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iPhone and iPad External Storage Solutions Roundup and Review
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May 30, 2025
Ever wish you had just a bit more space on your Apple iPad or iPhone? There's a class of devices that let you get just that, little plug-in devices that offer 16GB, 32GB or more of storage from companies like MiLi and PhotoFast. In this video I talk about the different designs, feature specific products and explain which I think is the best solution for most people. Review by Dave Taylor of http://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ #iphone #ipad #storage
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[Music]
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[Music]
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hi Dave Taylor here again and I want to
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talk about a common problem that all of
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us iOS device users have and that is
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lack of space so here's my iPhone 6s and
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I have pretty decent amount of storage
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but it's not always convenient to get to
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that storage and of course it fills up
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and so there I am and I'm like oh I want
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to just toss a couple more movies on
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before my flight and ooh ran out of
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space so one of the common problems that
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we have with these devices is they have
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constrained space now a lot of Android
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phones I could actually put in a Micro
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SD card directly and that would give me
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extra space up to 128 GB but on iOS
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devices and it's not just the phone
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iPads of the same issue you're sort of
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constrained with whatever amount of
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space they have if you're on Wi-Fi you
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can get to the Cloud etc etc not always
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very helpful when you're on an airplane
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or otherwise away from the um Wi-Fi
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network enter a class of devices that
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tries to solve that problem so let's
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start with the one that actually is the
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most Straight Ahead solution and this
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one is the myi ID data flash drive 16
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gig you can see it comes with cables and
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such and let me actually disassemble
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their packaging and it's a pretty decent
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packaging um and the basic idea is it's
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a hard drive with a lightning connector
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so I plug it into my phone and boom I'm
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ready to roll with extra storage now it
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does act as an external drive so I need
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to use their special app to be able to
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access it but I can copy data from the
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phone onto the device and vice versa and
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I can access data on the device directly
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so I could actually store movies on here
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now the myi I data has some positives
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but it also has one limitation which is
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that it's a micro USB on the back so
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that's why they ship the cables because
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you have to use the cables to be able to
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do anything particularly interesting
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with it for example if I plug in the
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this particular cable now it's a USB 2
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or three actually I guess um and I can
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plug this into my computer and now I can
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copy data onto it um but by default
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unless you have their cable
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it's just a drive it's just a device
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that plugs into the bottom of your phone
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or your um iPad and this one with 16 gig
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of memory runs about 59 bucks you can
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find it at staples.com for example and
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the apps free to download from the app
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store they all tend to have that but
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here's the thing that's a solution to
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the problem now another company
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photofast has been in this space for a
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long time too and they have a couple of
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interesting ideas here that are slight
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VAR ations the one I like is this tiny
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little guy this is like the smallest
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device that I've seen for a long time
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that plugs into an iPhone this is a
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Micro SD card reader so what they've
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done is they' basically done the same
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sort of thing as this but they've said
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you know what you get your own micro SD
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card you have multiple micro SD cards
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and what they've done is they basically
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said let's take these iOS devices and
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let's make them micro SD card compatible
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so again you plug it in and I will note
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that this one plugs in properly with my
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case and it then immediately you can see
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here it immediately wants to pop up an
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app and if you don't have the app
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installed it will prompt you to install
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it and then whenever you're ready you
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just put in your little micro SD cards
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and it'll actually be able to read them
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and all the same sort of process it's a
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separate app but um for one thing for
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people that have Android phones with
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micro SD cards this is a really nice way
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to transfer data but it also is just
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super convenient and it's small and it's
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nicely priced it's $39 you can pick it
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up at photofast doccom and just for
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reference sakes I looked on Amazon just
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this morning and a 32 gig micro SD card
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is only $1.99 so you can get this and 32
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gig for about the price of the myi which
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is only 16 gig so pluses and minuses
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this isn't quite as convenient in terms
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of being able able to transfer data
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between your computer but that's where
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one of the other photofast products
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comes in handy this is their memories
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cable and I think this is a phenomenally
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great idea this is a cable that let me
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pull it out of their
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packaging lightning on one end USB 3.0
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on the other end and it has storage in
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the cable well it's really in the ends
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but this is 32 gig of storage and I can
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use it as a charging cable and when I
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plug it in again you can see it
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immediately launches an app so let's get
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that app running and so here I am in my
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app from photofast again free download
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app store Etc you've heard this song um
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and I can use it just like this or I can
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plug it into the computer to charge or I
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can have just the cable and I can plug
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the cable into the computer and then I
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can write data or read data from this
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storage device directly so I think this
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is such a great idea because the
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frustration I have with these sort of
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devices is either I have to carry extra
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cables or somehow I have to go through
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other Hoops to be able to do any sort of
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charging and I don't know about you but
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I don't really want to carry 500 cables
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I do but I don't really want to so this
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seems like it's such a great solution
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even if I ignore the storage I can use
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it as a charging cable I can plug my iOS
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device device my iPad into my laptop or
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into a wall outlet and charge it and you
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know really nicely done and if you look
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closely this is one of those um no it's
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not I was going to say it's a
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bidirectional USB connector but it's
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just kind of funny the way they have the
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plastic looking so ignore that last
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couple of seconds but this just seems
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like such a great solution now the
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downside is it is 32 gig It is charging
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it is all sleekly designed it's a very
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attractive look as you can see there
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it's a little bit more spendy so it's
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$89.99 on Amazon and you can also pick
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up a 64 gig version which is just a you
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know incrementally a little more
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expensive oh and one more thing that I
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really like about this photo fast
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memories cable that's what these are
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called is that you can actually lock the
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data so that you have to use their app
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to decrypt it so that way you know it's
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sort of a generic problem with all of
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these sort of devices if I lose this and
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you plug it into your device do you then
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see all of my data my contacts my photos
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well with this particular device from
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photos fast I'm sorry from photo fast
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singular this particular device actually
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I can make sure that doesn't happen and
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that makes this a big win so out of all
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these different devices and all these
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different solutions for giving me extra
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storage on my iPad or iPhone I
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absolutely am a huge fan of the
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photofast memories cable so about 80 9
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bucks on amazon.com this is Dave Taylor
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and now I just need to figure out which
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of the Academy Award nominated films I
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should be watching on my iPhone cuz I'm
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sure that big vast expanse of cinema
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screen is very well duplicated on my
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phone that's actually a different topic
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anyway Dave Taylor iOS storage devices
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see you in my next video
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[Music]
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he
#Gadgets & Portable Electronics