Wireless SD-card
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The Mobi EyeFi card turns almost any digital camera into a digital hub
One of the things that keeps me coming back to the iPhone for photography the ease of sharing photos. The Mobi EyeFi wireless memory card brings a similar experience to almost every digital camera. Basically it's an SD card with a WiFi chipset. Just put it in your camera, set up your Mac, PC or iDevice and join its the ad-hoc WiFi network. Specifications As for Wi-Fi Security, the card suppers Static WEP 64/128, WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK (shared WEP, Apple's version of WEP TSN, and WPA Enterprise are not supported). You can expect the card to work within a range of 90 feet (27 m) outdoors and 45 (13 m) feet indoors. It's available in 2.0 GB, 4.0 GB, 8.0 GB, and 16.0 GB storage configurations, with 1 GB defined as 10^9 Bytes. Finally, the card is a standard 32mm x 24mm x 2.1mm in size and weights in at a teeny, tiny 0.1oz. Steve Sande used the Mobi EyeFi about year ago to move full-resolution photos between his Mac and his iPhone. My goal was to get full-frame raw files to my laptop. The Mobi folks sent me an 8 GB card to test. In Use First, download the Mac client. The EyeFi card comes with a unique ten-digit code, which you use to pair your computer to your camera. I used a Fuji digital camera for my first trials. The Eye-Fi network shows up on your Mac, and the password is the same code. Every picture I took on my Fuji showed up on my Mac, RAW or JPEG. I could see them coming in when a window appeared at the top left of my Mac screen showing the download. Pics are stored in your Pictures folder. You never have to touch the laptop. It all just happens. Something similar happens on the EyeFi iOS app. Photos just show up. The beauty of it all was that when I was finished with my session, all the pictures were on my Mac. No extra downloads, no SD card reader needed. The Eye-Fi card is powered from the camera, and I did not notice any appreciable battery drain. I tried the same thing with my Canon 6D camera, which is what I use for most of my landscape work. Since it is the card that is registered to my laptop, it was just a matter of putting the card in my Canon, telling the Canon to enable EyeFi, reformatting the card, and shoot away. Raw files made it over quickly and efficiently. The Canon and most compatible cameras have a menu item to enable the EyeFi card. My 6D had its own internal WiFi feature, but the EyeFi card worked just fine. New this month is an associated product called EyeFi Cloud. It's a bit like Apple's iCloud Photo Sharing, but more flexible. Your photos can be uploaded directly to the cloud, or they can be curated. You can share them with family and friends, and you can sync and tag images for use on any other device you have. Any EyeFi card comes with a three month free subscription to an upload service for unlimited photos. After the free period, subscriptions are US$49.00 per year. Old images are never erased, so paired with unlimited uploads the EyeFi Cloud seems an excellent alternative to Apple's limited service, although EyeFi Cloud is not free. Friends can view your photos after they receive an invite, and any updates you do are live. Conclusion The EyeFi wireless card is a great solution for people who want wireless transfer of photos from their digital cameras. It's a unique solution to build the WiFi capability into an SD card. You can check the EyeFi site to make sure your camera will work with the EyeFi card. The cards are available at many outlets including Amazon and Best Buy. Prices vary, but expect about $50.00 for 8 GB, $100.00 for 32 GB. The cards are class 10 rated.
Eye-Fi releases 16GB Pro X2 wireless SD card, chops $20 from the price of the 8GB models
Do you love wireless camera transfers, but lament the Eye-Fi's maximum 8GB of storage? Fortunately for you, the company is doubling the capacity of its flagship unit to 16GB for the demanding photographer in all of us. The 16GB Eye-Fi Pro X2 is a Class 10 SD card that offers the same "endless memory," WPS Geotagging and the company's Eye-Fi View cloud service we've seen in its other products. It's available to pre-order today from Amazon for $100 and launches in Australia and Japan will follow, costing $108 AUD and 9,980 yen respectively. If you've been priced out of the market so far the company's hoping to coax you by cutting $20 from the price of both the 8GB Pro X2, now costing $80, and the 8GB Mobile X2, which is now $60.
Toshiba FlashAir wireless LAN SD card hands-on (video)
The first card using the SD association's Wireless LAN standard is Toshiba's FlashAir and we've just spent some time with it here at CES. It's much like Eye-Fi's Direct Mode insofar that it also can sling pics to devices over WiFi from a diminutive SD card, but instead of requiring pairing and an app download the FlashAir requires just a browser. The 8GB class six card broadcasts an 802.11b/g/n hotspot, replete with its own web server onboard, which means its contents -- like say pictures you've previously snapped in your camera -- can be accessed in a browser by any connected device.Despite some false starts (CES is where WiFi networks go to die...) pictures from a point and shoot appeared as quickly as we could refresh http://flashair/ -- the address from where one accesses its contents. Once there, you can browse individual folders, splaying pics (and we'll assume other contents) for your perusal. As previously planned, it'll start shipping in February at around $70 and we were told more capacious units will follow at a later date. Video demo of the tech awaits in the video after the break.
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.
Eye-Fi announces 802.11n Eye-Fi Pro X2 memory card
Eye-Fi just busted out at CES with its next generation WiFi-enabled SD card, the Eye-Fi Pro X2. The big features of the new 8GB Class 6 SD card are 802.11n support and the Endless Memory mode, which automatically clears photos and videos as they're uploaded to your machine over WiFi, and there are also some new sharing options in the mix, as well as geotagging support. No word on a ship date, but it's up for pre-order on Amazon and other retailers now for $149. Eye-Fi is also launching its new Eye-Fi Center software, which should make managing media delivered from Eye-Fi cards a little simpler -- it'll be out later this month. Couple more images in the gallery, full PR after the break. %Gallery-81437%
Eye-Fi bringing trio of WiFi-enabled SD cards to UK
If you're an US-based company, you'd be kidding yourself if you said you didn't want to take advantage of the pound-to-dollar exchange rate. We can't say for certain that the current Forex ratings on currency is why Eye-Fi is suddenly barging into the British market place, but whatever the case, UKers can look forward to slapping a WiFi-enabled SD card into their digicam starting on October 19th. The Eye-Fi Home Video, Eye-Fi Share Video and Eye-Fi Pro will all be splashing down in 4GB flavors, with prices set for £49.99, £69.99 and £199.99 in order of mention. Got it, chum?
2GB Eye-Fi Geo automatically geotags wirelessly uploaded photos, makes your day
Check it, wireless uploaders -- Eye-Fi has just outed its latest WiFi-enabled Secure Digital card, and this one promises to disclose your every move to anyone who'll bother to follow your image feed. Announced today, the Eye-Fi Geo is a 2GB card that will enable users to automatically upload photos from a digital camera while geotagging them as they hit the 'net. The geotagging service is included for life, and for whatever reason, this one's being made exclusively available through Apple stores and online. Of course, it could have something to do with that "seamless integration" with iPhoto and MobileMe, but we're guessing it ought to play nice with other applications and image portals as well. If you're suddenly unable to move on with your life until you've got one of these in your hands, you can snag one today for $59.99. Full release is after the break.
Eye-Fi's 4GB WiFi SDHC cards start to ship out
Nah, Eye-Fi's latest Secure Digital cards still aren't nearly as capacious (nor as cheap) as other alternatives on the market, but good luck getting that free-after-rebate 8GB SDHC card from IAWANNA Corp. to upload images via a wireless hotspot. We pinged the company today to see if the company's 4GB Explore Video and Share Video SDHC models were shipping out, and we were informed that orders placed over the web were indeed leaving the docks. If you're not kosher with handing $99.99 or $79.99 (respectively) over through the intertubes, both devices will splash down in stores starting on April 19th.
