ending with a Palm Centro and I have NEVER had a crash so bad that it required a hard reset. And I use a lot of programs........... I must be extremely lucky. The only time I have done a hard reset was to flash the firmware. I guess if WebOS is as stable as PalmOS I don't need to worry about backing everything up.

Well.. I don't know about you, but I have 43 apps on my phone, including zlauncher, running audible or pockettunes constantly in the background, and a lot of apps that are constantly running in the background for quicker navigation or other stuff.

[BXPROPHET]

it all comes down to what u wanna use the phone for.. if u dont need the space dont worry about it... if u need the space, just wait for the phone to come out and see what we have in store.. i know that all smartphone have sd slots sooo this phone shouldn't be an exception

[machx]

Great Poll... confirms my beliefs that 8 GB is plenty for most users, even more so because treocentral represents more "power users" rather than average user

4GB 29.25%
8GB 36.79%

Over 60% of users will not have less storage than they already have

[Vyruz Reaper]

only about 20% of the "power users" here at treo central are going to loose some space. I dont think 8GB is a bad start. No one complained about the 4GB and 8GB iphones when they first came out

[schnoid]

Great Poll... confirms my beliefs that 8 GB is plenty for most users, even more so because treocentral represents more "power users" rather than average user

4GB 29.25%
8GB 36.79%

Over 60% of users will not have less storage than they already have

I've said this before (post 8) and I'll say it again. This assumption is completely faulty. The reason for this is the mere fact that Treos/Centros and most other phones are NOT media players. I use very little space on my 755p, but that doesn't mean I'd use the same amount of space on the Pre. I do NOT use the Treo for music and movies, but if I had a iphone or Pre with a good media player and multitasking capability then there's no doubt I'd use my zune much less and have music/movies on the phone. Also in terms of apps, there's a potential to use lots of space for GPS maps and other data which I've never had to worry about before. If almost 40% of users are using 8GB on their OLD phones, then this just proves that 8GB is not even close to enough space for a new gen advanced phone like the Pre.

[Vyruz Reaper]

I've said this before (post 8) and I'll say it again. This assumption is completely faulty. The reason for this is the mere fact that Treos/Centros and most other phones are NOT media players. I use very little space on my 755p, but that doesn't mean I'd use the same amount of space on the Pre. I do NOT use the Treo music and movies, but if I had a iphone or Pre with a good media player and multitasking capability then there's no doubt I'd use my zune much less and have music/movies on the phone. Also in terms of apps, there's a potential to use lots of space for GPS maps and other data which I've never had to worry about before. If almost 40% of users are using 8GB on their OLD phones, then you this proves that 8GB is not even close to enough space for a new gen advanced phone like the Pre.

Ok, what about the iphone? that is the biggest multimedia phone and it launched with only 4GB and 8GB to start, and have only made there way to 16GB after a couple years

[schnoid]

Ok, what about the iphone? that is the biggest multimedia phone and it launched with only 4GB and 8GB to start, and have only made there way to 16GB after a couple years

I also have an old 1GB mp3 player... does that mean it's sufficient for most people's video watching wants/needs? It's one thing if palm put 16GB on their phone to at least compete with the iphone, but to make such an awesome device and then throw in half the space of the iphone just doesn't make sense to me.

[Cyril]

Palm should launch with 3 versions at different price points: 8GB, 16GB and 16GB with a microSD slot.

No-one makes a super expensive smartphones anymore unless you count the HTC shift.
Maybe there is a market for the $2000 64GB model with a microSD slot? Palm could corner the 'I have a much more powerful smartphone in almost every way than the iphone' market.
I would buy it

[schnoid]

Palm should launch with 3 versions at different price points: 8GB, 16GB and 16GB with a microSD slot.

No-one makes a super expensive smartphones anymore unless you count the HTC shift.
Maybe there is a market for the $2000 64GB model with a microSD slot? Palm could corner the 'I have a much more powerful smartphone in almost every way than the iphone' market.
I would buy it

LoL... i would totally support the different models idea. I'd probably be willing to pay at least 100 bucks extra for a microSD slot. I don't even care if they leave it as a 8GB model but had an optional microSD slot. You can buy 16GB microSD cards pretty cheap these days and I'm sure 32GB cards will be out in no time. I probably wouldn't go as far as you in buying a $2000 64GB version, but I would definitely consider buying a few 16GB cards and throw on some extra movies/music for those times when I'm traveling and have nothing better to do.

[Gerorne]

hahah... if they did that... I don't know if I could stop myself from also buying the extra SD slot for $100 more.

[dbpaddler]

don't think the 4 & 8gb poll os a fair one. 8gb cards weren't always cheap and many just don't take the time to upgrade. And as others have said, the media capabilities just don't compare between the two devices. It's only natural to want to put more on the Pre with it's expanded capabilities.

And the iPhone capacity argument doesn't hold water. Apple has always been restrictive of its capacities. They want to suck you in early and have you stuck with itunes and proprietary formats so you're held prisoner and have no choice but to follow their upgrade path. On the media player side, most companies have more flash memory compared to a similar priced ipod.

This argument goes all the way back to the beginning of converged devices and giving up features you had in the standalone device. At this point the capabilities of the newest crop of 'smartphones' blur the lines quite a bit. And with the prices of flash memory dropping greatly, an 8gb device that hasn't even launched yet is just meager, especially without expansion.

I'm bummed too because I just bought two 8gb cards for $24. Only opened one thankfully.

[machx]

Ok well we will all see how important having 16 GB storage or whatever outrageous requirement you people think is necessary to sell a phone (UNPRECEDENTED IN A PHONE outside later generation iPhones).... if the Pre sells, it wasn't important as thi poll confirms, if they don't sell then you were right.

[Trevante]

Ok well we will all see how important having 16 GB storage or whatever outrageous requirement you people think is necessary to sell a phone (UNPRECEDENTED IN A PHONE outside later generation iPhones).... if the Pre sells, it wasn't important as thi poll confirms, if they don't sell then you were right.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/n...hip-n97-phone/

Nokia did it. Onboard and MicroSD in one package. Not saying that the Pre should be able to do it just because Nokia did, but I think it would have been better if Palm went with the MicroSD slot.

I don't think many people are arguing about the capacity that people will need, it's more about the convenience, price, and upgradability that a MicroSD slot provides. 8GB MicroSD cards cost $15 nowadays (and I'm sure 16GB cards will be much cheaper soon) and allow me to move my data between devices very quickly and easily, especially if I decide to switch devices (temporarily or permanently).

Imagine if you have some important data on your Pre and then your battery dies or even worse, your Pre breaks. How do you get that data?

Although the Pre operates on the idea of a cloud for synchronizing data, users will still be tied to their PC's for backing up their local storage.

[tonygoes]

I think all the worries about backup are mostly unfounded. Hard resets are a symptom of a really primitive OS design. If the same kind of problem exists in WebOS, Palm deserves to loose all their customers. Contacts can be synced over the cloud. And Palm SHOULD include a way to sync application preferences too. Not saying they will, but they should. And the actual apps should be re-downloadable from their Palm store. In theory, there could even be a web page somewhere with a "restore" button, that would rebuild the entire phone. But the only reason you should need something like that would be if the phone was lost or broken.

I still have a problem with the 8GB limitation. Whether you want to call it one or not, whether you used it that way or not, previous Palm phones were just as capable media players as any other device out there (ipod, zen, whatever). The model was Palm provided a paltry amount of memory, and you could add as much as you want. This poll shows that most of the participants have added memory, and the majority have added 8GB. Have added, as in sometime in the past, decided that 8GB was enough for the moment. Now, Palm, decides they're going to release a device that won't be availble for another few months, that in theory will be in use for at least a year or so, that's stuck at the amount of memory people chose LAST YEAR. Last years features available next year. Classic Palm at its worst.