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Search Results for: eye-fi

Eye-Fi Launches Their New Mobile X2 Card, Direct Mode And Mobile Apps Soon To Follow

By Andrew Liszewski on 04/12/11 • Leave a comment!

Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Card (Image courtesy Eye-Fi)
By Andrew Liszewski

The world’s most feature-packed SD memory card just got a bit more capable today as Eye-Fi has officially launched their Mobile X2 version featuring their new ‘Direct Mode’. The new mode, which was first shown off at CES earlier this year, lets the Eye-Fi card connect directly to an Android or iOS mobile device by creating its own wi-fi network, so the card and your smartphone/tablet can communicate even if you’re out in the middle of nowhere.

Direct Mode will also be available for the company’s existing Eye-Fi X2 cards via a firmware update available sometime next week, though users excited to try it out will still have to wait for the accompanying iOS and Android apps to hit their respective app stores. The new mode is pretty exciting though, as it lets users almost instantly see their shots on a larger display if they’re using it tethered to a tablet, and if the device happens to be equipped with 3G mobile data, the shots can then be automatically sent to an online gallery.

The new Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card which features 8GB of storage and the Direct Mode functionality already built-in will be available starting April 17 for $79.99.

[ Eye-Fi Mobile X2 ]

JVC’s New Picsio GC-WP10 Waterproof Camcorder

By Andrew Liszewski on 08/30/10 • 1 Comment

JVC Picsio GC-WP10 (Images courtesy JVC)
By Andrew Liszewski

At one time it was really easy to choose a flash-based zoomless camcorder. You just walked into your local electronics store and bought a Flip because there really were no other options. But these days it’s not as easy, which is a good thing since competition has brought more options that are far more capable than the Flip, if that’s what you’re looking for. (The Flip’s simplicity is definitely not a bad thing.) Like this latest addition to JVC’s PICSIO line, the GC-WP10, which can capture 1080P footage on dry land or up to 10 feet underwater. At 1080P you’re limited to 30fps since these consumer friendly cameras tend to shy away from 24P, but if you reduce your resolution to 720P you can capture up to 60fps. And if you want to be really creative there are even time-lapse recording options available.

‘Round back you’ll find a glove-friendly 3-inch touchscreen LCD display with on-screen controls for recording and playback, and the GC-WP10′s got an SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot that’s Eye-Fi friendly for uploading footage over a wireless network. There’s also the requisite built-in USB connector which has become the trademark feature for these types of cameras, and last but certainly not least is its ability to record high-quality MP3s thanks to a set of stereo microphones on top. Available “late September” for $199.95.

[ PR - Two New JVC Picsio Pocket Cameras Offer Easy Video and Photo Sharing ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

Latest Eye-Fi Cards Offer Endless Memory For Reasonable Price

By Evan Ackerman on 03/24/10 • 2 Comments

eyefi

By Evan Ackerman

The Eye-Fi Pro X2, which debuted at the beginning of this year, offers “endless memory” by deleting pictures off of itself after wirelessly uploading them to your computer and/or online photo storage service using built-in 802.11n WiFi. Not unexpectedly, such a useful feature isn’t cheap, with the 8 gig Eye-Fi Pro X2 costing a staggering $150.

Eye-Fi has just released two more SD cards in the X2 series with the endless memory feature, the Eye-Fi Connect X2 and the Eye-Fi Explore X2. The Connect X2 holds 4 gigs of stuff (not like it matters that much with the endless memory), while the Explore X2 is 8 gigs and includes lifetime geotagging of dubious quality and a year of hotspot WiFi access. The best news is that the Connect X2 is only $50, which is way more than a regular 4 gig SD card but way less than the $150 Pro X2 or even the Explore X2, which costs $100. If you don’t have an Eye-Fi card yet, the Connect X2 is definitely the one to get. If you’re looking for justification to upgrade to the Explore X2, if you travel a lot, Eye-Fi would also like you to know that their WiFi hotspots now include Starbucks and BP gas stations.

Incidentally, at CES Eye-Fi told me that the card’s ability to delete pictures off of itself is a hardware thing, not a software thing, so it’s not something that they can add to older cards with a firmware update or something like that. Sad, but sometimes, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

You can find Eye-Fi cards at Best Buy, Amazon.com, Adorama, and B&H among other places.

[ Eye-Fi ]

Infinitec “Infinite” USB Drive Isn’t Really

By Evan Ackerman on 03/03/10 • 2 Comments

infinitec

By Evan Ackerman

Infinitec is introducing what they’re calling the “next generation” of USB flash drives, the Infinite USB Memory (IUM) drive. Rather than storing data on internal flash memory, the IUM pairs with your computer, forming a wireless data transfer link. So, whatever device you plug the IUM into sees it as simple USB flash drive, while behind the scenes the IUM is streaming data directly from your computer, making available as much data as you care to give it, hence the “infinite” moniker. This isn’t some kind of infinite cloud storage thing, however, it’s just that the capacity of the IUM isn’t limited by the hardware on the IUM itself.

I can’t immediately figure out how the wireless bit works, but it’s going to be one of two ways. The first, which seems most likely from the way the IUM is described, is that it uses your laptop’s wireless card to transfer data. This means that if you’re out of range of your laptop’s wireless signal, your IUM loses its functionality. The alternative (and I don’t think it works this way) would be that it somehow connects to your laptop over the internet, which means that the IUM would function anywhere it could get WiFi access, possibly allowing you to set up secured access points ahead of time.

Whichever way it functions, I wouldn’t really think of this as a USB flash drive at all, for the simple reason that you can’t use it to back up or transfer data independently of your laptop. It’s more of a wireless USB network adapter, in that it gives any USB compatible device access to the data on your laptop via a local (ad-hoc) wireless network. This is definitely a handy capability, although its usefulness is limited to electronics with USB ports but without a network connection that you don’t want to plug your computer into directly (although there is something to be said for ease of use, which the IUM certainly appears to offer).

The cost for this convenience is $129, which seems rather steep to me, although (for what it’s worth) it’s generally equivalent to the Eye-Fi Pro, which offers the same kind of wireless ad-hoc network functionality.

The Infinitec IUM Drive goes on sale July 1.

[ IUM Drive ] VIA [ ZDNet ]

SIMFi Turns 3G Into WiFi, Makes Too Much Sense To Ever Happen

By Evan Ackerman on 02/16/10 • 4 Comments

wifi_simBy Evan Ackerman

WiFi? In my SIM card? It’s more likely than you think, if Sagem Orga’s SIMFi SIM card ever becomes a commercial reality, which it won’t, because it’s awesome and wireless providers aren’t. Eye-Fi showed us that you can stuff all kinds of useful things into absurdly small packages, and Sagem Orga has managed to cram a full blown WiFi router into a SIM card about the size of a hiccup. Somehow, the card taps into your phone’s data network and makes it accessible to any WiFi device:

“The new generation USIM card “SIMFi” can be inserted in any type of classic handset to act as a universal and interoperable HSPA/Wi-Fi router for any device.”

What’s that you say? I can just stick this in my phone and give internet to my laptop? Why, that would make my life so much better and more convenient and sunshine and rainbows and I won’t have to worry about forking over another sixty bucks a month so that I can check email on my phone and my laptop!

Aaaand this is why the only way we’re going to see one of these SIMFi cards is through some kind of severely restricted and ludicrously expensive carrier program. Yes, we can’t have nice things because when somebody invents one, our wireless carriers take them out back and beat them with a money brick.

I hope I’m wrong and that AT&T lets me buy a SIMFi for a realistic one time cost and stick it in my iPhone, but they won’t. We’ll let you know how many of your firstborn children you need to sell to get one of these if it ever becomes available.

[ Sagem Orga ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

[CES 2010] Live Photo Slide Show

By Evan Ackerman on 01/07/10 • 3 Comments


By Evan Ackerman

Thanks to Eye-Fi and Novatel’s MiFi, we’re going to be trying out a live photo stream here on OhGizmo. As we’re walking around the show floor, we’ll be taking pictures, which are getting saved to Eye-Fi cards. The MiFi is a portable 3G router, and the Eye-Fi cards should (should!) be uploading pics through the MiFi to Flickr as soon as we take them (remember our review? It’s fast). Then, they’ll pop up here in the slide show.

We spend a lot (like, seriously, a lot) of time looking at stuff at CES, and we can’t write about all of it, so this gives you a chance to see what we’re seeing pretty much as we’re seeing it. Some of the stuff we’ll end up writing about, but if you have a question about a specific thing, just leave a comment and we can probably get you more info.

So, that’s the idea! If it doesn’t work (i.e. the pics don’t update to new ones), it’s probably because there are about 100,000 people here all trying to use 3G at the same time, not to mention the thousands of computers all spewing out wireless interference. Or, our router ran out of batteries. Also, remember that you’ll have to reload the page to see the newest stuff, since as far as I can tell the slide show doesn’t auto-update.

Oh, and special thanks to Eye-Fi and Novatel for making this sweet setup possible.

New Eye-Fi Cards Get Infinite Memory, Pretty Much

By Evan Ackerman on 01/05/10 • 2 Comments

eyefiprox2By Evan Ackerman

I’m not quite sure how they do it, but Eye-Fi manages to keep on cramming feature after useful into their wireless memory cards. This time around, they’re introducing a new tier of card (above Pro), the Pro X2. It costs $150, but at least read about what it does before you scoff at the price… The X2 is an 8 gig SDHC card with a built-in 802.11n antenna. N! N means faster uploads at greater distances, so that’s definitely good. And more storage is good too. But the most useful feature of the X2 is the option to have the card delete pictures after it uploads them, giving you an infinite amount of memory (provided you’re near some source of WiFi) while sharing and backing up your pictures real time. The card won’t delete anything until it’s confirmed that the upload was successful, but hypothetically, you can just stop worrying about whether or not you’re running out of space when taking pictures (or videos).

The X2 also comes with all the rest of the awesome Eye-Fi features, like RAW support, geotagging, ad-hoc WiFi connections, and Wayport WiFi access. Unfortunately, from what I can tell from the press release, the infinite memory option will be available on the new X2 cards only. This is a bit of a disappointment, since previous useful firmware upgrades were made available to all of the cards. But, I guess it’s probably somewhat unrealistic to expect to keep getting free goodies, and for you heavy shooters, the additional SDHC space and the potential for never having to worry about space again may make the X2 a worthwhile upgrade.

Look for the Eye-Fi X2 on Amazon and the Eye-Fi website.

[ Eye-Fi ]

Today Only: Eye-Fi Card For $40

By Evan Ackerman on 11/30/09 • 6 Comments

Eye_Fi_Explore_2GB_Wireless

By Evan Ackerman

We’re all big fans of Eye-Fi cards, and rightly so: these SD cards include a wireless antenna that automatically sends pictures you take to your computer and to any number of photo sharing sites over your wireless network (read our reviews here and here). Our biggest quibble with the Eye-Fi cards is that they’re really freakin’ expensive compared to other SD cards, but today Sellout.Woot has a 2 gig Eye-Fi Explore for $45 shipped. The Explore version is an upgrade that includes a kinda crappy but still functional geotagging service plus one year of hotspot uploads. Yeah, 2 gigs isn’t that much storage, but remember that the whole point of this thing is that it’s uploading pictures for you, letting you free up space on your card while backing up your pics and the same time. Awesome gadget, good price.

[ Sellout.Woot ]

Imation Pro WX Wireless USB Hard Drive

By David Ponce on 11/20/09 • 8 Comments

imation-pro-wx-wireless-usb-drive

By David Ponce

As Uncrate points out, being the “world’s first” often results in your having to charge an obscene amount for your wares. That said, we kind of like Imation’s wireless USB hard drive, if only because once again, any effort to ditch wires is welcome by us. Featuring transfer speeds of 15MBs/second and a range of 30 feet, the drive can store up to 1.5TB of whatever you think worthy of keeping around. If your main workstation is a mobile computer you can see how this setup can be useful as you won’t have to actually walk to your drive and tether your computer every time you want to back something up.

Sadly, ditching the wires on your external drive will cost you a pretty $450.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

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