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 ]

While the Eye-Fi Pro X2 – an 8GB Eye-Fi card with RAW support and ad hoc mode – is already available, the company just released two new additions to the X2 line, the Explore and the Connect. The Explore includes automatic geotagging for images and videos. Here are the specifics:

Eye-Fi Connect X2 – At 4GB capacity, the Eye-Fi Connect X2 will automatically upload JPEG photos and videos to the computer and one of more than 25 online sharing sites, such as Flickr, Facebook, YouTube or Picasa, through a Wi-Fi network. MSRP: $49.99.

Eye-Fi Explore X2 – At 8GB of capacity, the Eye-Fi Explore X2 will automatically upload JPEG photos and videos to the computer and one of more than 25 online sharing sites. It offers lifetime automatic geotagging so photos and videos arrive at the user’s computer with location information already included to identify where the image was captured. Explore X2 also offers one year of hotspot access for uploading away from home at more 21,000 AT&T and Harborlink locations across the Unites States and through open hotspots. MSRP: $99.99.

Eye-Fi Pro X2 – Unveiled at CES and winner of CNET’s “Best of CES” award, the 8GB Eye-Fi Pro X2 will automatically upload JPEG and RAW photos and videos to the home computer, and will send them to one of more than 25 online sharing sites. It also allows users to create an ad hoc connection directly to their computer to wirelessly upload photos and videos while away from a wireless router. Like Explore X2, Pro X2 offers lifetime geotagging and one-year of hotspot access to enable uploads away from home at more than 21,000 AT&T and Harborlink hotspots and open hotspots. MSRP: $149.99.

These new devices can use multiple AT&T hotspots and feature faster video upload and a new “Endless Memory” mode that will upload images and video as you take them. They’re available today.

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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.

By 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 ]

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 ]

The Eye-Fi card is famous for being a cool, fun way to upload, inadvertently, images of you and your friends naked or on the toilet. Now, however, you can upload those naked photos to your local FTP/FTPS server. This service allows you to bypass standard photo-sharing sites like Flickr and dump your stuff up unfettered by the limitations placed upon us by photo sites.

Here are the instructions. Happy uploading and be sure to make those images public!

This also, admittedly, allows you to run your own photo sharing service and to keep your photos completely private.

via WiFiNetNews