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Hyper launches the first Made-for-iPhone/iPad USB flash drive w/ built-in Lightning connector

iStick-MFi-cover

Hyper— we’ve reviewed some of its MacBook batteries and iPhone accessories in the past— is today announcing the first Made-For-iPhone/iPad/iPod touch (MFi) flash drive that includes a built-in Lightning connector. Unfortunately you can’t get your hands on one just yet, but you can preorder through a funding campaign the company just launched on Kickstarter.

Hyper told us it’s been working on the product for over two years and just recently got approval from Apple: “As expected, Apple had many concerns for iOS storage products like the iStick. We actually started MFi application for this product more than 2 years ago. It was definitely not an easy process but we managed to address all of Apple’s concerns and finally just got MFi approval.”

The iStick USB flash drive includes a standard USB connector in addition to the Lightning connector, will come in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB variants, and also a companion app that will let users transfer content from one device to another. The company notes that the iStick allows users the ability to “stream movies (even non-iOS native video formats), music and open files directly from the iStick without first copying to the iOS device.”

When the product finally launches the various models will sell for $129 (8GB), $169 (16GB), $199 (32GB) and $299 (64GB), but early bird Kickstarter backers are getting 50% off making it $65 (8GB), $85 (16GB), $99 (32GB) and $149 (64GB).

Why is Hyper, owned by Sanho Corporation, doing a crowd funding project? The company told us the following: “We only reserve Kickstarter launches for our very best products just like what we did with CloudFTP 2 years ago. It also said it wants to “crowdsource ideas and suggestions to make the product even better and to give it the biggest launch possible.”

iStick

Hyper plans to start shipping iStick in August. You can preorder iStick and find out more about the product here. Specs a video below:

iStick-to-USB Speed: 12MB/s (Read), 7.5MB/s (Write)
iStick-to-iDevice Speed: 2.5MB/s (Read), 1.9MB/s (Write)
Construction: ABS Plastic and/or Aluminum
Dimensions: 51.6 x 28.6 x 9.1mm
Weight: 10g
Supported File Formats:
Video .mp4, .m4v, .mpv, .mov, .mpg, .mkv, .avi, .wmv, .rmvb, .flv, .3gp, .gif
Audio .wav, .aac, .aif, .aiff, .caf, .m4a, .mp3
Images .jpg, .tiff, .gif
Documents .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel); .zip; .ics

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_lB3SZTyHQ]

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Comments

  1. Marc-Antoine Brodeur - 10 years ago

    129$ for 8GB… nice product but way too expesive!

    • aeronperyton - 10 years ago

      That’s currently the biggest problem with making a legit Lightening device right now, you have to have a micro-processor in your bloody dongle. The thing could probably double as a TI calculator.

    • mpias3785 - 10 years ago

      You think that’s bad? I just got a email from Hyper stating that their early bird prices are 50% off the projected selling price! That means they gave the gall to sell a 128GB USB 2.0 device that will take almost 5 hours to fill at 7.5MB/sec, for $400!! WOW! Talk about chutzpah!

  2. Anthony Moschini - 10 years ago

    Nice looking product, would be nice if they had of designed it so that either end could be hidden inside the housing. Expensive, but I’m not aware of a similar product on the market.

  3. Douglas Brace - 10 years ago

    This is a link that goes directly to a video that does a better job at demoing the device and software.

    https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/assets/001/963/581/82f361510cd39911d061a7ef4009595b_h264_high.mp4

  4. Something I still haven’t found what i’m looking for. I am so glad they are finally launching the flashdrive that connects to the iphone through a lightning connector. That completes the look of a minilaptop. Laptops are designed to have USB connectors that can support flashdrives and other usb gadgets. It’s even better if they have a CD drive, but if it at least has usb, then that is fine. If that does appear in the apple stores, I will be the first to check it out. Then I will be able to use my iphone or ipad if applicable as my secondary laptop. It would be even better if they had an adapter that can be used to connect any flashdrive to a lightning connector because it will be cost effective in the long run. As usual, products at apple that are new to the market are overpriced. I would wait a while and buy it once the prices are more affordable.

  5. Doesn’t AirDrop make this irrelevant? I guess it’s cross platform tho, so it’s got that going for it. Probably makes sense for giant firms that don’t want their data flying around wifi networks, but pretty pointless for me.

    • Mike Schoenbaum - 10 years ago

      AirDrop Will work between ios devices but as far as I know you cannot airdrop between an ipad and a mac?

    • vtcajones - 10 years ago

      Once you can AirDrop between a Desktop and an iOS device, yes, this will be irrelevant.

      • Mike Murray - 10 years ago

        Uhm… you can. I do it all the time from my Macbook Pro to my iPhone.

      • Jonny - 10 years ago

        You may have misunderstood, or you’re lying… or I suppose a third option of having access to an unreleased version of OS X and/or iOS where this possible… maybe a fourth option where you’re using other programs to accomplish what AirDrop does.

      • mpias3785 - 10 years ago

        @Mike Murray says:
        May 12, 2014 at 9:13 am
        “Uhm… you can. I do it all the time from my Macbook Pro to my iPhone.”

        How? I’m running 10.9.3b and 7.1.1 and the MBP and 5s ignore each other unless I use 3rd party apps. I’m hoping this shows up in 10.10.

      • jrox16 - 10 years ago

        I’m sure this will come with iOS 8 and OS X 10.10.

      • Robert Nixon - 10 years ago

        @Mike Murray No, you don’t. You’ve literally never done this. The two implementations are totally different, with no effort made on Apple’s behalf to make them inter-operable. The developers of the iOS version even said as much at last year’s WWDC..

    • aeronperyton - 10 years ago

      AirDrop is good (and is hopefully about to get a lot better), but it will take a few more leaps in technology to make something more simplistic and reliable than sneakernet.

    • erictheactor - 10 years ago

      I use DeskConnect… It’s amazing! It’s the same as airdrop but I can drop from my MBP to my iPad or iPhone flawlessly.

  6. Rexplore (@Rexplore) - 10 years ago

    This was designed by Red Dot winner Rexplore 2 years ago as “Viceversal” and published by Yanko Design 25 January 2013. I would like to have chance to produce my designs…

    REXPLORE: http://rexplore.com/flash-drive-rexplored/
    YANKO: http://www.yankodesign.com/2013/01/25/the-only-data-storage-you-need/

    • mpias3785 - 10 years ago

      I bought one of their 30 pin models over two years ago. It didn’t work very well, but I’m pretty sure Hyper was the first.

  7. with a pricing like that, it’s very likely to flop once it’s out. At around 25x the cost of a similarly priced usb stick (speaking for the 8GB, ~11x for the 64GB), I’d rather keep the hassle of syncing stuff to my iOS devices. Yay, nice way to make money, Hyper. Plus, buying a smaller-capacity iDevice and then going for one of those to cover the difference isn’t as economical as buying the more spacious iDevice.

    • Furthermore, as far as I understand, the stick will work with a companion iOS app. So, for example, I won’t be able to load some extra music and have it available for my Traktor setup. Ummm, no… I suspect that once AirDrop between OSX and iOS becomes a reality, gadgets like this will become totally irrelevant

  8. Great Concept

  9. David Tan - 10 years ago

    i rather use my cloud storage to do my filing. for movies and etc online streaming is way better

  10. ctyrider (@ctyrider) - 10 years ago

    This looks ugly, and is terribly overpriced. Even without OS X – to – iOS AirDrop – there are plenty of ways to wireless transfer files between desktop and iOS device. I will stick to those.

  11. mpias3785 - 10 years ago

    Insanely overpriced for USB 2.0 (128GB PNY USB 2.0 flash drive is $40 on Amazon). I bought a Kingston Digital MobileLite Wireless unit that can handle SD cards, flash drives and contains a battery so it can power a USB hard drive. I got this with a 1TB Toshiba HD for just under $100. It’s bulkier but does all the same things as the Hyperprice without breaking the bank or forcing me to remove my iDevice from its case.

    I also bought one of their earlier models and was never able to get it to work.

  12. Jack Gnasty - 10 years ago

    Wow. 2 years to develop an overpriced dongle for the folks who can’t wrap their heads around cloud services. $129 for something that OneDrive can do for free and also offer additional functionality. If you absolutely need something physical to transport files, Apple sells the lightning SD card reader for $33 on Amazon. Add a generic USB card reader for $5, and a comparable speed 8GB SD Card for $10 and you have the same exact product for less than $50 delivered if you are a prime member.

    • pecospeet - 10 years ago

      I use iCloud for many of my files, but I also work with stuff that I am not willing to expose to internet transfers regardless of the security level. Currently, syncing those files to iPad requires brute force and so I choose to just carry my MBA with me instead. This dongle will make access from my iPad much easier, I hope.

      Like amny things, it’s a product with a special audience and clearly, based on the comments here, not attractive to every-one. If it works like advertised, they will get my money because this provides me with a useful tool.

  13. RP - 10 years ago

    Way too expensive. At that pricing Apple shouldn’t be too worried about it hurting their phone storage gouging.

  14. too expensive! for less you find in Amazon a wireless SandDisc that does the job

  15. Heet Singala - 10 years ago

    I prefer Mophie Space Pack, it gives an extra battery life as well. Even to cost is somewhat similar

  16. Stetson - 10 years ago

    What’s sad is that this product has a reason to exist at all. AirDrop and iCloud should make this sort of device completely unnecessary but they aren’t quite there yet.

  17. patstar5 - 10 years ago

    Apple will not be able to get away with not making phones with sd cards and charging $100 for double the storage. Especially now that carriers are moving away from subsidized phones.

  18. A.J. Falbo - 10 years ago

    Neat idea…but their pricing IS ABSURD! For $400.00 the damn thing better think for me.

  19. Tongue Jedi (@TongueJedi) - 10 years ago

    Doesn’t the space case do the same thing and add a battery?

  20. zeromeus - 10 years ago

    For THAT price, just get the built-in memory bump for Apple for much less AND you don’t have to deal with a dongle/aftermarket item. @$200 for the 48GB bump from 16 to 64, it’s a much better bargain and your phone is a lot better.

  21. Andrey Shcherbakov - 10 years ago

    The same thing – i-FlashDrive – http://www.photofast.tw/iFlashDrive2013_1.html

  22. Did all of the backers buy an apple product by mistake? Maybe they are looking for a better experience, the ‘user is empowered experience’. The android experience.

    You can do this (use an external flash drive) very easily and very inexpensively on android. But if you get a crippled apple product, then you need to overpay for an unreliable kickstarter program to eventually produce a product? Lame.

    If you buy an apple product, you should already know you are getting a device that has been intentionally crippled by apple with the “My way or the highway!” apple philosophy.

    If you want a capable, powerful tablet that doesn’t treat you like a child and allows you to do industry standard things like connect a reasonably priced usb flash drive – then you should carefully shop for a premium android tablet (or get a windows tablet).

  23. Daniel Bresien - 10 years ago

    Not certain why Ipad would be built without transfer options since you can create and store documents on the iPad. Need a way to get them off. Sorry I don’t trust this cloud mentality yet. I want my data backed up locally via a hard connection when I need to back up or transport data. A base computer is not necessarly convienient for use with a mobile divice. And I don’t want to settle for PC based product if I don’t have too. Never been a big fan of tablets. No phone capability on one end and not enough power and versatility to replace a laptop. However, being able to port files to a flash device would go a long way to convince me a tablet might be worth having. So if you are listening Apple and you want more customers for this product you can’t continue to treat it like an island. Expandability and upgradeability for the hardware are also concerns. In a product is going to cost this much I want some legs to it. I do not want to have to keep chasing new versions to keep the product useful. My biggest complaint about smart phones as well.

  24. magisite - 10 years ago

    What is different here from the photoflash dongle, except the need for an adapter to lightning?

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.