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Help Question about USB ports

treefq

Newbie
Dec 30, 2009
42
3
All these new pads coming out I am curious about the intended usage of USB. Are we going to be able to plug in a 4 GB stick and read it? Are we going to be able to plug in an optical drive and read a disk?

After all we are talking about a linux kernel. I am assuming yes to the above. I would love to see an app that lets you play DVDs straight from disk.
 
optical drive is a no, none of the tablets i have seen has any kind of optical drive or even a optical drive accessory. for dvd just throw it in your windows 7 machine, rip then plug the xoom into the laptop and move the file. or even better if you have large size sd card just rip your movies to that and when you want to watch a movie pop that sd card in the top of the xoom.

someone might correct me but off the top of my head i don't believe the xoom has a standard usb port i believe it is micro usb like my droid x but a cable to go from micro usb to regular usb will set you back about $5 from new egg.
 
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a cable to go from micro usb to regular usb will set you back about $5 from new egg.

I ended up just buying one on ebay, shipping from China, couldn't find a micro-usb-to-female-2.0-usb connector on newegg. If you found it, could you send me a link? Because again it has to have a male micro usb at one end, and a female usb 2.0 at the other.

(By the way I'm hoping/planning to connect a card reader to the Xoom in order to ready/copy image files, as I generally only use compactflash cards with my DSLR and would like to view/backup those images while on trips, etc.)
 
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I thought the Xoom does not have proper USB host?

Update:

Based on the Xoom official PDF, there is no usb host, so no peripherals or USB thumb/hard drives, card readers, etc.

Based on the USB connectivity section of the manual, the Xoom has the following USB 2.0 function:

1. Mass storage (like any Android phone)
2. MTP
3. USB tethering

Folks may be (logically) thinking that an $800 Android tablet would have USB host, considering the "lowly" Gtablet has it for $350.

IF the Xoom has USB host, it is NOT in the manual.
 
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I ended up just buying one on ebay, shipping from China, couldn't find a micro-usb-to-female-2.0-usb connector on newegg. If you found it, could you send me a link? Because again it has to have a male micro usb at one end, and a female usb 2.0 at the other.

(By the way I'm hoping/planning to connect a card reader to the Xoom in order to ready/copy image files, as I generally only use compactflash cards with my DSLR and would like to view/backup those images while on trips, etc.)


How are you getting that to work if there is no USB host? Please check the PDF. Maybe I missed it. Just because USB 2.0, it does not by default mean it has host. Thousands of devices are USB 2.0 and not host devices.

It is located here:

https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/45307
 
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Based on the Xoom official PDF, there is no usb host, so no peripherals or USB thumb/hard drives, card readers, etc.

I have to really think about this and if it impacts me buying the Xoom. I expect this functionality in these devices and the lack of it pisses me off. All the other issues around the Xoom do not concern me in the least as they are fixable in the short term. But I live on these thumb drives and to have to start handling my files/music/backups differently because of a tablet is not something I am yet willing to do.

I'll wait to hear from folks on this board on their experience in a few days before making final judgment on the Xoom. If it does not really work then I am *not* buying this until later in the spring and I see if the Toshiba or something else of equal quality has this feature.

I'm sick of waiting but I am NOT buying some rushed piece of hardware lacking what I believe are required components.
 
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