Why no USB port on PDAs?

D

Dannah

New member
Why don't Palms have a USB port? It would seem to be a pretty obvious feature.

It can't be because of size...a USB controller chip can be made small, cheap, and easily, and they could use a mini-sized port.

Isn't there a "USB-low power" standard? I'm sure it'd be hard for a Palm to constantly output an extra 500 mA, but maybe cap it at and extra 100 mA?

I suspect the real reason is that all the PDA companies want to make money by selling proprietarily connected devices. What do you think?

P-Sz
 
I know there are some Pocket PCs by Toshiba and one by Casio that will let you connect USB keyboards. However, you have to connect an external USB host adapter before you can connect a USB device.

I am not aware of any USB host devices which can be used on a Palm OS device. It is my guess that the PDA manufactures want to concentrate on developing wireless devices such as infrared keyboards. I would personally like to see more devices integrate bluetooth technology such as PDA keyboards, bar code scanners, cameras, GPS, etc.
 
As dwinget posted - a couple of Toshiba Pocket PC's and a casio Pocket PC have USB Host ports. Also, an HP Jornada or two (like the 820) have a USB Host port. I've added a USB mouse on the Jornada 820 before - worked just fine, but didn't have any other devices at that time to try. That was then...

The rest, reportedly because of the cost to add this prohibit's it. I've also read somewhere that it's because of the power - a USB hard drive or similar device would drain the PDA power pretty fast. I don't have any hard facts though.

There is a company that sells a CF Host adapter for the Pocket PC as well, but I haven't seen any similar adapters for the Palm platform. And yes - that adapter does cap the power at 100mA.

I wouldn't mind seeing this feature added though on the Palm platform - I'd use it.
 
The USB port on the Tungsten E is a standard mini port used by digital cameras and digital camcorders and I'm sure, many other devices.

It is a "full-on" USB connection with a mini connection on one end and a standard flat connection on the other.
 
We're talking about putting the computer side of USB into the PDA, so you can hook up devices to PDA like a computer.

Abid
 
Abid786 wrote:

Well, wouldn't it be easier to pair the mini side of a USB cable to a square side like used by peripherals? The mini USB port and full-sized USB ports have the same number of pins, I think.

Of course, drivers will still need to be written.

ed-
 
Ah - That's it then. I saw the comment from the OP, and having read several questions recently about hooking up USB peripheral devices to the PDA - well, you see that's where my thinking was headed.
 
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