Memory Hog

[mikethebigo]

FWIW, I believe the A4's "system on a chip" design has the memory on the same physical chip as the CPU. So I would assume it's more expensive and more difficult to just add another 256MB (compared to other devices that use standard memory chips). So, I'm not sure if that's a "good" excuse or not, but it's probably safe to say that this is more difficult than most people imagine.

That said, I would completely agree that memory is the iPad's biggest weakness and I'm worried about how it'll handle the new multitasking features in OS 4.0 (maybe that's why they need several extra months for the iPad 4.0 release). Yeah, I know, they're designed to minimize additional memory usage. But my iPad can't even run the NPR app without crashing two out of three times.

I can't imagine that increasing the memory would add more than a few dollars to the cost of every unit. Considering the ifixit teardown says the iPad costs Apple what, $260 to make, they're getting some pretty amazing margins (even after you factor in marketing, R&D, and other things). They could afford to do it and still make a killing, I'm absolutely positive.

 

[stisdal]

You can't get them anymore. Apple banned them. I have a pre ban one.

Does anyone know why apple banned the memory clearing apps? I Have memory info on my 3GS and it works very well. I haven't tried it on my iPad yet....

 

[aluren]

Everytime we clear the memory, there's a crash report that goes to Apple.