Gizmodo

This seems pretty awesome. I hope they develop a CF version.

Very very cool. Thanks for the Lightning Round!

@homerjay: WiFi on a high capacity CF card would be EXTREMELY interesting!

This is one of those times when I think to myself: why didn't they make this years ago?

I like the idea of going out and snapping pictures, coming home and just turning on the camera for a few minutes. Very cool.

And yes, CF would be nice (or XD).

What I want to know is, will it add WiFi internet access to my Cingular 3125? Or is it just for uploading photos?

@icntdrv: Just for uploading. But hack away.

@MeeM: Oh they talked the CRAP out of this idea years ago when they were pushing SD and SDIO devices.

I remember pictures from a Panasonic display showing the most incredible vaporware...

Memory Stick version please!

@jzh797s:

haha, good one!

Have they produced a list of which cameras this will work with? Surely it's not just any SD camera.

@icntdrv:
Yeah I'd really like to use this on my Treo 700wx so I don't have some card sticking out of my phone. Unfortunately I'm thinking there isn't even a hardware interface for a device to know the WiFi capability is even there.

So you mean this will be the end of my collection of 100 pictures I've been too lazy to upload off the camera? I won't get that wonderful element of surprise when I start looking through them and see some event from last year!

I recall there were CF wifi cards years ago, I was going to get one for my pda I had back then.
@ HUGHJASS the treo runs windows mobile correct? So it should support it, I'm using a spectec in my Q9m.

They need to add bluetooth to cameras too. Then an interface so cameras can talk to all our bluetooth-loving cell phones. Think of the possibilites:

[ricosays.tumblr.com]

You'd have to think that this would have a pretty significant impact on battery life.

Give me a memory card that can use EVDO and I'm freakin sold.

@DaveTyranham: Check the article.

@icntdrv: yeah i hear ya... it'd be great if this worked for palm, etc.

@jzh797s: Oh man. Still laughing over here.

Seriously, abandon that idea.

If only I could set the card to auto delete horrible pictures.

@DaveTyranham:
Not really, the mini SD wifi card I have doesn't seem to hurt my phone's battery life at all.

and realistically, for what you get, $99 ain't a bad price at all.

Would this work in ad-hoc mode, direct to my laptop, without the need for a router? That would make it even more useful, as you could bring your laptop with you to photoshoots. You could even script an image viewer program to watch a folder and thereby turn your laptop into an image review station, allowing you to check exposure and settings much better than on the camera LCD.

Where's the CF version???

@Cupajo:
I think the device is irellevant. It seems like its all done inside the card. So the camera just sees the card and the card just sees some device putting files on it.

the file transer would work on anything, palm, camera, ect.

Wow, I'm impressed that this actually works, regardless of the camera. I was expecting major problems.

I've got a Nikon camera with WiFi built in, but I have yet to make actual use of it (no real need, really). But the overall concept has always seemed cool to me.

@archercc:

Wow, that's frikken amazing. I don't think $100 is a steep price at all for something like that.

Wonder if it would work with a CF/SD adapter like this:

[www.amazon.com]

That way CF based cameras could use the device. In theory it should just work, but...

Why are the pictures of the SD cards upside down? I'm being picky but I was wondering.

Thank god it CAN'T upload directly to myspace. Great move by the company, I don't want those assholes to have an easier way of uploading their extreme angled, heavily sexified pics.

$99 seems high to me. I paid $30 for my spectec miniSD wifi, could just drop it in a miniSD to SD adapter I would think.

@enine: this card is completely different from that card.

$100 is a bit much for most users. If I was big into online photo galleries, it might be nice, I guess. Maybe if I go overseas, I'll invest in one.

What would be GREAT is if you can program it to upload to your own FTP site - FLAWLESSLY :)

I havent read anything about it, so maybe it IS possible. I would buy it in a snap.

As someone mentioned above - would be great to know if this works with a SD-CF adaptor???? Maybe someone from eye-fi could respond since their site is currently dugg/giz'd and they can't take any orders anyway.

@StackyBotrus: There's no reason why you couldn't have the card auto-dump to your PC and have a script upload them over FTP from there.

"ok you can take sexy pics of me, but you need to delete them right away"
"Trust me baby, i wont even hook it up to my computer, promise."

MUAHAHAHAAH

P.S. Dont do this, its not nice. And its really funny.

NO RAW FORMAT = DEALBREAKER!!!

I mean, really... how hard is it to support transferring any file type? No movies, no RAW, only JPG. I think that would fall under "The Catch" category.

An SD/CF adapter will work, though it cuts down on the signal a bit and isn't officially supported. I've been using it in the beta program for the past year. We're selling these things on Photojojo (we'll be shipping them before anyone else -- Saturday or earlier) and we're also comparing some CF/SD adapters to see which ones do best. We'll have a good one up for sale next week.

In the meantime, the card itself:
[photojojo.com]

I received this reply re: SD-CF adaptors:

"Thank you for contacting EyeFi. To answer you question, there have been some successful instances in which the sD card was put in a cF adapter, though it is not a supported configuration. The main limitation is the file type. It will only upload JPG/JPEG pictures. We are currently working on a cF card that should be released by next year that will handle JPG/JPEG, NEF and RAW files. I hope this answers your question and again, thank you for contacting EyeFi."

Yeah I asked the same question. Got the same answer. I saw a post from a beta user that said his worked with his Canon Rebel.

I also asked about the adhoc thing and the answer wasn't good:

"As long as you are in range of a WiFi network that is configured to you EyeFi Manager, yes. IF you are not in range of any wifi network, it will load onto you computer once you are in range of a preconfigured network. I hope this answers your question."

So, the answer is no. If its just you, your laptop, and camera w/Eye-fi, you are SOL on using your laptop's HD as a photo dump.

So, looks like I won't be getting an Eye-fi until they solve the RAW issue and the adhoc issue or their competitors do!

@dominar: why use Ad-Hoc? both OSX and XP can do "Internet Sharing" style connection that for all intents and purposes are a regular WiFi network and appear to the world just like any other WiFi router.

i honestly don't even remember how to make a computer-to-computer WiFi network anymore... seeing as they were sorta pointless and a pain to use.

I wasn't aware that was how Internet Sharing worked. I still wonder if the Eye-fi will work in that situation.

I'll wait and let someone figure it out.

What a sick little product. This is the kind of inventive, creative product that makes me crave shit I might not need. Can't wait to see one in action

I can buy a 2GB SD card for between $20 and $25. Maybe less. Why not just buy 4 or 5 more cards instead? I use my digital camera FAR more often out of range (or out of town, state, country) of my router than I do within 100 feet of my router.

It's your money, but I wouldn't spend it that way.

I wonder if you can upload to this card wirelessly. What happens if you are within range of a router that isn't yours, and someone decides to access your card? Doesn't sound good.

Its genial
Great
Hope is not vaporware
Hope its hackable too to send files to it
(to my mp3 player w/sd slot, my DVD player with SD Slot, my Car Stereo With SD Slot... All within my router range)

I asked them a bunch of questions and apparently is not that "hackable"....not that such limitation has ever stopped hackers..in fact it is more of a challenge.
Anyway, as long as the card gets "power" it will upload to the preconfigured location(s).
It will connect to open networks or to previously preconfigured secure wireless networks while in range.
I don't think there is danger of someone else getting on your camera, as for that the card will have to be in listening mode or open ports.
Apparently the way it works, it goes thru a "redirect" server. The card connects to the internet, sends the files to (I'm guessing) their server and then it gets distributed to photo services of your choice or your computer (which has to be on, connected to the internet and running the little program that comes with the card).

Haven't seen actual pictures of the software, but it seems like you have to sign up with them. So they are providing the card and a service (per se) to send the files to your desired destinations (you need an email to sign up, as I've read in the help pages on their site).

I wish I had time to hack into it. Hope someone else does. Then I'll buy it.

I would like to upload to my own FTP server (which is no supported and apparently not planning on doing it).

Just to clarify for everybody: As is, this is not a "get wireless on your gadget" card. It is a STORAGE card, with the added feature that any JPEG (only JPEGs at this time) you store on it will be transfered via Wi-Fi to the preconfigured (by you) services and/or PC of your choice.
So it works with anything that can give it power and can put some JPEGs on it.

Awesome, this and a wireless sync on my Zune. 2 cables I can take out of my travel bag forever. I guess indirectly I can sync photos to my Zune without cables although indirectly.

I bet this would work with a sd/cf adapter, but I have a question. My dslr wont turn on unless the card door is closed. From the pictures, it looks like the sd card sticks out of the adapter. Is this correct?

@StackyBotrus: When I get my dad one for Christmas, I will hack something together for this to happen. Do you have an email address that I can reach you at?

I could actually write the script without needing the device, as it would just search for new files in a specified directory and upload them to FTP via command line.

@photog09: No.

Very cool idea, but I'm curious how it works in practice. For example, many cameras do format conversion when uploading pix, and I've had pictures be unreadable when I use a memory card reader to move them to my PC but readable when I use the USB cable and the camera does some conversion. I'm guessing that the WiFi mem card will upload the unconverted photos.

Anyone tried it?

I received mine today and can not get it to "contact the Eye-Fi server." I have tried a macbook pro with Leopard; iMac with Tiger; Parallels on XP and a laptop with Vista. Multiple crashes of their management software.
I would put this in the category of too good to be true and will be requesting a refund. You have to keep the camera on to upload the picture and there is no indicator when it is done. It will Not upload RAW and it does not appear that you can configure to upload to a .mac web gallery. It does not look like you can put your own email address to send the pictures. Had hoped to give positive review...

Guys,

To clarify, please take a look at these pages:

[www.eye.fi]
[photojojo.com]
[photojojo.com]

Many of you have asked if you can shoot straight into the laptop, in ad-hoc mode.

So..

Although the Eye-Fi Card does not support ad-hoc, it doesn't mean that you can't have a router with you, connect both your laptop and the Eye-Fi Card to the router, put the Eye-Fi Card into local mode only, and shoot away.

The Eye-Fi Card has 3 modes, Upload to Web, Upload to Web + Computer, and Upload to Computer. If you choose Upload to Computer, your images will not upload to the Eye-Fi Service first, and back down. They will go directly to your laptop, through the router.

The above pages really explain it well.

Thanks ---

Ziv

@dr_milo: I'm sure that we could help you get up and running, if you called our free support line.

Today, we don't support 10.5, and we clearly state that. It works, but has issues, and we are working on resolving them.

It works fine with Parallels or VMWare

As clearly stated in our FAQ's, the Eye-Fi Card doesn't upload RAW or movies.

.Mac support is not there today -- that's correct. You can see a current list of our 17 supported partners, on our home page.

Thanks