08.24
Got my hands on the iPad Camera Connection Kit ($29 if you can find one) – two little dongles that plug into the iPad docking port. Really tiny. Slightly bigger than an SD card and thicker (approx. 3x for SD dongle, 4x for USB)
- For SD, SDHC memory cards (also Mini/micro SD, MMC with an adapter apparently.).
I have a couple things that take SD cards – broken Nikon point-n- shoot, netbook. My PSP takes something also, not sure if it’s one of the compatible ones.
Plug in the dongle and nothing happens. Put an SD card in and the Photo app opens and lets you import/view/delete photos on the card. I think. The one SD card I could find this morning had nothing on it.
- USB to iPad dongle
Had to set my Canon DSLR to PTP mode before the iPad could see it but otherwise it works the same way. Of course, my Canon had a lot more pictures on its CF card and the iPad insisted on creating thumbnails for all of them. Oops.
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It’s possible to use the USB dongle to attach other things to an iPad, in an unsupported way, but I think the only one that doesn’t require jail breaking the device is using a USB keyboard, which I’ll try some other time. And iPhone and iPod touches aren’t supported ( yet?)
Hmm… at least one report that you can use a Lexar model USB card reader with the USB dongle if you have a type of memory card that the SD dongle doesn’t support (Like Compact Flash). Clever.
Couldn’t find any way to move pictures into an album other than the default ‘Last imported’. Maybe you have to use iTunes + iPhoto? Export thru iTunes and then back? Seems a bit awkward and clunky. And… digging thru the Apple Discussion boards… that’s how you do it right now. Can’t even create an album on the thing. Yuck!
I’ll have to check on the App store for non- Apple apps that use the dongles.
