http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/ Engadget Comments for Droid gets a USB hack allowing it to control printers and cameras, humans put on alert http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 4:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 4:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 4:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Never gonna happen. Apple will make sure the device is used only for its primary purpose: sell stuff.]]>Feb 10th 2010 4:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 8:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Apple will probably do it in a more practical way. We've already seen the camera connection kit but there are also traces of printing support in iPhone OS 3.2 which would almost certainly be used wirelessly instead of plugging it into your iPhone/iPad directly. Certainly you'll be able to do more via raw USB host support on Android but of course Apple makes mainstream consumer products so they have a different set of priorities. ]]>Feb 10th 2010 8:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 9:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/So can android devices, that is not the point. The point is, if you don't have an existing host acting as a wireless server, that the Droid can be directly connected and host the given USB device. iPoo's don't have a USB port, thus this would be a heck of a lot more work to pull off (wire splicing and dock port hacks) thus probably won't happen. ]]>Feb 10th 2010 10:08AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 4:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 4:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/You just gave me a great idea for a head-mounted bracket that will hang the phone a couple of inches in front of your eyes. The Bracket plus a PS3 controller will be like gaming on a large TV. You also get the added bonus of looking cool on the bus. PATENT PENDING! ]]>Feb 10th 2010 5:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/This was more or less my first thought, too! I had looked around at any possible way to use a gamepad for the Droid a while back, and it seemed that USB was impossible because of that host issue. There are a couple bluetooth possibilities, but nothing like what's available USB! I can't wait to see what kind of crazy stuff comes out of this.

Is it possible to output video over USB?]]>Feb 10th 2010 6:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/
ie. Does it "just" make the Droid a host, or does it actually include any capability - I can imagine drivers being an issue for a lot of things.]]>Feb 10th 2010 12:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 4:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 5:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Actually a substandard of USB, USB-On-The-Go, has existed to do just that. My Toshiba Portege G900 has got it, and freaks people out when i plug their USB stick in the dongle and copy the files on it... lol :D]]>Feb 10th 2010 6:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 5:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/
A second mini-USB port fits in these devices without any problem, and software drivers (at least for Universal Mass Storage devices) are already there for linux based OSes.

]]>Feb 10th 2010 5:08AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Because offering it as a feature and then trying to provide support would be extremely frustrating.

I've had USB host on my WinMo and Maemo devices for years, and it's really great being able to plug in a standard flash drive or card reader on-the-go for quick file access.

But could you imagine the tech support calls for when people can't understand why their smartphones can't power an external 2.5" drive just like their laptops? Not to mention a plethora of other high-power USB devices, like tuners, 3G/network access, etc.]]>Feb 10th 2010 6:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/
You have a point, but this is true for all features.

I see a lot of pretty good workarounds for this problem.
They could advertise it as "only supporting USB keys" for instance. That's what the vast majority of people would use it for.
They could also tweak the USB Host driver so that a (friendly) error message is thrown to the user whenever something sucking to much juice is plugged in.

I still believe this should be a stock option.]]>Feb 10th 2010 6:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/
oh well. I will try not to mess up this time.]]>Feb 10th 2010 6:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 7:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/

but seriously, it would be great to finally use my PS3 controller as a gamepad while playing games on SNESoid ;)

could also be useful for getting pictures off a friend's camera, or printing out pictures that you've taken with your phone.

We can only hope that this will inspire Motorola to build this functionality into the Shadow :)


p.s. will this work on the G1?]]>Feb 10th 2010 7:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 11:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 8:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 9:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 9:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 11:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 2:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 3:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/Feb 10th 2010 8:11PM