You can hail the iPad all you want, but it remains a fact: the lack of built-in storage expansion is just a bad move. Fortunately, you may not have to be stuck with it when the pocket-friendly AirStash comes around, letting you access SD card content wirelessly.
At first glance, it looks much like any plug-in SD thumbdrive and it can be used for that. Just pop an SD card in, stick it on your PC’s USB port and access files much like a regular flash drive. The innovation, though, happens when you pull it out. Armed with 802.11b/g WiFi interface, you can connect to it with any compatible gadgets, accessing the stored files directly from your browser.
The AirStash is a slightly-larger USB drive that allows you to use any SD, SDHC, microSD and microSDHC card with any gadget that would not otherwise support them, provided they have both a web browser and either a USB port or Wi-Fi. That means you can now get SD-card content, such as movies, music, photos, and documents, on erstwhile closed systems such as iPhones, iPod Touches and Palm Pres.
Since it uses Wi-Fi, it allows multiple users to connect to the same content at any time, with security provided by an optional password and WPA2 streaming encryption. Even better, it supports hot-swapping of cards up to 32GB, giving you access to as much storage as you need.
The only glitch? AirStash isn’t available yet. They’ve been showing working versions at trade shows, though, so a debut is probably not too far in the horizon.
[AirStash]