Yes, ce4.2 is a horrible ram manager. Still, I don't see how including some utilities, especially ones that make sure to kill their own threads when closed, would hurt anything. However, it really doesn't matter now. As I said yesterday, hw just pulled a horrible stunt by releasing a paid upgrade with one feature, a feature based on an open pdf translation library. Now, the mpower has just one upgrade left, and all they need to do, as they showed yesterday, is put a single feature in that last upgrade and they can say bye bye to the mPower and pk forever, not caring what customers think or want, unless said customers want to upgrade to an apex. Even there, though, it seems that the new hardware and software are not being leveraged to bring the unit to its full potential.
On 2/17/12, Joseph Lee <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Alex, Mike and list, > I see valid points in both arguments: that mPower has a lot of > potential, but the way OS plays around with memory could > jeopardize performance. In my opinion, what will really > determine > mPower's performance and its fate would be how HW would utilize > availible resources well and are there > other hardware and software resources that they can use for the > foreseeable future. We also have to consider current market > conditions: with new units coming in, there could be lower demand > for older units, but there would be people who'd like to use > their old devices for various reasons. > Now for the whole story of RAM usage: We do have a lot of RAM to > play with. Even with all possible mPower features turned on, > it'll theoretically consume about 20 MB in total. However, given > the OS in use, we have to consider virtual memory limits: that > even though we have plenty of room on RAM, we'll quickly run out > of virtual memory with the culprits being Eloquence and Pocket > Internet Explorer (KeyWeb). This is the main reason for > recommendation from a number of users to use KeyNote Gold when > browsing the web and to do a soft reset when finished with web > browsing to free some memory. > As for feature sets, it is mostly software and hardware, with > some things requiring both hardware and software considerations. > For programs that could ship with last KeySoft release (don't > know when it might be), we can hope for three things: enough > space on mPower's ROM, best utilization of availible hardware and > useful software that provides essential features for users. ROM > space is an issue, since more and more built-in programs could > increase the space used by KeySoft image, which means depletion > of valuable ROM space (mPower has 64 MB of ROM), hence it would > take slightly longer to load the image to RAM (at least things > that'll be stored on RAM). Utilization of resources is important > for performance reasons. Feature sets are important - I'm sure > we don't wish to see more features that adds little value that > eats a lot of memory. > As for processor speed and other hardware, I'd like to take this > from both hardware and software angle. As it was stated before, > mPower has slower processor (the difference is just about 100 to > 110 MHz) with less RAM. But what set the mPower apart from Apex > (until KeySoft 9.2 came along) was how the software utilized > various resources to the best of its abilities (not anymore, I > believe). > So in case of "dumping to RAM," I do agree with Mike that more > and more features mean more consumption of RAM, and I too agree > with Alex on mPower's potential; but I'd also like to suggest > that we ponder this for a while: how can software use RAM in such > a way as to maximize performance without taking a lot of wasteful > space on RAM, and what is hardware without a software that takes > advantage of various features the metals offers? I think this is > something all of us should think about before continuing with our > discussion on efficiency versus storage versus performance versus > specs persus - and others. > Cheers, > Joseph > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Alex Hall <[email protected] > To: Mike Welty <[email protected] > Date sent: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:51:11 -0500 > Subject: Re: [Braillenote] ks8.1 details > > I understand this arguemnt, but could the mPower not handle > advanced > formatting, even if opening files takes a bit longer? After all, > they > already put an entire daisy reader on the thing, so is better > Word > support out of the question? Besides which, there are still a > great > many programs that could be written for the bn family, from games > to > unit converters to twitter to a better chat client and so on, > which > could run on any unit. Do they do anything like that? Nope. > What a lot > of people forget is that the mPower's processor is only about > 100mhz > slower than the apex. Yes, it has less ram and an older OS, but > it > could do more than what it does now. Joseph, jump in here with > your > hardware knowledge to set me straight if I am off. > > On 2/17/12, Mike Welty <[email protected]> wrote: > you're overlooking something pretty big, how is the MPower and > PK going > to handle a lot of what the apex has? Yeah, i don't agree with > 8.1 > costing money, but do you really see hw brancing completely out, > writing > features for the MPower and stuff, that will hardly run on it? > you're > forgetting the limitations of the MPower, 8 nearly maxes out > it's > hardware as it is. > On 2/16/2012 15:55, Alex Hall wrote: > Hi all, > I read the press release and talked with hw customer service. > Here are > the details of 8.1: > * it is a paid upgrade; either one SMA count or $129 ($20 plus > shipping if you order it already on an SD card) > * the classic is not supported, as expected. The mPower and PK > are > both able to take advantage of the upgrade. > * New features include the ability to read PDF documents in > keyword or > keybook, and the renaming of the "directory" item in the file > manager > to "browse". > > Yep, you read it right, and I double checked with hw: a paid > upgrade > that includes only *one* new feature. Of course, the press > release > pushed the trade-in program for mPower owners to switch to an > apex, > but all you mPower owners out there will be happy to know that > you can > now read PDFs. You will pay $129 for the feature, and get > nothing else > for your money, but go for it if you want to. > > Sorry if I sound negative, but this irks me. I keep hoping the > upgrades with one or two features will turn around, but they > never do. > I think this is the smallest upgrade I have ever seen. Hw > promised two > upgrades for the mPower; I don't think any of us expected them > to pull > this trick, using one of these promised upgrades on just one > feature. > If they do this again, they will fulfill their obligation of two > upgrades while actually giving mPower and PK users just two > features, > less then we got in each of the 7.x upgrades. Okay, rant over. > > > > > > -- > Have a great day, > Alex (msg sent from GMail website) > [email protected]; http://www.facebook.com/mehgcap > > ___ > Replies to this message will go directly to the sender. > If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a > copy to the list as well. > > To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to > [email protected] > To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit > http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote > > -- Have a great day, Alex (msg sent from GMail website) [email protected]; http://www.facebook.com/mehgcap ___ Replies to this message will go directly to the sender. If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a copy to the list as well. To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [email protected] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
