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Ask Juan: Why won’t my Moto X show up as a USB drive on my Mac?

surface connected to lg g2 file management transfer somegadgetguyFrom our Facebook page, Robin asks:

Here’s a question relating to Android… When I plug my Moto X into my Windows PC using the supplied USB cable, it shows up as a storage device and I can copy stuff to/from it with no problems. But when I plug it into a USB port on my wife’s MacBook Pro, it’s not even recognized as a device. How can I access my Moto X from Mac OSX?

Hey Robin,

It’s because Apple can be frustrating about supporting standards like MTP. Apple refuses to natively support the USB Media Transfer Protocol. It’s how you can plug your phone into a PC and see files on your phone and computer at the same time.

There are two different ways to share files between a phone and computer, MTP and Mass Storage. If you use Mass Storage, the storage on your phone becomes a standalone drive for your computer, and your phone will no longer be able to see any of those files. That was fine during the Windows Mobile and early Android days. You’d plug in your phone, and it would essentially become a dead lump of a USB drive. Now though, we don’t want to lose access to our precious communication tools, even for a brief file transfer. That’s why Android and Windows Phone now utilize MTP. It comes with some drawbacks like slower file transfers, and you can only move one file at a time, but your phone wont be separated from its storage while connected to a computer. Given the trade off, I’d rather be able to connect my phone to my computer, and still being able to use it as a normal phone with all of my files and apps intact.

The iPhone just doesn’t work that way, so Apple doesn’t feel any great pressure to support other mobile device file management protocols. As far as they’re concerned you should be using iOS and iTunes.

Google did release an Android file manager program for Mac users which might work for you – http://www.android.com/filetransfer/

If that doesn’t work you might need to look at cloud solutions. The nice thing about Android, it’s silly easy to move files on and off via services like Google Drive, Box, and DropBox.

You could also do a local network sync via an app like AirSync –http://www.doubletwist.com/airsync/ or Air Droid – http://www.airdroid.com/ which will use your home WiFi network. It wont be as fast as a cable connection, but it’ll be faster than Bluetooth. 

But yeah. Short story long, this is basically Apple’s fault.

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Gadget Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight

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Today this little gadget came in, so let me introduce you to the RAVPower Luster Mini 3000mAh Lipstick Charger.  The RAVPower weighs in at a mere 3oz so it is very light in your pockets or messenger bag.  It even comes with a clip, a very shiny chrome clip so you can put it in your shirt pocket on pants pocket. These little yet very functional gadget measures 4.6 X 0.9 X 0.9 so you can pretty much say it is very compact.  The RAVPower Lipstick Charger comes in a few choices of color such as black, pink, silver and a champagne color.

This is what comes in the box:

  • 1 – RAVPower  Luster Mini 3000mAh Lipstick Charger
  • 1 – USB to Micro USB cable
  • 1 – User Manual

The RAVPower is going to be one of your best friends when you are out and about and don’t have access to your wall charger. One of the very useful features of this lipstick charger is that it doubles as a flashlight and lights up with an intense 8 lumens! Drop your keys in the dark car? Grab your RAVPower lipstick charger and let the light shine to find your keys amongst those butterfinger wrappers under your seat!  When you use the flashlight, the RAVPower has 3 modes: high, low and strobe. This would come in handy if you are a bicyclist and your headlight happens to go out, you could easily use this as a backup light so you will not get a ticket from the local Police. Continue reading “Gadget Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight”

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Los Angeles: Holiday Pet Portraits for Charity – The Tailwaggers Foundation & Project Angel Food

Santa PawsTech blog though this may be, I have a soft spot for our furry family members.

The Tailwaggers Foundation provides funds to 501 C non-profit organizations who provide treatment to sick and injured animals. They’ll be holding two charity events in LA. The first in West Hollywood December 7 and 8, and the second in Hollywood December 14 and 15. Bring your pet to get his or her picture taken with Santa Paws and Mrs. Claws! Photos are $20, and all proceeds from these two events will go towards helping sick and injured animals around the country and helping supply Project Angel Food, which helps feed people suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life threatening illnesses.

For more info please check out http://thetailwaggersfoundation.org/ and http://www.angelfood.org/

Full press release with all the details after the jump, and for no good reason, here’s a pic of my pup.

biggelow bear the shar pei sleeping under his blanket

Continue reading “Los Angeles: Holiday Pet Portraits for Charity – The Tailwaggers Foundation & Project Angel Food”

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Watch our Experts Q&A LIVE here! BWOne, Mobile Burn, Boored At Work, & SomeGadgetGuy answer YOUR Microsoft Questions!

windows 8 live tiles experts Q&AHere it is folks! The first of a new series where we bring experts, bloggers, and journalists to you!

To kick things off we’re talking all things Live Tiles! Have you been thinking about trying out a Windows Phone? Are you curious about tablets and hybrids? Are you looking at software solutions for your small business? Are you thinking about buying an Xbox?

We’re here to help! We’ll be answering your questions on the air from 8-9pm Pacific on the Youtubes!

If you’d like to skip to specific question there are links below the video!

Continue reading “Watch our Experts Q&A LIVE here! BWOne, Mobile Burn, Boored At Work, & SomeGadgetGuy answer YOUR Microsoft Questions!”

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New Chrome Extension adds voice search, just say “Ok Google”

google voice search chrome extensionUnifying controls is the name of the game!

Now across all of Google’s products you can initiate a voice search with the phrase “OK Google”. Installing a Chrome plugin will enable this new feature.

Take heart you security conscious folks, the feature is held primarily to whenever a Google search tab is open, but even on a Google search tab, it’ll stop listening after five minutes. I personally think persistent observation is creepy, so I’m happy to see there are user activated controls to keep it in check.

google voice search listening chrome extension

Download the extension for your Chrome browser, and maybe it’ll come in handy while your hands are messy this Thanksgiving! I always seem to need to search for something when my hands are covered in gunk…

Google Voice Seach Hotword BETA

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Acer refreshes $299 C720p Chromebook, adds Touchscreen, doesn’t raise price!

Acer C720P_touch_handThe mobile computing landscape is getting ridiculously competitive. Chromebooks, Netbooks, Tablets, proper latptops, and hybrids. The bang for buck ratio is disrupting-ly low. An incredible number of options for a variety of usage scenarios.

Acer is sweetening their Chromebook offering. The c720p is a refresh of their C720. The hardware is almost exactly the same, even down to the somewhat mediocre TFT LCD panel used on the screen. What’s nice however is they’re adding a touch panel to that screen. What’s even nicer is that touch panel isn’t going to increase the price. The C720p will retail for the same $299 that the original did.

Not too shabby.

ChromeOS doesn’t particularly need touch, but playing with it on my Windows 8 laptop, I think we’re just entering an era where adding touchscreens will be the norm. We’re all sort of learning to just interact directly with things on our screen. When I’m really tired, I have to remember that my desktop does not have a touchscreen… You’ll still see finger prints on my monitors though…

Sporting an 11.6″ screen, an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of flash storage it looks like it could be a decent seller this holiday season. Expect to see lappys shipping mid December.

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Using the Surface RT 2 for Podcasting and Voice Over Recording (RT not Pro)

surface 2 audio recording mobile home sound USB microphone Zoom h4n somegadgetguyIf you’re into mobile audio, field recording, voice over, or podcasting, it’s been the dream for a while. The ability to use our consumer tablets as recording solutions.

It still hasn’t come to Android. Plug a USB mic into an Android tablet, and it’ll likely power up, but Android wont know what to do with it. Microsoft might have the hardware to offer up a solution for us mobile audio junkies. Let’s take a look at how recording works on a Surface 2, and what happens to the files you create after you’re done editing.

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Google confirms camera RAW support is coming to Android. So what’s that mean?

htc one mini camera test video samples somegadgetguyBlah blah blah abstraction layer… Herp derp blerp API’s…

Long story short, Google is trying to improve the software / hardware relationship our smartphone cameras rely on. This should expand the tool set developers have at their disposal when making photo and video services. Google specifically is discussing better multi-shot tech which should improve sport and burst modes and deliver more flexible HDR settings. An HDR photo depends on a series of pics taken quickly at different exposures. Other smart modes could be improved too, like the ability to take a series of shots to remove distracting elements from your photos.

All well and good from a consumer app-y position, but the idea of delivering RAW files could be really interesting for people who really want to control their photo output, even from their phones.

Continue reading “Google confirms camera RAW support is coming to Android. So what’s that mean?”

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