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New Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card does old tricks, but with less hassle for Android and iOS users
Direct Mode on an Eye-Fi card makes a lot of sense when you want to beam photos from your camera straight to your smartphone. The latest edition of the Mobile X2 promises to simplify this process by coming pre-configured for Direct Mode from the factory, and being accompanied by a 10-digit pairing code that'll let you register the camera securely with the Eye-Fi app on your Android phone without recourse to a PC. We'd feel more excited about this if Toshiba's FlashAir card hadn't done something similar already using a clever browser-based connection we saw at CES. Still, if Eye-Fi is the brand and workflow you want to stick with, then be advised that this particular Mobile X2 is Japan-only for now. However, a worldwide release is planned at some point, along with an update to the iOS app that'll make the key-code pairing thing work for that other section of humanity too.
Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card and mobile apps enable Direct Mode transfer of pics
The makers of the Eye-Fi Wi-Fi enabled SDHC memory cards have announced a new feature today -- the ability to use Wi-Fi Direct Mode and special Eye-Fi mobile apps to transfer pictures from a digital camera to a mobile device when there's no wireless network available. This was first announced back in January, and it's finally about to drop. A new 8 GB Mobile X2 card with the Direct Mode enabled will be available starting on April 17 for US$79.99, and a free firmware upgrade will be available to owners of existing X2 Eye-Fi cards to add the capability one week later. Direct Mode makes it possible, with the aid of new Eye-Fi apps for iOS and Android, to simply take photos with a digital camera and have them uploaded to the mobile devices in seconds without the need for cables. I'm personally happy about that, since I find the Apple Camera Connection Kit dongles extremely easy to lose (and they're not exactly inexpensive). With an iPhone (or Android phone) in your pocket and an Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card in your camera, you can also make instant backups of your photos, even when you're nowhere near a Wi-Fi network. There's a short marketing video on the next page courtesy of Eye-Fi.
Eye-Fi launching new 8GB wireless SD card today, kicking out Direct Mode for iOS and Android next week
Remember how Eye-Fi was cooking up some software to let their WiFi-enabled SD memory cards sling photos directly to your tablet or phone? Here's some sweet news -- starting next week, Direct Mode will be a free download for any Eye-Fi X2 card, and debut alongside companion apps in the Android Market and iTunes App Store. Moreover, the company's celebrating the launch of the new transfer protocol with a brand-new card, the $80 Eye-Fi Mobile X2, which should be available for purchase online momentarily and make its merry way to Best Buy and Apple stores by April 17th. Basically, the Mobile is a redux of the $50 Connect X2, but with double the storage capacity (8GB) and Direct Mode pre-installed -- though a price drop on the top-of-the-line Pro X2 (to $100) will add geotagging and RAW support for just one Jackson more. Need a refresher on how Direct Mode works? Peek our CES video demo (and a hefty press release) after the break.
