You could easily make OSX see a dual-flash fusion drive with this. Or RAID. Would be pretty fast, but you'd have to be committed to the setup. ZFS might have allowed for more options, if Sun hadn't pissed Steve off.
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Transcend Introduces JetDrive Lite Expansion Cards Up to 128GB for MacBook Air, Retina Macbook Pro
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I wonder why this is the case? What's the limitation with the 13-inch rMBP? What other compromises are there in choosing a 13-inch rMBP over an Air?
This product has likely been in development for the better part of a year (at least) and, even if Apple does overhaul the form-factor, there are still millions of Airs that continue to exist in the market.
So who cares what Transcend thinks about the Air's form factor?
This might be a nice way to create an encrypted sparse bundle on the card and use that as an easy encrypted backup. With SuperDuper and Smart Update, this could be very useful to always have a backup with you. Couple with this cloud storage and traditional cloned/backup drive, and you should be all set in terms of data protection. Well, you'll not be backing up TBs of media, but for the important stuff, I only have about 75GB of data I would always want. I have traditional drives and Dropbox for other stuff that if I did lose it would be a bad day, but nothing I can't recover from.
Why not?
That's 4 years worth of MacBook Air models supported, quite a bit of money to be made, especially with the recent price reduction and sales on the airs.
Shelf Life
I wonder what the "shelf life" of a product like this is, or how many Read/writes they sustain.
I sort of expect DVD-R's to be 5-10 years, Similar for CD-R's, The BluRay M-Disc claims a 1000 years. But if this had even 25 years I'd much rather store a bunch of these, not need an external drive, etc...
Furthermore, if they have a decent number of read/writes before failure they could make a decent backup solution also. (there's a lot of stuff I backup that I don't want sitting in my time-capsule or out on the cloud)
I wonder what the "shelf life" of a product like this is, or how many Read/writes they sustain.
I sort of expect DVD-R's to be 5-10 years, Similar for CD-R's, The BluRay M-Disc claims a 1000 years. But if this had even 25 years I'd much rather store a bunch of these, not need an external drive, etc...
Furthermore, if they have a decent number of read/writes before failure they could make a decent backup solution also. (there's a lot of stuff I backup that I don't want sitting in my time-capsule or out on the cloud)
The depth of the slot and the shape and size of the opening around it are what can change. These are different between the Airs and Retinas, which is why there are (so far) a couple of different versions.
As long as you're willing to manage your library yourself, you can already do this. Just uncheck the options that has iTunes copy files and organize the library and you can use whatever storage structure you like.
What would be nice is for iTunes to not freak out if files can't be accessed temporarily, instead of throwing up the exclamation points everywhere and forcing some tedious manual refreshing when it's reconnected.
It's unclear as to whether these are totally flush when installed. There aren't any good photos of these things on their website in the installed position.
At this point, it's very similar to PNY's Storedge, maybe bigger/faster/cheaper ... I haven't checked.
I want my solution to be totally flush. So I'll stick with the Nifty mini drive and my Sandisk 64GB mini SDXC card. Sandisk just shipped a 128GB mini SDXC card, but it's over $100. I'm waiting for the price to drop.
At this point, it's very similar to PNY's Storedge, maybe bigger/faster/cheaper ... I haven't checked.
I want my solution to be totally flush. So I'll stick with the Nifty mini drive and my Sandisk 64GB mini SDXC card. Sandisk just shipped a 128GB mini SDXC card, but it's over $100. I'm waiting for the price to drop.
Looks like Transcend beats them both on cost per GB. Especially the PNY. From your link, the PNY was double the cost.
Caveat: That was just from a cursory glance at each site, so I could have missed something.
Frankly, for me it was never so much to do with the internal storage space. It was more to do with the lack off RAM expandability.
I'm talking specifically about the MBA. Not being able to upgrade (at a later date) shortens the lifespan of your laptop. Forces you to either pony up at the start or buy a new machine.
More an issue for me I suppose as I can't BTO refurbished units from Apple.
I'm talking specifically about the MBA. Not being able to upgrade (at a later date) shortens the lifespan of your laptop. Forces you to either pony up at the start or buy a new machine.
More an issue for me I suppose as I can't BTO refurbished units from Apple.
Using different Flash storage.
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I bought my 128 GB StorEdge on sale for like $75+taxes a few months ago.
I may buy one of these when they come down a bit in price, as it seems they are faster than the PNY, though this really doesn't matter for accessing media.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Sure, they'll get right on that. 7 years later...
I have no expectations of them doing it- too profitable "as is"- but it's definitely a feature I'd personally love to see a high utility benefit that could be useful in many scenarios.
Hello Binarymix,
You are correct. We're using SSD-grade MLC flash for this product. Most microSD cards are made with TLC flash unless specified otherwise.
Not any faster than a 5400rpm drive? Plus it has a finite amount of read writes, may not be wise.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Looking at the profile picture on Amazon, it looks like there is a thin plastic lip that would be outside the slot- probably something one could slip a dime or paperclip under to eject this card.
They're just selling a housing for a microSD... and I don't see any microSD's claiming competitive read/write speeds.
Looks like it protrudes more and it's twice as expensive.
Nice examples though. Good to see that their is competition in this area. Have these solutions been available for very long?
Why no MacBook Air 11"?
Does the 11" not have the requisite slot? I don't have mine in front of me.
Does the 11" not have the requisite slot? I don't have mine in front of me.