Nokia N8's USB On-The-Go support demoed, lesser phones turned into slaves

Among the Nokia N8's neater tricks is its support for USB On-The-Go, which basically lets you connect USB peripherals (flash drives, for example) to the phone and have it act as a host -- a duty usually reserved for heavier-duty devices like PCs. Though the N8 is still a solid month or three away from release, we're getting a nice little video demo on YouTube today of an N8 being walked through the paces of connecting both a plain-vanilla USB drive and another Symbian-based Nokia candybar (brownie points for naming the model in comments, by the way). Basically, you can treat the connected hardware as mass storage and browse it just as you would the N8's internal space, which basically means you've got unlimited music capacity as long as you've got a pocket full of USB sticks and a micro USB-to-USB adapter cord. Follow the break for video.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[walter164 Posted May 30th 2010 5:07PM]

i hear a PHONE-FETISH coming up...

[Pdexter Posted May 30th 2010 5:19PM]

Not bad feature to have. Hopefully we see more of this in Android and MeeGo.

[The Hype Posted May 30th 2010 5:32PM]

Now thats cool and innovative , this is one more reason for me to buy this phone once released

[LazarusDark Posted May 30th 2010 5:41PM]

This is my most wanted feature for Android, USB hosting.
I could forget having to take the laptop on long trips.

[DoctarPeppar Posted May 30th 2010 5:42PM]

Its too bad that file browser UI sucks...I don't like the transparent background and I don't like how little the list items are...meh, Symbian needs new UI framework...badly.

[putte Posted May 30th 2010 7:21PM]

@DoctarPeppar
Luckily that is coming in Symbian^4. There will be a completely rewritten GUI based on Qt.

Also, much of the ugliness comes from Nokia's horrible typeface, but I think that can be changed by the user.

[christexaport Posted May 30th 2010 8:28PM]

@DoctarPeppar
No real Symbian user uses the default file browser anyway. We use LCG X-Plore, Y-Browser, and ActiveFile before the default one.

[Camui Posted May 30th 2010 5:50PM]

cool phone

[kenny goo Posted May 30th 2010 6:14PM]

Don't understand why more phones can't do this. I wouldn't know for sure but it doesn't seem particularly hard to do and it's a nice little addition for those who could use it.

[anotherworld Posted May 30th 2010 6:31PM]

This phone is a huge comeback for Nokia.

[pankomputerek Posted May 30th 2010 6:34PM]

Would there be any risk in connecting stuff to my satio by
Device- female-female-satio usb cable>phone?

Please tell me cos I don't want to risk.

[DrScope Posted May 30th 2010 6:47PM]

I wish the best of luck to Nokia, they have the best quality products but they sure do lack innovation hopefully they will take the slap in the face from Microsoft, Google, Palm and Apple and return to kicking ass like the good old days!

[YorchArturo Posted Jun 20th 2010 5:57AM]

@DrScope They lack innovation? they are the first to put a USB reading capability in a phone, HDMI out, and they where the first with smartphones, and the only ones capable of handling Mouse or keyboards (external, normal size, bluetooth)

They lack good marketing.

[tnkgrl Posted May 30th 2010 8:58PM]

Nokia C5. Can I have gingerbread instead? :)

[EggoEspada Posted May 30th 2010 9:56PM]

I agree. How has this not been on other phones?
Good stuff man, good stuff.

[aardman Posted May 30th 2010 10:57PM]

Wow, an amazing feature that will be used by 0.01% of the smartphone-owning population. This is why Nokia is in trouble. Apple tries to go where the puck is going to be. Nokia tries to go where the puck can't go.

[hary536 Posted May 31st 2010 12:41AM]

@aardman

[hary536 Posted May 31st 2010 12:43AM]

@hary536
Sorry hit the reply by mistae, before typing.

@aardman,
Your comment itself shows that most of the self-proclaimed smart phone users in this country, are themselves not very smart to recognize the importance of some smart features.
Seem, all you want is a dumb feature and UI in your smartphone? Is that so?

[kingstu Posted May 31st 2010 12:53AM]

We'll never see this on Windows 7 Phone or Iphone. They don't allow removable media and don't like USB storage mode access to their internal hard drive. Gotta use their Zune Desktop or Itunes. With N8, a PC is not needed in more and more instances. Sweet.

[moco Posted May 31st 2010 4:12AM]

for people traveling a lot this is a useful feature. you might not have a laptop handy all the time. i have experienced a need to copy a file from a colleague's USB-stick (a presentation, system schematics or test file for example) several times a year. i agree that this is not something you need daily BUT once the urge hits you'll appreciate it.

[sher Posted May 31st 2010 4:41AM]

This is an awesome feature. Practically means almost unlimited storage unless there is a max size of the portable memory(HDD) that can be connected/recognized by it.

Clearly goes on to show that there IS someone thinking about putting the useful features in phones and NOT only abt the so called "fluidly intuitive" UI.

No doubt, Apple will "re-innovate" this feature and introiduce it in iPhone 5G as a major technological leap just like they did for supporting front camera(video chat) in 4G
(wch i believe has been in Nokia since symbian's early days)
:-)

[PassingBy Posted May 31st 2010 2:01PM]

@sher
There is a max. IIRC it can only read FAT32 formatted disks. Either that or the FAT32 limit is only to the MSmicro..

I WANT MY N8!!!!!!!!

[fortelv999 Posted May 31st 2010 2:09PM]

now that's interesting, i wonder if if can power up an external 2,5 inch hdd, imagine your phone with 320gb of extra space... the ultimate pmp (yes the power drain would be spectacular but thats what chargers are for)