Tag: Android L

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You can use pictures from your good digital camera with your Android mobile device

Android customization – how to connect a USB flash drive to your Android device  | Android Authority

My Comments

I have a good Canon digital camera and have used it to take some pictures and, at times, place them on Instagram, MMS messaging or other services using my Samsung Android phone. But how do I do this?

Here, this is another virtue of “open-frame” computing which the Android mobile platform wholeheartedly supports. What I did was to purchase a USB “On-The-Go” (OTG) cable and a small SD card reader and used these to get at the pictures on my camera’s SD card. It may be easier to purchase this accessory online or through an independent computer, electronics or mobile-accessories specialist. Some of the camera stores may offer these accessories in order to cater to professional or corporate photographers and videographers who are uploading to Instagram material taken with their DSLRs or camcorders as part of their professional or their employer’s social-media presence.

You can use other memory-card readers with a USB “On-The-Go” cable to suit the memory card that your camera works with such as a CompactFlash card. You may also have to pay attention to the size of these accessories if you want to make sure you can stow them in your gadget bag or camera case.

USB-C – the newer connection type for newer Android phones

Newer Android phones may use a USB Type-C connector rather than the Micro-B connector that is dependent on an OTG cable. Instead, you just need to use a USB cable or adaptor that has a standard USB “Type A” socket on one end and a USB Type-C plug on the other end.

USB On-The-Go cable

Here, I may have to use an Android file manager like ES File Manager to discover the pictures in the camera’s DCIM directory on the SD card. There is even a special file manager pitched at USB OTG applications called OTG Disk Explorer Lite which can be the way if you don’t want to mess with a “full-bore” file manager app.

Newer Android versions and manufacturer / carrier variants may offer an integrated file manager for external USB-connected storage so you don’t have to download a file manager app.

SD card connected to Android smartphone via OTG cable

You may also have to look for a RAW or DNG file app in the Google Play Store which can export as JPEG if you are working with these ultra-high-quality “master” formats for your photos.

Here, I was able to share a good photo of one of Melbourne’s “art trams” via Instagram, simply by taking the picture with my digital camera, then using the USB OTG cable to share the picture on this photo-sharing service. Here, you would have to select the option as of you are picking photos from your image library on your phone, yet look for something like “USBStorageA” or something similar.

Digital camera card shown in ES Explorer Android app

For MMS messaging, I would need to use an app to make “scaled-down” copies of the images to WXGA resolution to send these through that technology. The Android app I use is called “Reduce Photo Size” which makes a local copy of the reduced image so I can send it using MMS.

But some newer SMS / MMS handlers are even integrating the ability to scale down to the right resolution for MMS messaging as part of their function set. This is to cater to the fact that newer Android phones are equipped with high resolution sensors and people don’t want necessarily to go through a process of scaling down pictures they took with their smartphone to send them via MMS. Similarly, when your phone and mobile carrier are part of an RCS (Rich Communications Service) ecosystem, your mobile carrier’s backend equipment will scale the images down to MMS if your correspondent isn’t part of the RCS ecosystem.

I had used this technique when I went on a walk through a neighbourhood that had fond memories for a friend of mine whom I live with and wanted to share some pictures that I took with the Canon camera with those people via MMS which was effectively their “comfort zone”.

SD card reader small enough to stow in your gadget bag or camera case.

I pack these accessories in my camera’s “gadget bag” so I can share photos I have taken with it using Instagram, MMS or similar “mobile-only” services. This can even work with any of the mobile front-ends for the Social Web or cloud-upload services like Facebook, Google+ or Dropbox.

Updated on 2 March 2018 to reflect new trends regarding Android smartphones such as USB-C connectivity, integrated software and RCS messaging.

The trusted-environment concept for mobile devices

At Google I/O 2014, it was a chance for Google to premiere the next version of Android for the smartphones and tablets; along with officially releasing Android Wear for wearables and Android variants for the car and the TV.

One feature that Google was promoting was the concept of a “trusted environment” for your Android smartphone where you don’t have to unlock the phone with your PIN or “pattern” routine to use it in that environment. Similarly, Apple just lately put forward a patent to implement this same “trusted-environment” concept in their iOS devices. Applications that were highlighted included you home, car or work and this was determined by one or more conditions being true.

For example, using a “voice unlock” routine can equate your voice as being a trusted user. Similarly, being connected to a particular Bluetooth watch or headset which is on and alive, or being in a particular location by virtue of association with a known Wi-Fi network segment or within range of a GPS “bearing” could also relate to a “trusted” environment.  Apple’s implementation also is about about context-based behaviour such as bringing forward or disabling apps that relate to a particular environment, such as showing up a video-on-demand app when at home or disabling apps not safe for use when driving. It could extend to bringing forward a business-specific app like a “handheld electronic menu” for your favourite restaurant or an “online concierge” for your favourite hotel.

A good question is whether this concept of the “trusted environment” could be integrated with the Internet Of Everything? For example, the concept of having your mobile device near a computer or building-security device could be considered trusted as long as you authenticated with that device within a certain timeframe and/or with a particular key such as your own keycard or code.

This concept may not be considered appropriate in locations where there is a risk of your smartphones or similar device being stolen or accessed without your knowledge or permission. Examples of this may be a workplace where public and staff-only areas aren’t clearly delineated or a party or gathering that is happening at home.  Personally, these setups also have to be about user privacy and about working totally to a user’s needs and habits.