Official MicroSD card support, what Google has said

[gogol]

So, apparently, it is still not supported and Google has no solution yet.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2275..._details_emerge_the_little_things_add_up.html

This detail, which came out in conversations I had with Google engineers today, explains why the Android file system organization is, well, a mess, and why I’ve had such inconsistent experiences with Android and removable storage across the various Honeycomb tablets I’ve tried (and I’ve tried all of them that are available so far).

“We don’t want to expose the user to file locations,” explained Hiroshi Lockheimer, director of engineering at Google. “How do you manage that as a user? The not-good answer is with the file browser.” Lockheimer says that many of the experiences I’ve seen so far are what individual hardware manufacturers have enabled, as opposed to what Google has provided natively. The good thing is that Lockheimer says Google is looking at ways to do this; but the problem hasn’t been solved yet.

 

[Lothaen]

Is it me or does that say nothing still?

Google says they don't want to give you a file browser / file explorer / file manager.

Fine - there's plenty of third party apps to that on the market - but why not fix the SD card slot support?


Although I agree that some of the structure stuff is a bit of a mess - there's lots of random folders created on the SD card, like .android_secure, .bookmark_thumb etc. that you probably don't want end users seeing.

 

[poisike]

At least now it's clear that it's Google who has to fix the SD Card issue and not Motorola.

 

[Lothaen]

At least now it's clear that it's Google who has to fix the SD Card issue and not Motorola.

I honestly didn't read that at all...?

I read that google were working on some sort of file manager, not SD card? am I misreading it? as far as I can see file manager, and SD card are separate issues?

also the transformer, and custom kernels have the sd card slot working, so not sure who is at fault for the xoom

 

[Kcarpenter]

Why is there a difference between the tablet and the phones?
I have access to the SD Card and file system there.

Not like every Windows user on the planet has never seen "My Computer". Organizing files is not some obscure concept that is to high level for users.

 

[gogol]

From what I can understand:

USB file system means the OS access the usb disk in block level which the app (file browser) will have access to the full path of the file.

The one that is supported by Honeycomb right now is MTP. This is totally different compared to USB. The actual file system is implemented by the device, not by the computer's operating system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol

My prediction, this USB thing will be solved by the upcoming ICE CREAM SANDWICH.
Because by then, phone and tablet are merged ... everything which is supported by phone (like SD card) must be supported by tablet.
So, yeah, we must wait till end of this year or early next year (worse case).
Still, it is too long for Motorola with their "promise", no?

 

[Lothaen]

@Kcarpenter
Very true - but I think the problem may lie with the Xoom using the MTP instead?
or is that a load of rubbish?

Eitherway, I guess from the Google point of view - they want it simple and try and hide the stuff they don't want n00bs messing with (a bit like Apple hide everything too so all their iOS are n00b proof!)

Also Phones open up to mass storage straight to the card - you don't get access to the internal memory at all. Whereas with the Xoom you would want access to that because there's loads of space there

 

[Lothaen]

My prediction, this USB thing will be solved by the upcoming ICE CREAM SANDWICH.
Because by then, phone and tablet are merged ... everything which is supported by phone (like SD card) must be supported by tablet.
So, yeah, we must wait till end of this year or early next year (worse case).
Still, it is too long for Motorola with their "promise", no?

What about just fixing the kernel like timat's - that'd do the same job for now

 

[911junkie]

Still don't understand why they would slack on getting the SD card implemented. They have so much riding on honeycomb success. And the LTE radio needs to get installed too. Time to ramp it up.

 

[mwaychoff]

I agree they should be able to enable it considering one of our own has already done so with a custom a kernel, I still love my xoom though!

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

 

[Lothaen]

I agree they should be able to enable it considering one of our own has already done so with a custom a kernel, I still love my xoom though!

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

agree completely.

and the LTE thing is running on awhile now - didnt someone say that the samsung tab 10.1 might beat Xoom to be the first LTE HC tab if Moto don't buck up?

 

[robbiev80]

Who needs google when you have bigrushdog?

 

[CyberChulo]

Just did the 3.1 update and SD card slot still doesn't work. I thought it would've fixed this.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

Yea, I read that article yesterday. It has NOTHING to do with the sdcard support.

Google was explaining why android in general has a fairly chaotic/unintuitive filesystem structure... NOT why they haven't biuld in support for SD.

 

[bigeasy911]

it was well known this update was not addressing the sd slot. No wjere not one single ppace has google or moto saidnthe sd lotbwil not be active by the deadline they stated. They could give us slot access right now but the issue is as has been aluded to they would either have to give full file sys access or no file access like the phones. For those that will say it doesn't matter give us access. It matters to them as they will be creating huge issues with tech support by the much larger majority of users that would delete things that would kill or hamper the device. I mean even on here you have tons of people that can't follow clear simple directons to flash an update without screwing it up some how. Can you imagine Suzzy home maker or joe the guy who can not figure out how to do a windows update would do with full access. My guess is they will be doing a update with a file manager and permision set so nothing past the sdcard parent folder can be accessed and programs installed will have premissions set to prevent accidental delete without going into the file manger settings to change them to allow change of permisions.

This will solve both the issues and allow both sd card and internal storage access without opening up the core files to tinkering by BDUs