Playing media files in USB Drive mode 13
Hopefully everyone knows that you can plug in your webOS device to speakers, a car stereo or any device with an auxiliary input jack using the phone's headphone jack to output audio, but did you know that if you can also connect your phone to a media player that has a USB input? As detailed on an Official Palm Blog entry, many modern TVs or stereos that have an input for a USB plug will allow your phone to act the same as a thumb drive, allowing you to access any media file (music, videos and pictures) over that USB connection. Of course, each TV, home entertainment system, car stereo or speakers will have different procedures on how to access the files once connected, but to initiate that connection just plug in your device through the USB cord and select "USB Drive" (as if you were connecting to your computer). And as a bonus, this will charge the battery, too.
Be advised that just because an external device has a USB input, this may not work for you. As stated in the original posting, "some gadgets implement USB connections in a non-standard way, [so] we can’t guarantee this will work."
Source: The Official Palm Blog; Thanks to tllemmon for suggesting this tip!
13 Comments
But this shuts off the phone, no?
If that's the case then definitely no use in a car.
I know someone with a usb port on their car stereo. I thought about it but never tried it. Im gona try now. lol. In my car I have an auxiliary input so I always listen to songs on my phone while driving. It has replaced my CDs.
This is one of those "look what I can do with my phone" things where someone asks "ok, why would I?"....there's a pause...you have no answer. With a million ways to listen to music, why would anyone turn the phone off (USB mode) to listen to music? But hey, look what it can do!
Although I have never tried this I would be interested in viewing photo's and video's on my tv with this method.
Let's say you have a video/pic that you want to show to multiple people maybe at a family get together. If your big screen tv can show the video/pics you save the time of passing your phone around to everyone.
It is a "look what my phone can do" moment but isn't that half the fun of having a webOS phone. :)
Well car stereos are starting to add this in. Im not 100 percent on this but I think the iPhone can use the usb port to play music without turning the phone off cant it? Its just with the Pre, you have to go into USB mode. But yeah, I agree, for palm users its a "look what I can do" feature.
it's a pain browsing tons of files on a cd player, but some of my friends have only usb on their car stereo and no aux in.
I use this feature daily. It allows me to switch and search songs using a controller that came with my car stereo.
The best part is this renders the phone inoperable while in use, so less distracted driving yay
HAH!!
That's one way to look at it.
My 47" LG LCD TV will view the photos on my Pre but not videos. I think it'll do audio too, but never tried.
My Denon AV receiver has an usb input. It works with iPhone & iPod but unfortunately not with my Palm Pre.
This will make me give up my Pre? No way!
Haven't tried this on my tv but when I plug into my car stereo it says error. However, my wife's iPhone plays music and remains a phone at the same time.
palm needs to enable the phone to work even when in usb mode