A few months back I wrote an article about how the Aple iPad can be used by photographers. The biggest disadvantage of the iPad has always been it’s limited internal storage and inability to connect external drives for additional storage. Today though, Sanho has announced a new version of their excellent Hyperdrive UDMA (which I reviewed last year) which can successfully be used as an external drive on the iPad when connected via the camera connection kit.
This is some pretty huge news for photographers that want to travel with the absolute minimum of gear. You can download your images from your CF or SD card directly into the Hyperdrive via its own memory card slots, and then transfer them over to the iPad if you need to do anything more with them. Make small edits, upload to a blog or FTP to a client for example. It also allows you to carry your full music or movie collection with you for entertainment on the road. It would seem that files cannot be played or edited from the Hyperdrive, instead they must be transferred over to the iPad first, but this is a big step in the right direction! Full press release after the break if you want all the details!
HyperDrive – The World’s First And Only iPad Hard Drive
Carry 750GB of HD video and photo, always accessible to the iPad
09.07.2010 – BERLIN, GERMANY – Sanho Corporation (IFA Hall 15.1, Booth 216), the company behind the HyperMac battery packs for Apple iDevices today unveil the HyperDrive, the only hard drive in the market that can connect directly to the iPad without using a computer. Using the HyperDrive, users can store up to 750GB of high definition video and photos, easily sending them to the iPad for viewing anytime. HyperDrive is also a memory card backup device with 2 card slots to directly backup from 12 different types of cards and a 3.2″ color LCD screen for photo viewing and file management.
Using the Apple Camera Connection Kit, the iPad is able to connect to SD cards and self-powered USB devices. However there is a size limitation of 32GB, making it impossible for larger USB hard drives to connect to the iPad. HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive overcomes this limit with its unique patent pending ability to turn individual file folders into virtual 32GB drives on the fly that is readable by the iPad.
Users can first transfer their entire movie and photo library, organized into folders on the HyperDrive. They can do so by connecting the HyperDrive to their computer via USB or copy directly from memory cards via HyperDrive’s built-in card slots. Once that is done, users will have up to 750GB of media accessible to the iPad anytime.
To transfer media from the HyperDrive to the iPad, users just need to connect the HyperDrive to the iPad via a USB cable and the Apple Camera Connection Kit. Using the HyperDrive’s built-in 3.2″ LCD screen, users can select a folder on the HyperDrive, and the folder contents will appear on the iPad screen, giving users the option to chose which media to download to their iPad.
“HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive lets you carry your entire HD movie and photo library with your iPad,” says Daniel Chin, President of Sanho Corporation. “HyperDrive is as compact as your portable USB hard drive and yet at capacities up to 750GB, can hold more data than your laptop,” he added. “The iPad is the perfect media player but its capacities are limited and it requires a computer and iTunes to transfer media to the iPad,” he continued. “HyperDrive releases the iPad from this restriction and truly turns it into a media consuming device,” he concludes.
Like its predecessors, HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive is also a memory card backup device capable of downloading data from 12 different types of memory cards in 2 of its built-in card slots at speeds up to 40MB/s (or 2GB/minute). The HyperDrive will be useful for photographers and videographers who want to perform backups in the field or simply capture more photos and videos beyond what their memory cards allow.
HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive also functions as a USB external hard drive when connected to the computer. Its 3.2″ QVGA color LCD screen displays JPEG and RAW images. Other advanced features include memory card data recovery, memory card and hard drive speed tests and diagnostics checks.
Features
– Connects to the iPad to transfer photos, movies and other media
– Connect HyperDrive as a USB hard drive to the computer
– Import any data from memory card directly, without a computer
– Browse through RAW or JPEG photos on built-in 3.2″ color LCD screen
– Image slideshow, R/G/B/L histogram and EXIF display
– Advanced photo browser and file manager
– Manage all files that are stored on the HyperDrive
– Recover deleted, corrupted photos on the memory card
– Perform hard drive and memory card diagnostic checks
– Support multiple partitioned hard drive formats
– Hard drive and memory card benchmark tools
Price and Availability
The HyperDrive COLORSPACE UDMA is available now at the following manufacturer’s suggested retail price (120GB:$299, 160GB:$349, 250GB:$399, 320GB:$449, 500GB:$499, 640GB:$549, 750GB:$599). It is available at http://www.hyperdrive.com/ipad
why a screen on this device … they should launch a screen free version just for the ipad
Becuase as I noted you can’t play the files directly from the Hyperdrive. You have to use the hyperdrive to select files to transfer to the iPad. Once they are on the iPad you can play the movie, edit the photos or listen to the music. But you need some sort of interface on the Hyperdrive so that you can browse and select the content that you want to move to the iPad. Having no screen would also not really cut down on the size of the device or anything like that as the size is dictated by the physical size of the drives in it, and the depth is dictated by that and the space needed for the CF card reader. The screen also allows you to monitor your memory card downloads and put the photos in the folder you want them in.
Or everyone can wait for the next gen ipad that will have a USB connection and we can all use our existing external storage unitswithout having to fork out a bunch more money for products that’ll be obsolete by Xmas.
I’d love for the next gen iPad to have a USB port but considering they didnt even put USB 3 ports on the new Mac Pro that they are charging a fortune for , I don’t hold out much hope.
The good thing about the Hyperdrive is that it doubles as a great backup for photographers anyway. I already have one of these that I use all the time so for some people it might be a good solution.
Do you think new iPad will really be out by Christmas too ? That would be great… but typically Apple products have at least a 1 year lifespan so I would think we have at least until April to wait. Unless they bulk the lineup with the rumored 7″ mini iPad.
I recently purchased the HyperDrive Album from B&H, and I must say that I am impressed. The most impressive feature the Album had was the recovery option that could go through your flash media and recover deleted pictures. I had an 8GB card that I use quite regularly in my Nikon D3. I reformat this card using the Nikon camera format capability, after every download to my laptop. When I tried the recovery option with the card in the HyperDrive Album, it recovered pictures going back over a year, despite numerous re-formats. As the HyperDrive iPad is a newer version, I assume the capabilities are very similar.
For me, I wanted a device which I could show others the pictures I had taken, without handing them my $4500 camera. Also, I wanted a device which I could use to quickly perform backups of my CF cards, in the field. I also wanted a device that read the Nikon RAW format, the only format I shoot in. I have not tried Canon RAW files. Finally, I wanted a portable device I could save edited JPG files to, to show off some of my work. The HyperDrive Album did all of this. The only caveat, it doesn’t do TIFF and it doesn’t let you zoom or view high quality JPG files that had progressive compression added. The reason I bring all this up, is due to the lack of information the vendor provides online about its capability. Now I have just ordered the HyperDrive iPad version, as it should allow me to present pictures on my iPad, a much better display than any of the HyperDrive series. Which brings up the point of display….The HD Album displayed 16million collors on 800 x 640, where as the HD iPad doesn’t mention the color depth capability, but only a 640 x 320 display. BTW, the 2GB/minute backup rate is on both devices and it is fantastic.
Michael thanks for taking the time to post a comment!
HyperDrive has two distinct storage options;
1) HyperDrive ColorSpace UDMA
2) HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive
The ColorSpace UDMA has the ability to sync to another external hard drive if you purchase the optional USB OTG Sync Adapter, the iPad Hard Drive cannot. It would be great if they had one device that could do both.
Interesting. I did not know it could not do both? Seems very odd.
My HyperDrive for iPad seems to do pretty much as advertised but I can’t get the names of video files to appear on my iPad when connected to the HyperDrive. In other words, I load movies onto the HyperDrive via my computer. When I plug the HyperDrive to my iPad and select “iPad” on the HyperDrive’s menu screen, rows of rectangular boxes appear on the iPad, inviting me to choose which ones to transfer to the iPad. The problem is that none include file names. Some display run times while others are simply labeled “m4v.” I’ve sent a query to HyperDrive’s web site in hopes they’ll reveal the trick.
HyperDrive works great with ipad, i hope that the next generation ipad can connect to regular external hard drives like hitachi external hard drive which i ownes…