WP7 Makes Permanent Changes to microSD Card
The news arrives after AT&T recently told customers not to install extra microSD cards in their brand new Samsung Focus. Microsoft's own WP7 support docs also point out that the microSD card slot isn't meant for consumers to insert whatever they buy, but is intended to be used by the OEM that built the device and the wireless carrier that sells it.
"Determining whether an SD card is Windows Phone 7 compliant is not a simple matter of judging its speed class," the document reads. "Several other factors, such as the number of random read/write operations per second, play a role in determining how well an SD card performs with Windows Phone 7 devices."
However reports indicate that consumers are buying microSD cards anyway and are experiencing severe problems with the Samsung Focus, reducing performance to a crawl. AT&T stresses that only "Certified for Windows Phone 7" cards should be used if customers are intent on expanding the device's storage capacity. The problem is they’re not available for the general consumer.
"Windows Phone 7 requires a certified high-speed microSD card for optimal performance," AT&T said in a statement. "Because the Samsung Focus is expandable via a microSD card, only microSD memory cards certified for Windows Phone 7 should be used. This information is not currently marked on any microSD packaging in market today. As a result, we are advising customers to delay purchasing an external microSD card until the cards identified as 'Certified for Windows Phone 7' are available commercially or in AT&T stores."
Samsung also added in its Focus documentation that any card inserted into the device "will no longer be readable or writable on any other devices such as computers, cameras, printers, and so on." Engadget backs up Samsung's documentation, reporting that a microSD card was "fried" after moving it in and back out of the Samsung phone.
Later reports say that Microsoft is looking to certify microSD cards, however the only ones that play nice with Windows Phone 7 are only sold in bulk. Samsung claims that the 8 GB class 2 memory card should work just fine.
"The Samsung Focus has a 16 GB internal memory and expandable up to 32 GB," the company said. "So you can insert a 32 GB micro SD card on this device. Use of unapproved cards may cause performance degradation or device instability, including unexpected reset and loss of user data."
Are they serious about this ? One thing is to require special cards in order to operate properly, another completely different is to render a card useless outside the phone.
You won't be able to put it into your printer to print photos, neither your multicard reader on your PC/Laptop/Netbook, or other phones or media players.
Are they really serious ? How stupid do they have to be in order to ruin Windows Phone 7 like this ?
Are they playing Apple or the console market tactic here ? ("Only our cards/peripherals work with our porducts and they won't work anywhere else, so you have to buy from us, overpriced and all")
I am totally against this kind of thing. The OEM and the wireless carriers make too many changes to the devices, and they aren't doing it for the good of the consumer. I'm not surprised that Samsung has this problem, the last Samsung phone that I owned (Epix) clearly had changes made to it by Samsung and by ATT, and not for the good of the consumer.
Are they serious about this ? One thing is to require special cards in order to operate properly, another completely different is to render a card useless outside the phone.
You won't be able to put it into your printer to print photos, neither your multicard reader on your PC/Laptop/Netbook, or other phones or media players.
Are they really serious ? How stupid do they have to be in order to ruin Windows Phone 7 like this ?
Are they playing Apple or the console market tactic here ? ("Only our cards/peripherals work with our porducts and they won't work anywhere else, so you have to buy from us, overpriced and all")
This is the second article I have seen, and the writers should do a bit more homework before posting them as fact.
I myself have, time after time, shown people how to change their camera app to save their pictures onto the SD card and applied fixes for dodgy SD cards that wouldn't play media that well.
I PREFER certified cards in WM7 as it reduces tech calls, problems etc etc and by changing the card, I invalidate my warranty and the card gets trashed, so be it.
Stop being dumb amd tech users, think of the average joe out there. DOes the iPhone have removable storage? No. Did WM6.5? yes. Which had more problems with memory? Ohh let me think about that.
Yes, they are and most went out and jumped all over the iPhone 4 EVEN with its wireless problems. Unified onboard memory on WM7? Yes please and thank you.
From a peformance standpoint, it sounds wonderful.
I would prefer trhe option to lock the card in or not. Maybe a way to unlock a card?
I certainly hope your right.
The whole purpose of removable flash memory is that it is REMOVABLE, allowing the user to switch it out for a different size or directly slide it into their computer for read/writes. An SD card that can't be used with other devices and needs to be replaced by someone with tech expertise is little more than dirt slow main memory.
Sorry to anyone who doesn't understand the problem here, but you clearly do not belong on a tech site. SD is a standardized format, it is meant to be swappable and removable. They could have released a new format and called it "MS SD" or something if they wanted to mess with low level formatting or in general wanted proprietary memory.
The SD needs to be a high speed device? Class 2 isn't what I'd call "speedy" by any means.
I can hear the lawyers scrambling to ready their class action forms already. Something about words like "certain cards which are only sold in bulk", "changing the SD card (which is the consumer's property)" and "fried" must sound appealing for them.