Kies Help

[Myfordman]

SWMBO has recently got a Samsung Galaxy Tab3 Tablet. She is a complete beginner with little clue - I'm a beginner with Android but have a reasonable clue of PC and network matters

I'm trying to decide whether or not it is useful to use the wifi to connect the tablet to our windows (XP) home network.

I read of something called kies that is needed. My first question is - is kies just installed on the tablet to make it PC compatible or do all the PCs need it as well if they are to communicate wirelessly with the tablet.

TIA

MM

 

[paul-c]

hi
i set mother in laws samsung tablet up and if i remember correctly kies had to be set up on the pc in order for the tablet to connect and transfer photos etc.
hope its some help
paul-c

 

[Myfordman]

Thanks Paul,

I've just done a cable connection between the galaxy and my laptop and whilst I could see a directory structure, there were no files such as photos visible.
I'll have a look for Kies for winxp and try that
Get it working on a cable first and then try wifi.

Cheers
MM

 

[DrPhill]

I have a Samsung android device -great hardware, great software. Unfortunately Samsung have made communicating with other devices via the USB port really difficult. Apparently they have their own communications protocol so you need Samsung software and drivers on the PC. Unfortunately this software (Kies) does not allow proper access to the file structure, but only to the bits that Samsung allow. PITA. Their software/drivers of course do not work with anything but windoze.

If I want to transfer files to my PC I find myself using bluetooth to my phone. This is because my PC does not have bluetooth, but the HTC does, and connects flawlessly to the PC either Linux or Windows. Email is another option though I find this intellectually offensive as it is such an inefficient solution and require the information leaving my network and returning.

Another solution is to use a bluetooth storage device and an 'On The Go' cable. Trouble is that Samsung (in common with other android producers) prevent you from reading from a storage device (you can read from non-storage devices like modems.......) unless you 'root' the device. I have rooted my Samsung, and it makes it more useful, but the process is not for the faint hearted.

I have not managed to connect <i>any</i> android device to my home network yet. That could be my home network setup though this may be because we run Linux - basically same operating system as the android - which android devices do not like as much as they like windows.

I like the idea of android, I like the Samsung software and hardware (and continue using it for unimportant stuff). But I would not buy another one until they grow up and accept that they need to interoperate with other devices/operating. systems

I hope that rant helps, or at least helps you realise that you are not alone in you struggles....

Phill

 

[Myfordman]

Thanks Phill and rant fully excused. It all sounds rather like my iPhone and PC which forces you down the Itunes route even though I have no desire to buy music to load onto my phone and maddenly will only allow transfer of pictures from phone to PC but not the other way round.

Your network comments are also very useful as I could only see marginal use for this for my wife's benefit and now I'm fairly convinced not to bother.

I'll explore the Kies route for the purpose of downloading photos to print as she still likes hardcopy photo albums and possibly not take it any further.

Thanks Again

MM

 

[bertikus_maximus]

As a young, techy type, I thought I'd be helpful and weigh in on this one (I normally just lurk the forum).

My own experience with Kies hasn't been that great. I have a Galaxy S3 smartphone and tried using Kies to transfer some photos from my old phone to new (using my PC as a middle man). I had all kinds of troubles getting Windows to install the correct drivers to make this possible. ](*,)

However, I've since found a pretty nice app called Airdroid, which allows you to link your tablet/phone to your PC without needing to use cables. I think you need to have Airdroid installed on your PC but the link between tablet/phone and PC is then done via wifi. The connection is secured using a session key. Using the app is then pretty straightforward, as you just use your PC to select the files you want to download (although there is a small bug when trying to 'Select All' and downloading).

Give 'Airdroid' a google for more information. (hammer)

Bert.

 

[DrPhill]

Good idea..... Thanks. Any idea what 'wife direct' is?

 

[Wuffles]

Dropbox is another fairly straightforward way of shifting files and/or just photos from most devices (iPhone or Android) to pretty much any desktop/laptop running pretty much any OS. In fact, for shifting photos from an iPhone without having to install iTunes it's dead handy.

 

[Myfordman]

Bert,
Thanks for the idea of using airdroid. Just to check, am I right in thinking that the android device just has to be connected to the same wifi router as the computer and Airdroid will enable file sharing.

Or is it more complicated than that?

TIA
MM

 

[r0nmlt]

Why not just share a folder on you xp machine. Install es file explorer on your android and you can parse the folder on your android, reading and writing as you please.

If you prefer to have it the other way round install Samba file sharing on your android and you can parse the android folder structure from windows. I think that this latter option needs the android to be rooted.