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The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

theniftyminidrive.com

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Re: The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

#52
post #45

Long time reader, first time commenter. As someone who backed this Kickstarter, and considering some people are mystified as to why you would want this, I thought I might be able to provide some insight: As an owner of a 128 GB Macbook Air, space is at a serious premium. An extra 32 GB or 64 GB would go a long way. I'm also on the go a lot, taking my laptop to and from work, using it on my commute, etc. Now, existing…

Yes - I'm in exactly the same situation as you. For $41 I can purchase a 64 GB SD Card (http://www.amazon.com/Komputerbay-Speed-Class-Memory-Write/d...) and for $35 I get the flush-adapter. It's precisely what I'm looking for.

Best part, is as the price of SDXC cards continue to drop, I can simply purchase a naked 128/256/etc... SDXC card, and use it with this adapter.

All in all - may allow me to delay a full year on my Laptop Upgrade. Definitely worth $35 to me.

Re: The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

#53

If the micro-sd card is treated as random-access storage, how much will its performance degrade with time compared with a ssd drive?

This. A SD card != a SSD. If anyone treats this as a built-in backup solution and writes to it too much, it's going to end in tears.

Re: The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

#54

Is this designed to work with Time Machine?

The OS treats SD cards the same as any other removal drives, so you can choose it for Time Machine. Their site says microSD cards currently only go up to 64GB, so it is of limited use until larger cards become available.

Re: The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

#55
post #31

Any real hope of 2TB cards in the near future?

That's what I've been wondering -- just because a 2TB card is supported doesn't mean that they can actually be built. I'm sure there's a hard limit on how much flash memory you can cram into the microSD form factor. Anyone know what that limit is?

Re: The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

#56
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And your post summarizes what annoys me about people who still throw around "apple fanboy"; you're in an endless witch hunt to find some kind of subtext in what people say just to call them out for their choice of computer. There was nothing in what mdonahoe said to suggest "fanboy". Grow up.

I don't want to start a flamewar here but "Neither are macs" sounds somewhat arrogant to me, serious and honest question am I the only one to think that? Edit to comment about the depth limit: I can't comment any deeper. (Karma related?)

Re depth limit, hit the permalink for the comment and you can usually reply that way. It's something to do with caching I think.

Re: The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

#57
You charge what the market will pay, not what the item is worth. You describe the product to maximise what people will pay.

I find it weird that so many people on HN don't seem able to understand that. We all know it's just a small kludgier SD-microSD adapater that fits flush with Mac cases, and is meant as a semi-permanent addition to storage. We all know that the materials and assembly cost is at most a few dollars.

This kickstarter should be praised and studied as an example of added value or finding a niche or whatever the hell it's called.

Re: The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

#58
post #30

WTF, soon, when computers have micro SD slots ready to roll that do not stick out (like my phone, smartpad or 9 inch netbooks) there will be no need for this. $35 for a 25 cent item - only for suckers.

So - what would you recommend for someone like me, who wants to add 128 GB of Storage to his MacBook Air, and maybe get another year's use out of it? This devices looks perfect - but I'm interested if you know of anybody else who makes a flush SSD card adapter.

Re: The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

#59
post #20

I see a lot of uninformed and unwarranted (apple-)hate in this thread. The removal tool, is a reference to how Apple includes the "SIM removal" tool with iPhones, which is just a paperclip. To me, it's obvious that you can just use a normal paperclip to remove this as well. This is also demonstrated in the video on kickstarter, which admittedly you need to search for. It's made as a semi-permanent piece, so the fact…

To all those who hate it, I'm wondering if they could recommend an alternative flash SD card adapter at a lower price.

Re: The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You pay $35 to remove a mild annoyance. It is definitely not for everyone. Neither are macs

You know, that's an excellent point. A good number of folks I know who own macs, simply are the sort of folks who would pay $35 in pursuit of "form". I tend to forget about that.

If you've ever seen the results of someone banging a SD card at a bad angle while in the machine, then "form" has value.
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