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USB Thumb Drive to iPad - How?

Telling to post the document on the web in a flash site.

Oh wait a second...

Seriously though. This seems like a very good use for the iPad and functionality that would be worthwhile. I don't view it as big of a deal on an iPhone unless you are a Jack Bauer type spy.

These kinds of distributions are not uncommon, and the iPad would be the perfect device to take with you in portfolio and just stick the drive in a read and even annotate with...

I hope something is done to accommodate this kind of functionality.

I don't like to get all tin-foily on anyone, but I do think that Apple is pretty cautious about allowing people "more space" on these devices, so I could see them really limiting any kind of external functionality that accomplishes that.

Can't have someone plugging in a 64 gig thumbdrive into an iPad and have them forego getting the larger and more profitable 64 gig iPad over the 16 gig, for example.

I think a lot of really good uses will turn up for the device as it makes it into the wild, and hopefully apple can be accommodating. It may take 4 years, but hopefully it will happen. Maybe by then they will have 25 cent 128 gig flash drives that also serve as a wireless hub.
 
Possible solution

If the OS and app software support it, you might use the Camera Connection Kit's OTHER dongle, which allows you to read/write an SD card.
 
My iPad reads USB drives like a champ

Young Turk said:
As a lawyer, I regularly attend seminars, and more and more, seminar materials are in PDF form, and handed out via a USB thumb drive. The iPad would be a great tool to take to seminars, but it doesn't have a USB drive. How then would I get a thumb drive into an iPad?

P.S. - Despite this obvious (even if temporary) shortcoming, I pre-ordered on day 1 a 32 gb Wi-Fi iPad.

Young Turk
Click to expand...

I have a jailbroken iPad wifi 16gb that can read files from my thumb drive with the help of the Apple iPad camera connection kit and an app called iFile available through Cydia. It allows me to access any standard type of media type and view it with the according file viewer on my iPad. You just need to jailbreak your device, buy the connection kit, and download the app.

The best part about the connection kit is it works with most all USB devices. I have a Logitech Alto laptop stand that is a powered hub & wireless keyboard, and the iPad accepts the wireless keyboard inputs and anything plugged into the 3 USB ports on my hub.... My iPad has completely replaced my MacBook at this point :)

Be aware: iPads purchased within the first month of their release are known to fail to power USB devices and so require a powered USB hub.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'm really surprised someone hasn't tried to convince the OP he really doesn't need a USB drive on his iPad. In fact, I'm shocked.
 
Jailbreak your iPad, install iFile, buy Camera Onnection Kit from apple.

Shame you have to go this route, but that just tha way it is. :apple:


FREE TURK!
 
I love the word dongle. I still want to walk into Apple one day and, when they ask if the can help me, say "Yes, I'd like to look at your dongles".
 
kas23 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'm really surprised someone hasn't tried to convince the OP he really doesn't need a USB drive on his iPad. In fact, I'm shocked.
Click to expand...

I guess it's because most people understand that sneaker-net works. The technical side of me thinks that there must be a better way of distributing digital documents than handing around physical objects. However the pragmatic side of me can see that people find USB keys easy and useful.
 
kas23 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'm really surprised someone hasn't tried to convince the OP he really doesn't need a USB drive on his iPad. In fact, I'm shocked.
Click to expand...

Not sure if this qualifies as saying "he really doesn't need a USB drive on his iPad", but here goes...

Some day, lecturers (professors, seminar-folk) might realize that distributing documents via physical thumb drive passed from person to person like a joint or burning and providing CDs to everyone are about as archaic as printing reams of paper then binding and handing them out.

If the speaker would just put the document(s) into his/her Dropbox Public folder, and provide the link to the document(s) to the attendees, things would be much easier (and cost-effective and environment-friendly). Its what I've done on the few occasions I've had to distribute docs to an audience of unknown attendees.
 
kas23 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'm really surprised someone hasn't tried to convince the OP he really doesn't need a USB drive on his iPad. In fact, I'm shocked.
Click to expand...

He is given the USB drive at seminars. There is no choice here.

Without jailbreak, there is no workaround.
 
jomo25 said:
Not sure if this qualifies as saying "he really doesn't need a USB drive on his iPad", but here goes...

Some day, lecturers (professors, seminar-folk) might realize that distributing documents via physical thumb drive passed from person to person like a joint or burning and providing CDs to everyone are about as archaic as printing reams of paper then binding and handing them out.

If the speaker would just put the document(s) into his/her Dropbox Public folder, and provide the link to the document(s) to the attendees, things would be much easier (and cost-effective and environment-friendly). Its what I've done on the few occasions I've had to distribute docs to an audience of unknown attendees.
Click to expand...
Exactly. This is a classic case where it is not the iPad that is deficient - it is the user's outdated workflow that needs to change.
 
flopticalcube said:
He is given the USB drive at seminars. There is no choice here.

Without jailbreak, there is no workaround.
Click to expand...
Has OP just asked if the lecturers can start using something like Dropbox alongside the USB drives? They are most likely reasonable people and open to ideas that will make their seminars more accessible.
 
Let's Sekuhara! said:
It seems more and more these days that you have to hack Apple's products to make them do what they should have been able to do from the beginning.
Click to expand...

Amen. Beautiful hardware, but increasingly restrictive software. Not only does iOS limit how the iPad is used, but Apple also polices which apps are allowed.

At work, even computer noobies are asking to have their devices jailbroken so that they can use them the way they wish.
 
ZilogZ80 said:
Exactly. This is a classic case where it is not the iPad that is deficient - it is the user's outdated workflow that needs to change.
Click to expand...

I'll skip the part where I turn-tables on the arrogance of your reply (well, O.K., so I won't), and will say this:

I teach technology-based classes at least 6 hrs a day in a university setting to faculty and staff. To leave the device proprietarily crippled makes a laughing-stock out of Steve Jobs, especially given his down-the-nose opinion of the young Gates for selling-out to the IBM Proprietary and later PC 'standard' in the early days of Windows development.

Common point of commerce: Who's paying the bills, anyway? I can't begin to tell you how fed-up I am with the Yuppy Puppy Corporate mentality that HATED the notion of 'Big Brother', and has ended up making 'Big Brother' look like a Piker.

If the guy paying the bills wants a USB interface, GIVE HIM ONE!
 
I bought the USB and SD card reader dongle and even the micro USB thumb drives won't work. For the iPad to be able to see the USB drive, a powered device with the info must be connected. i.e. a camera.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134b Safari/6533.18.5)

ZilogZ80 said:
jomo25 said:
Not sure if this qualifies as saying "he really doesn't need a USB drive on his iPad", but here goes...

Some day, lecturers (professors, seminar-folk) might realize that distributing documents via physical thumb drive passed from person to person like a joint or burning and providing CDs to everyone are about as archaic as printing reams of paper then binding and handing them out.

If the speaker would just put the document(s) into his/her Dropbox Public folder, and provide the link to the document(s) to the attendees, things would be much easier (and cost-effective and environment-friendly). Its what I've done on the few occasions I've had to distribute docs to an audience of unknown attendees.
Click to expand...
Exactly. This is a classic case where it is not the iPad that is deficient - it is the user's outdated workflow that needs to change.
Click to expand...

Around these parts, where some of the MR dinosaurs are still begging for a mid-range tower Mac (rofl), your comments appear visionary, almost too progressive to conceive of. But of course, your solution is the obvious one. Give it a little more time and everyone will eventually get with the program.
 
I have used my 4g and 32 gb Sandisk Cruzer USB memory stick..on my Jailbroken ipad 1 with ifile and camera connection kit...

it doesn't work anymore?
 
FirstVette said:
I'll skip the part where I turn-tables on the arrogance of your reply (well, O.K., so I won't), and will say this:

I teach technology-based classes at least 6 hrs a day in a university setting to faculty and staff. To leave the device proprietarily crippled makes a laughing-stock out of Steve Jobs, especially given his down-the-nose opinion of the young Gates for selling-out to the IBM Proprietary and later PC 'standard' in the early days of Windows development.

Common point of commerce: Who's paying the bills, anyway? I can't begin to tell you how fed-up I am with the Yuppy Puppy Corporate mentality that HATED the notion of 'Big Brother', and has ended up making 'Big Brother' look like a Piker.

If the guy paying the bills wants a USB interface, GIVE HIM ONE!
Click to expand...
:rolleyes:
I'd love to be a laughing stock who sells hundred thousands of a new $500-800 product on day one.
That's why you teach and he runs the second biggest company in the world.
 
Someone at work transferred a photo onto a floppy disk for me but how I get this onto my iPad?

I've got an Internet connection, so is my best approach to jailbreak? Then I could buy some specialized hardware and I'll finally be able to get that photo onto my iPad, right?

Steve Jobs is a bad person for making products that are designed purely to annoy people like me.
 
Take the floppy drive to your local library or Internet cafe and see if they still have a computer with a floppy drive installed, then copy the file and burn it to a CD. Then you can use iTunes to get it onto your iPad.
 
I would STRONGLY request that the seminar holders use a safer method to distribute files. Passing USB sticks around is a perfect way to spread trojans/worms/viruses around. Suggest they put them up on an online repository and provide USB sticks as a 'lowest common denominator' solution for those with no other options.
 
EssentialParado said:
Someone at work transferred a photo onto a floppy disk for me but how I get this onto my iPad?

I've got an Internet connection, so is my best approach to jailbreak? Then I could buy some specialized hardware and I'll finally be able to get that photo onto my iPad, right?

Steve Jobs is a bad person for making products that are designed purely to annoy people like me.
Click to expand...

Bad analogy unless you are posting from the 1990's. Floppy drives are rare today, while USB is ubiquitous. Lack of USB may be 'forward thinking', but ignores the reality that will exist during the average lifespan of the product in question.
 
Meric said:
I have used my 4g and 32 gb Sandisk Cruzer USB memory stick..on my Jailbroken ipad 1 with ifile and camera connection kit...

it doesn't work anymore?
Click to expand...

If you upgraded to 4.2.1 then the power being outputted from your 30pin dock just dropped from 100mA to 20mA rendering almost all flash drives useless. Apparently there is a work-around if you use a powered flash drive but I haven't tried that yet.
I'm assuming your cruzer has a flashing LED light when it turns on, chances are that's your problem. I've found that my smaller flash drives with no (or minimal) LED lights work fine but the problem with them is that they are tiny (<2gb). The one "large" USB device (4gb) that I have that works is inconsistent and I think that has a lot to do with the repeated physical abuse it has taken from being at the bottom of my bag for about a year :)
 
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