Eye-Fi has launched the Eye-Fi Mobi, a new camera SD card designed to let you share photos directly from your camera to your mobile devices. This isn’t entirely new, but Eye-Fi claims the set-up process is simpler than ever, requiring “no computer, no account and no cloud.” The price tag is also niftier than before; just $50 for an 8GB card, or $80 for the 16GB version.
We’ve been fans of Eye-Fi for years at ZNF, but I’ll admit it’s been a while since I’ve used one of their camera cards. The Mobi doesn’t require an Internet connection, but instead directly pairs your camera with a smartphone or tablet. Back in the day, I used my Eye-Fi card to transfer photos automatically to my PC, and then upwards to the cloud as needed. The Mobi doesn’t connect with computers – which is a bit silly – but that may not be a deal-breaker anymore given the proliferation of all things mobile. Users can download the free Eye-Fi iOS or Android app to an unlimited number of devices and share, share away.
For a while I tried to make do with my smartphone for all photo-taking excursions. However, I finally broke down and asked for a real (albeit still inexpensive) camera last Christmas. The quality in most situations is still infinitely better than that of my HTC Thunderbolt. Of course now I just have more digital photos in more places. Perhaps an Eye-Fi Mobi card can help fix the problem.
The problem with the Eye Fi is not the card but some cameras go to sleeps when not being touched and the pictures stop transferring.
I use a couple of the regular Eye Fi cards. I sync them to my computer. They have the option to work with my iPhone, but only COMPLETELY, meaning you have to disable syncing to the computer and instead send all the photos to your iPhone. I don’t want that at all. I want the thing to continue to sync to my computer WHEN I’M HOME but to allow me to easily “Air Drop” from the Eye Fi to my iPhone an occasional picture or block of pictures when I’m on a trip and want to share them. And they don’t have the ability to do that. Last I looked anyway.
For this to work, I think your phone has to be connected to the card (via the cards wifi) ,,, that means no internet access while you are using the card. Not 100% sure but I’ve used similar devices and thats how they worked – just be aware in case you are buying it
I’m with Glen. I hated their all or nothing proposition. In the ideal situation, all photos would continue to be synced to the PC. Then the smartphone app could be used to “browse” all photos on the camera and give me option to copy (or Share in case of android) only the photos I want. This seems so obvious to everyone, except Eye-Fi.
This would be MUCH more useful if the iOS app actually supported Geotagging. I’ve read that the Android version does, but it’s a big no on iOS for now.
The other issue with these cards of course is that they can’t get past your typical Wi-Fi login page. Which is why you have to configure the things on a computer in the first place. In the new world we live in where people don’t necessarily have a computer, or may not have it with them, it would be nice if the iOS/Android app could do more.
Could they figure out a way for the iOS app to link to the card and then guide it on what to do. But of course that would mean the card has to be on two Wi-Fi networks at once. Maybe use Bluetooth for that backdoor?
Dunno. Its a hard problem.