from Hacker News

The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook

by websirnik on 9/3/12, 7:59 PM with 75 comments

  • by relix on 9/3/12, 9:11 PM

    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 it's hard to remove doesn't matter here.

    It's not "just an SD card adapter". It's something that fits flush with the design, so you can leave it in and it doesn't impact the visual appearance. If you don't care about this, that's fine, it's not for you. I could easily see myself buying this, however.

  • by indium on 9/3/12, 10:28 PM

    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 USB memory sticks, however little they protrude from the port, are always going to be a concern: they may fall out, or get snapped off in my bag, not to mention they use up a valuable USB port (I only have 2 after all). A miniSD-to-SD adaptor also isn't suitable: like an SD card, the adaptor would also stick out, making it likely to snap off or come out in my bag if I leave it in all the time, or for me to just lose something that small if I take it out all the time. This is especially an issue when, for example, I reach my stop while I'm in the middle of work and just have to close my laptop and put it in my bag without having to wait to eject a disk.

    This product is clearly not for people with integrated miniSD card readers in their laptops (which is great for those who have them), and it's also not for people who leave their laptops at their desk all the time and can just use an external drive, but for someone like me this is perfect. I get the extra space, it doesn't use up any valuable ports (I rarely use the SD card slot), and it's not going to get lost or broken.

    Possible uses for this extra space: (for me personally) I'm going to redirect my Downloads folder to the drive, and also use it to as a temporary backup when I'm on the go.

    Just my two cents. £20 is a steal. Some people may think this is too expensive, but the laptop cost me £1000 when I bought it, and this £20 allows me to permanently add an extra 50% hard drive space without having to do something like void my warranty and swap out the flash memory. What's my alternative? Buy a new laptop? No thanks.

  • by DanBC on 9/3/12, 11:05 PM

    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.

  • by sciurus on 9/3/12, 8:50 PM

    That's some impressive marketing for a MicroSD to SD adapter, something that comes for free with almost every MicroSD card.

  • by adventureloop on 9/3/12, 9:15 PM

    This is pretty cool I currently use a lexar 32Gb usb dongle[1] though it does protude from the macbook air.

    There are also usb drives that fit inside the usb port and does not need a special tool to remove, though I cant find it on amazon anymore.

    [1]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lexar-32GB-Echo-Backup-Drive/dp/B004...

  • by mjcohenw on 9/3/12, 10:54 PM

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

  • by podperson on 9/3/12, 8:56 PM

    Setting aside the price, requiring a tool to remove it is a design fail. What I'd like is for it to have a removal prong that tilts out when pressed on one side (perhaps with a pen). I guarantee that I'd lose the butt ugly gizmo.

    So it's ugly I'm going to lose the thingy. Oh and it's $35.

  • by robomartin on 9/3/12, 8:56 PM

    OK, so it's an adapter that's designed to be flush wit the case. I get it. For some this could be of value.

    From a design standpoint, I would have been far more impressed had they taken the time to engineer a removal approach that does not require a special tool. The first thing it's going to happen is that you'll be on a trip or out of the office without the "key". There are tons of ways to make tool-less removal possible. This device is very simple as it has no real circuitry inside. It's an exercise in mechanical design, and they chose to not go the extra step and give it tool-less removal.

  • by smartkids on 9/3/12, 11:21 PM

    Intelligence insulted. Next.

    I have a MicroSDCard inside a SDCard adpater sitting flush in my smaller-than-iPad netbook. I got it for "free" with purchase of a cell phone, before the iPhone existed. I guess I need to get a MacBook to reproduce this unsightly protruding SDCard problem so I can then get a "niftyminidrive" to solve it? According to the title, it's a"hack". Would that make me a "hacker"?

    This is almost as good as Microsoft's "ReadyBoost". Otherwise known as a USB slot.

    It's a $5 USB stick used as a swap file. No, it's a "Windows Memory Expander". And the price is $49.95. Oh.

  • by Scene_Cast2 on 9/3/12, 11:46 PM

    Just FYI, but SD cards typically have abysmal random read/write speeds, and aren't faster than regular hard drives for sequential access. So don't expect an "SSD" with this.

    unless you buy the very high-end cards

  • by rm999 on 9/3/12, 9:56 PM

    I'm mildly interested in something like this, and almost funded it on kickstarter for 30 dollars. But I really wish it was cheaper and available now. It's not at the point in either regard where I'd impulse purchase it. For now I'm going to wait to see if something like it turns up on dealextreme for cheaper.

    BTW, the idea was discussed in this thread a while ago: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1206894

  • by LoneWolf on 9/3/12, 9:41 PM

    Am I the only one who remembered the RS-MMC cards? I'm not even sure if the macbook can read them (I don't own or will ever own one). But from what I remember it would fit and not be too long, maybe too short?.

    Edit: Ok found out that RS-MMC are limited to 2Gb

  • by aurizon on 9/3/12, 9:27 PM

    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.

  • by snow_mac on 9/4/12, 4:20 AM

    Can this be used to store a bootable copy of say Windows 7?

  • by prawn on 9/3/12, 9:38 PM

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

  • by jkap on 9/3/12, 9:00 PM

    This would be really neat if the sd slot on my macbook even worked. Has anyone else had this problem?

  • by feverishaaron on 9/3/12, 8:47 PM

    Why would you use something like this, and not just a SD card?

  • by snow_mac on 9/3/12, 9:15 PM

    Is this designed to work with Time Machine?