Eye-Fi: The next generation, X2

Eye-Fi knows what you want in an SD memory card: Endless Memory. If only your camera wasn’t constrained by gigabytes, you’d never have to worry about your memory card being big enough to hold all of the pictures you want to take during your next vacation. Wouldn’t that be great? Well, you can find out with one of Eye-Fi’s new X2 memory cards.

Eye-Fi is all about wireless memory cards. Originally it was a way to upload pictures to the internet without being tied to a computer with a cord. All that is necessary is the Eye-Fi card, a WiFi network you can connect to, and your camera being on. And it was good. But Eye-Fi is the kind of company that is constantly looking to improve their products, which is why that wasn’t good enough. No, they added features like the ability to use more than just your home WiFi network, and then they figured out a way to attach GPS data to your photos. These guys are good.

Their newest feature saw the light of day during this year’s CES. It’s called Endless Memory, and was originally only available in the recently release Pro X2 card. This feature uploads your pics (or videos) to the net and/or your computer. After this upload has been verified, it sends a message back to the X2 card to allow the original to be deleted.

Whoa, wait, the X2 deletes my pictures? Well, yes, but only after the original image is safely downloaded by your home computer, so there’s really no reason to freak out. It’s because of this remote deletion feature that Eye-Fi couldn’t just issue a firmware update to previous Eye-Fi cards. Personally, I think this feature is well worth it. But that’s not all.

All three of Eye-Fi’s X2 cards have 802.11n wireless antennas in them. That means whenever there’s a WiFi network that supports N, your uploads will happen much faster. Even better is that all of these cards are Class 6 SDHC memory cards. This means that your camera can write to the memory card faster, so the time between pictures is much less than it used to be. Many cameras can’t even take full advantage of the Class 6 spec, so you’ll likely only be able to be frustrated with your camera’s slow picture to picture time. Plus, if you decide to go with the Pro X2, you’ll be able to upload RAW images to your computer straight from your camera.

So, Eye-Fi has three new cards from which to choose, each building upon the last. The Connect X2 is the base product and costs $49.99. It has 4GB of space and all of the features listed above. The Explore X2 tips the scales at 8GB and adds lifetime geotagging plus a year of hotspot access at 21,000+ AT&T and Harborlink locations across the US for $99.99. Finally, the Pro X2 is the top of the line card with 8GB, all of the features previously listed, plus the ability to upload RAW images for $149.99.

And if you call now, you can upgrade your desktop software for free! Actually, you can wait as long as you want, but why? Eye-Fi has ditched the web interface that they used to use for managing your Eye-Fi account and replaced it with Eye-Fi Center. The interface is redesigned, and I think you’ll find it much better. I’d tell you more, but why bother when you can just go download it? This software is available for all Eye-Fi cards, not just the X2 line.

Product [Eye-Fi]