It's just my first few days with Beagle Board. I would like to know if
there are any possibilities beyond just porting Android 2.2 or 2.3 on
a Beagle Board. Like communicating to online Servers via Ethernet
capabilities some thing like this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBBrYughzls
I also could see that USB to SATA can be used with BB for extended
Hard Drives a good discussion as seen here - (http://groups.google.com/
group/beagleboard/browse_thread/thread/aab81e2d00b77d51)
Having these thoughts in mind, basically I'm aiming to build/create
cloud sync with Disk I/O functionality maintained with a proper
FileSystem where downloading large data from server to External HDD
connected with BB and Uploading Files to server takes place (something
like a NAS). Can you please help me in showing directions on how this
can be achieved with BB? Since I'm new to this I was trying to achieve
this with Arduino but due to limitation of inbuilt performance in
Arduino I switched to BB, please see my question here. http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,96007.0.html
I think the easiest way to use the Beagleboard as a NAS would be to run Ubuntu. There is a lot of information out there on how to create your own NAS using Ubuntu (such as this http://www.diynas.com/category/software/operating-systems/ubuntu-linux/), and most of the Ubuntu packages that are required are available for the Beagleboard. Personally, I have a Beagleboard running Ubunu and connected to a USB hard drive, which I use as a (low-volume) NAS by sharing it with Samba.
Also, I’m not sure what you have in mind when you mention the Android Accessory Development Kit. To connect an Arduino to a Beagleboard should be much easier than connecting an Arduino to an Android cell phone or tablet, since the Beagleboard has USB host capability. I’ve never run Android on the Beagleboard, but with Angstrom or Ubuntu all you have to do is connect the Arduino’s built-in (client) USB port to the Beagleboard. Code running on the Beagleboard (I use Python, but Java and C should also be fine) can communicate with the Arduino through the Linux serial interface (.e.g. /dev/ttyUSB0), and send instructions to the Arduino or receive sensor data from the Arduino that way. Or, in many cases, you can drop the Arduino and use the Beagleboard to control sensors and other devices directly, although the Beagleboard is more difficult to use with I2C, SPI and PWM devices than the Arduino.