08Jan2011

CES 2011: First Look: Airstash wireless flash drive

airstash photo workflow
Well, it took until Saturday morning, but I think I’ve found my favorite product at CES. It wins this award because it is both a) cool and b) available now. It’s a wireless storage device for iOS devices called the Airstash and it lets you expand the memory of your iDevice and let you share it with multiple users.

It works like this: on its simplest level, the Airstash is a USB to SD card adapter. You slide in a card (up to 32 GB) and can drag and drop movies, photos, documents, etc. from a computer. Simple enough. Now the really cool part is that the Airstash also creates a wireless access point, allowing you to access your files using WebDAV and HMTL 5: both open techs supported by Apple: no hacks, no workarounds.

It makes Airstash work like a network drive, but one with a iOS-friendly interface. Photographers who want to import photos to their iPad can view them as thumbnails or a slideshow, streaming from the Airstash, and then pick which photos they want to import rather than pulling the whole card into Photos and then deleting the ones they don’t like. You can stream video from the Airstash, and it works with multiple devices (including, say, Android phones or PCs) simultaneously.

Since it creates its own access point, you don’t need an internet connection to make it work. It uses WPA2 password protection to control access. It’s a small devices (2” x 3.5” x .5”, weight: 1.5 oz.). Battery life is estimated to be about five hours. There’s a firmware update that will allow users to save to the Airstash wirelessly using WebDAV, and I was told they’re going to submit an app to the Apple Store that will provide further integration.

The Airstash costs $99.99 and is available now at the company store.

View the original article here