Eye-Fi's 4GB WiFi Video cards now with more options for Internet regret

You know that video mode you haven't used since first bought your compact point and shoot? Right, the one that does 720p HD video if you've purchased a camera within the last 6 months? Well, Eye-Fi's back to remind you that it's now selling its $99 Eye-Fi Explore Video (with geotagging) and $79 Eye-Fi Share Video SDHC cards nationwide. They've also enabled video sharing with Picasa, Photobucket, and SmugMug in addition to Flickr and YouTube. The result is dead-simple, un-edited direct-to-internet video sharing without the need for a tethered computer. Of course, these cards work equally well for dumping your films and photos over WiFi to your Mac or PC at home -- but why live your life in a bubble?

[tonicboy Posted May 5th 2009 8:12AM]

You know, I just can't see myself buying one of these EyeFi products right now. But still, I just like their concept somehow and I hope they thrive so that their products will still be available when I do want to buy one day.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2009 8:26AM]

I have an Eye-Fi Explore now and I freaking love it. Although the video is not my thing (I've got a DV Cam for that) I'm glad they're adding some new features to get more people into the wireless SD card game.

[DAZA Posted May 5th 2009 9:11AM]

cwluc, maybe you can explain to me how exactly does this work? I imagine there is a wireless chipset inside the SD Card and it simply connects to a wireless access point which can then synchronise photos to a photo hosting site? And your SSID/WPA info is stored on the card and managed with a program that Eye-Fi give you?

If they're supporting geo-tagging, that means there must be a GPS receiver in there too - all within that few mm thick enclosure. This just boggles my mind. I wouldn't buy one (don't take that many photos) but it seems like a great idea, I'd love for SanDisk to acquire them and implement the technology on their mainstream cards, seems like there's so much potential for these little things.

[idesignstuff Posted May 5th 2009 10:06AM]

They do geotagging with a database of wifi hotspots and it tries to triangulate realtive to the hotspots. No GPS required.
They also charge a subscription fee to have the service of geotagging or uploading to the web.

[sadapple Posted May 5th 2009 9:00AM]

Here is what I would like to see added to the feature set of this card to make it worth buying. I would like to see it hop on to an ad-hoc wifi connection created on my 3g (i)phone so I could use it's connection to upload pics from wherever I am (provided it has signal, of course). Could this be done?

[Tes Posted May 5th 2009 9:09AM]

This CAN be done...just not with your iPhone. Sorry.

[Tes Posted May 5th 2009 9:12AM]

Tell a lie, if you jailbreak PdaNet should do this for you.

[sadapple Posted May 5th 2009 9:50AM]

Even better (and what I was alluding to in the op), it appears that they have already released an app for iPhone.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2009 9:24AM]

Have any of you others noticed how the nipples on the guy in this article's photo seem to follow you around the room no matter where you go?

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2009 9:49AM]

Don't hassel the hoff!

[DAZA Posted May 5th 2009 9:34AM]

o_O

[n2whyteguyz Posted May 5th 2009 9:26AM]

And to think I usually balk at the unlikely beautiful woman models they usually use for new techie stuff.

[htd Posted May 5th 2009 9:36AM]

I only want one with cheaper price, geotagging and home wifi capability

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2009 10:18AM]

If you're not too interested in the video part and are ok with 2gb you can get the 2gb versions for a bit less if you shop around.

I'm trying to remember which version I have, but I can't. All I know is that it works great, I believe we have the SHARE version. It uploads to a ton of sharing sites (we use flickr) along with dumping to my PC. The only thing i wish is that the camera actually recognized that it had a wifi card in it so that it would know when to power down after transmitting the photos. As it sits now, you have to basically turn the power save mode off on your camera and leave it on. You get no feedback from the camera itself when the upload finishes. That being said, you can set the software to notify you via email/sms when the upload is complete, which is what we do.

I know that this would require some sort of cooperation from the camera makers, and much easier said than done, but it would really be nifty.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2009 5:29PM]

I'm not sure I understand the value of the geotagging feature. The site says the card senses nearby Wi-Fi networks and uses some database of those networks to determine your location. How could this be useful at all? Wi-Fi networks aren't THAT prevalent. It's a nice start, but I don't imagine the success-rate of getting geotag info on photos is very high.

I wonder if GPS receivers can get shrunk down small enough to fit in an SD - that seems more the way things should go.

Or am I missing how this works?

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2009 6:09PM]

@Christian Richie - NO, Eye-Fi does NOT charge for uploading to the web if you have a share or explore card. It's free. For life. And so is the geotagging on the Explore Video card.
@ Sno Crash It's not that rare - the Wi-Fi triangulation was how the iPhone 1st gen did geotagging....
@Kip Granson - Actually the power settings is something camera makers are fixing. The Nikon D60, D90 and now a new line of Casio cameras automatically tell you when it's transmitting, and shut off automatically when it's done. ;-)
@patrick, yes, there's an app for the iPhone :-)

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2009 6:44PM]

And we don't have WiFi in the camera bodies themselves, because... why?

Eye-Fi's certainly shown that the size of the WiFi kit is not the reason.