I've finally put my Dell Venue 8 to good use. It has been in the drawer since I got it months ago. After a week of usage, it really didn't fit my use-case. Even with a portable bluetooth keyboard, I found the whole touch experience with Windows 8.1 on an 8" screen painful. I never even use Modern UI, just the traditional Dekstop and using your fingers is hopeless. Desktop operating systems simply do not work with touch on a small screen.
Then out of nowhere, Dell releases a USB-OTG cable that simultaneously supports charging. It is roughly $20 on Dell's website. For those who don't understand the significance, it now means you can charge the Venue 8 at the same time you are using a USB device. Before, you couldn't do that.Thus, the single micro USB port limited it's use as a full time desktop computer.
There has been some D-Y-I type affairs but I wasn't keen on taking that route. This official dongle works pretty good. This should have been provided from the get-go or made available at release of the Venue 8. I paired it up with my Microsoft's All-in-One Multimedia keyboard. The keyboard has a built in trackpad, so now I treat the Venue like a little mini laptop.
I also have a hoot USB 3.0 3-port hub with built in Gigabit. Once you plug it in, you can make up for the lack of networking and multiple USB. It looks like this:
Now, it is a good VPN terminal. I run Cygwin and I use it as SSH client. When I don't use the Dell Venue, it simply stows away nicely.
Mannnnnnnnnnnn I just typed a massive rant review relative to your review and then as I posted, "post" comment as, it wiped out my comment. Sites that use this kind of "non clipped pre login to comment" should have a warning, "do not start to type your comment until you choose from drop down menu"....
ReplyDeleteAnyways, again, does this powered OTG host dongle work stand alone? OR do I need to carry another OTG dongle also, in case I want to go wireless when out and about and otg and find my keyboard//peripheral won't work without this Dell VP8 proprietary dongle being powered?
It's not a big deal I suppose, I can carry a popcon, they are very small and can go along with this as I travel. I just would like to be able to use this as a standard OTG dongle, when not needing to be fully powered//charging.
I love the new MS WIN media keyboards, the mousepad areas very nice and full sized as well compared to the squishy feel of the keys and smallish estate of the Logitech series combo boards.
Dell should have added at least another micro usb input, they wouldn't have needed to release this proprietary dongle then and they could have still kept the incredible thinness aspect of this tablet. My fingers are too big to use the menus that we encounter always when using MS WIN OS's, and a sylus is needed, which is not standard with tab.
Targus makes a nice hard case that has a pen holder on back, which is nice, and the support//arm-leg on them makes a nice hanger, to hand the tab from. Say you are blundering around and suddenly in the kitchen, etc, you can just hang your tab from fridge//wall, etc, and continue watching//listening to what you were.
Anyways, that's all I really wanted to say, is this powered OTG is NEEDED because the bluetooth boards with mousepad are lacking severely in size, like the Motorola KZ450, which is very nice, but very small. The MS Win board you are using is truly a dream come true and very nicely priced and now we can just plug in as we go, which is why I'm hoping this dongle is also stand alone.
Okay sorry for this longwinded redundant rant.
Namaste.....
kk
It works stand-alone. And you can plug in any micro-usb to charge it where as the large port are for USB devices.
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