Thread: N900 will not allow USB OTG!
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allnameswereout is offline allnameswereout
2009-09-21 , 18:57
Posts: 3,397 | Thanked: 1,212 times | Joined on Jul 2008 @ Netherlands
#123
Originally Posted by pataphysician View Post
I might as well just use my n800 and cheap small phone like I do now, it does most everything I need.
OK.

The n900 is nice but it is much bigger than my cheap phone
Earlier you said you use your N800 and cheap small phone.

As personal experience, OK, but other people would care for many other advantages as well as disadvantages between N800 and N900. Different OS, processor, amount of RAM, ...

How many customers are now going to use N800 + cheap small phone instead of N900 because N800 supports USB host mode? How many will hack around this issue? What are the alternatives?

Many customers will be happy with 32 GB internal + microSD, using BT, WiFi or 3G for e.g. file transfers or SSHFS. With N900 and Maemo 5 It is dead easy to make a picture and upload it to Facebook... which is very attractive for mortal users.

Sure I could ssh into my n800 while it's hooked up to wired ethernet, from my n900, but then that means I've set my n800 down and will likely just leave it there and forget about it, and then I'll have to go get it. This was one of the huge pluses for me of the n800, it is constantly in hand, so I don't even have to think about it, and I have to move all over the place and do things, so this is a key consideration for me.
N800 on wired ethernet? Using a USB to ethernet adapter? How much throughput do you get with your N800 over wired ethernet? Do you really require that much MB/sec? What for?

Originally Posted by qole View Post
I was thinking of a replacement USB kernel driver that would ignore / override the HW signal when you told it to go into "unsupported host mode". It would have to be 100% software controlled (the user would have to say, "go into host mode" and "go out of host mode") and probably charging and power supply would not be available... but would this kind of software hack be possible?
According to quoted hypothesis not because its controlled by a pin (0/1). Like a jumper. Not by software. How can the Linux kernel ignore the refusal of USB controller not wanting to go in host mode? By screaming? That doesn't switch the pin, and from Mara's post it might be even difficult to hardware mod this...

Posts by qgil, ragnar and igor point out microUSB, power via USB are design choices. Tough choices. Design choices are always sacrifices, and there are always (potential) customers who will be unhappy with certain design choices.

Question is
1) how large is that number of (potential) customers,
2) what are their workarounds (software mod, hardware mod, other additional device, competitor device, ..),
3) is it possible to satisfy these people while not dissatisfying those who are happy.

Eventually it also boils down to a commercial decision (ie. very much related to time & money).
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Last edited by allnameswereout; 2009-09-21 at 19:09.
 

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