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> There is nothing inherent to SD cards (or removable storage in general) that makes it a tough UI case. It's pretty simple, actually, See, you're thinking in

> There is nothing inherent to SD cards (or removable storage in general) that makes it a tough UI case. It's pretty simple, actually, See, you're thinking in terms of UI but I'm talking about user experience (which isn't just UI). It sounds like they essentially fixed the UI type of issues in Android M but SD cards are still slower, once you install it you really don't want to ever remove it or if you do god knows what happens now that the storage is unified and good luck explaining how to use and install one to a non-tech savvy person. After working years in retail I don't believe the majority of customers for digital cameras understood cards let alone _optional_ cards in phones.

rsync 11y ago
Well, if android phones still had the ability to masquerade as a USB drive (in order to move files/photos/whatever) on and off, then I could see leaving the SD card in place forever. But android phones don't currently have the ability to behave as a simple USB drive when you plug them into the computer. So if you're even a little bit discerning, and you refuse to install silly helper apps and photo-importers and android-buddy programs on your computers, you need some other (sane) way to move files on and off the phone - and that is the SD card. They're just files. You don't need a little helper app or to open up iPhoto and "import" or any of this silliness. You just need a dumb block device that you can move back and forth.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  As far as I can tell, the decision to remove Mass Storage had two main drivers: * The removal of SD cards from mainstream phones * The use of ext4 as a main filesystem on a lot of phones. The removal of SD cards meant that you could no longer "unmount" part of the phone filesystem to present it as a mass storage device. The use of ext4 meant that many OSes had no idea how to mount the storage, even if you presented it as a block device. I'm not sure anyone will read this, but I think you could implement a FAT emulation layer over USB Gadget, at least enough to get car head-decks to play MP3s off the phone. If anyone wants to take a crack at this, please get in touch with me.
  - rsync 11y ago
    My impression was that the loss of mass storage was due to a licensing issue with fat32, wherein android (google) had to pay some little license fee to MS for each copy ...

rsync 11y ago

Well, if android phones still had the ability to masquerade as a USB drive (in order to move files/photos/whatever) on and off, then I could see leaving the SD card in place forever. But android phones don't currently have the ability to behave as a simple USB drive when you plug them into the computer. So if you're even a little bit discerning, and you refuse to install silly helper apps and photo-importers and android-buddy programs on your computers, you need some other (sane) way to move files on and off the phone - and that is the SD card. They're just files. You don't need a little helper app or to open up iPhoto and "import" or any of this silliness. You just need a dumb block device that you can move back and forth.

voltagex_ 11y ago
As far as I can tell, the decision to remove Mass Storage had two main drivers: * The removal of SD cards from mainstream phones * The use of ext4 as a main filesystem on a lot of phones. The removal of SD cards meant that you could no longer "unmount" part of the phone filesystem to present it as a mass storage device. The use of ext4 meant that many OSes had no idea how to mount the storage, even if you presented it as a block device. I'm not sure anyone will read this, but I think you could implement a FAT emulation layer over USB Gadget, at least enough to get car head-decks to play MP3s off the phone. If anyone wants to take a crack at this, please get in touch with me.
- rsync 11y ago
  My impression was that the loss of mass storage was due to a licensing issue with fat32, wherein android (google) had to pay some little license fee to MS for each copy ...