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Meem: A backup without iCloud while you charge your iPhone, and an Apple World Today Top Pick

You know how we are here at Apple World Today — every chance we get, we love to remind our readers to back up their Apple devices. But some folks won’t do it because they’re concerned about security or just don’t want to spend money on iCloud storage. Meem ($69.99) is a unique and brilliant idea; a Lightning charge cable that backs up your iPhone or iPad whenever you plug it in. 

Design

Hands-down, Meem is one of the best-designed accessories I’ve had the pleasure to review this year. It’s really a two-part product, with a cleverly-designed iOS app that handles the backup of “Meemable data” each time you plug in to charge, and an elegant intelligent Lightning cable with its own ARM processor and 32GB of RAM. 

The Meem cable is bright green; there’s no way you’ll mistake it for one of your other Lightning cable. One end has a standard USB connector for plugging into your favorite charging block, whether that plugs into the wall or your car. The other end has a small black and gray “bump” emblazoned with the Meem logo, with a flexible tip that goes into the Lightning port on your iPhone or iPad.

The Meem Mirror app, available for free on the App Store, is simultaneously clever, easy to use, and intuitively simple to understand although there is a full “how to” function built in. Basically, on the left hand side of the screen you see a representation (“avatar”) of your device. On the right, a mirror-image representation of your device — which is the backup. 

“The launch of the iPhone 6 saw Apple’s shipments in Greater China skyrocket, but the company has struggled to maintain this momentum,” says Canalys Research Analyst Jessie Ding. “The iPhone 6s had a lackluster reception in comparison and the iPhone SE is unlikely to make a big difference to Apple’s fortunes in the region this year. Local players have improved product quality and offer much better value for money. Huawei, Oppo and Vivo offer products with better specifications at significantly lower price points. The iPhones lack features such as waterproofing and wireless charging. Apple needs to catch up with the competition if it wants to compete.”

However, the Sellers Research Group (that’s me) begs to differ. I’m forecasting that the iPhone 7 will seriously rev up Apple smartphone sales.


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Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.