Quick Links to Popular Blog Posts:
- HP210 - First Impression - Nice!!!
- Prefer Archos 605 WiFi to iPod touch - Updated November 28, 2008
- My Thoughts about the iPhone
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Treo works fine after 1.10 update, but new memory manager could impact push email
Installed the Treo 700w Updater 1.10, and everything advertised seems to be working fine, including push email. I will continue testing to ensure the push email feature works consistently. When I send an email to my public exchange server on mail2web.com from a POP account on a desktop or PDA, the email is pushed to the Treo 700w in about 20 seconds. I do not need the immediate email offered by this push feature; however, I did want to be familiar with the technology.
The new wireless manager is a nice addition. You can easily control the three radios on the Treo 700w - broadband/phone, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi (when Wi-Fi SD card is installed). You do not gain any new controls, they are just placed together in the new wireless manager.
One potential problem is the memory manager seems to start closing applications when available memory falls below about 5 MB. Before the update, the system started closing open applications when available memory fell to about 2 MB. If you use the push email feature, this could be a problem. ActiveSync needs to be open in order for push to work, and Outlook needs to be open in order to read the email. Email will still be pushed if Outlook is not open; an open ActiveSync is the critical component on the Treo 700w for push email. If you are using other applications on the Treo 700w that drop the available memory below 5 MB, Outlook and / or ActiveSync could be closed by the system without any warning or notice.
I found on several occasions that the email I sent from another device to the exchange server was not received on the Treo 700w. When I checked, the available memory on the Treo 700w had fallen below 5MB, and ActiveSync was closed by the system without any notice. This was not just a one time occurrence. Whenever my available memory fell below 5 MB, there was a good possibility that ActiveSync would be closed by the system without any notice. When I closed other applications on the Treo 700w to bring the available memory above 5 MB, and restarted ActiveSync, push email worked great again. Of course you need room to start Outlook if you wish to read the email that was pushed.
Maybe an increase to the memory threshold for closing applications was warranted, however, on a device with very limited user memory available, it does not take many applications to reach the 5 MB limit. Maybe 3 MB would have been a better change. In addition to the potential for stopping push email without warning, one of the nice features of Windows Mobile, multitasking, is now limited by applications being closed as soon as the 5 MB limit is reached.
It may not be an issue for you, just wanted to let you know of a potential problem. ¶ 11:39 PM
Installed the Treo 700w Updater 1.10, and everything advertised seems to be working fine, including push email. I will continue testing to ensure the push email feature works consistently. When I send an email to my public exchange server on mail2web.com from a POP account on a desktop or PDA, the email is pushed to the Treo 700w in about 20 seconds. I do not need the immediate email offered by this push feature; however, I did want to be familiar with the technology.
The new wireless manager is a nice addition. You can easily control the three radios on the Treo 700w - broadband/phone, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi (when Wi-Fi SD card is installed). You do not gain any new controls, they are just placed together in the new wireless manager.
One potential problem is the memory manager seems to start closing applications when available memory falls below about 5 MB. Before the update, the system started closing open applications when available memory fell to about 2 MB. If you use the push email feature, this could be a problem. ActiveSync needs to be open in order for push to work, and Outlook needs to be open in order to read the email. Email will still be pushed if Outlook is not open; an open ActiveSync is the critical component on the Treo 700w for push email. If you are using other applications on the Treo 700w that drop the available memory below 5 MB, Outlook and / or ActiveSync could be closed by the system without any warning or notice.
I found on several occasions that the email I sent from another device to the exchange server was not received on the Treo 700w. When I checked, the available memory on the Treo 700w had fallen below 5MB, and ActiveSync was closed by the system without any notice. This was not just a one time occurrence. Whenever my available memory fell below 5 MB, there was a good possibility that ActiveSync would be closed by the system without any notice. When I closed other applications on the Treo 700w to bring the available memory above 5 MB, and restarted ActiveSync, push email worked great again. Of course you need room to start Outlook if you wish to read the email that was pushed.
Maybe an increase to the memory threshold for closing applications was warranted, however, on a device with very limited user memory available, it does not take many applications to reach the 5 MB limit. Maybe 3 MB would have been a better change. In addition to the potential for stopping push email without warning, one of the nice features of Windows Mobile, multitasking, is now limited by applications being closed as soon as the 5 MB limit is reached.
It may not be an issue for you, just wanted to let you know of a potential problem. ¶ 11:39 PM
