Eye-Fi embeds WiFi into your SD flash

Until now SD WiFi has come in the form of those oversized (well, relatively) cards too long to actually fit in your device except those specifically designed to take one, like Kodak's Easy Share One, or Treo 650 / 700. Well, according to Eye-Fi, we can all scratch that problem off the list. By building their wireless into the flash of an SD card they can save on precious space, and also get a GB of memory in there too. Of course this won't exactly help all those digital cameras out there that don't even come close to supporting such a thing, but sometimes this kind of gear has to precede the hardware support in order to prove its own demand.

[Via TechCrunch]

[chris @ May 1st 2006 9:52AM]

there are plenty of handheld devices that can take advantage of this right away, devices that almost require SD memory due to limited built in storage so that using a single purpose SD Wifi card just isn't practical. this will be a godsend for those devices.

[snapa @ May 1st 2006 10:04AM]

I want one for my Treo 650...right now...for a good price of course

[samt @ May 1st 2006 10:06AM]

Will this work on any cell phone? for example the hp 6515? Where can i purchase one and how much.

Finally an sd card that doesn't stick out of a phone and has wifi

[Brewer @ May 1st 2006 10:16AM]

Took em long enough, honestly, sorta same concept as sd with usb, take a mini sd card and mate it with some type of wifi radio that takes up the rest of the space, there design seems better though.

[hawk @ May 1st 2006 10:23AM]

Unfortunately, this is not going to work for the Treo 650, which does not have drivers / OS support for WIFI.

[Brewer @ May 1st 2006 10:26AM]

That's not true necessarily true, there are currently hacks that let it work with the palm wifi usb card, and i assume other devices.

[Vincent @ May 1st 2006 10:30AM]

I followed the link to the eye.fi web page. There is no information about availability or price. Anyone know?

[Tags @ May 1st 2006 10:47AM]

"sometimes this kind of gear has to precede the hardware support in order to prove its own demand."

Another one that comes to mind is HSDPA. The folks at Cingular keep blaming the lack of handsets on the slow migration to HSDPA.

[Tom W @ May 1st 2006 11:24AM]

I would like to see digital cameras support this thing so they could transmit wireless streaming video to my computer.

[Dave Goodman @ May 1st 2006 11:42AM]

With this card, you don't need to worry about drivers or whether your camera will support wifi. (Read article, not the Digg.) The card is configured to connect automatically to a designated hotspot, so as soon as you snap a picture, it uploads it to your computer. Snap a picture, the image appears in your computer. Beauty.

[OMAC @ May 1st 2006 11:44AM]

The company is marketing it as a digital camera solution, but I think PDAs would be a much better and bigger market.

[Charlie @ May 16th 2008 11:56AM]

Yes, can it/does it work with PDAs? What is the difference between "eye-fi and a bluetooth SD card? (Other than eye-fi having programming to work with various proprietary photo programs or web sites).
If it will also work to slide into my PDA s to transfer data (phonebook, calendar, documents, etc., it might be worth the price.

[Black Guy @ May 1st 2006 12:09PM]

Damn, this is hot. iWould like to learn how they fit all the electronics for storage and WiFi in such a compact package. Apple could include something this miniscule in the next gen iPod without too much regard for the space inside the enclosure.

[tonicboy @ May 1st 2006 12:22PM]

The article doesn't provide much detail, but I am reading this as the opposite of what most people are thinking. It sounds to me like this was designed to add Wi-fi capability to digital cameras by allowing you to automatically program your Eye-Fi to automatically offload pictures to some specified storage location via Wi-Fi. So, as far as the camera is concerned, it is a normal SD card. The card itself would then have some logic to offload pictures. After all, they do say specifically that this if for cameras that don't have Wi-fi hardware so they would probably never have Wi-fi support in the firmware. In which case this would be like selling gas to people who don't own cars.

[MSM @ May 1st 2006 12:33PM]

I smell BULLSHIT on this one, that sight looks very suspect. They even stole half the images they are using on the site. See below....

Compare pics at: http://www.eye.fi/overview.htm

See GX620 pic:

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/imagebank/en/desktops?c=us&l=en&s=corp

See PowerEdge 830:

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/imagebank/en/servers?c=us&l=en&s=corp

BUSTED!

[Alexandre D @ May 1st 2006 1:36PM]

busted? i don't think so. OK maybe eye-fi should've gone to a pro photo shop and have had photos of a server takes there, but this looks legit.

OOH! BAD EYE-FI stealing PICTURES FROM DELL! BAD EYE-FI!

[Beryl @ May 1st 2006 1:52PM]

So they took some images which were free for the taking. Big deal. The only thing I don't like is that the card is only 1GB. It should be at least 2GB.

[MSM @ May 1st 2006 2:29PM]

Big deal? Wow the napster generation at work, very sad.

[DerekJ @ May 1st 2006 3:53PM]

Seriously MSM, use some logic.
Although your links do prove they lifted their images from dell,
it's not beyond imagination that they might just be sloppy in the graphics department...
It's like saying that your bank stole your money, when in actuality, they just closed early...

[Mako @ May 1st 2006 4:44PM]

Where the hell can I get one!?

I googled their name and no web site was found. Anyone have a location on these things?

[i'macomputa @ May 1st 2006 5:26PM]

Why are you guys comparing this to a Mac? why not compare it to other dual core windows laptops like sony or asus? i'm so sick of this "OSX vs. Windows" B.S.

[3waygeek @ May 1st 2006 6:34PM]

Nothing new here except for the size; SanDisk has had 128K & 256K SD + WiFi for a couple of years now.

[Zaq Tugee @ May 2nd 2006 12:47AM]

The difference between this and the SanDisk one is that this one fits completely inside the SD card slot on top of having more storage space.

[stonedgeek @ May 2nd 2006 3:31AM]

I'm definately interested in one for my 02 XDA. It has 802.11b built in but g would definately be nice for video streaming around the house.
There's no way I would buy it without the 1 GB storage though.

[MSM @ May 2nd 2006 11:12AM]

Yes I'm quite sure it exactly like my bank that I WILLINGLY gave my money too.. WHAT ??!?!

BTW, from the top of the page where images were stolen states:

"Images cannot be used to promote or sell any product or technology, nor can they be used in advertising or inclusion in brochures or other sales materials"

But that isn't even the point, If I were selling a product I would want my own kick ass page, not some piece of shit, put together with a random collection of garbage like their site. You guys are talking like a bunch of 14 year olds build a school project, this isn't how you start or run legit company.

[The_Solidshadow @ May 2nd 2006 12:35PM]

How much are these?

[Crippler @ May 2nd 2006 1:19PM]

Hmm, if they're getting press from CNN, it must be legit:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/01/technology/business2_browser0501/

[Michael @ May 2nd 2006 2:08PM]

i thought most cameras now-a-days used xd cards or mini sd or micro sd and stuff. this seems like a better idea for say my htc magician that has an SDIO slot. hopefully they'll make it compattable

[DUBYA @ May 5th 2006 12:00PM]

I'm trying to picture what MSM looks like. Big glasses and spits as he talks. Anyway, look at the product dorko. They are offering a product that is a solution to some, not all, peoples problems. I think a better anology is we don't judge the American Idol contestants based on what they are wearing, it's their voice. Now MSM, please crawl back to your digital hole with your digital girlfriend. We'll let you know when it's safe to come out and buy one of your own Eye-Fi's.
much love

[beholdthepowerofch33s3 @ May 7th 2006 10:45AM]

have we established weather or not these work in palm pilots?

[Jeff D @ May 7th 2006 1:19PM]

Unfortunately, shadowmite's hack on the Palm WiFi card does not work with the recent firmware upgrade.

On the plus side, many websites are reporting that as soon as Palm releases the 700p (May 15th) they are going to do a major firmware upgrade on the 650. One will be upgrading to FAT32 so 4GB memory cards will work, the other will be to add drivers to enable the Palm WiFi card to work on the Treo.

There are many other upgrades coming but these are the major ones.

[Josh @ May 7th 2006 3:05PM]

I dont see why you guys are all bitching about it, just be glad that technology is advancing even more as it should!

[rezaarraei @ Dec 28th 2006 9:16AM]

please download film eye