Google Explains Lack of SD Card Support For Nexus Devices

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[citation][nom]webbwbb[/nom]It seems a better approach would be to get rid of user-accessable internal storage and make each device come with an SD card so you don't have to worry about the locations of files but you have the freedom to upgrade.[/citation]I think WP7 did this, and I like the idea. My phone has 256 megs of internal storage but an 8 gig SD card. I would prefer to use the SD card
 
This is more of a problem with the way Android stores things than the user interface being confusing. I have an LG G2x ( and will not be buying another LG product for the foreseeable future because of it, but I digress ) with an old 4gb micro sd in and when you look at the folders on a computer it makes no sense.
 

From the majority of the questions I answer in the forums, the answer is NO, the average person has no idea how to Google to get an answer to basic questions! 😉

In fact, MANY people do not even think to go the their PC manufacturer's website to look for a downloadable manual or drivers. . . :pfff:
 
[citation][nom]wildkitten[/nom]I'd be more impressed if they came out and said they didn't wish to undercut other Android partners devices that have the SD card slot or even just said they wanted to give people a compelling reason to buy a 16GB or 32GB device rather than the 8GB and throwing in a 64GB SD card. At least that would be honest.But what Google has just done is call people idiots by insinuating that keeping track of what's on an SD card is somehow complicated and troublesome. Thank you for giving me another reason to give Windows Phone 8 serious consideration.[/citation]Its okay, there's still a sh*tload of Android devices that have micro-SD slots...not like this thing is the only game in town. Windows Phone 8? ...good luck with that.
 
honestly, the samsung galaxy s 3 did it PERFECTLY. the only way to get things onto the SD card was to put it there on your own, either through a file browser or on the computer. That way, EVERYthing done on the phone was stored on the phone, and the only thing going on the sd card was music and videos transferred from my pc. It was simple and easy. But still, I honestly see where theyre coming from. Some apps that scan your memory get goofed up every time the card is removed and whatnot
 
if it is too damn confusing, then perhaps THE SOFTWARE WRITERS SHOULD FIX THAT!!!!!

seriously? how hard could it be to make a 'my documents' or 'my pictures' folder where it saves stuff by default? or better yet, have a 'library' like feature where you have a location in local memory, but then you can have a 2nd location on flash storage for overflow?

Besides, when I use SD cards it tends to be to bring content to the device, not to export a few pictures off of it. Typically it would be to move my documents/picture/music library to the device for mobile enjoyment. If I am doing a 'camera dump' or loading a small amount of music or movies to or from the device it is much simpler to just do it via USB.
 
Hey Google, what happens when the device breaks & all the data is still on it? How is a customer supposed to remove it without having removable media socket? MicroSD cards are going to be around for quite a long time, especially at the current size (not too small & not too big physically)
 
[citation][nom]blader15sk8[/nom]I feel another reason Apple and Google leave out the option is because people buy these cheap class 2 cards off Amazon or Ebay that are barely even class 2 speeds that degrade the overall performance of the device. It's not a very good user experience if the photos stored locally on your phone take a while to load while you scroll through them.[/citation]
Yes, I think that is the biggest reason behind it all. They want to avoid situations where someone who doesn't know any better uses a cheap or even a faulty (or incompatible) SD Memory Card with degraded performance and then that person and his/her friends believe that the phone (and therefore that brand) sucks cause the pictures are loading too slow and causing the overall performance of the phone to appear much slower than it really is... thus causing undeserved damage to that phone's/brand's reputation!
(Similarly, several years ago, after doing some research, I found out that although my then new Nokia phone specs claimed support for up to 2GB SD Card only, people were able to use 4GB cards. So I upgraded with a 4GB and it worked. But the next time I used the camera which was saving the photos directly to the SD Card, it was painfully slow to save a photo and be ready to snap another. Initially, I blamed my phone and thought it had an extremely slow camera. Long story short, I popped in a 2GB SD Card and all was fixed!)
 
What??!!! Are you serious??? Too confusing my azz....just put the sd card in..go to settings on your phone and just specify where you want to save your photos/music to. That excuse is nothing more than a way to try to get consumers to buy the larger capacity phone/tablet for more money.
I can't remember the last time I removed my sd card...when I come home any new pictures I've taken while I was out are automatically uploaded to my desktop using the 'DropBox' app by way of my home network and from there they're backed up to my external hard drive and removed from my phone.
Too confusing...give me a phucking break!!!
 
Google has gone the way of apple: dumb down your products enough so the masses will buy them. Google can advertise their screen as "better than retina" and the masses will come. What Matias said is a middle finger to the intelligence of the tech world and comes off as more of an BS excuse.
 
Google is right on this one. I've had many clients say the same thing but I still want my SD slot. Default saved items to the device and give us our damn SD slot. Advanced users will know how to use the SD card properly. You would think more people would understand file paths by now.
 
[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]How do you back up the content of the tablet?How do I move photos, videos or audio files back and forth ?How do you unload stuff when you are on a trip and you filled upthe memory with pics and vids of the sight seeing trip or the recording of a business seminar?Sorry, but without any means of external storage my wallet stays in my back pocket.[/citation]
How do you Backup the data? Gosh, let me think..
Wifi (to a PC or Network drive.. I have seen rechargeable and portable Wifi+USB 2.5" drives too, from Seagate I think it was),
Bluetooth (to a PC), USB Data Cable (to a PC or USB Drive), upload to the Cloud..
How do you move photos, videos or audio files back and forth? Why, using the same methods above.. and also NFC..
Finally, if you are going to be relying on your phone to take more than 10GB worth of photos and videos on a trip without any other device (Wifi+USB 2.5" drive would work well) with you to backup your photos, then I guess this phone will not be for you. You can't please EVERYONE with a single product, and thats OK. It's a good thing we have plenty of choices to satisfy all kinds of users. There are other phones (and tablets) that you and others like you can look at. Other much more expensive phones (and tablets).
Personally when I travel and want to take lots of photos, I take my dedicated camera with me, my laptop and 2 USB Flash drives. At the end of each day, I use my laptop to copy all the photos/videos off the camera onto one USB drive, then onto the other, then finally onto my laptop before erasing from the camera. I keep triplicate copies to make sure no memories are lost. Everyone is different 😉
 
[nom]wildkitten[/nom]But what Google has just done is call people idiots by insinuating that keeping track of what's on an SD card is somehow complicated and troublesome. Thank you for giving me another reason to give Windows Phone 8 serious consideration.[/citation]
Keeping track of files on Google's devices might be more 'complicated' for Google itself: since they opted for automatically scanning media to create content list in their apps instead of letting people browse the file system to select files, letting people shuffle SD cards means having to re-scan more often and could be annoying. With fixed storage, Google prevents that.

That said, most devices have configuration options to choose what goes to SD and what goes into built-in storage. Not much to get 'confused' about there, can't be much simpler than that.
 
Consumers are very familiar with sd cards. Virtually every modern camera uses them. Google is lying. It's easy to tell they're lying because they've changed their story a dozen times to explain why they can't possibly figure out how to handle local storage. Is lying evil?
 
thanks google for saving me from myself. I'm obviously too dumb to use a phone. Make it more simpler. Seriously, I would have accepted just about any excuse other than saying their customers are too stupid to use their devices.
 
i've always said there were two types of android users:

1) techies. people who want good hardware, the most for their money, and an open(esque) platform.

2) economy buyers. they'd gladly take an iphone, but it is too expensive for them, and the android phone does (or iphone, honestly) far more than they would ever properly utilize it for.

while group 1 have been instrumental in building the ecosystem for android, i think group 2 is where the big money -- volume user is and that is where google has to impress, as a for-profit company.

a little sad, but hardly unexpected. at least the other hardware (sans sd) is really good for the price.
 
Good one Matias, insulting your users by implying they are either too stupid to comprehend how to handle an SD card or dinosaurs. Up yours! Hope that doesn't confuse you 😛
 
What a poor excuse. The 'confusing' part can easily be avoided by not installing an SD card if users really do get confused, but at least it's there should the user want to expand the memory. Hey, he might as well block programs from being installed on the device because too many programs can confuse the user.
 
I call BS, I bet the only reason was because they wanted to cut costs down as much as possible. They should have outright said that.

Id gladly dish out a bit more money had they at least put in that microSD card, and preferably a HDMI or microHDMI slot. The SD slot alone would make me want to buy it, without it though it is not able to fulfill all my needs that I want it to do. As I want it to be large enough to store all my music and some video's and use it as a portable entertainment device from music/videos/internet while im on the go.
 
he really meant ...upload data into Google drive and pay them storage fee.
 
Paleolithic? Really? Yeah, fixed storage with no expandability and no file browser is totally a huge step forward from the old days.

Wtf is with all these corporate a**hats declaring that people are stupid and all these simple concepts that we have been using for years are suddenly just too darn confusing and they're doing us a favor by dumbing things down and limiting our options?

Really, really disappointing to hear this from Google. This is the kind of crud one would expect from Apple.
 
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