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Eye-Fi Announces Explore, Share and Home Models
Posted by Mark Wilson at 2:01 PM on May 12, 2008
Not so long ago we reviewed the Eye-Fi, a 2GB SD card that adds Wi-Fi to any digital camera. Now the company is expanding their product line with the Eye-Fi Explore (US$129), Eye-Fi Share (US$99) and the Eye-Fi Home (US$79). The big news? Eye-Fi is now supporting hotspots and geotagging with the Explore.
It should be noted that even though the cards are set at different pricepoints, the Explore, Share and Home all feature identical hardware (that's actually the same as the original Eye-Fi). So instead of making hardware differentiations, the company is pricing the cards according to the backend service.
The Explore
Through a partnership with Wayport, users will be able to automatically upload their photos in about 10,000 hotspots through the US. Through the partnership, the user will not need to accept terms and conditions at every coffee shop, and the user can receive email notifications for successful uploads. But the catch is that the Wayport service is only good for one year (Eye-Fi is looking into longer term partnerships with more hot spot companies which they may or may not charge an additional fee for).
Geotagging comes with the Explore as well through Skyhook's Wi-Fi triangulation (the same thing we see the current iPhone using instead of GPS).
The Share
This model is pretty much identical in features to the current Eye-Fi. You get automatic syncing with your PC as well as services like Flickr.
The Home
The Eye-Fi home is made for the guy who just wants to sync their photos with their PC, not upload them automatically to the web or hit up hot spots. It's essentially offering a price drop to consumers who aren't interested in the additional services.
The cards will be available starting June 6th. And unfortunately, current Eye-Fi owners will not be able to simply upgrade their cards to have Explore capabilities.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Josh_Geyer
Posted 2:29 PM 12/5/08
CF model?
Josh_Geyer
Buran
Posted 3:01 PM 12/5/08
C O M P A C T F L A S H ?
Buran
jrlittlejr
Posted 2:59 PM 12/5/08
I've got the original eye-fi card... for the most part love it for taking still pictures... but it has a fatal flaw for me. The recording speed of the card is lousy, and won't record video from my Panasonic TZ5 camera. Eye-fi marketing and customer service are deliberately vague about the recording speed of the card. In response to inquiries about the writing speed, all they will say is "We do not share the information about the Eye-Fi Card's specific read/write speeds. I can tell you that our card is on par with the speed of basic consumer SD cards on the market." If they didn't fix this... I wouldn't recommend the eye-fi for anyone who wants to record video.
jrlittlejr
mlonidot
Posted 2:58 PM 12/5/08
I am still hoping they come out with a model that will upload movie files.
mlonidot
Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer
Posted 2:48 PM 12/5/08
Nice added functionality but yet more reasons not to be an early adopter.
Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer
Erzengel
Posted 3:22 PM 12/5/08
i would like geotagging in the home version... i know, it sounds weird... i just dont feel like automagically uploading my pics to the web, i still have to select them and watermark them.
how much will the price cut be in the home version? any plans on making bigger cards? 4gb at least?
Erzengel
mariogalaxyman
Posted 3:14 PM 12/5/08
Geotagging!
*Drops pants*
Wait, what?
mariogalaxyman
oopl
Posted 4:37 PM 12/5/08
The new features sound cool! Hopefully the price will come down soon. The original Eye-Fi was a great idea.
oopl
cosmoath
Posted 6:17 PM 12/5/08
Cool stuff, but 2gb isn't much for my
7 MP camera...But one must be careful
with the Explore card....naked photos of you will be on the net?
cosmoath
Bitstuff
Posted 6:42 PM 12/5/08
@Josh_Geyer:
I was thinking the same thing: why only an SD model? Is it because you can't lug around a DSLR to nights out and the quicker you get the drunken antics of your friends online the sooner can your other friends laugh at them? It's pretty evil, I like it.
Bitstuff
Norcross
Posted 8:41 PM 12/5/08
Nice and all, but considering that a 2gig SD card is on sale right now for 8 dollars at CompUSA.com, is it worth the 92 dollar markup?
Norcross
aurispector
Posted 10:12 PM 12/5/08
Well, for the base model you're paying $71.99 for the miniature wifi transmitter and the software. Not too bad of a deal for a unique product. Still, if the write speeds are crappy and the only advantage is that you don't have to pull the card out of the camera and put it into the reader it's not a great deal. Do the other services add up to real value? It's neat, but I'm not rushing to buy.
aurispector
strider_mt2k
Posted 10:29 PM 12/5/08
@Josh_Geyer:
@Buran:
Couldn't you use a CF to SD adapter with this?
They certainly make them.
Is there any reason to think this wouldn't work?
strider_mt2k
badbob001
Posted 11:12 PM 12/5/08
They should make a version with no memory but have a microSD slot. Also, being able to see files one one's local server would be very nice, and would be a nice add-on for a non-wifi enabled photo frame.
badbob001
UofITom
Posted 11:54 PM 12/5/08
no RAW, no care
UofITom
FlashSandbox
Posted 12:18 AM 13/5/08
I use a CF to SD adapter in my E-500. Works just fine. I also have an Eye-Fi in my SD1000. Love it.
Just wish you could set your Eye-Fi to upload to ANY open hotspot....
FlashSandbox
necrolingua
Posted 12:46 AM 13/5/08
Any of these new models work without having to "phone home" to the eye-fi servers? Still no adhoc compatibility as well?
I'm not buying until they make one that will still be useful when the company goes under and shuts their servers down.
necrolingua
bandit
Posted 12:54 AM 13/5/08
Hey Giz, why the giant graphic that's 40x larger than the actual product?
bandit
archercc
Posted 12:52 AM 13/5/08
@jrlittlejr: Thanks for sharing. Until they get those speeds sorted out and start putting in more capacity I think I will just stick to my 8gig cards, of course its easier since my laptop has a built in SD card reader.
Hopefully someday they might just be putting wifi into cameras.
archercc
1roll20s
Posted 2:20 AM 13/5/08
@UofITom: Who would want raw on a slow card anyways? It'd be torture. Once they can write 10MB /s I'm interested.
1roll20s
izzaboo
Posted 2:10 AM 13/5/08
I own one of the originals. ($99)
Slow-ish write speeds.
Huge battery drain with no way to toggle upload feature (that I can find).
Only works with *some* (read: one) CF Adapter that I can see. Anybody have any other info on that I'd be happy to read about it. Anyway, I can't seem to use the eye-fi's wireless features with my Nikon D70.
My computer crashes *a lot* when I have the eye-fi software installed and running. PowerBook G4 1.66GHz OS X 10.4.11.
pffft.
Great product, in theory.
izzaboo
Navin R Johnson
Posted 5:34 AM 13/5/08
@bandit: No kidding on the image. I don't know how many times I've read a Giz article an thought "Why is this image so small" Now we have something as completely ordinary as an SD card and they have an image so big I can count the damn molecules. A thumbnail would have been more than adequate.
Navin R Johnson
ryusen
Posted 8:42 AM 13/5/08
This is a "cute" concept, but i see a flaw that will limit it's market.. no CF version. When it comes down to it, most people who use P&S cams for fun and quick family snaps, aren't going to want to spend that much more for this product, but there would be a good market for this for entry level DSLR owners.
ryusen
DaveTyranham
Posted 10:04 AM 13/5/08
Why haven't camera manufacuters started making bluetooth standard or at least an easy addon?
I could really see this being handy for regular folks and pro's a like.
By pairing the camera up with a computer you would remove storage concerns. Transfer images in the background after x number have been taken sort of thing.
I guess that the distance of bluetooth would be a bit of a concern, but with bluetooth support in the camera, I could see a cellular link to enable long distance transmissions being handy.
DaveTyranham