AirStash A02 SD Card Flash Drive for iPad, iPhone, Android (memory card not included)

DANGER! Wall of text ahead! Worth the read, though.I've got to say, I was a bit skeptical about this product before I purchased it, but it has met or exceeded my every expectation without a doubt.Background: I'm an Apple fan and own an iPhone 6, iPad 3, and Macbook Pro. As much as I love my Apple iDevices, they are really limited in the fact that you are limited to the storage space you purchase with the device, as opposed to some other phone/tablet devices that have removable storage. As a result, I was looking for a way to add a 'removable storage' component to my iDevices. The tipping point on deciding to buy an external storage device was an upcoming trip to the Bahamas. I will be scuba diving and doing some underwater photography and wanted a way to easily view and transfer photos from the SD card in the camera to my iDevices for quick and easy viewing/uploading. My original thought was to purchase the Apple 30-pin to SD connector, which would allow me to do just that. I then found out that with the recent iOS 8 upgrade, Apple eliminated the ability to transfer photos and videos from SD cards to iDevices. Bummer. After a brief search, I landed on the AirStash.Description and Setup: After reading up on the functionality of the AirStash, I took the plunge and spent the $59.99 on Amazon. It came in 2 days thanks to Prime Shipping (side note - I love my Amazon Prime account). Physically, the things is just a bit bigger than a standard flash drive. A little bit wider and a little bit thicker, but about the same length. To be honest, it even looks like a regular flash drive. Setup couldn't be easier. There is ONE button on the AirStash, and everything else is handled on your device. There is a single slot on the bottom of the AirStash that accomodates one full-size SD card. According to the AirStash documentation, you can use a SD card anywhere from 2gb to 2tb. 2 TERABYTES, PEOPLE. Thats a lot of space. I can also confirm that using a microSD card with adapter works without issue.To get started, you have to install the FREE AirStash app from the app store of your choosing (I believe this device is both android/apple compatible). After installing the app, you simply hold the power button on the device for a couple seconds until it blinks telling you it is on. When it is powered on, the green LED blinks at a regular interval. Once powered on, you navigate to your wifi settings on your device, connect to the AirStash wifi network being broadcasted by the AirStash, and then open the AirStash app. Once in the app, you have the option to change the name of the wifi network created, create a password for the network, etc.Functionality: The first thing I did after familiarizing myself with the AirStash app was to power up my digital camera, pop in an SD card, and take some photos. I then took the SD card out of the camera, popped it into the bottom of the AirStash, and navigated to the AirStash app on my iPhone. Lo and behold, all of the photos were right there, with thumbnails for easy viewing. I was impressed when I discovered that I was able to copy the images from the SD card in the AirStash directly to the Camera Roll on my iPhone. I was impressed yet again when I discovered that I could also copy photos back from the Camera Roll to the SD card in the AirStash. That two-way transfer was really awesome, and perfect for my needs! I got a little curious when I discovered you could also transfer video files from the iPhone to the SD card. After that, I ripped a few DVDs on my Mac using HandBrake (an awesome free app) and threw them on an SD card. Wouldn't you know it, I opened the AirStash app and was able to stream those movies from the AirStash to my iPhone WITHOUT those videos having to be on my device. I thought this was a really cool feature too, especially for those times when you have to spend hours on a plane, in a car, or in an airport and wish you had something to watch. Allegedly, you can stream music the same way, but I haven't yet attempted that. Also, I've read that you can copy iTunes DRM-protected movies to the SD card as well, and can stream them as long as your device is authorized to play them in the first place. Haven't confirmed this either.Battery life: I've been pretty impressed with the battery life thus far. I have streamed entire 2+ hour movies on a single charge, and the battery wasn't even halfway empty. AirStash reports that you can stream HD video for 3 hours, and Standard Def video for 5 hours. I would imagine that viewing/transferring images uses less battery than video, but I haven't tested that either. I am also happy to report that, if you charge the AirStash in a non-computer USB, you can use the device while it is charging. If you are charging it in a computer, you cannot use it wirelessly while charging.Here is a summary of things I like and things I don't:Pros:1. Good product for the price point. With an apple SD-to-30 pin costing 30 bucks or so, this thing is only marginally more expensive but much, much more awesome.2. The ability to move pictures to/from SD cards works great. This has the potential to easily free up lots of space on your iDevice. This also makes for an easy way to transfer images/video from cameras (including gopro, point and shoot, DSLR, etc.) to your device at a whim.3. The ability to copy movies to an SD card and stream them to your device is a huge perk. I'll use this feature often when traveling but don't have access to wifi or cellular.4. The battery life is really good and the device can be used while charging.5. The device seems solid, well built, and fairly robust.Cons:I don't have many negative things to say about this product.1. Sometimes I wish this connected via bluetooth instead of wifi so that I could use the wifi connection on my iDevice while using the AirStash. I'm sure there are reasons that it has to use wifi, however.2. Occasionally, I have difficulty getting video to stream properly from the AirStash to my iDevice and have to restart the app. Not sure what is up with that.Overal, I love the Airstash, and it will be a huge benefit, particularly when I am travelling. I would recommend this device for (a) people who wish they had more space for media on their portable device, (b) people who want the ability to integrate their portable device with their photography easily, and (c) people who want to take content with them while traveling but don't have the space to do so on their device.

On the outside, this seems like such a simple device, like any other USB flash drive out there. But no, this is a little miracle that could save you hundreds of dollars. It did for me anyway.I was considering purchasing the 32GB or 64GB iPad Air and was mortified at the price Apple wants to gouge their customers for memory that is dirt cheap nowadays. It almost was enough for me to begin convincing my wife it was finally time to leave Apple for Android, for then at least we can have all the storage we want via microSD cards. Fortunately, the Apple salesman saw my anger rising and my eyes drifting towards the Android tablets, and piped up about the option of purchasing a wifi usb device to store my media on. With this door opened to me, I figured OK, my wife can be happy with her iOS tablet, and I can be happy with my unlimited storage.After purchasing the 16GB iPad Air, we looked at the wifi usb options and I didn't like any they had to offer at the store, so I figured I would look on-line when I got home. The next day, I started looking at all the various wifi USB storage options and most of them did not offer removable storage, which was not what I wanted. I did not want to be limited to the size of the "thumb drive" I purchased. There were a few other models that did allow for removable media, but they had other issues, such as no support for larger capacity cards or file sizes due to FAT32 constraints. Then I came upon this gem which promised no more file size limitation and ordered it immediately.Everything was going swimmingly until I attempted to transfer a 4.7GB file to my card which failed because of the FAT32 limitation. No problem I thought, I'll just format the card NTFS and all will be good. Nope, NTFS isn't supported. Fortunately, exFAT is supported and did the trick AFTER updating to the latest firmware.Now, I am able to have this baby in my pocket or plugged in the car USB port while my son and daughter in the back seat are streaming Turbo and Frozen to their iOS devices (iTouch and iPhone). For this convenience alone, it is more than worth the cost, as our long car rides are much quieter now that the kids don't have to fight over which DVD to watch in the portable DVD player (which has now been retired).Pros:1. Very affordable option for expanding your storage for iOS devices.2. Unlimited storage. You are only limited by the size and number of microSD cards you have on-hand. :)3. Very reliable, I have had zero issues after updating to the latest firmware.4. Excellent support. I called to troubleshoot my initial frustration at not getting large files to load and they informed me about the latest firmware now supporting exFAT and linked me to the support page.5. Support for up to 3 devices streaming video at the same time.6. Transfers files both to and from your device to the AirStashCons:As others have mentioned in their reviews:1. You have to connect to the device via your wireless settings, as it has it's own separate WiFi network. The issue with this is that because your phone "thinks" it is connected to a wifi network with an internet connection, it does not use your DATA plan for email or browsing. You are basically disconnected from the world while connected to the AirStash.2. From what I can tell, you have to launch movies from their app, at least if DRM is involved. You can use VLC Media Player to play movies, however if it is DRM protected, I believe you have to launch through the browser to play it. That was my experience anyway with Turbo and Frozen. Also, while this may be a limitation of the iPhone 3g hardware/OS, Frozen would not play on the iPhone 3g, but it played fine on our iPod Touch 4g and my iPhone 5.