Eye-Fi: First Wireless Memory Card for Digital Cameras

Fri Nov 2, 2007 12:47PM EDT

See Comments (102)

Now here's a great idea. Take a normal-looking 2GB SD card. Add a wireless chip to it. Stick the whole thing into your camera, and before you know it you've got a wireless camera. Now add a dose of software smarts onto the SD card to manage the whole thing and what do you get? You get a quick wireless ticket straight from your camera to any one of 17 different social networks or photo-sharing sites including Facebook, blogging sites like TypePad, photo-sharing sites like Flickr and Snapfish, or your PC or Mac. If you've been lamenting how your photos never seem to make it out of the camera, lament no more. The price? $99.99 with 2GB of storage (about 1,000 photos).

I caught up with Jef Holove, CEO of Eye-Fi, shortly after this product was announced. He shed some additional light on how stuff works behind the scenes. The card has everything, including the software necessary to get you up and running. All you need to do is tell the card which service you want your photos sent to. It also archives the photos on your PC or Mac. And while you can belong to multiple services, you can't send your photos to more than one at a time. Currently the card supports JPEG files only, but transmits photos without any degradation in resolution. It will resize the photos if the online destination requires it.

Holove says, "Digital cameras made it extremely easy to take pictures, but the rest of the process is a hassle." Wireless, he says, will make things much easier. We'll have a review unit momentarily and report back, but this sounds like a winner.

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  • 86 Posted by jmdebany on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:37PM EDT Report Abuse

    Can the pictures be sent dirrectly to an email address when a picture is taken.

  • 90 Posted by japaneseoyer on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:28PM EDT Report Abuse

    hmm..i'll save $80 and get the regular kind. using a cord isn't that difficult.

  • 91 Posted by pspscorpion on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:20PM EDT Report Abuse

    That is freakin' amazing. I wonder what the transfer rate is.

  • 92 Posted by tinwings2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:11PM EDT Report Abuse

    Much ado about...not much. OK great it's got a lot of capacity. How fast is it? How much is it? How long do I have to wait for a refresh after deleting a picture? Last moving images from my SD to my computer isn't a big hassle. So what's all the hype about?

  • 93 Posted by e_huud on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:57PM EDT Report Abuse

    for those concerned about the xd flash cards the xd cards are the only flash card capable of panaramic pictures and they are also the smallest in terms of first generation xd card BTW wi-fi is so slow i could fill up a normal card empty it and fill it up again by the time the wi-fi card would be done transmitting to pc i will spend $20 for a 4gb yes a 4gb normal sd before i ever pay $99 for a 2gb i would much rather pay $100 for a 16gb normal card than the same for a (very small capacity )2gb

  • 94 Posted by sjpelusi on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:25PM EDT Report Abuse

    Outstanding Idea! The only thing would be to spread it to XD, and the other cards.

  • 95 Posted by b_wilder46 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    so what is the use of 2 gigs of memory? with this new tech. we will not even need additional memory we will be able to see the pic we have just taken and save which will send it to the place of our choosing. if they get real good there will be no additional memory and we will be able to view pics from the destionations that we chose to send the pics to! how great is that no additional charges after buying a camera. come on camera companies come up with that!

  • 96 Posted by sslady77575 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    This is a great idea and I shoots loads of photo's. A dream come true!

  • 98 Posted by calvine_lee on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    .... why do we need this??? i mean i am fine with the one that i have right now. i wonder how they will do it.....

  • 99 Posted by calvine_lee on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    .... why do we need this??? i mean i am fine with the one that i have right now. i wonder how they will do it.....

  • 100 Posted by alsatwa on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:51PM EDT Report Abuse

    I think this will look good on my new Thuraya SG-2520 satellite/GSM phone. I can't wait until I test it. I am able to use the 1GB SD on the Thuraya SG-2520 phone, but haveing a WiFi I think I can send the pictuers from Thuraya phone into my laptop in the field very easly.

  • 101 Posted by vks9810652805 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:36PM EDT Report Abuse

    http://www.smarterdeals.com/Goods.aspx?stxt=1gb&cat_id=483 Memory card is a solid state data storage device which is used for digital cameras, mobile phones, digital music players, video game consoles, mobile phones, portable computers and many electronics items to store data and for later recovery without the need to maintain power to the memory card continuously. http://www.smarterdeals.com/Goods.aspx?stxt=1gb&cat_id=483

  • 102 Posted by brucedietzen on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    I like it, but I want to take it to the next step. How can I take a photo, show the image to someone, and then print anywhere from 1 to 100 copies all from the camera (assuming eye-fi, a PC and a printer)?

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