Your thoughts on AirStash (for iPad)?

jlund1992jlund1992
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hey everyone,

My first post on here...I ordered the iPad 64GB wifi+3g and was wondering if anyone has heard of AirStash? Someone mentioned it on another forum and I went to the site and noticed it's being pre-ordered. Before I plunk down a hundred bucks for this thing (and I don't know a whole lot about storage but I plan to use my iPad for school and whatnot) so I was wondering what everyone else has heard...thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    If it wasn't just a pre-order, i would get one right now! It looks awesome. Connect to it via WiFi, and it uses removable SD cards, up to 32 gb. Essentially you could carry around as many 32 gb SD cards as you wish (hundreds of gigs of storage if you want to) and have unlimited access to your content from your iPad.



    There just needs to be a way to transfer the files from the SD card to the iPad, within a 3rd party app. (like AirSharing, but for files on the AirStash). This may already be a feature that I'm not aware of. Do they have a downloadable app?



    I also wonder if it disrupts your network connection on the iPad if you connect to it?



    Questions aside, I'm very close to buying one.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    russellsakayrussellsakay Posts: 212member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pmz View Post


    If it wasn't just a pre-order, i would get one right now! It looks awesome. Connect to it via WiFi, and it uses removable SD cards, up to 32 gb. Essentially you could carry around as many 32 gb SD cards as you wish (hundreds of gigs of storage if you want to) and have unlimited access to your content from your iPad.



    There just needs to be a way to transfer the files from the SD card to the iPad, within a 3rd party app. (like AirSharing, but for files on the AirStash). This may already be a feature that I'm not aware of. Do they have a downloadable app?



    I also wonder if it disrupts your network connection on the iPad if you connect to it?



    Questions aside, I'm very close to buying one.



    Hopefully there will be a WiFi transfer system between My MacBook and my iPad.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    You can plug SD cards directly into the iPad with the adaptor so if it can use those for storage, there won't be any point to the AirStash. Even if Apple don't allow it, it may be accessible to the SDK to allow 3rd party apps to use it for storage.



    The battery in it only lasts half as long as the iPad too while streaming and won't charge from the iPad itself. It also means making sure two devices are fully charged.



    Given that SD cards aren't affordable above 32GB and the upgrade cost of the 64GB iPad is reasonable i.e 48GB = $200 vs 32GB external = $80 (48GB would be about $100) and you get the convenience of not having to deal with external cards, I'd say the 64GB iPad is better if you need that storage.



    Also AirStash doesn't come with any storage itself so you are paying $100 for the device and then $80 for a 32GB card. So it's $180 for 32GB external vs $200 for 48GB internal from Apple.



    One possible advantage would have been if the media server supported formats the iPad didn't but that's not the case as they play via Safari. The media will be served by visiting a URL and yeah this most likely will disrupt the internal wifi connection. The other issue would be that the battery in the iPad will drain much faster accessing data over wifi than it would from local storage.



    Overall, AirStash sounds like a really bad idea. Bad value, more hassle, less battery life, no real benefits (besides having wifi storage for your computer too). If you think you'll need 64GB, buy the 64GB iPad.
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