[GraemeJ]

Graeme;
I just got mine. I happened to read that Samsung is starting a rollout of a update to ver 5, maybe that will help.

Maybe, but all the reading I've been doing lately suggests that this is a 'feature' which is part of Google's on-going development of Android and any future updates to the OS will still require third-party apps to adhere to the newly implemented protocol. Which is a long-winded way of saying don't hold your breath .

Personally, I believe that I paid quite a lot of money for a product and the manufacturers of that product should not be dictating to me as to how I should use it - in my opinion, that is my choice, not theirs. To sell a device with a large external memory potential and then deny its use seems at best stupid and at worst, draconian. Not to tell me, before purchase, this is the case - see if you can find anything in the specs that says you can only use the external memory for a limited number of apps, I can't - is almost tantamount to not telling the purchaser the truth and possibly flouts consumer law.

The implementation of this new protocol has, apparently, broken quite a few user-installed apps already and there's been quite a groundswell of complaints along these lines, with little positive response from Google, so I guess we will just have to bite the bullet and do it their way - or change the operating system to something else.