Mobile Technology

iExpander iPhone case expands memory, improves photos and charges the battery

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The iExpander improves the iPhone's flash, extends battery life and expands memory
The iExpander side by side with a naked iPhone for thickness comparison
A Screenshot of the app used for copying files to and from the microSD card
A low-light photo taken with the iExpander flash
A low-light photo taken without the iExpander flash
The microSD card slides into a port on the side of the device
The iExpander battery is displayed on the screen next to the iPhone's battery
The iExpander improves the iPhone's flash, extends battery life and expands memory
The internals of the iExpander
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What if there was an iPhone case that could add three major functions to the device? That is exactly what Charlie Corry set out to do when he came up with the iExpander. He made an iPhone case that adds support for microSD cards, charges your phone and improves the function of the camera's flash in low light situations.

Charging the phone and improving the flash are nice, but there are plenty of devices and cases that offer that. What piqued my interest was the ability to expand the memory on the device with a microSD card. I always wondered why Apple opted not to support memory cards, and if the iExpander goes off as planned, that won't be a problem anymore.

Of course, the iPhone does not recognize the memory as native, so you will have to use their app to copy data back and forth from the phone. Still, this is as close as I have seen to adding more memory to the iPhone in a functional way. Based on the video from Corry's Kickstarter page, which you can see at the bottom of this post, it looks simply to copy iPhone supported files back and forth between the microSD card and the phone.

Essentially, this works almost like an external hard drive for your iPhone. You will not be installing large apps to it and running them. It is a place to store extra pictures, documents, videos and other iPhone supported files and copy them when you need them. While not as good as native memory, it's pretty close.

The microSD card slides into a port on the side of the device

The flash improvements with the iExpander are also quite impressive. It's not just an enhancement to the built-in flash. Instead, it's a second flash in the case that is designed to fire automatically when the iPhone's flash goes off. This is supposed to greatly enhance the quality of photos in low-light situations, which is a place the iPhone camera has always struggled.

The iExpander will reportedly also double your battery life. This is not really anything new, as plenty of cases such as the AQUA TEK S offer this feature. Still, it's a nice bonus when you factor in the other stuff this case can do. If the designers could just work in free data like FreedomPop's case, we would have the total package.

The iExpander campaign has just launched on Kickstarter. You can reserve your own case for a pledge of US$70. Corry and his team members plan on entering production at the end of November and shipping the devices to backers sometime in December.

Have a look at the video below to see the transfer app in action, and for more information on the device.

Source: Kickstarter

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9 comments
Tony Smale
How many people actually found they needed external memory? I thought having no upgradable memory would be a turn-off, but when I got my iphone4 32gb, I found I never even half filled it. Everything of any size, I stream from my pc, or the net... I think the future is the cloud, and products like this may be good in theory, but fail in actual usefulness.
Vince Pack
@Tony - when adding movies for lengthy travel, this would be huge. Aside from that, it's still a convenient way to boost memory without having to buy a new iPhone - or buying a less expensive model and offering it more flexibility.
My question is how long it'll take the designer to redesign and ramp up for the iPhone 5...
Maureen
I completely disagree with the comment above.
I run out of memory all of the time. Most people by the 16G iPhone and trust me that it runs out of memory. Also, the cloud costs money every month. The memory on iExpander thing doesn't. Also, the price of this thing is less than buying just a battery pack plus you get expandable memory and a better camera. No brainer....I'm buying it.
0p3nsrc
I agree with Maureen and Vince.. expandable storage works great for videos when on long trips (especially with kids). I ran out of memory on my 32GB iphone 4 after 2 weeks of having it.. I now have a galaxy s2. It's got an internal mem of 16GB, and a 64GB microSD card in right now that is about 4/5 full..
Tony, if you think the future is the cloud, I hope you don't save passwords, or any [even remotely] sensitive information anywhere.. If it's "on the cloud", it is on multiple data servers, each having their own weak points, where people with malicious intent can find ways into the information stored. If I don't have my data on my device(s), then I don't know secure it really is..
Bryan Paschke
@Tony: not to leap on the "Tony you're off base" bandwagon, but anybody who says "the future is the cloud" OBVIOUSLY never travels back of the beyond (aka away from cell phone towers and wifi) and is FAR too trusting with their data.
Gregg Eshelman
With "the cloud" a service provider can go out of business, be bought/merge with another company who decides to discontinue the service or the provider can simply decide they're going to move their operations in another direction and pull the plug on their cloud service.
You may or may not get an advance warning and time to download or move all your files.
This has happened many times with website hosting services, which are essentially the same as "the cloud". I've had websites go *poof* without warning when the hosting company went out of business and when they got bought out and all their servers shut down.
shadyside
Very wonderful concept very useful indeed !! BUT what about ipodtouch? And it would be awesome if this had a kind of Mi-FI sim card slot for the ipod to connect to via wifi or bluetooth. :)
JamEs Harris
Tony: I totally agree with you, though every user has different needs. I have always gone with the 16GB version iPhones and never really had an issue. I have a music collection that well exceeds 16gb, so I've never really bothered even attempting to carry it around. Usually I'll have about 8gb of music, then apps and photos with the rest. I'm not someone who has a lot of time to watch movies on the go, as usually when I'm traveling I'm driving. If you do public transit or air travel a lot then it totally makes sense to have more space to carry media with you.
CIAwesome
I have an ipad mini, so was planning on buying this cable and using my 30 pin to lightning connector and extension and plugging the 30 pin female to the 30 pin male inside the case, and the lightning male to the lightning female in my mini. And i would use my 30 pin charger to charge the case, would the battery charge the mini, and would this be worth the effort and money (assuming that it will still be able to use the micro sd card and sim (if included)) thx