
The Nifty MiniDrive - SD slot hack for the Macbook - websirnik
http://theniftyminidrive.com/
======
relix
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.

~~~
ghshephard
To all those who hate it, I'm wondering if they could recommend an alternative
flash SD card adapter at a lower price.

~~~
taligent
And also importantly for most Apple users something that fits in with the
design.

~~~
ghshephard
Well - for this apple user, I'd take any flush adapter.

------
indium
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.

~~~
ghshephard
Yes - I'm in exactly the same situation as you. For $41 I can purchase a 64 GB
SD Card ([http://www.amazon.com/Komputerbay-Speed-Class-Memory-
Write/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Komputerbay-Speed-Class-Memory-
Write/dp/B005793ZTW)) and for $35 I get the flush-adapter. It's precisely what
I'm looking for.

Best part, is as the price of SDXC cards continue to drop, I can simply
purchase a naked 128/256/etc... SDXC card, and use it with this adapter.

All in all - may allow me to delay a full year on my Laptop Upgrade.
Definitely worth $35 to me.

~~~
dkulchenko
You had me excited there for a second... you're linking to an SD card, while
this adapter accepts microSDs. Cheapest 64GB microSD I was able to find is
$59: [http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSDXC-Memory-Adapter-
SDSDQ...](http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSDXC-Memory-Adapter-
SDSDQUA-064G-U46A/dp/B007WTAJTO)

------
DanBC
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.

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

~~~
mdonahoe
You pay $35 to remove a mild annoyance. It is definitely not for everyone.
Neither are macs

~~~
ghost91
This post summarizes what I personnaly find wrong about Hacker News.

Ridiculous apple fanboys and total ignorance

~~~
iamdave
And your post summarizes what annoys me about people who still throw around
"apple fanboy"; you're in an endless witch hunt to find some kind of subtext
in what people say just to call them out for their choice of computer. There
was nothing in what mdonahoe said to suggest "fanboy".

Grow up.

~~~
LoneWolf
I don't want to start a flamewar here but "Neither are macs" sounds somewhat
arrogant to me, serious and honest question am I the only one to think that?

Edit to comment about the depth limit: I can't comment any deeper. (Karma
related?)

~~~
DanBC
There is a time limit to the depth - this is to help prevent pointless
bickering.

"neither are macs" isn't, I think, arrogant nor judgemental. A person can buy
a Mac if they like that kind of thing, but if they prefer other stuff they can
buy other machines. Each person decides what's important to them.

About the device: I don't like the way that micro-SD card adapters stick out
the side of the case. I'm not sure I dislike that enough to pay $35, but if
people have that kind of spare cash I'm not going to piss and moan at them
about it.

Notice how careful I am to avoid mentioning any actual thing that may
influence a purchasing decision? That's how frustrating and pointless these
conversations can be. :-(

------
adventureloop
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...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lexar-32GB-Echo-Backup-
Drive/dp/B004X6SY2S/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1346706783&sr=8-3)

~~~
ja27
There are some really cheap microSD USB adapters that fit almost completely
inside the USB port. [http://www.dealextreme.com/p/kawau-world-s-smallest-
microsd-...](http://www.dealextreme.com/p/kawau-world-s-smallest-microsd-
transflash-tf-sd-sdhc-usb-2-0-card-reader-keychain-25558)

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

~~~
Wingman4l7
This. A SD card != a SSD. If anyone treats this as a built-in backup solution
and writes to it too much, it's going to end in tears.

------
podperson
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.

~~~
polshaw
The idea is that you don't generally remove it. In reality if you lost the
tool you would use a paperclip.

Also I disagree that it is a design fail. What (i think) you are describing is
poor industrial design; it would be more prone to break, as well as costing
more to produce (bearing in mind this is being done by a startup).

The real design failure is Apple's. My laptop (like nearly every digital
camera ever?) has a spring loaded sd-slot, that allows the SD card to sit
flush with the edge.

~~~
LoneWolf
Only after reading your comment I understood that it does not have a spring
loaded slot, it's the first that I know of that does not have one. And now I'm
wondering if there is not 1cm more to make the card go fully inside the
computer? Doesn't look too hard (but maybe it is?).

The more I think about it the more I agree the real design flaw is from Apple.

~~~
indium
As I see it, there are only two reasons why the SD card doesn't go all the way
in in an Apple laptop:

* So nothing can get stuck inside. * So valuable space isn't used up inside the computer. The motherboard in a macbook air is tiny. The extra half-height of the SD card that would be necessary for it to go all the way in is significant.

Either way, as it stands Apple hasn't provided a spring-loaded mechanism, so
they have to do something like this. They only made the removal tool by
popular demand: in the Kickstarter they were just advising use of a paperclip,
which seemed reasonable. Over-engineering is always a danger, especially when
you're fighting to just get a product shipped.

------
robomartin
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.

~~~
daeken
On my W520, SD cards go in all the way and then pop out when you push them in
further (spring-loaded). Something like that could be built into this card
itself pretty trivially. Added complexity increases costs a decent bit for
something like this, though, I'd imagine.

~~~
robomartin
That's the beauty of designing with plastics. Sometimes you can add
significant functional complexity to a design without a corresponding increase
in cost. The mold costs are not correlated to functional complexity. Adding
the "push to remove" function could, depending on design, cost exactly zero
both in terms of mold costs and materials cost.

The same is the case for a number of other options.

------
smartkids
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.

------
Scene_Cast2
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

------
rm999
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>

------
LoneWolf
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

------
aurizon
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.

~~~
ghshephard
So - what would you recommend for someone like me, who wants to add 128 GB of
Storage to his MacBook Air, and maybe get another year's use out of it? This
devices looks perfect - but I'm interested if you know of anybody else who
makes a flush SSD card adapter.

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

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

~~~
Wingman4l7
That's what I've been wondering -- just because a 2TB card is _supported_
doesn't mean that they can actually be _built_. I'm sure there's a hard limit
on how much flash memory you can cram into the microSD form factor. Anyone
know what that limit is?

~~~
prawn
When I first saw this project on KickStarter, I checked to see the current
capacity of MicroSD and it was around 64GB. Not sure if it's likely to remain
at that level for some time.

Even at that size, it could be worth trying to set one up with TimeMachine to
give a second copy of critical files in case of hard drive failure in your
laptop. Not quite off-site back-up though.

~~~
Wingman4l7
Even _on_ -site would be better -- theft or physical damage would easily
render such "in-place" backup moot. Better than nothing though, I suppose --
and I will readily admit that SD cards are quite tough
(<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3939333.stm>).

~~~
prawn
Thing is, the nice snug fit of this device (its entire appeal) goes against
frequently taking it out to store elsewhere.

I guess you could use it with two MicroSD cards to alternate back-ups, storing
one at home, one at the office. But then the sole advantage would be that
during the day, you're not bumping into it sticking out of your computer. I
don't move my laptop around during the day often enough for that to be an
issue.

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

~~~
evan_
Yes. I find that I can make it work by applying a little bit of pressure to
the underside of the SD card that sticks out of the drive. This is easily my
#1 complaint about the MBP.

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

~~~
pacomerh
"Unlike an SD card which sticks out about 1cm from the body of the computer,
the MiniDrive sits flush against the body of the MacBook, becoming a semi-
permanent feature of the computer."

~~~
rolmos
So, it's a microSD card adapter that's a bit smaller that normal. That 35$
price is ridiculous.

~~~
icefox
So you can get that same feature (smaller size) for cheaper elsewhere? If so
than it is ridiculous, but if not than it is only overpriced if people are not
willing to pay for it. As with all startups, to get customers start by solving
an actual problem (I use the SD slot all the time, but hate having it stick
out)

~~~
ja27
There are some slightly uglier but cheaper alternatives for Raspberry Pi users
that want a lower-profile SD card. They might be too thick for a Mac's SD slot
though.

There's a $12 version on Kickstarter now:
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/443556734/pio-microsd-
ad...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/443556734/pio-microsd-adapter-for-
raspberry-pi)

Adafruit will also offer a similar one soon:
<http://www.adafruit.com/products/966>

~~~
LoneWolf
Well If it was me I would go the uglier cheaper way as long as it does the
job.

------
snow_mac
Is this designed to work with Time Machine?

~~~
lolryan
It will work if you have <64 GB of data to back up. You can optionally exclude
things that take up a lot of space like your Applications folder. Honestly
though, your best bet would probably be to use a "real" drive for time machine
backups and/or a third party online backup solution. Backblaze suits my needs
quite well.

