Sure, a MagSafe battery pack is nice, but how about some extra MagSafe storage for my iPhone’s camera roll?

Everyone knows those pesky iCloud fees can be an absolute bummer. Yes, Apple makes it very certain that you’re getting a whole lot of functionality for the price, but what if I just want to bump up my phone’s storage because I’m busy clicking selfies and taking videos on my iPhone? Designer Abdelrahman Shaapan has an idea – Magsafe Storage. Designed to resemble Apple’s newly launched MagSafe Battery Pack (although Abdel came up with this design all the way back in May), the iStorage is a nifty wireless drive that lets you add extra storage to your phone in literally a snap.

To most people, it would seem quite unlike Apple to release a product that competes with one of its other services, but then again, the iPad is constantly pitched against the MacBook by being referred to as the laptop reinvented. For a while, the AirPods and the Beats by Dre constantly competed with each other too. Similarly, the iStorage is ‘somewhat’ a competitor to Apple’s iCloud service… although it’s purpose-built to work as more of an offline-only storage system. Snap it on, and the iPhone’s internal memory instantly gets a boost. You can back your phone up to the iStorage, or just transfer heavy files to it, like a wireless pen-drive.

How would the iStorage even work in theory? Clearly, the MagSafe is built just for hooking accessories to the iPhone and chargers to the wireless-charging coil. How would the iStorage even transfer data? Well, even though Abdelrahman’s iStorage is just a fan-made concept, the real device could easily communicate with the iPhone or any other Apple device using AirDrop protocols. The snap-on feature would probably be just something of a convenience, but I could easily imagine the iStorage as being Apple’s own hard-drive… something that the company hasn’t really ever worked on.

What’s really remarkable about Abdelrahman’s concept is that it also comes in a splash of colors to match your phone. He’s been rather clever in matching the iStorage’s colors with the current iPhone 12 palette, including the new purple color-way as well as Apple’s signature Project RED edition.

While there’s absolutely no chance that Apple’s working on something like this, it’s fun to see what designers come up with. More often than not, they’re indicative of what the consumer actually wants… and I’m pretty sure no consumer wants to pay recurring cloud-storage fees!

Designer: Abdelrahman Shaapan