Kickstarter: Nifty MiniDrive For MacBook Air & MacBook Pro [VIDEO]

Last time I was this excited about a Kickstarter idea was when Pebble E-Paper watch was announced, a project that eventually became the most funded project in Kickstarter history. And today when I came across the Nifty MiniDrive Kickstarter page, I found myself equally excited as I’ve always looked for a faster but cheaper alternative to SSD for extending my MacBook’s storage.

The Nifty MiniDrive is a tiny device that plugs into the SD card slot and provides a neat, integrated solution for increasing the available storage in a MacBook. What’s different about plugging a high speed Micro SD card using the MiniDrive is that a normal SD card sticks out by about 1cm from the body of the MacBook when fully inserted, while the MiniDrive is designed to sit completely flush with the body of the MacBook, becoming a semi permanent part of the notebook. By utilising standard micro SD cards the MiniDrive can add plug in and forget memory to any MacBook Air, MacBook Pro or Retina MacBook Pro.

Here are some quick facts about Micro SD as a primary storage disk:

One of the cool things about Micro SD cards is that they are practically indestructible – in fact a major manufactuer of them claims their cards can survive under the sea for over 24 hours, withstand 1.6 tons of force, and are impervious to magnets and X-rays.

Therefore, when combined with the Nifty MiniDrive, this makes them perfectly suited as a primary back-up disk.

As the Minidrives are designed to stay in your computer without getting in the way, a daily back-up  of your critical files may be set up and then happen automatically without having to remember to plug anything in.

All MacBook Air and Pro computers from the mid 2010 refresh onwards have a Secure Digital Extended Copacity, or SD XC card reader in their SD card slot.

This format can support a Micro SD card of up to 2TB – roughly 2000GB in size. The largest capacity Micro SD card available to put in a MiniDrive today is 64GB which would already increase by 50% the capacity of an entry level 13″ MacBook air.

Kickstarters need to pledge US $30 to get their hands on one of these. The project has already crossed its funding goal of $11,000 by miles, hitting $257,184 today with 17 more days to go. I’ve already pledged one for myself and I highly recommend you do the same!

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