Saturday, March 1, 2008

More on the Eye-Fi

I almost forgot to post more about the Eye-Fi, but for those who have been waiting, yes, it is all it is cracked up to be. I plugged the USB adapter and SD card into my MacBook Air and installed the software waiting on the SD card onto my Mac. Within a couple minutes, I had the card configured via the browser based interface that Eye-Fi provides. I removed the SD card and put it in my Canon point-n-shoot digicam and within seconds my first picture was automatically transferred from the camera to my MacBook with no wires and no intervention on my part.

The one thing Eye-Fi can't work around is that you need to turn off your power-saver mode on your camera that automatically turns your digicam off after inactivity so that it has time to transfer the photos. You can check your computer or web service to make sure uploads are done and then turn the camera off. I think it's one of those things you'll just "get used to" and won't be an issue.

Also, it did not transfer video that I shot with the camera. It appears to only grab pictures.

Last, the software update didn't work on the Mac. I had to revert to the software it shipped with as the update was broken. Awaiting a response from tech support on that one.

I can't help but wonder about the long term viability of Eye-Fi as a company, though. It can't be too much longer before camera manufacturers are putting wifi and bluetooth in their devices, can it?!?

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