Use a mouse with a smart phone, who knew? (PSA)

AZjeff

AZjeff

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in Az where the Deer and Antelope play
Tuesday I gave my Samsung phone a coffee bath and killed the touch screen. The phone would turn on with the button then turn back off. Tried the bag of rice trick no go. Went to the Verizon store for a new phone and see if I could get my photos and contacts off somehow, the young lady tried something and said she couldn't help but I should go 2 doors down to the electronics repair guy and see what he could do. He looked at it briefly and said it needs a new screen. Not happening, cheap phone to begin with. Asked if there's any way I can access the contact list and maybe get the photos off, he said sure, got out a wired mouse with a little adapter, plugged it into the charging port and magically a cursor shows up on the screen and it now operates just like a desktop. He said I can get the adapter at WaldoWorld, a USB female to USB-C male adapter. Got one on the way home and once the phone was turned on with the mouse I attached it to the desktop and downloaded all my photos. Also found out there's an Apple app that you download on your Android phone and it transfers your contact list and any other data you want to the iphone. Yeah I switched back to an iphone SE for the small form factor.

I did a bunch of frantic searching and got my tech savvy daughter involved and nothing came up about using a mouse on an Android phone. Also didn't realize everything works perfectly on the old phone with wifi except I can't call or get texts. Not sure what good that is but I was able to use my mapping app today on a bike ride while Apple decides to reactivate my old app store account so I can get the apps I use. Hope this helps someone else out someday.

Like this:
IMG_1885.jpg

You have full phone fuction as well but it is a bit cumbersome. Better than cut off completely until you get a new one.
 
Last edited:
That is cool. I've never seen this before. Now certain Samsung phones allowed you to plug in a usb stick and treat it like an additional harddrive.
 
I did that about 7 years ago for fun when Samsung used to include a little white micro USB to full size USB adapter in the box and I'd just plug stuff into it and everything worked. Shame they stopped doing that and don't even bother to give you headphones let alone a power adapter anymore.
 
JavierH19 said:
I did that about 7 years ago for fun when Samsung used to include a little white micro USB to full size USB adapter in the box and I'd just plug stuff into it and everything worked. Shame they stopped doing that and don't even bother to give you headphones let alone a power adapter anymore.
Click to expand...
Shame it isn't more commonly known. Not a thing about it when I was searching dead touch screen.
 
AZjeff said:
Shame it isn't more commonly known. Not a thing about it when I was searching dead touch screen.
Click to expand...
Yeah i remember it being called an otg adapter. But you could even buy a fancy one with that usb port and hdmi so you can output the screen signal to a tv and use a wireless mouse and keyboard combo with a single usb receiver and use it almost like a desktop.
 
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