Re: Additions to the iOS/Android Features Document

Frank Slootweg wrote on 19 May 2024 10:02:46 GMT :

And then carry around a separate device?!

 
  I interpreted his "portable storage" as a sneaker-net mechanism,
copying a bunch of files from device X to device Y, where X and Y can be
any device which can handle MicroSD cards.
 
  (IM) For *that*, a memory-stick is much more conevenient than fiddling
with tiny MicroSD cards and tiny 'slots'/'trays'.
 
  But meanwhile he has explained that he uses the MicroSD card to
move a complete file system from and 'old' phone to a 'new' one. So he
is not copying files, but moving a complete file system.
 
  That is a very specific use of the MicroSD card feature, not something
I would have described with a general term like "portable storage".

This is so basic that it's shocking that the Apple people don't know it.

As I said, there are at multiple use models for using the sd card in a
expandable/extensible & movable/portable sense.

Most people, including myself, use the sd card to store data, APKs, map
databases, encrypted files and media files.

However... since I re-format all my sd cards to the same volume label, I
also use the sd card to repopulate another phone when the need arises, and
the beauty is that everything works instantly. I can even repopulate the
_same_ phone with a larger card, if and when the need arises, simply by
ensuring the volume label and the top-level /0001/{folders} tree
remains consistent.

The entire file system is portable!
It's a brilliant use of sd cards, in fact.

That a phone without sd is crippled compared to one with sd is so obvious
that for there to be any disagreement only means the child-like Apple users
are on the thread as it's all well-known fact what sd adds to the phone.

Which is why many Android phones still have sd card slots, including mine.