Posts Tagged wireless
Review: Eye-Fi Explore Video Camera Card
Occasionally, I run across a gadget that leaves me wondering, “How did they do that?”
The Eye-Fi Explore Video wireless memory card, that plugs into digital cameras and uploads still photos and videos, is one of those. While it has some limitations, what it does is pretty amazing.
The Explore Video card will connect and automatically upload pictures to your computer through a wireless router on a home network. It can also connect to thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots around the country. And it can upload, without ever taking the card out of the camera, to photo- and video-sharing services such as Facebook, Flickr, Picasa and YouTube.
It works with cameras that use SDHC storage and is the same size as a conventional card. The 4 GB Eye-Fi card will hold more than 500 pictures, at highest JPG quality, on my Nikon D90.
Just think of the possibilities. Travelers can easily upload and share pictures from the road. Or, I could walk around the house taking family photos while they transfer to the computer automatically. The card has good range and the signal even holds up well through walls.
I found it takes 10-15 seconds to upload a high-resolution picture to the computer with file sizes of 5-7 MB. Videos, if your camera supports them, can take much longer because of the bigger file sizes. I didn’t find any objectionable battery drain with my D90.
The Explore Video card can also geotag photos, adding location information which can be seen with some programs and Internet-based sharing services.
Setting up a computer to receive the photos is quick and easy, using a card reader that plugs into a USB port. The card can be set up to connect to encrypted routers. (Time out for a reminder—always encrypt wireless signals at your home or office. You never know who might be driving by or trying to connect from next door.)
Eye-Fi’s online support is excellent and addresses just about any question imaginable on setup and operation.
There are some limitations. The main one is connecting to many free, public Wi-Fi hotspots.
Eye-Fi cards will seamlessly connect to Wayport hot spots. There are more than 10,000 across the U.S., including hotel, fast-food restaurant and airport locations.
The trick is trying to connect to other public Wi-Fi signals. It can be done, but only if the signals are unencrypted and do not use a splash or log-in screen.
There are also some limitations on geotagging, which does not use GPS for determining locations. Instead, it homes in through the locations of nearby wi-fi signals without connecting to them. In areas with few signals, geotagging might not work.
Some cameras provide more support for the card than others. For example, some upper-end Nikon DSLRs will show on the screen when photos are being uploaded. Most cameras do not show any indication when an upload is in progress, though you can choose to be notified by e-mail or text message when it completes.
The Eye-Fi Explore 4GB Video card retails for $99.99, but you’ll find it on Amazon for less. That includes one year of access to Wayport hot spots. After that, the price for Wayport access is $14.99 a year.
For travelers who take lots of pictures and like to share them with family and friends, the Eye-Fi Explore Video card can make the task a whole lot easier. And it won’t take up any more room in your bag.
Posted by JohnG in General Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on January 5th, 2010
Cy*Fi iPod Speaker: Wireless That Works
Whenever I hear the words “wireless” and “speaker” together, two bad visions come to mind. One is the set of Advent wireless stereo speakers in my daughter’s playroom: if you even look at them funny, they lose the signal and sound like crap. The other vision is a party I was at a few years ago where the host spent half the night moving around a set of those all-weather wireless speakers like you see in the Skymall catalog because the sound kept cutting out or getting distorted.
Fortunately this cy*fi speaker is a different story: it promises “CD-quality” sound while broadcasting tunes from your iPod and my skepticism was dashed as soon as I fired it up. When I compared the sound on this nifty 4-ounce device to a couple heavier ones that plug in, the cy*fi actually sounded better, even when the transmitter was on the other side of the room or I was moving around the room with my iPod.
Now some would say that for a $200 list price ($180 for the Bluetooth version), it damn well better sound good, but cool technology that does what it’s supposed to comes at a price. They get this down to 4 ounces with a sci-fi-looking plastic housing (get it, “cy fi”?), plus a small built-in rechargeable battery. The speaker battery, which outlasted the music player itself, charges up when plugged into a docking station. The transmitter attaches to your non-Shuffle iPod—or in the case of the Bluetooth version your phone or other device.
Two included attachments are meant to let you take this with you on the move. One is for attaching the device to your bike, the other to the strap of a backpack or other bag. I tried this one bike ride and got a lot of funny/annoyed looks, and I wouldn’t make it a habit, but if you insist on having music while you cycle it is far safer than wearing earbuds. You can still hear the ambulance bearing down on you or the other cyclist shouting “on your left!”
The annoyances with this are minor ones. The device and transmitter keep flashing while in use, which kind of destroys the mood in a dark bedroom if you know what I mean. The buttons allow you to change the volume and track on the speaker, but they’re kind of hard to push and they disable the volume control on your player. The proprietary charging dock is a hurdle for travelers who want to pack light. As with most electronics manufacturers shipping container loads from China, the device comes in an unrecyclable plastic blister pack that requires care to keep from slicing a finger.
All in all though, this would make for a great travel speaker. I loved being able to place it anywhere in a room, accessing all my playlists and getting great sound. Plus it’s weather resistant enough that you don’t have to worry about moisture. It is light and compact enough to squeeze into any bag, though hopefully in version #2 they’ll streamline the bulky charging dock.
The cy*fi wireless speaker comes in three color combinations. It’s not widely available at retail yet, so get it direct at the mycyfi.com site.
Posted by Tim in General Gear, Travel Light on May 27th, 2009
