With less flexibility, having a protocol-specific method of connectivity can provide connectivity to a wider range of devices. The BeagleBone hardware is extremely flexible. The following are the options that can work without additional hardware:
The BeagleBone has an onboard hardware for the USB device mode. With the right protocols, all that is needed is a cable. For device connectivity, the cable needed is the same as the one currently used to connect to a laptop/desktop but an additional adapter is needed to match the connector used on the mobile device. This requires the mobile device to support the USB host mode. Within the USB realm, things can be divided into two categories. The two categories differ in the amount of system configuration and software that needs to be written. For example, the BeagleBone system software supports the emulation of a USB serial port when the BeagleBone is connected as a USB device, so only a little configuration is needed...