It’s been six weeks since I got my Treo and I love it. Fantastic little machine. These past few weeks I’ve been avidly following the Treo and Palm sites to see how I can best use my new plaything. Here and there, I have found and added several fun and useful new pieces of software: Village Sim, Initiate, Missing Sync, Agendus Pro, Bugme!, SkinUI, AeroPlayer, Butler and Verichat.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for me to start running out of memory. I didn’t really understand how memory works on the Treo but the manual said that you can copy programs to an SD card, so I did. I would move a few things to the card and then everything would be fine again. But then after adding a new thing or two, I would run out again and move some more things to my card. Good thing I have a 1 gig card.

First, I used the Copy command in the Palm’s Applications launcher. Then I graduated to the Move command in the free FileZ app. Eventually, I started using Zlauncher as my mover of choice.

My experience might not be typical because I’ve added a lot of new software and I use Cingular. Cingular hasn’t released an update for the Treo 650 yet but it is expected any day now. The upgrade is supposed to free up 6 or 7 more megs of memory. I’m really looking forward to that upgrade so that I can have a bigger block of free memory. Right now I have 5 megs which is probably about the bare minimum.

Because the Treo is so cool and I’m not a novice with computers, I started combing through my manual and two books (Now You Know Treo and TREO Fan Book). I did some surfing to find memory tips and went so far as to read a bit of the Palm OS Programming Bible. I’ve been determined to master memory.

I learned that programs that copy applications to your SD card work in different ways. It became clear that you are better off using a single method to move software to your card rather than mixing and matching like I have been doing. Here’s what the options are:

Palm’s simple Application launcher Copy to card command leaves the app on your handheld. If you delete the app then be sure not to delete all its related files or you may have an unusable app on your hands. I know.

The simplest move-to-card methods are to (1) use hotsynch to install new software and click the Change Destination button to install it on your SD card or (2) use a file manager program like FileZ to move it to your card from your handheld. These methods move your app into the PALM/Launcher directory on your card. This avoids the need to delete the app but your app will wind up listed under a category called SD Card (or whatever your card is named). You lose the category for that app. All your games, utilities and main apps are now lumped as *on your card*.

If you have a mild memory shortage, the above feature might fix your problem and you are done. But if your memory shortage is more severe, you’ll be unhappy that the data files that go along with your moved apps will still be on your handheld eating up precious RAM.

Some programs like PowerRun, Zlauncher and TealAlias go further. They create tiny aliases that stay on your handheld so that those aliases can still show up under your categories. They also create folders on your card for each app to allow the data files to live on the card together with the apps.

If you are synching your Palm to your PC, you may find that applications moved to your card don’t synch anymore. As I understand it, Zlauncher, at least, does some magic that allows synching as well. So far, I haven’t tried to put my basic PIM apps on my card, since they require synching, but I’m thinking about it.

Casual Treo users may not ever hit a memory wall. But enthusiasts can count on it. If you are an enthusiast, I recommend that you get a good memory management program or the more generalist Zlauncher to give yourself plenty of room to enjoy your Treo.

Technorati Tags: cellphone, handhelds, Palm, treo, treo650