GetFlashMemory posted an article the other day about the world’s first wireless memory card. I was very excited to hear about this technology and recently found a review of the Eye-Fi product.
This is what folks had to say:
Crunch Gear said:
All-in-all, this is a solid device. It is comparable to any 2GB SD card on the market but it gives you the ability to upload your pictures in a much cooler fashion. And if you can’t wait, if you plug a loaded card into the USB reader, it will automatically upload your pictures to your photo service via USB. Yay, all-around convenience – Blake Robinson
Engadget said:
So basically Eye-Fi takes a step forward by cutting out the middleman (in this case, a USB cable to your camera, or a media reader for your vanilla SD card), but two steps back in making the assumption that you want all of the tens (or hundreds) of megs of photos on the card uploaded in full res using your camera’s batteries, and yet don’t need said photos in your photo app, not just some folder – Ryan Block
SlashGear said:
wireless networks are set up using the Eye-Fi website, not through any sort of interface on your camera itself, and you’re limited to secured WiFi hook-ups rather than being able to take advantage of any open cloud you might pass through. Even with 802.11g, transfers of large resolution images could – and do – take a long time, and given that there’s no ability to select which to keep and which to throw (unless you delete them prior to connecting) it could be a frustrating experience – Chris Davies
Putting it all together I am glad to see this technology come to market and appears to be an appreciated process for downloading those oh-so-valuable photos.
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Eye-Fi is the world’s first wireless memory card. This means the flash memory not only stores data but has the ability to transmit the data via WiFi to another host system.
“Digital cameras have made it extremely easy to take pictures, but the rest of the process is a hassle,†said Jef Holove, chief executive officer of Eye-Fi. “The Eye-Fi Card removes the barriers and lets users get to the fun part of sharing and printing their memories. We’re putting the magic back into photography.â€
Eye-Fi uses home wireless networks for picture and data download to home PCs and laptops. Simply turn on the camera or device and begin transferring data.
Eye-Fi’s patent-pending technology works with Wi-Fi networks to automatically send photos from a digital camera to online platforms, in-home and retail destinations
Visit Eye-Fi
Update:Â Reviews of Eye-Fi wireless memory card.
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The Qtopia Phone Edition is fully accessible under the open source GPL verison 2 license and supports the Greenphone reference platform for mobile development.
Up until now, Qtopia has been ported onto 90 different devices, including 25 phones. There are over 9 million Qtopia-based handsets in the market that also includes mobile devices from Motorola, ZTE and Cellon.
Source: TechGadgets photo via FlickrContinue Reading
Toshiba, like SanDisk, found a grand jury subpoena in their mail late last week. The allegations are related to flash memory NAND price fixing.
The probe comes from the highest level and considering the purchase of M-Systems by SanDisk along with the other big hitter of flash memory makers is Samsung, it’s very possible flash memory price fixing could have taken place.
Toshiba claims no wrong doing, but the filing implicates 23 other companies, who most likely source their NAND flash memory from SanDisk or Samsung, in the allegations.
At this time, the officials from Samsung were not available for comment.
Source: Ziff Davis NewsContinue Reading
Gizmodo did a fun little pictorial about relative size of a SDHC card last week. This is what the new Toshiba 32GBSDHC card looks like when compared to the more common 1GB SDHC card. Good thing technology doesn’t work this way. I’d have one hell of a big cell phone just to accommodate more memory – then again, I don’t think I’ll need 32GB of data on my phone anytime soon.
Several days ago two leaders in memory manufacturing announced a partnership in development of solid state memory hard drives. PQI (Power Quotient Int’l) and TDK will be holding hands all the way to the bank.
The new company will
focus on storage solutions for industrial and commercial use PCs/Systems. Its initial capital is for PQI 40% and TDK 60%.
The specific terms of the agreement are confidential. As long-term partners, TDK and PQI have always provided excellent and quality industrial solutions to customers around the globe.
To further strengthen this relationship, TDK seeks to comprehend their patented technologies as their competitive advantages. PQI, on the other hand, will utilize their industrial storage research & development with their channel and sales capabilities to expand SSD from industrial to commercial use.
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Strip away the USB connector, slap on some plastic with IDE pins and create yourself an 8GB IDE flash drive.
This configuration makes for some additional storage for embedded systems, medical instruments and crazy mods. Having the memory module connect via IDE is not new, but Transcend is now offering the largest size at 8GBs. Sizes trail off to 32MB. I can’t find 32MB USB flash drives so not clear on why such a small IDE flash module. Don’t the manufacturers use the same size silicon and limit the size via hard-coated code anyway.
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With the recent announcement from The CompactFlash Association (CFA) to develop an SATA interface for CF memory is another positive sign that solid state memory for laptops and computers will become the normal.
Despite the fact of Mr. Shigeto, chairman of the CFA board, indicates this move is to further solidify CompactFlash memory as the primary memory storage for non-consumer, embedded and single board products, I think the writing is on the wall for gaining a larger market share of the PC market.
So what is the advantage of SATA interface? Speed. Currently the PATA specification is about 133MB/second and having SATA interface will greatly increase that speed(althogh no target speed was given – just “faster”).
With CompactFlash card slots are in over 360 digital cameras, over 165 handheld/palm-size PCs and over 705 other electronic platforms including embedded systems, single board computers, data recorders, heart monitors, defibrillators, etc. the faster transfer speed will ensure performance to the user with out a bottle-neck of memory.
Press Release:SATA Interface to Compact FlashContinue Reading
Update: More info here
The other day (literally) a fellow blogger and I where talking about why cell phones are so damn proprietary and if someone could develop a phone with the same open-source mindset as say WordPress (this blogging platform) than our world would be much better off. Well apparently I’ve been living under a rock.
From OpenMoko comes the Neo 1973 open-source cell phone based off the Linux kernel.
We selected chips that have complete documentation publicly available, such as the ARM-based Samsung S3C2410 SOC. We added a debug port with complete access to JTAG and a serial console. This phone is designed for open-source development.
With a sporty 640×480 LCD that holds a beautiful 283 dpi the visual from the Neo 1973 should be amazing.
Unlike the first version of the iPhone the Neo 1973 will have 128MB RAM with 64MB NAND flash and an expandable microSD slot (bonus 512MB card ships with the phone).
So hackers, gadget hounds and side project guru’s I think this is worth a closer look. At just $300 – what a deal.
This first run of release units is more geared towards developers so don’t expect any retail phones to hit BestBuy just yet.
OpenMoko Neo 1973 home page
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