newbie questions about viewing photos and USB ports

[freedda]

I'm new to Android. I usually use PC (Win XP) computers. I'm going on vacation later this year and was looking at a tablet that would allow me to view my images, maybe send some of them by email, maybe read books from Nook, etc. The basic stuff. I'm looking at a few lower-priced tablets by Acer, Asus, and Coby.

So, my questions:

• If the tablet has a USB port, can I plug in a media card reader with my camera's SD media card inserted, and then view my photos on the tablet. (I may want to edit the photos too, but that's not my immediate need.)
• Assuming the above answer is a 'yes', if the tablet only has a mini USB connection, can I get a converter (male mini USB to female USB) so I can then plug my card reader into the tablet and view/edit/share images? (Many tablets have a microSD port, which I can't use for my SDHC cards.)
• And finally, if either or the above is true, could I download my photo files to the tablet, then transfer them 'back' to a flash/jump drive, as a way of backing them up? Or, as an alternative, are there external hard drives which work with the tablets?
• Finally, I assume that even if I was to view or download photo files to an andriod-based device, I could later transfer them to my PC for editing, printing, etc, correct?

Any information is appreciated. Thanks so much, David.

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum


I'm pleased to announce that the answers to your questions are all YES. You can do all of those things but it would be best and easiest to get a tablet that had an SD card reader as well as the USB port.

 

[freedda]

Thanks Leeshor. Most of the tablets I've been looking at have a microSD reader, so that's why I was looking at a workaround. Best, David

 

[Dazdroid]

The Sumvision tablet that I've just bought has a usb port and a micro sd card slot if that helps

 

[freedda]

Just to clarify what you've said, are the micro USB ports on tablets powered, as the USB ports on laptops are?

As I said above, one thing I'd like to do is back up my photos by copying them to the tablet (using a card reader attached to a USB-to-micro USB converter), then transfer them back to either a USB flash drive or an portable, external hard drive (both hooked up via a USB port).

On my laptop, my portable hard drive is powered by laptop through the USB port. I want to make sure the micro-USB port on a tablet would provide the same power.

Welcome to the forum. I'm pleased to announce that the answers to your questions are all YES. You can do all of those things but it would be best and easiest to get a tablet that had an SD card reader as well as the USB port.

 

[leeshor]

There is no way to tell for sure on hard disks because the port on your laptop provides more "real" voltage than some tablets but most work, assuming they don't need 2 USB ports to power them. A hard disk that plugs into the wall will almost certainly work. If there ends up being a problem some people have gotten around it by plugging the power into their tablet when trying to use an external disk. That extra kick seems to work.