Micro SD card

[sunshine182]

Are there any Gen 1.5 WP with Micro SD card slots?

 

[jimski]

No. After Gen 1, all devices switched to faster and more reliable NAND memory, without any secondary slots.

It is rumored that WP8 may introduce Micro-SD slots. But if they do, they will need to rework the entire file structure in WP. Currently (as with the Gen1 Focus) all memory, from NAND or SD, is batched into a single drive. So a hard reset is required to merge or unmerge the different storage mediums. That could be a painful experience for users, especially noobs, Microsoft's target audience.

If the two storage mediums are kept separate, having to choose where to store something could be equally confusing for new users.

I believe offering 32GB (and maybe 64GB) NAND devices, at a premium cost, would be a better option. Lets leave Micro-SDs to Android and the tinkerers.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

 

[Guzzler3]

Actually, MicroSD slots will be back in WP8, and they should be removable without resetting the phone. At least that's what I have been able to find out.

You should be able to put your music, videos, documents on the card, pop it in the phone and be good to go. If you have a lot of each, you could have one card for music, one card for videos, one for documents, etc. and be able to swap them in and out as needed.

There's a LOT of people out there, waiting for this. As people are finding the data caps on their wireless service hinder them to use cloud storage.

 

[lippidp]

No. After Gen 1, all devices switched to faster and more reliable NAND memory, without any secondary slots.

It is rumored that WP8 may introduce Micro-SD slots. But if they do, they will need to rework the entire file structure in WP. Currently (as with the Gen1 Focus) all memory, from NAND or SD, is batched into a single drive. So a hard reset is required to merge or unmerge the different storage mediums. That could be a painful experience for users, especially noobs, Microsoft's target audience.

If the two storage mediums are kept separate, having to choose where to store something could be equally confusing for new users.

I believe offering 32GB (and maybe 64GB) NAND devices, at a premium cost, would be a better option. Lets leave Micro-SDs to Android and the tinkerers.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

No way. It's only confusing for complete and utter imbeciles. The OS should be able to handle it to make it easy for said imbeciles. At some point, however, you just can't dumb it down any further and the user just needs to understand he is stupid and move on.

 

[eric12341]

Actually, MicroSD slots will be back in WP8, and they should be removable without resetting the phone. At least that's what I have been able to find out.

You should be able to put your music, videos, documents on the card, pop it in the phone and be good to go. If you have a lot of each, you could have one card for music, one card for videos, one for documents, etc. and be able to swap them in and out as needed.

There's a LOT of people out there, waiting for this. As people are finding the data caps on their wireless service hinder them to use cloud storage.

Cloud Storage works just fine on 2G connections, I've found that uploading and opening files from SkyDrive to maybe only be about 2 seconds slower when I'm throttled. It may also not even be an issue for streaming music as long as the person uploads .wma files between 64 and 96k which still sound really good. It might be an issue for large PowerPoints and .pdf files however.

 

[scottcraft]

Actually, MicroSD slots will be back in WP8, and they should be removable without resetting the phone. At least that's what I have been able to find out.

You should be able to put your music, videos, documents on the card, pop it in the phone and be good to go. If you have a lot of each, you could have one card for music, one card for videos, one for documents, etc. and be able to swap them in and out as needed.

There's a LOT of people out there, waiting for this. As people are finding the data caps on their wireless service hinder them to use cloud storage.

This is similar to what most newer android phones do with MicroSD cards. Not a bad idea, but I would be ok with 32 gigs of built in memory.

 

[jimski]

Microsoft already tried building geek centric phones. If you have forgotten, it was called Windows Mobile. We all know how that turned out. Don't think Apple has had any problem selling phones without micro-SD slots.

MSDs = more complicated, not matter how you look at it. Cards fail, people try to load them backwards, they get bent, they get dirty. This all adds up to bad press, not as a result of the OS, more customer support calls and more returns. None of those things add to a positive user experience.

Frankly, I will be surprised to see them return to WP..And even if they do, 16GB of NAND will do me just fine. Again though, 32/64GB models for higher end phones should become the norm moving forward.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

 

[palandri]

....Frankly, I will be surprised to see them return to WP..And even if they do, 16GB of NAND will do me just fine. Again though, 32/64GB models for higher end phones should become the norm moving forward.....

+1 I agree!


..and you know when 32/64GB models become the standard, people will be making post asking for 128GB.

 

[Guzzler3]

Everyone has an opinion, and not everyone agrees with everyone else.

I'm actually holding out for the MicroSD versions. I am routinely stuck in areas that I loose data connectivity, but like to listen to my large music collection, or my videos. I'm tired of having to carry around 2 devices (PMP and a Phone). I would like to combine into one device.

Even the idea of having the phones MicroSD card being able to emulate a thumb drive when connected to a PC via USB would be great! One less thing for me to carry around. Heck, carrying a couple MicroSD cards in my wallet is easier than carrying thumb drives.

Oddly enough, I'm not alone. Since MS is allowing the MicroSD feature back, there must have been quite a number of people asking for it.

The idea of just catering your product line to "non-geek" only, isn't the wisest idea. You need to throw out something for he geek to get excited about. Because if a geek likes it, they recommend it to non-geeks, which drives up demand.

The saying "The meek shall inherit the earth" has been misquoted for ages.. it's really "The geek shall inherit the earth".

 

[Thuoudo]

At some point, however, you just can't dumb it down any further and the user just needs to understand he is stupid and move on.

Ahh, but therein lies the problem--the stupid person is never wrong in his own mind. It's always someone/something elses' fault

+1 I agree!

..and you know when 32/64GB models become the standard, people will be making post asking for 128GB.

The one standard, I think it's XC (as in SDXC, mSDXC), is good up to 2 terabytes :shocked: Who else remembers the first 1 gigabyte flash drive and thought it was a miracle?

Even the idea of having the phones MicroSD card being able to emulate a thumb drive when connected to a PC via USB would be great! One less thing for me to carry around. Heck, carrying a couple MicroSD cards in my wallet is easier than carrying thumb drives.

Oddly enough, I'm not alone. Since MS is allowing the MicroSD feature back, there must have been quite a number of people asking for it.

This is still rumors, remember. The talk above about the card being part of the file system is true, and it would mean rewriting that entire part of the OS.

And I don't think we'll be seeing mass storage support in 8, again, because of how the OS itself works.

 

[palandri]

...Who else remembers the first 1 gigabyte flash drive and thought it was a miracle?...

I remember upgrading my XT computer from a 20MB to a 40MB and didn't know what to do with all the extra space.

 

[Thuoudo]

Our first computer had something like 25MB of memory. I was so psyched when my dad brought home a 133Mhz Pentium desktop with Windows 95 and upgraded it to a 10GB hard drive :happy:

Today, I'm still in awe when I see 64GB SD cards for as cheap as they are.

 

[johnmcd348]

I think very much the same way these days, like many of the past posters, I came from the early PC/clones. My 1st PC after moving on from my C=64 was an Acer 710xt. I bought a 10meg HD for, I think, about $200 to supplement the 5 1/4 disk and newer 3 1/2 drive I also installed. I ran DOS3.3 and played with a program I'd become accustomed with from my C=64 days called GEOS. I've always attributed the massive increases in storage due to sloppy coding more so than complexity of programming though. I get the whole increase from 8bit, 16, 32, 64 etc but, in the day, companies were run on less than we use today for basic home computing. Heck, the Apollo Program and space capsules were less complicated than today's wrist watches.

I miss the Card slots on my device. I came up through the PDA's and always used the ones that allowed for both SD and CF cards for the added storage of music, video, documents and other files. I've begrudgingly begun to rely on "The Cloud" for my files that I need to keep readily accessible and to allow me to save my many podcasts and such on my phone for easily listening in my limited spare time during commutes. What I have great trouble with is that the cloud is not always accessible.

I had this very issue come to me today. I was at a movie theater, about 30 minutes before the movie started. I needed to pull up some documents I had in the cloud for my Little league All Stars and was unable to get to it due to a weak signal. If I am to be forced to rely on cloud computing/storage, there needs to be a more reliable way to gain access to it. I won't blame the cellular provider for this issue. Coverage is adequate but there needs to be a more reliable way to access this information regardless.

 

[Guzzler3]

Wooo Hoooo!!!!

I was right! They are going to have SD cards support available in WP8!

Life will be good, and I will finally take this POS iPhone 3G to the shooting range and take my revenge out on it!!!!

Heck I just realized that I'll be able to do a "two-fer" and get rid of my old iPod at the same time. Ooooooo life will be good when that day comes, non to soon for me.