It exists, you probably just haven't found it yet.
We know that people have always been asking, "Is there a way to use a USB flash drive with an iPad?" It would simply make it a more viable tablet computer solution for many more people. Well, the answer is yes. The only prerequisite being that you need to buy a special USB flash drive and they aren't particularly cheap. It requires a 'special' USB flash drive because the iPad isn't made to support traditional USB ports. It's too thin to hold a USB port. Instead, the only solution for transferring data in a tethered fashion is by using the super slim thirty pin connector, which is on every iDevice.
The iFlashDrive supports both Mac and PC and on the other side of the spectrum it supports iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. It's a double-sided flash drive that lets you move data to and from one of your iDevices to another USB-capable device or iDevice. It works with your music, videos, photos, documents, contacts, and more. It requires that you download an application from the App Store to use it, but it's a pretty interesting way of transferring data from your computer to your iDevice and vice versa. Now sure, there are better ways to transfer data, such as using a sync cable and some third party software on your computer, but what ever are you going to do on someone else's computer that doesn't have that software installed on it, such as in class?
Since iFlashDrive has been dubbed, "world’s only flash drive for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch" by the company HyperDrive, it doesn't come cheap. It comes in three flavors of 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB - costing you $99.95, $149.95, and $199.95 respectively. Apart from the price, there are some more things that you might not like about it such as the fact that because of the design, it eats up so much space. If you plug it into the side of a MacBook Pro like the image above, you will have no room to put anything in your second USB port and no room to put anything in your SD card slot.
Interestingly enough, MacWorld reports that you can use the iFlashDrive App to sync files to and from Dropbox. They also say that HyperDrive plans to add support for Evernote and Box.net to the iFlashDrive App sometime soon as well. This is a device that has a lot of potential, being a rather new device and a new breed of its kind. However, until they actually bring the price down or come up with a better design that doesn't render other ports on the MacBook Pro useless, I probably won't be snagging one. I'm pretty sure that many users would also prefer not to have to download an application to use their flash drive with their iDevice, but we know that because of Apple's strict standards, that might never happen.
You can read more about iFlashDrive or purchase one from their Web site.
What are your thoughts about the iFlashDrive and would you buy one? Share in the comments.
Sources: MacWorld
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