ZoomIt allows you to read SD cards on your iPhone

John Brownlee ()

ZoomIt allows you to read SD cards on your iPhone

Apple’s refusal to spec their devices with memory card readers continues to irritate. My assumption has always been that the lack of an SD card reader on the iPhone has to do with two things: discouraging customers from buying the lowest priced iPhones and cheaply supplementing the storage with an SD card instead of shelling out a couple hundred more on the higher-capacity models, and making sure iTunes is the only real entry to shift to the device.

Still, when Apple updated the iPhone OS to firmware 3.0, adding functionality for iPhone peripherals into the mix, it was only a matter of time that we’d see an aftermarket SD card reader accessory… and here it is, ZoomIt.

Essentially, you plug the ZoomIt SD reader dongle into your iPhone or iPod Touch’s dongle connector, launch the free ZoomIt app and you’re free to shift any file supported by the OS to and from your device.

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Of course, this isn’t really an expandable storage solution, but it wouldn’t be a bad way to backup photos from your camera while you’re on the road… and it should even work on the iPad. You can pre-order the ZoomIt now for $50, with a ship date in April.

5 comments »

About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in Hardware, iPad, iPhone, iPhone & iPod Accessories, iPod Touch, News |

  • mongo

    “…you’re free to shift any file supported by the OS…”

    I’m not up to date on what file types are supported by the OS. What are they?

  • Don Pope

    This is the one thing I was waiting for. A way to share some of the photos from my real camera while I’m traveling without having to carry a laptop.

    Now I won’t have to take a second picture with the crappy iPhone camera just to share it online.

  • John

    I was really hoping that this would be expansion storage, rather than just another way to copy content onto the phone. The iPhone and iPad desperately need an SD slot; it would also enable Apple to sell a single SKU rather than two or three overpriced RAM variants.

  • brassman

    Last thing I want from my iPhone is for it to be bigger. Why would you want your device to be bloated with ‘conveniences’ that you only need occasionally. The device at hand gives you the convenience of moving pictures from your camera when you’re traveling, but stays in the desk draw when your headed to the subway or grocery store.

    I for one hope Apple continues to produce streamlined and expandable devices.

  • fred

    Great idea!

    Now if we can get an external keyboard going, we will seriously be cooking!