Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Low Memory Warning. This is a bad impression.

kenypowa said:
Yes, for releasing a cutting-edge device in 2010 and it comes with only 256mb of ram. All Apple had to do was to spend extra $5.5 to bump the memory to 512mb but chose not to.
Click to expand...

As a developer, I can tell you it is highly probable the issue described is a software bug. What I can't tell is if the bug is in the OS or in the Application in question.

This is plainly obvious because as he said, the app worked several times previous without issue. This indicates that when the app was terminated, all memory in use was not properly freed. Thus a slow memory leak eventually resulting in out of memory errors. The memory may have been freed by the app, but the OS might have a bug that didn't release it, or the app might not be freeing the memory.

As to whether the memory is sufficient for multitasking, I suspect that will depend on the set of applications you're running. I think it will be fine for light multitasking, of the type Apple keeps talking about -- running 1 app while listening to pandora, running 1 app taking a phone call etc. All their examples are basically of 2 apps running. I suspect when you start hitting 4-5 apps, actually running, not paused, we'll start to see problems. In particular out of memory issues and/or slow app switches if they have implemented paging of virtual memory to flash.
 
phpmaven said:
Let's not miss the fact that this is not an iPad system dialog box but obviously one this app generated itself. As someone else stated, it's probably just poor coding or even a dialog that was generated in error.

All of the hoopla over supposed memory problems is being overblown IMO. In the days ahead I'm sure that we will learn much more about how the iPad handles memory and how efficiently it utilizes the available flash memory as RAM as well as the 256MB that it supposedly is limited to. It's also good to keep in mind that this memory figure is based, not on anything official from Apple, but anecdotal evidence based on tear downs of the product. They may very well prove to be in error.
Click to expand...

You have absolutely no evidence to suggest that the problem is bad coding. Application may just need more memory than the system has. 256MB is not bad for phone (although some phones have twice as much) but it's definitely not enough for a portable computer.
 
kenypowa said:
Yes, for releasing a cutting-edge device in 2010 and it comes with only 256mb of ram. All Apple had to do was to spend extra $5.5 to bump the memory to 512mb but chose not to.
Click to expand...

What is this post? really? Do you have a brain or any device that can assist you on thinking?

Are you suggesting that Apple should add extra memory to millions and millions of devices because some retarded developer can't code? Do you get this memory warning when running any Apple app including some memory hogging apps like google maps? Yes? No?

Do you know that the Xbox 360 has only 512MB of ram? surprised? yes? no? weird isn't it? Those MS people must be some cheapasses! They just want to intentionally slow down their console!

Some of the posters here are just brain dead. There can't be just any other explanation.
 
Compile 'em all said:
What is this post? really? Do you have a brain or any device that can assist you on thinking?

Are you suggesting that Apple should add extra memory to millions and millions of devices because some retarded developer can't code? Do you get this memory warning when running any Apple app including some memory hogging apps like google maps? Yes? No?

Do you know that the Xbox 360 has only 512MB of ram? surprised? yes? no? weird isn't it? Those MS people must be some cheapasses! They just want to intentionally slow down their console!

Some of the posters here are just brain dead. There can't be just any other explanation.
Click to expand...

Look in the mirror much? Every user here has this issue with Safari when trying to use tabbed browsing or even just using the back button when the page reloads it's because the device is out of storage in ram.
 
Compile 'em all said:
What is this post? really? Do you have a brain or any device that can assist you on thinking?

Are you suggesting that Apple should add extra memory to millions and millions of devices because some retarded developer can't code? Do you get this memory warning when running any Apple app including some memory hogging apps like google maps? Yes? No?

Do you know that the Xbox 360 has only 512MB of ram? surprised? yes? no? weird isn't it? Those MS people must be some cheapasses! They just want to intentionally slow down their console!

Some of the posters here are just brain dead. There can't be just any other explanation.
Click to expand...

In general, games simply do not require a lot of RAM. What's there to store? The number of lives left? But take for example a digital photo. In RAW format, it may require 30MB, even more in TIFF. If you want to edit it, you'll need to double and triple that amount. So, yes, iPad is good enough for phone-style games and note taking. No so much for serious stuff.
 
bluehaze013 said:
Look in the mirror much? Every user here has this issue with Safari when trying to use tabbed browsing or even just using the back button when the page reloads it's because the device is out of storage in ram.
Click to expand...

Can you post links to threads of "every user here has this issue" ?

Thanks!
 
lilo777 said:
In general, games simply do not require a lot of RAM. What's there to store? The number of lives left? But take for example a digital photo. In RAW format, it may require 30MB, even more in TIFF. If you want to edit it, you'll need to double and triple that amount. So, yes, iPad is good enough for phone-style games and note taking. No so much for serious stuff.
Click to expand...

Do you honestly believe that Apple engineers are dumb?
 
Compile 'em all said:
Can you post links to threads of "every user here has this issue" ?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

while I agree with your ultimate point of slacker developers, I do experience the constant reloading of pages which is extremely annoying but i feel this can get better with software updates that change how safari stores saved states of pages. This will get better, but it means that developers have to try extra hard. As a developer, **** you apple lol but honestly it's my fault if i can't code a good app. As a consumer, this means you will get the best possible pedigree of apps.
 
Compile 'em all said:
Do you honestly believe that Apple engineers are dumb?
Click to expand...

Engineers are OK, Apple's loyal customers are dumb which allows Apple to maximize their profit margins by offering inferior computers with the amount of RAM less than what other companies put in their phones.
 
DSchwartz88 said:
while I agree with your ultimate point of slacker developers, I do experience the constant reloading of pages which is extremely annoying but i feel this can get better with software updates that change how safari stores saved states of pages. This will get better, but it means that developers have to try extra hard. As a developer, **** you apple lol but honestly it's my fault if i can't code a good app. As a consumer, this means you will get the best possible pedigree of apps.
Click to expand...

Well, according to Compile 'em all it should be one of two choices: either Apple software developers are dumb or Apple's hardware developers are dumb.
 
lilo777 said:
Engineers are OK, Apple's loyal customers are dumb which allows Apple to maximize their profit margins by offering inferior computers with the amount of RAM less than what other companies put in their phones.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to have my inferior apple phone compared to the crap that runs windows mobile, or god forbid that should be aborted pos android.
 
racer1441 said:
He can't because I know that I never have had a problem with safari.
Click to expand...

Depends on your definition of "problems" I suppose and I agree that 256MB of RAM is not good in a device like this. My HTC Hero has 288MB and even that is outdated. Most new smart phones are coming with 512. Load up this very forum on your iPad, go to a thread with lots of posts and flick scroll really fast. See that checkerboard pattern? Thats the 256MB of RAM unable to keep up with a simple scroll. I dont even get that on my cellphone with this site.

The sad thing is that developers will be limited in what they can do when creating new iPad specific apps due to the absurdly low amount of RAM. Its all good now because 90% of the apps now were made for the iphone. You can pretty much forget seeing some mind blowing, 3D styled iPad apps that eat up RAM, just not enough to work with.
 
lilo777 said:
Well, according to Compile 'em all it should be one of two choices: either Apple software developers are dumb or Apple's hardware developers are dumb.
Click to expand...

I'm not compile em all but i can say it's both. There's obviously dumb app store developers out there and sorry to say theres def stupid apple engineers out there. Maybe not alot of stupid engineers but they have deadlines. Getting the product out there is first and foremost then improve. it's the software developer cycle guys not a huge deal....
 
kenypowa said:
Yes, for releasing a cutting-edge device in 2010 and it comes with only 256mb of ram. All Apple had to do was to spend extra $5.5 to bump the memory to 512mb but chose not to.
Click to expand...

I agree with where you are coming from, but there must be a reason over the money involved. Why? We my never know till the history of the iPhone OS is written years down the road...
 
mbell75 said:
Depends on your definition of "problems" I suppose and I agree that 256MB of RAM is not good in a device like this. My HTC Hero has 288MB and even that is outdated. Most new smart phones are coming with 512. Load up this very forum on your iPad, go to a thread with lots of posts and flick scroll really fast. See that checkerboard pattern? Thats the 256MB of RAM unable to keep up with a simple scroll. I dont even get that on my cellphone with this site.

The sad thing is that developers will be limited in what they can do when creating new iPad specific apps due to the absurdly low amount of RAM. Its all good now because 90% of the apps now were made for the iphone. You can pretty much forget seeing some mind blowing, 3D styled iPad apps that eat up RAM, just not enough to work with.
Click to expand...

You are so wrong on so many levels you have no idea. When your page file is sitting in virtual memory on flash chips and your RAM is on secondary dies DIRECTLY connected to the processor die, your memory swap outs become less of a problem than before so you can smartly swap out resources at your will. Most apps don't use that much resources on demand, safari happens to, because it must load any image, any line of CSS, any line of JS because it's a browser, so it has to swap out insanely fast, probably due to quick programming on apples engineers part. This will improve with time and better coding.
 
lilo777 said:
Engineers are OK, Apple's loyal customers are dumb which allows Apple to maximize their profit margins by offering inferior computers with the amount of RAM less than what other companies put in their phones.
Click to expand...

The point I was trying to make flew right over your head. Do you honestly think that Apple would be happy to ship you a product that will pop a "memory warning" every now and then because they are cheap?
 
DSchwartz88 said:
You are so wrong on so many levels you have no idea. When your page file is sitting in virtual memory on flash chips and your RAM is on secondary dies DIRECTLY connected to the processor die, your memory swap outs become less of a problem than before so you can smartly swap out resources at your will. Most apps don't use that much resources on demand, safari happens to, because it must load any image, any line of CSS, any line of JS because it's a browser, so it has to swap out insanely fast, probably due to quick programming on apples engineers part. This will improve with time and better coding.
Click to expand...

Man, you are arguing with people that have no damn clue what they are talking about. Don't waste your time. Nerds will look at a device with 256 MB and assume that it sucks because their toaster has more memory.
 
mbell75 said:
Load up this very forum on your iPad, go to a thread with lots of posts and flick scroll really fast. See that checkerboard pattern? Thats the 256MB of RAM unable to keep up with a simple scroll.
Click to expand...

Just tried it. No checkerboard pattern. I only see those when a page is still loading. :D frankly I'm shocked at how fast the iPad performs compared to net books and other mobile devices.
However, I agree 256MB is on the low side. The problem is the way that they have implemented the HW makes it very difficult to add more RAM without a fundimental redesign of the device that would sacrifice memory access time and battery life. That 256MB RAM is a part of the A4 package. I don't think that they can scale this up with today's manufacturing techniques. The only way to increase the RAM today is to remove it from the A4 and mount the RAM to the system board.
 
bluehaze013 said:
Do you even own an iPad? I'm gonna assume you dont own one because that is the only way you could not experience the reloading in Safari yourself :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

This thread is about a third party app going low on memory resulting in a low memory warning. Do you get a low memory warning elsewhere from any Apple app on the iPad?

You are assuming that the safari reloading issue IS a memory issue. It might be, and it might not. It might be fixed in a future update. It might not. We will never know. What we know is that there is a third party app here that is going low on memory.
 
err404 said:
Just tried it. No checkerboard pattern. I only see those when a page is still loading. :D frankly I'm shocked at how fast the iPad performs compared to net books and other mobile devices.
However, I agree 256MB is on the low side. The problem is the way that they have implemented the HW makes it very difficult to add more RAM without a fundimental redesign of the device that would sacrifice memory access time and battery life. That 256MB RAM is a part of the A4 package. I don't think that they can scale this up with today's manufacturing techniques. The only way to increase the RAM today is to remove it from the A4 and mount the RAM to the system board.
Click to expand...

This makes a lot of sense.

Adding more memory to the iPad will cost a hell of a lot more than the $5.5 that was quoted previously. This isn't the same situation as sticking more memory into your desktop or laptop. Apple will either have to shrink the memory even further or move the RAM into it's own chip(s); both of these options are expensive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back