A Word On Memory

No matter how much an application is given, it could always ask for more.

There are two big differences between an Android device, like a phone or tablet, and a traditional computer:

  • The amount of physical memory
  • The ability to do virtual memory swapping

Typically, today's computers come installed with several gigabytes of RAM (few come installed with only 1GB or less), however Android devices often have a maximum of 512MB of RAM. To add insult to injury, computers use swapping, which Android devices don't have, to give the system and applications the illusion of more memory. For example, an application could still address up to 4GB of memory even with a system that has only 256MB of RAM. Your Android application simply does ...

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