Check The Memory

When the memory is full or almost full, it slows down the device’s performance and wastes our precious time. Check how much available memory remains on your Palm OS device by tapping Applications. Open the menu and choose Info from the App menu. The amount of free space indicates the amount of memory left. You can check the memory available on an external card by tapping the arrow next to Device and choosing the card from the list.

From this same Info screen, you can also view the size of the applications on the handheld and expansion card. Make note of the larger applications; if you don’t use them often, it may be beneficial to delete them or at least move them to an expansion card. If available, be sure to check Photos on the list, as it tells you how much space your photos take. Otherwise, you can also determine the size of various media files by reviewing them within their respective applications.

If you receive a low memory error message and have confirmed that the device has plenty of room, contact the software developer of the application that’s giving you the memory error message. The application may have an update available, or its developers may provide suggestions to correct the problem.

Cleaning The Memory Cobwebs

You might have applications, files, and old records on your Palm’s built-in memory that you don’t need anymore or that should move to the external card. Try these tasks to clean out the device’s innards.

Delete old applications and items. Consider deleting applications that you never use or rarely use. To delete an application, tap Applications and open Menus. Select Delete. Select the application and then tap Delete. You can also use these steps to delete items from the expansion card; simply select your card from the Delete From field. You can always retain a copy of an application on your desktop for later use.

Purge old items. The Palm Desktop retains old data purged from the handheld, so it's not gone for good if you delete it from the handheld. Although you won't have access to old records, purging them takes a load off the memory. You can purge calendar items, tasks, expenses, memos, and emails. Purging emails is particularly worthwhile because email messages with attachments are especially demanding of memory. The steps to do a purge vary based on the device, but the following examples are the most common steps. For calendar items, go into the Day view, select Menu (tap the top of the screen), and then tap Purge. For tasks, go to Tasks, select Menu, and then tap Purge.

Clear duplicate items. If you've upgraded your handheld several times or updated a record in two places (such as on the desktop and handheld), you might have duplicate records. It's easier to delete duplicate records manually through Palm Desktop. For example, click Contacts and switch to the List tab. Scroll down to find duplicates. Click a duplicate once and press Delete. Software for deleting duplicates, such as Undupe ($9.95; www.stevenscreek.com/palm/undupe.html), can expedite the process.

Empty the browser cache. Like a desktop Web browser, a Palm device’s browser caches data from Web sites to reduce the download time. The steps required to empty the cache may vary based on the browser, but you can generally get there from the Web browser’s menu under Options and Preferences.

Use External Memory

Moving large applications and items you don’t access often to an external card can help free space on the device. In particular, moving videos, music, photos, software, and ebooks to an expansion card is a good practice for unburdening your device’s built-in memory.

To move an application to the expansion card, first ensure the expansion card is properly inserted. Go to the Applications screen and open the App menu. Select Copy and then select the expansion card from the Copy To list. Highlight the application to copy to the card, tap Copy, and then tap Done. After the application is moved to the expansion card, return to the App menu to delete the application from the handheld.

Palm (www.palm.com) sells memory expansion cards ranging from 128MB to 2GB in size. The smaller expansion cards support older models, such as the m505 and Zire 31. The 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB cards work with devices containing a miniSD or SD/MMC expansion slot, which includes most modern devices. See the Palm store for prices as they vary based on the size of the card.

Adjust Photo Resolution

Handhelds with a built-in camera take photos in JPEG format to compress the images and save space on the device or expansion card. The resolution of the photo and the amount of details affects the file size: the lower the resolution, the smaller the file size.

Before downloading photos to the device or expansion card, consider resizing them before doing so; there’s no need to store high-res photos on your handheld when a lower resolution is adequate for viewing. Create a copy of your high-res photos and store the originals on your desktop. Resize the copies and add “sm” or “palm” to the file name to indicate the photo is small or for the Palm to distinguish between the two files. Copy the resized files to your handheld and delete the high-res versions from the mobile device.

Many free Web-based applications and services let you resize a photo, including Flickr.com, Photobucket.com, and Google’s Picasa. Photo-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Paint, also has resizing options.

by Meryl K. Evans