[HLUG] Non-intuitive operating systems No 93

[Steve Horsfield]

Connecting your Android through USB

Applications

Settings (Is settings an application, would you conventionally expect to
locate settings under programs and is connecting to USB a setting?)

Wireless and Network (Eh? ......... Would you not normally consider
connecting through a USB cable to be an alternative to connecting
wirelessly or through a network, rather than an instance  of the same thing)

USB Utilities (Yes, we're on the right track now)

USB Mass Storage  - Tap the button below to copy files between the computer
and  SD card -  Connect storage to a PC
(Eh? what - who said anything about an SD card? Is it in my SmartPhone or
should it be in the computer I am connecting to? Is the computer my
Smartphone or the computer I am trying to connect to and what's this about
storage?  Oh I see I should simply ignore all that and simply read the
'Connect storage to PC' button)

Connect USB cable to use mass storage

Connect USB Storage

upon physical connection....... USB storage in use; Before disconnecting
USB storage, eject Android's USB storage from computer       Disconnect
Storage from PC  (Oh ! again I see, simply ignore all that and use my files)

NB if like a numpty you connect your USB cable first the Android device
treats it like an SD card and the above process doesn't work

While the above gobbledegook may make some kind of sense in operational
terms i.e. the underlying physical processes. It makes no sense in user
terms. For even the more sophisticated user connecting through a cable to
another computer and connecting to an SD card  are are not obviously one
and the same thing and there is no reason whatsoever for having one set of
parallel routines and commands to do both. At high level the system needs SD
Card
and Connect through USB cable, but this is Google we are talking about so
there is no means of upward communication to get this rectified.

Steve Horsfield