iPhone / iPad Back Up Tools
Memory Helper For Travelers
I must say, I truly enjoy my various Apple devices. They have become important tools for my daily routine and essential tools for my travel activities. That said, there are aspects of Apple’s operating system and devices that really irritate me. Apple is a closed system. Apple limits what you can do with their devices and how you can modify or fine tune their devices. With Apple, there is really only one way – Apple’s way.
Yes – You could say I’m an Apple fan – currently operating an iPhone 7+, iPhone 7, iPad Air 2, MacBook Pro, and iMac.
One area of irritation with Apple for me personally has been the lack of any way to expand the memory of Apple’s iPhones or iPads or to simply and effectively attach a back-up device. I’m envious of my Android using friends in these areas. For me this is an issue because, when I travel most especially, I want to back up photos from my iPhone. And also, since I use my iPad for writing when traveling, I like to have access to lots of materials (photos, documents, files, etc.) which I don’t necessarily want to have pre-loaded on my iPad, filling up it’s limited memory.
Enter The Difini Card Reader
Recently I was introduced to the Difini Card Reader. After working with it for awhile now, it appears to offer a bit of a solution to memory and backup limitations imposed by Apple on their iPhones and iPads. True, it’s sort of a “work around” and it definitely is not an elegant solution. But this device can be helpful with memory and backup issues.
As seen in the photo above, the Difini has access slots for SD and MicroSD cards. And, most importantly for Apple users, it not only has a standard USB connector but also an Apple Lighting connector. This tiny device allows 2 way communication with you iPhone or iPad. You can upload files or images directly to your Apple device and/or download information to a memory card. And of course you can use the standard USB connector to handle the same functions on devices with a standard USB port. In fact, you are not limited to uploading/downloading. You are able to view images and even watch videos easily directly from the Difini.
Using the Difini on you iPhone / iPad does require that you use their free app. Once you’ve installed the app, it is simple, intuitive and launches automatically when you insert the Divinity’s Lighting connector.
Using this device I can, in many ways, essentially expand my iPhone/iPad memory – using the Difini as a tiny external memory. Yes, it’s not as nice and elegant as being able to expand the “on board” memory of you Apple device. But until Apple decides to let you do that (Apple – are you listening?) the Difini offers some flexibility and expandability qualities which might work for you. I know that it is currently part of my kit of standard travel gear.
The Difini Card Reader is available from AMAZON. I picked mine up for $17.00 which seems reasonable for what the device does.
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Further exploration of Amazon shows there are quite possibly similar devices available but I have no experience with those and can’t comment. If you have worked with others feel free to share and comment.
Last Minute Update:
Just prior to publication a friend gave me a very nice gift – an iPhone Flash Drive! In many ways it’s very similar to the Defini described above.
It is small and has both a lightning and usb connector allowing it to function in many ways as the Defini. The difference is that this device has it’s own built in, internal memory. I have one with 8GB but it appears that you can also get larger memory capacities as well (of course there is a price difference with larger capacities also). This approach does not allow you to use your own SD or Micro SD Card, so you can’t swap memory in and out. But the memory is built in so you won’t loose it – it’s all self contained. This is a very nice and small solution for memory and transfer needs with Apple devices if your application doesn’t require the large capacity back-up / transfers and you don’t need the flexibility of using multiple memory cards. Several styles are available through Amazon but it appears you can order the one described here via Boardwalkbuy.com
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Disclosure: I purchased the Define personally and and received the flash drive as a gift from a friend. I have received no compensation for this review. If you do order these products from Amazon, or any other product for that matter, we’d appreciate your doing so by clicking through from our website as we will receive a small (trust me) compensation to help with costs of operating this web site. And worry not, your price will remain the same – not extra charge for you. Sort of a “win-win”.
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