Review: Maxell AirStash

What’s more it has done it with some serious aplomb. The AirStash looks like any other USB stick. It has square edges, a simple design and a USB 2.0 connector on the front. What isn’t immediately obvious is that it harbours a seven-hour battery life, an SD card slot and its own wireless connectivity. These three things, combined with an iPad app, make for a product that practically every iPad owner is crying out for.

First and foremost it offers 8GB of storage, which can be put to use for photos, movies or work documents, which can all be accessed from within the AirStash app. For movies this is particularly handy as you can keep them all on the AirStash and leave your iPad hard drive feeling fresh. The free app simply connects to the device over its own Wi-Fi signal and then streams the movie over. It’s a perfect solution for travelling or any other time you want a bunch of movies to watch but don’t fancy playing the app-deleting game to free up the necessary space.

When it begins to run out of juice you just plug it into your Mac to charge it. What’s amazing about this system is that more than one person can stream content at the same time, so you don’t need to watch the same film or even share a device. What’s even more amazing is that the SD card reader on the back means that you can hot-swap all kinds of content as and when you need, not to mention wirelessly import pictures from your camera.

The AirStash app is an important part of the product equation, and while it’s not particularly slick, it is incredibly functional. All in all, this is a great product that will increase the useability of your iPad in a number of ways. It’s an affordable solution that has the ability to make use of any storage you already own in the form of micro SD cards.