Friday, March 31, 2006

Turn your Smartphone/Pocket PC into a USB drive


This program will export the flash memory card inside the smartphone as usual USB Mass Storage device (ordinary "usb disk") - effectively turning smartphone into flash reader (albeit USB 1.0 only, and not very fast). It was tested with Tornado Smartphone Platform with recent firmware update. It could work with other phones and even with PDAs, hovewer I cant be sure about compatibility, as I had to break some specifications to defuse bugs in the propietary HTC/OMAP USB hardware driver.Dont install it to memory card. When activated, memory card will not be accessible in the smartphone, as all direct access to the flash card will be routed to USB. Application installed to "Accessories" Start Menu subfolder.Windows Mobile 5 is required. Sorry, but I cant possibly make it work on WM 2003, as only WM5 allows USB protocol implementation separate from USB hardware driver - on WM 2003 Ill have to rewrite whole USB hardware drivers, and of course its not feasible.Of course, you will also need full application unlock. Take note that some recipies do not do full unlock, they still leave some API locked. If you want to uninstall it, I strongly recommend to de-activate mass storage mode first.UPDATE to version 1.2 - added write-protection switch, added checks for ability to actually open memory card (card existance). If "storage card" installation chosen, will install to main memory anyway, as it cant properly run from storage card. UPDATE to version 1.21 - added some additional diag checks to help evaluate possible problems.
You can download the application by clicking here. The site requires that you register before downloading. It's free. I did not test the software yet, but if you do, share your experience with us by posting a comment. Thanks.

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