USB host and various Android releases & hardware

[Subodh Nijsure]

Is there  position regarding what is going to be long term plan for supporting USB host support on a non-rooted Android system?

I am finding that non-rooted Samsung Galaxy II phone with 4.0.4  support USB host.  For google Nexus 7 I need to root the device to connect my non-HID USB device. A non-rooted Acer iconia supports USB host functionality out of the box.

Android (linux) represents such an awesome opportunity to connect non-conventional devices to tablet/phones and USB seems to be one way to connect things, when requiring high speed data. But I fear this  laissez-faire attitude towards USB host functionality is going to hurt these efforts.

Is there a position that google has taken on USB host functionality? Are things likely to better with 4.2? Are various hardware vendors being told to support USB host out of the box.

-Subodht

[Alexey Eromenko]

Here is a video of what Galaxy SIII can do with stock Samsung Android 4.0 :
http://gnli.christianpost.com/video/samsung-galaxy-s3-usb-on-the-go-demo-4782

Basically :
-USB Flash drive
-USB HDD (NTFS-3G?) (this was a shock to me)
-Play station 3 Game pad.
-Keyboard + mouse
-MHL HD video / HD TV
-All of above together via USB hub

Extra :
-Samsung Printer (prints from Samsung Android browser)

What Google Android can do on the Nexus phone ?

-Alexey Eromenko " Technologov "
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SIII

[Subodh Nijsure]

Is that rooted galaxy SIII or just stock Galaxy S3 device? Certainly doesn't work on SIII I got from Verizon (in US), running 4.0.4 version.


-Subodh

[Alexey Eromenko]

I'm not sure, but think, it is non rooted.

[Subodh Nijsure]

'some devices don't support OTG thats the end of it' -- that is the problem, why not be consistent? 

Its like saying yup some android devices may have tilt sensor, some may or may not have  GPS. 

Reason for having consistancey for OTG is folks that are making devices that could attach to Android platform don't have to make long list of devices+software version that their external device/sensor would work with Android platform.

-Subodh

On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 4:41 PM, behnam rashidian <behnam.r...@gmail.com> wrote:

What does this got to do with root? some devices don't support OTG host mode and that is the end of it. Some devices like Samsung support it. Root has nothing to do with it since it is enabled in the driver code. You want need to flash your phone with a custom ROM then that is a different story....

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[Subodh Nijsure]

Indeed checked the Nexus 4 manual and it clearly states that it doesn't support USB input devices,.

http://support.google.com/nexus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2809827&topic=2809758&ctx=topic

So you can connect to ADK (http://developer.android.com/tools/adk/adk2.html#adk-conn-usb) devices only over bluetooth and not USB for Nexus 4?

Is there a better mailing list to reach folks who make these brilliant decisions?

-Subodh