Everyone seems to think the problem is with the hardware (e.g. needs more RAM). In fact, it's just a software issue, and Nokia developers will eventually fix it.

64MB is plenty of RAM for a device like this. I have a similar PDA running linux that also has 64MB RAM. I recently opened 7 applications simultaneously and browsed for several hours without problems (Opera, Netfront, Excel compat. app, Word compat. app, PDF viewer, GAIM, and Console). I haven't had an "out of memory" error on that device in years. I'm not saying more RAM isn't always nice, but you can churn through 128MB RAM with buggy software pretty fast as well. Throwing more RAM at it just makes the device more expensive, and doesn't really fix the problem.

The Nokia software is just still "beta" level, at best. I'm not blaming Nokia for this...early release was their strategy. As it matures, it will get faster, and the memory errors should be a thing of the past. Hopefully Opera will also step up to the plate and fix the memory footprint and other issues with their application, or alternately it will be replaced with a better browser.

Exactly mk500. Gigs of memory on a desktop only became reality when hardware prices went down drastically and Microsoft got sloppy. I still think it'd be an excellent exercise to limit programmers to 64kb of memory space to do things that are unheard of these days. The art of memory management seems to be a thing of the past.

I'm sitting on a P4 3Ghz with 1GB of RAM and it still spends it's sweet time thinking about opening some apps. Horrid.

I hope you are right, but this "test website" that I am using is very graphics heavy and a bit extreme case. Could you do a little testing for me with your other PDA?

Please open website http://www.dpreview.com and from reviews (left menu) choose Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II review, and choose "27 Samples" from listbox. Open one of the sample picture clicking link "Original". Can you now open another browser and open another sample picture simultaneously with it? 770 can now handle one sample picture (with previous firmware it couldn't, without extreme sluggishness).

Oh stop. Do you really want to be remembered like this, along with Bill "640K Should Be Enough For Anybody" Gates?

Sure, the Mem Mgr is wonky, but if it had more RAM to begin with, I'd think we'd all be seeing that Low Memory dialog a lot less.

I reflashed without any problems other than it taking a bunch of retries to pair with my phone. The only changes I have noticed so far is that the memory program in the control panel works and the e-mail client seems a little quicker. Memory management seems to be about the same to me.

I don't think the issue is as much with RAM and the OS/software, but rather the *content*. The 770 is clearly marketed as an internet browsing device. As such the requirement for a decent amount of RAM to handle website content without chugging is a must. Squeezing the apps is helpful, but largely irrelevant in this context. More is better.

Thats not the point he is trying to make. While the cheap way is to simply throw more ram at the problem, I would rather have a well engineered application managing itself properly. End result nets you a much leaner application that gives you less problems down the road.

My (uneducated) guess is that Nokia has recognized that many of the applications they are using on the 770 are not *that* memory concious, nor have they been designed that way. Lets face it, orphaning 4-10mb on a desktop these days is not considered a problem, while doing the same on the 770 causes quite a few problems. I have a feeling they are going through code right now trying to streamline everything as much as possible, and I for one applaud them for doing it. It is something that not many companies do these days, and it is the *right* way to do it IMHO.

Now where is my freakin 256mb upgrade Nokia! :D

Mike, I totally agree you with the memory issue, but Time's Person of the Year probably never said it:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,1484,00.html

But one of his (also known as Good Samaritan) quotes might be appropriate for this issue:
"I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time."

Just because he never said it doesn't mean he never thought it.

(Yes, I know people are NOW saying he never said it. But strange how back in the *1980s* everyone was certain he had. And I still suspect that a search through circa early 1980s InfoWorlds will uncover the truth!)

As for my crankiness over RAM, I'm sure you engineer types are correct in your assertions that In Theory Everything Should Work Well. In Practice, It Is Not, however. I look forward to the day when it does -- either by better software or more RAM.

Off topic, but wasn't this a Intel's hardware issue:8086 CPU could only address 1 MB of memory and of that 384 KB was for BIOS by IBM's specs. So Microsoft,then a little company, couldn't argue with the big guy IBM. Or is it revisionist history?