SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive Offers USB and Lightning Connectors for Easy File Transfers

[MacRumors]

Similar to the Kickstarter-funded iStick from earlier in the year, SanDisk today announced the iXpand Flash Drive. The drive allows users to easily transfer photos, videos, and other files between an iOS device with a Lightning connector and a desktop or notebook with a normal USB port.

When the flash drive is plugged into an iPhone or iPad, the iXpand sync app is launched and can be configured to automatically sync photos and videos from the device's camera roll to the flash drive. Entire movies (including most popular non-native and PC-friendly formats, like AVI and WMV) can also be stored on the iXpand and played from the flash drive directly onto the iPhone or iPad.

"According to IDC, nearly three-quarters of all images are now captured on smartphones and tablets," said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. "With this significant increase in mobile-generated content, consumers are looking for easy ways to manage it all. In fact, our research shows that 82% of U.S. smartphone users find transferring photos, videos, music and other files to be very important to them. We created the iXpand Flash Drive to offer consumers a quick and safe way to move their favorite content between devices so it's available when and where they want it."

The flash drive also offers users an added layer of security in cross-platform encryption. While in the iXpand sync app [Direct Link], files can be password protected while the drive is connected to an iPhone or iPad, then decrypted on a Mac or PC and vice versa.

Available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB sizes, the iXpand Flash Drive is compatible with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 2, and iPad mini running iOS 8 or iOS 7.

The 16GB and 64GB versions of the drive can be purchased directly off of SanDisk's official website today and sell for $59.99 and $119.99 respectively. Beginning November 16, Best Buy will exclusively sell the 32GB version in retail and on their website for $79.99.

Article Link: SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive Offers USB and Lightning Connectors for Easy File Transfers

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Not bad. All the Sandisk USB drives I had over the years had been fast and reliable.

 

[SmileyBlast!]

Brilliant!

 

[Zxxv]

wires and things to plug in = a step backwards

 

[H2SO4]

They should have a bloody USB port on the side and a proper filesystem.

 

[rekhyt]

Bit pointless, really.

 

[Porco]

Nice, although it's a shame it seems to only be USB 2.0.

 

[H2SO4]

wires and things to plug in = a step backwards

You’ll probably always have a port to connect to but you won’t always have wireless.

 

[Solomani]

Quite more affordable than the Kickstarter iStick.

SanDisk is a long-reputable company for storage devices. Interested in this.

 

[TsunamiTheClown]

Way to lurk Kickstarter Scandisk. :/

 

[cube]

Too small. There should be a 512GB version.

 

[MacOG728893]

Seems pointless when you have options like drop box. I see it working if you're using larger file formats, but even then, cloud services seem like they could be a viable solution instead.

 

[r-m]

This is a product area where smaller is better. Look at the size of that thing!
Bye bye neighbouring ports on a laptop.
Surely they could've made it longer and fitted the extra bits within the width of a "normal" width USB stick?!

 

[bubbleboil]

If it only works with photo and video, it's rather useless?

What about other files like documents, songs etc?

 

[Jacquesvw]

.

 

[Donka]

If it only works with photo and video, it's rather useless?

What about other files like documents, songs etc?

It also offers support for other file types.

 

[cube]

Too small. There should be a 512GB version.

I was thinking USB and Thunderbolt. I don't care about Lightning.

 

[AlecZ]

I just connect it to my Mac and use DiskAid for those extremely rare cases where I need to transfer arbitrary files. OpenSSH works too (but that requires a jailbreak).

 

[citi]

I was thinking USB and Thunderbolt. I don't care about Lightning.

Well the product is specifically designed for mobile devices...not sure how thunderbolt would play in to that.

----------

I just connect it to my Mac and use DiskAid for those extremely rare cases where I need to transfer arbitrary files. OpenSSH works too (but that requires a jailbreak).

Or you could just use the mac native image capture app. Just plug your phone into your computer and drag and drop. I'm not sure why Apple doesn't advertise it.

 

[H2SO4]

I was thinking USB and Thunderbolt. I don't care about Lightning.

That’s what I find odd. There should also be a USB port on the iPad/iPhone or a lightinging port on a Mac.

 

[Jessica Lares]

A wifi drive that serves as a router with a regular (non micro) SD card slot is a better deal. It costs a lot less too.

I stream video from it in Infuse, I hold my various fonts, image resources, pdfs, pubs, etc that I can open within Readdle's Documents, Goodreader, whatever, and when the wifi is REALLY bad or non-exsistant, I can get stuff from the iPhone into the iPad. This is where "Open In" comes in handy.

Best thing is that it doesn't have to stick out of my device. I can just turn it on and leave it in my bag or whatever. Plus, it doubles as a battery pack.

 

[Brian Y]

A wifi drive that serves as a router with a regular (non micro) SD card slot is a better deal. It costs a lot less too.

I stream video from it in Infuse, I hold my various fonts, image resources, pdfs, pubs, etc that I can open within Readdle's Documents, Goodreader, whatever, and when the wifi is REALLY bad or non-exsistant, I can get stuff from the iPhone into the iPad. This is where "Open In" comes in handy.

Best thing is that it doesn't have to stick out of my device. I can just turn it on and leave it in my bag or whatever. Plus, it doubles as a battery pack.

The moment someone develops one of these that supports zero-config AirDrop they'll have my cash.

 

[jblongz]

I hope it comes with an option to delete photos from iPhone after importing

 

[cube]

Well the product is specifically designed for mobile devices...not sure how thunderbolt would play in to that.

The article appears on the front page on mobile. I saw the headline, and went straight to look for the sizes, as I am interested in buying a fast 512GB stick that is not too expensive.

 

[Superman730]

What I don't get is how it all works. They say it's an easy way to quickly free up space on your iPhone or iPad. This to me means that it will unload the pics you've taken onto the USB stick and then you in theory have them backed up to the USB drive. And then... Their app deletes the files or I still have to go in and delete them? Will that remove the pictures from my PhotoStream? I need some hands on reviews before I would use this... but it's an interesting idea.