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The Nifty MiniDrive Is An SD Card Designed To Go Unnoticed In Your MacBook [Kickstarter]

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See — the Nifty MiniDrive is almost unnoticeable.
See — the Nifty MiniDrive is almost unnoticeable.

Apple is clearly working towards making solid-state storage a standard for its MacBook line, which means our notebook computers have never been speedier. The only problem is, the flash storage Apple uses is still pretty expensive, and so most of us have to settle for less of it when we’re buying a new MacBook.

That means we either need to come up with ways to decrease our data consumption, or add cheaper external storage for things like our iTunes libraries and torrent archives. If you’re going for the latter (the easier option) then you need the Nifty MiniDrive, an SD card specifically designed for MacBooks that you’ll hardly ever notice.

OWC Turns Your MacBook Air’s Old Flash Storage Module Into The Perfect External SSD

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Recycle your MacBook Air's old SSD module into an external drive.
Recycle your MacBook Air's old SSD module into an external drive.

If you’re planning to upgrade the flash storage in your 2010 or 2011 MacBook Air, don’t just discard your old module or let it go for pennies on eBay. With the Aurora Envoy enclosure from Other World Computing, you can turn that old flash storage into an external drive that’s designed to match your MacBook Air perfectly.

For the Serious Adventurer Only: Mophie’s New Military-Spec Battery Case

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My first decision is easy when heading out on an outdoor adventure: Take the iPhone with me? Oh, you betcha. The next one is much more difficult. Since the iPhone requires a boost in both protection and juice when playing Indiana Jones, I’m forced to choose between slipping on a battery case and worrying about my iPhone shattering on a rock, or (painstakingly) wrapping it in a rubber case and hoping it doesn’t run out of power.

But Mophie’s new $130 iPhone 4/S battery pack — sort of a cross between a tank and a tanker — says “COMPROMISE IS FOR THE WEAK.” And also, the poor.

Air Display Update Turns New iPad Into HiDPI External Monitor For Mac

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Air Display makes OS X look even crisper on the new iPad's Retina display.
Air Display makes OS X look even crisper on the new iPad's Retina display.

Avatron has released a new version of its popular Air Display iOS app that allows the user to view OS X Lion in hi-res HiDPI mode on the new iPad’s Retina display. Air Display turns your iPad or iPhone into a secondary display for your Mac, and the latest update takes advantage of the new iPad’s 2048×1536 screen resolution by exploiting a super hi-resolution mode in Lion called HiDPI.

Seagate GoFlex Satellite: Say Goodbye to iPad Storage Woes [Review]

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Sure, the 32GB iPad has enough storage space for a bunch of apps, some songs and maybe even a movie or two. But for those of us with large media collections, even the mega 64GB version will start to feel a little cramped when stuffed full of music and videos (and I have no idea how those of you with 16GB iPads get by).

So, what if you could just stick a portable external drive into your iPad, like you would with a MacBook? Bam, extra storage! Well, yeah — but you can’t, right? Wrong! Well, sorta — you can’t plug one in physically; but the 500GB Seagate GoFlex Satellite ($200) gets around the whole physical connection thing by supplying its own wifi hotspot that lets you create a wifi link between it and your iPad. Genius.

MiLi Power Pack 4 Slider Case Packs Power To Go For iPhone 4/S [Review]

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One of the biggest customer complaints about the iPhone 4S is battery life. The battery never manages to last even a whole day and sometimes not even a half of a day. Although the iPhone 4 has always managed to last nearly a whole day, it isn’t much better. Apple is working on an iOS 5 software fix that might eventually take care of the battery draining issues that face iPhone 4S customers. Their first attempt, the release of iOS 5.0.1, wasn’t much help for some users.

If you cannot wait any longer and you own either of these phones one solution could be the MiLi Power Pack 4 ($60) from xengadget.com. The 3000 mAh slider case will give your iPhone 4 or 4S the extra power boost it needs to last until bed time. I tested it on my iPhone 4S and I’d like to share my experience with you.

Encrypt Your USB Flash Drives, External USB Drives Or SD Cards [OS X Tips]

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Mac OS  X Lion introduced the world to FileVault 2 Apple’s solution to full disk encryption. It is one of my favorite features in Lion, and it is definitely a welcome addition to Mac OS X. Just about anyone can use it to encrypt the startup disk on their Mac, but more importantly, they can use it to encrypt their USB thumb drives and SD cards. Why is that important?

It is important because USB thumb drives and SD cards are small and easily lost. If they are encrypted, you don’t have to worry about whether the content they carry falls into the wrong hands.

Logitech Keyboard Case is The iPad 2’s Soulmate, Baby [Review, iPad 2 Keyboard Case Week]

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I love iPad 2 accessories that follow the guiding principles of the gadget they were built for. I mean, c’mon — d’you really want to lug around a case the size of a large waffle skillet just to have some keys to type on? Of course not.

The Logitech Keyboard Case by ZAGG for iPad 2 ($100) follows those principles to the letter: It’s light, super-functional and ultra-portable, just like the gadget it was made for.

Rocketfish iCapsule Keyboard: This Bulky Case Converts Your iPad Into a Laptop [Review, iPad 2 Keyboard Case Week]

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Note: Although this iCapsule only fits the original iPad, we thought we’d include it anyway; why should iPad 2 users have all the fun?

The Rocketfish iCapsule Keyboard ($49) is a big bulky blob of a hardshell case. But it’s probably the best case on the market for turning your iPad into a laptop.

Seagate Unleashes the Largest Consumer External Drive the World Has Ever Seen

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Seagate’s new, largest-in-the-world GoFlex Desk external hard drive ($250) weighs in at a strapping four terabytes. I know, that’s only one terabyte more than their next biggest desktop drive; but that’s enough storage space for 30.3 million more press images like the ones above; 833,333 more GoFlex user guides; or 2,272 more videos of me trying to duct tape some gadget to my forehead in a hilariously misguided attempt to gain interesting yet incredibly useless data about something or other.

Mac OS X Lion Migration Assistant Got You Down? Try This Fix.

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MigrationAssistant

Migration assistant is one of Apple’s most valuable utilities. I’ve used it frequently over the years to migrate my user accounts, applications, etc.  between two Macs and I’ve never had any problems with it until now.

I picked up a new 13-inch MacBook Air this week and tried to migrate my data from my 2010 13-inch MacBook Air to the new one. Both of my MacBook Airs were running Mac OS X Lion. I wasn’t able to get Migration Assistant to work over a Wi-Fi connection.  It just flat-out refused to work, but here is the work around that finally got my data moved to the new MacBook Air.

Turn Your iPad Into An External Monitor [Video How-To]

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While the iPad has seemingly countless uses, one fairly uncommon one is the ability to use it as an external display for your Mac. iDisplay, a simple little app from the App Store, lets you achieve this. After all, if you already have the iPad, why not use it to your advantage? This video will show you how to set up iDisplay and tweak it to your liking.

Another Fix for Flickering MacBook Air External Displays [How to]

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According to a post on Apple Discussion forums by user addcore AppleCare suggested a fix for the occasional problem where an external monitor attached to a MacBook Air would flicker. However, the fix doesn’t seem to be a complete cure, but according to addcore, ” I’ve seen two tiny instances which is a major improvement to the every thirty sec flickering. ”

So not completely cured, but better. Read on to find out how this was accomplished.