[aprssig] APRN news from Dayton!

[Alex Carver]

> From: "Stephen H. Smith" 
> On 5/23/2011 12:39 PM, Rud Merriam wrote:
> >
> >
> > A further thought is to take damage pictures with cell
> phones or cameras. 
> > They would be transferred to a laptop / net book and
> sent back to the EOC.
> >
> > I haven't looked into how to do the picture transfer.
> One possibility is 
> > EasyPAL on 70 cm to attain a higher transfer rate.
> 
> The biggest problem is the vile and obnoxious locking down,
> by cellular 
> carriers, of cell phone capabilities built-in by the
> phone's manufacturer.
> 
> Most cell phones have the capabilities to transfer pics
> taken by their cameras 
> to a computer via a USB cable.    However the
> carriers disable this feature in 
> the phone's operating system to force you to email/transfer
> the pics 
> over-the-air using expensive (and profitable) MMS
> (Multimedia Messaging 
> Service), and to force you to buy ring tones over-the-air
> from their store 
> (rather than uploading your own sounds directly from your
> own computer).   On 
> some phones, it's a fairly easy hack of the phone firmware
> to re-enable local 
> transfers to/from a computer (an activity known to cell
> carriers as 
> "side-loading")  On others, not so easy.

This isn't really an issue anymore (nor actually has it been for a while).  Most phones have a slot for a memory card (usually a MicroSD) and the in-phone camera can store photos to the memory card.  Pull the card out and plug it into a computer to get your files.

I have a Motorola Razr with AT&T and can push and pull files from the phone either via a USB cable or a Bluetooth link.  I can even mount the MicroSD card while it's still in the phone.

The Droid by Motorola (Verizon) also has a MicroSD card slot and the user guide by Verizon shows how to upload and download various files including photos (and ringtones) over a USB or Bluetooth link (or just remove the card).  All of the Android based phones behave similarly.  Now the iPhone, I have no idea because that's a closed design.

No hacking was necessary for either of the phones.