DailyTech - Eye-Fi Announces Pro X2 SD Card With Built-in 802.11n

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Gadgets Eye-Fi Announces Pro X2 SD Card With Built-in 802.11n
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - January 5, 2010 11:01 AM

7 comment(s) - last by heulenwolf.. on Jan 6 at 2:45 PM

New SD card has 802.11n WiFi built-in

There are numerous digital still cameras and video cameras on the market that use SD cards. As a result, there are more brands of SD cards than most other types of memory cards on the market today. One of the coolest lines of SD memory cards is the Eye-Fi range that has integrated wireless connectivity.

Eye-Fi has announced a new and updated SD card today called the Eye-Fi Pro X2. The memory card has 8GB of storage space and is a Class 6 speed product. The new card uses the proprietary X2 engine that sports 802.11n connectivity and is backwards compatible with older wireless technologies. The card can wirelessly upload JPEG and RAW images to 25 different online video and photo sharing sites.

The most interesting new feature of the X2 Pro card is the Endless Memory mode. This mode allows the Eye-Fi card to automatically make space for new photos and video when the card is nearly full by contacting the Eye-Fi server to ensure that the video or photos have been uploaded. Once confirmed starting with the oldest content, files on the card are automatically deleted.

“With the introduction of our first wireless memory card, we made backing up and sharing photos effortless. Now, we’re again redefining what is possible with a leap forward in technology, performance and user experience,” said Jef Holove, CEO of Eye-Fi. “The new X2 engine delivers further on the promise of a connected device – more convenience and virtually endless storage capacity, so there is no cap on the memories that can be captured.”

The Eye-Fi Center is also redesigned with the new card allowing for drag and drop file transfer and it allows photos to be republished to various photo sharing sites. The card is available for pre-order now for $149.99. The updated Eye-Fi Center software will be offered for download later this month.

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or.....

By Screwballl on 1/5/2010 11:59:39 AM , Rating: 4

...for $10-15 (I got an 8GB SDHC card for $11 from buy.com the other day) you can get a 4-8GB SD card and spend 30-60 seconds worth of work transferring photos via USB adapter to your PC... and not have to worry about subscriptions or unsecured wifi access points or people stealing your pictures (since these are seen as a shared folder on your network, at least the X1 was by default).

Don't forget that if you connect to a shared or slow wifi access point it may take an hour or more to upload a bunch of 8MP+ (3-5MB each) pictures.

RE: or.....

By MPE on 1/5/2010 1:18:42 PM , Rating: 3

I agree that it is not the most cost effective but the simplicity of it once you set it is a huge advantage. This is especially true to non technical people in my family. All of them have digital cameras but do not know what to do with it after they have shot the images.

With Eye it automates the uploading to Facebook and such. It also Geo Tags. With the new upload memory function, it adds another nice function.

It is not for everyone but my wife and aunt do can now manage their photos via the familiar Facebook way instead of Windows. I am old fashion, I go RAW via Photoshop :)

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RE: or.....

By Souka on 1/5/2010 4:49:24 PM , Rating: 2

It's not super simple actually...

1. You still need to take the SD card out of the camera and plug it into a powered source. All cameras by default power down after a relatively short period of time, at which point the card stops transmitting data.

2. Transfer rates on the 2GB cards (which were 802.11g) were painfully slow. Realworld numbers can be found in reviews...but I seem to recall pretty slow speeds, not to mention ISP limitations (many ISPs have their upload under 768k)

3. Upgrading the "speed" from 802.11g to 802.11n is like upgrading a 5400rpm/300GB drive from SATA1 to SATA2...it results in no speed increase, and I suspect this is still true.

4. You must configure the wi-fi connection, the SD card doesn't magically attach to your home WPA/WEP secured network (good luck getting a grandma to do that), or accessing a network while traveling (many of which are secured).

I do like the idea of the device, but for the price I can't see getting one for myself, let alone my mom.

My $.02

:)

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RE: or.....

By Spuke on 1/5/2010 5:15:34 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
You still need to take the SD card out of the camera and plug it into a powered source. All cameras by default power down after a relatively short period of time, at which point the card stops transmitting data.

My camera does not power down when connected to the USB port so I don't need to remove the SD card when transferring pics.

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