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Tablet recommendation?


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We bought our daughter an Acer Iconia for Christmas, she's very pleased with it but it has one thing wrong with it.

We bought a universal (got it in Cultura) usb to micro usb connection cable and unfortunately the Iconia doesn't seem to recognise the additional storage. This is annoying as it's useful for storing films and TV etc.

I tried the same connection via a Samsung Camera and hey ho, found it straight away.

So, my question is can anyone recommend a reasonably priced tablet (about £150) that recognises the additional storage of a usb key.

Thought one of you computer experts would know the answer and thanks for help.
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It's an iconia B1 which I guess must be a pretty old one.

I'm looking at getting a tablet for myself, I just find these days my laptop is far to heavy (long story involving many operations) but I would like the simplicity of tablet. I'm looking for a 10" but it does need to support usb too.
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It has a microSD slot if I am not mistaken. You need to buy a USB adapter which takes a microSD card. Plug that into a device to copy the files on to it. Remove the adapter and then remove the microSD card from the carrier and put it into the tablet. The Acer Iconia B1 will accept up to 32GB capacity microSD cards.

Many, especially cheap, tablets will only use the USB port for data transfer between computer and tablet plus charging. Yours will not support a memory card via the USB port.

Some examples and rough price guides.

Typical microSD adapter.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000VY80AM/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000CRFPWE&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=13EZRWT5021STCV5HTCT

 

MicrosSD Card (32GB)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-SDSDQM-032G-B35-Class-microSDHC-Memory/dp/B003HIWHN0/ref=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1389044003&sr=1-6&keywords=micro+sd+card+32gb

 

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Thanks for both your help.

I've been looking at Which Magazine which says that the Tesco Hudl is quite a good buy. Looking down the list of specifications it does say this :

"...What"s in the Box Hudl Tablet DC Charger, output power (5v=2a) 1m USB to Micro-USB cable Quick Start Guide...... "

Would I be correct in thinking that t his would support a USB key as they provide the cable?

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The cable is primarily for charging and secondary for connecting the tablet to a PC/Laptop for data transfer and synchronization of things like Outlook etc.

Perhaps the easiest way to explain it is that for just about everything your tablet is seen as a memory device. For instance my TV has a USB socket. If I plug my tablet or my phone into it via the cable it is seen as an external drive and I can watch film that are stored on the tablet. The attitude of the tablet manufactures in general is that they provide a memory slot in which to plug memory cards so why would you want to use a cable and memory stick via the USB port.

Some middle to high end tablets do have the ability to read USB memory sticks, some even have a standard USB port but you are going to have to pay a lot more money.

The solution I gave you for your existing tablet should work without problems.

Of course you can copy films directly to your tablet from your PC using the cable. I see yours has 16GB of storage which is in reality around 12GB of useable space. On average you can store around 20 full length films in a quality that is quite acceptable for a tablet with that size screen.

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according to the reviewers on this OTG cable, th eHudl supports USB OTG host. [:)]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/iZKA-Micro-USB2-0-Female-Tablet/dp/B00FZYTECQ

That means (if they are correct, and I presume they are not making it up) that it can read USB keys, add amouse add a keyboard etc with this cable.

Not that this is not the same cable as supplied with the HUDL.

Danny

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Both my Google Nexus 7's (2012/2013) can use a keyboard and mouse via the USB port but they can't read a memory stick, I know I have tried. To read a memory stick you need to root the device and use 'stickmount'. Alternatively you can buy a Bluetooth or wireless USB memory stick . Finally if you are running Android 4.4+ you can use Media Importer with the memory stick attached via a OTG cable. Basically Android does not by default come with the ability to read a USB memory stick via the USB port, the software for 'mounting' it as a drive is not there. As it happens both having 32GB of strage it is just as easy to connect the Tablet to the PC and just copy the media you want via Windows Explorer.

However at the end of the day all the OP seems to want to do is simply read a memory stick which has some films, recorded TV series and listen to a bit of music in a very uncomplicated way. This is why I suggested using the memory adapter route. This would only cost about £20 and much cheaper than buying another tablet which may or may not work.

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I suppose I was thinking of the bit where mogs said[quote user="mogs"]

I'm looking at getting a tablet for myself, I just find these days my laptop is far to heavy (long story involving many operations) but I would like the simplicity of tablet. I'm looking for a 10" but it does need to support usb too.[/quote] [:)]

I have a cheap Chinese tablet  (Onda) which works very well and does OTG - recognising USB flash drives, hard drives as well as ethernet via adapter and also using a mouse with no problem and no messing about with rooting.

It is wise to do a lot of reading up before buying as some tablets like yours may recognise some USB devices but not others and also it may depend on formatting of drives etc...

the tesco Hudl seems to be well reviewed and may well be a good buy for mogs.

Danny

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Ok

  Just bought 7 " one from Carefour  on promo  It takes a 32 gb  micro card and I can plug a usb key into it  for just €89 works ok for me

                Dave

 just a thought you have to go into memory and " mount " the key before you can use it and " unmount "  it before you can remove it

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Quillian - just out of interest, I have a rooted HP 10 inch tablet running CM10. It does not recognise a USB stick. I got a OTG cable but I have to run it with an external USB power supply as the HP USB socket has no power out. Does a sickmount overcome this? With the power supply, USB stick, power juicer etc I can watch films. Its a bit of a lash up, but its done more for the pleasure of overcoming a problem than anything else!
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In truth it is not something I have come across or tried as I have nt used an HP tablet. I would imagine that if the micro USB port did not supply power any changes to the operating system or 'plugins' to it would make it work. In short I think it is more of a physical thing than software. However if you can feed the stick power it may well work. Stickmount is free through Google Play so I guess as your device is already rooted (a requirement for Stickmount) the easiest thing is to give it a try.
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Thanks, I gave it a try. Think you are correct, its a software fix, therefore even though the table is running an Android system Stickmount recognises, it only overcomes the software problem and not the hardware ie power the USB port.

Always interesting to try something different. The HP tablet was never designed to run Android, but some chap much cleverer than me designed the Cyanogen Mod. The USB port was never designed to power an external drive, but the OTG and juicebox allows us to watch movies in the camping car so all is well.
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