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PortableApps on a micro SD card in Virgin Mobile's Broadband USB device

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tvme
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PortableApps on a micro SD card in Virgin Mobile's Broadband USB device

Has anybody tried this? A search didn't show anything but I may have done it wrong.

There is a micro SD slot in my Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go dongle. But there's no sense buying a micro SD card if it won't work. Might be kind of neat to have everything in one dongle.

The package says: "Doubles as a flash drive with microSD reader". It is an Ovation MC760 if that means anything to anyone.

Thanks,
Bob

ottosykora
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yes try

if there is an ordinary slot in i and it reports as flash drive, then it is ok. I assume it will all work perfect, since the card and the modem will behave as complete different usb class of devices.

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

tvme
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Thanks

I'll see if I can pick one up cheaply. I was concerned that all the data flowing through one port with a finite capacity would slow things down.

Heck, its less than $10 for the card. And I could always use it for something else.

Bob

scant_regard
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I found using a smaller

I found using a smaller capacity card worked better, but maybe it was faster technology?

In other words, get the fastest flash memory you can get otherwise it's files only and even then windows can choke on it.

ottosykora
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finite capacity

yes it is, but

recently I have read, that when usb communicates with an usb flash storage device, it will never ever be able to reach the maximum speed of the usb 2 anyway. This not just only because of the controllers being not able to do the job, but also apparently due to some kind of bug in the original specification of the usb2 protocol. I was surprised, that when 2 storage devices are connected to the same bus, the total transfer rate is more then double of the rate of single device and such configuration is able to reach the maximum theoretical transfer rate over usb2.

Have no idea if this applies to modem and storage duo too, but if it does then your total speed could even increase by that.

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

scant_regard
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How about USBOTG?

How about USBOTG?

ottosykora
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no idea

since they are again a class on its own and if they are also dependent on that usb2 bug or not I don't know.
You can see with some tool like usbview what class do they report as, they might have also more then one class in fact.

If they act as host, then all is again 'upside down' and it could well be that few things work differently there, but you know all those things has to be compatible for ever with the things you connect to them, so I have some doubt that in this mode some relevant changes have been made.

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

tvme
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This is starting to look like

This is starting to look like a plan. I picked up a 1MB card labeled "Dane" to see if it works. I think I'll try just the Launcher, Firefox, and Thunderbird to test it.

There is software that resides on my computer. Maybe that can go on the SD card so I could use the dongle on other computers.

Bob

ottosykora
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no

>There is software that resides on my computer. Maybe that can go on the SD card so I could use the dongle on other computers.

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

tvme
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WAY SLOW

I tried it and it was awful. Slow doesn't begin to describe it.

One possible problem was that I downloaded a new copy of the Portable Applications Lite Suite. My current version of Firefox is 3.0.16. The new one is 3.6.3. I got rid of most of the weird stuff in the new installation, but still cant make a "bar" third from the top of the screen go away- yet. It has to do with "tabs"- I don't "do" tabs.

Maybe I'll try copying my older version to the little SD card and see it it is still as slow. Right now, I suppose you could save a few things on the card in the broadband device- but why bother.

Anyway, thank you all for your help. It was a good idea; just didn't work.

Bob

John T. Haller
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Card Class Speed

This will be dependent on your card class. microSD cards have a class rating of something like 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 etc. The higher the number, the faster the card. A class 2 will not work well.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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