The folks at Lieber Lieber will probably go completely batshit when they read the following post from TreoCentral:

Treo 800w USB Host Port Lives

Yes, that’s right. If you have the right cables, you can connect your USB flash drive or other USB device that has a driver for Windows CE installed. You need a micro-USB to mini-USB adapter as well as a micro-USB Host (OTG) adapter. You can search for these on Ebay or Google them. They are out there. I can’t post links, here If anyone knows of a micro-USB Host adapter, please post it, here! I’ve not found one.

You are limited to USB full speed (12 Mb/s raw bandwidth) and 100 mA power supply (so some USB flash drives might not work as they use more than that, but modern ones are fine). You can even plug in an ultrasound probe (Google “cell phone ultrasound”) if you’re so inclined (I am, you see).

This is not advertised as supported so I will take no responsibility for anything bad that happens, of course, but it works for me (the ultrasound probe and the flash drive) so I’m reporting the news. You can get a mouse driver for a few dollars, and I bet a keyboard simply works, too (although I’ve not tried it).

I personally think that this once again proves Palm’s dilemma: while their products usually have loads of nifty features, customers tend to ignore them due to lack of communications or fear of quality issues (Palm’s customer care is famously bad). If people would have known about this when the Treo 800w was first released, I am pretty sure that it would have sold a lot better…


Related posts:

  1. Palm plans to offer BT Voice Dialing for Treo 800w
  2. Palm Treo 800w user’s manual rears its head
  3. First Treo 800w reviews pop up
  4. More Treo 800w goodness
  5. Palm Treo 800w drops at Sprint’s