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Yesterday, 21st Tuesday, was the second day of my mobile-only adventure. It was an interesting day, as I was posed with the challenge of transferring my music and video files from the now retired Nokia E7 to the Samsung Galaxy S II – without the use of a PC.
You see, I love my music and carry my albums with me on my smartphone. If I couldn’t copy those files, this experiment was messed up immediately.
Thankfully, both devices are USB-on-the-go enabled and I quickly found a solution. The tools I needed:
– a USB-on-the-go cable
– a USB microSD Card reader
– a microSD card
I slipped the microSD card into the card reader, which I in turn plugged into the USB-on-the-go cable. Plugging that into the E7, I quickly copied all my files from the E7’s mass memory to the card.
Once done, the microSD card found a home in the Galaxy S II. Done.
Besides this, my standard routine on the web went well without any special occurences or situations arising. My core devices were the TouchPad and the Samsung Galaxy S II.
Founder of MobilityArena. Yomi’s journey in mobile started in 2001. Besides obsessing over mobile phones, he also started creating WAP sites (early mobile-friendly websites created with WML). He began writing about phones in 2004 and has been at it since then. He has owned over 200 devices, from Symbian, Palm, PocketPC/Windows Mobile, BlackBerry/BB10, webOS, Windows Phone, Firefox, Ubuntu Touch, to Android, iOS, and KaiOS operating systems.
USB OTG is simply one of the essential features that should be on every other modern smartphone. Though WiFi could be used for the same purpose, USB is much faster.
Things like this is where both iOS and WP7 will fail flat.
Harry,
Totally agree with you there. Every top dog smartphone and tablet of 2012 should have USB OTG (or similar feature) if they want to be considered true PC replacements.
@Mister Mobility
How is the experience of USB OTG on SGSII, do you have to turn on USB debugging?
Why don’t u try usb otg on the hypephone4. See how far that takes you
Jikong1,
I am yet to try out USB OTG on the SGSII. Will update as soon as I do.
will copying from mass memory to microSD on the E7, then removing it and inserting in the SGS2 work? You may not need a USB OTG afterall.
Abimbola, the E7 does not have a microSD port.
oh, the joy of USB-OTG. I always carry the cable with my N8 whenever I go out.
The N8 can even detect and send files to the HP Touchpad via USB-OTG. Try it. It worked for me after a few tries.
oh I see. Thanks MM (Mr Mobility)
thanks for this info. These are real life experiences that will help people make the right choice. Not all those hyped iPhones that cannot do jack.
Belushi, hope this is not an avenue for iOS platform bashing! The iphone and ipad also have a sort of USB on the go facility too! With the Camera connection kit, you can transfer media from usb devices to your iPhone or iPad and vice versa.
Perhaps we should stick to issues instead of dissing iphones! We should revel in the accomplishments of mobile over regular PCs instead of condescended attitudes on one platform!
@Bayoabu – GBAM !!! +1
pardon my mentioning iPhone. The crux of my post is identifying such gadgets that were able to make Mr Mobility’s mobile only experience possible. There will definitely be those devices that won’t be able to perform those his functions out of the box. I never new iPhone has USB OTG. If Yomi had used it here, i would as well have given it its due credit.
Yes, you could transfer files with the iPhone/iPad camera connection kit. It’s similar in functionality to the Nokia N8/E7 USB OTG dongle!
Check; http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4101
Check; http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/seven_hidden_features_ipad_camera_connection_kit
Can one transfer other files apart from media with the iPhone/iPad connection kit? Office documents, PDF and text files?
The truth is you can plug in a Bluetooth keyboard, memory cards or USBs (like flash drives) to the Camera connection kit of an iPad or iPhone and have access to files! Isn’t that USB OTG functionality? Many people don’t know about this because they’ve not tried. iOS may not actually be as locked down as many folks suggest. The trick is in using a platform before passing judgment. There’re always ways about achieving a problem or circumventing an obstacle! Just ask a veteran in that mobile Operating system.
Like when it comes to Symbian or Mrs. Simbi’s husband I’d ask Eye. Bee.Kay when I run across a prob. If it’s Android; I’d ask Harry or Belushi. When it comes to iOS (iPad or iPhone); I’d probably ask Afewgoodmen!
Babseaki is an obvious windows mobile fan!
Finally, when it involves mobile and ALL platforms, the intrepid Mr. Mobility comes to the rescue!
Mr. Mobility, I think it takes only media files. That is pictures and videos.
Trust Apple to cripple some functions with no good reasons whatsoever!
@Afewgoodmen
What reasons can better commercial ones for a company like Apple? Majority of iPhone users don’t know about all these workaround solutions nor can you transfer all file types like in the standard way we know it. This translates to their cloud services and online content stores doing so well commercially.
And some people keep saying things like: Apple puts the customer first. What a laugh!