Eye-Fi's memory card with on-board Wi-Fi is now twice as fast for uploading photos and videos to the Web.
The new Eye-Fi "X2" series uses 802.11n Wi-Fi to upload media directly from your camera or camcorder. There's the 4 GB Connect X2, for $50, and the 5 GB Explorer X2 for $100. However, only the larger card has geotagging and can use "Hotspot," a $15 per year program that lets you send photos from 21,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the United States, including Starbucks coffee shops, Barnes & Noble bookstores, hotels and restaurants. There's also a $150 Pro X2, which has 8 GB but allows you to upload RAW images.
The cards support uploads to your choice of 25 Web sites, including Picasa, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube (full list here) and is compatible with cameras from major manufacturers. All the cards have an "Endless Memory" option, which automatically uploads photos to pre-determined Web sites and deletes the photo from your camera when the transfer is complete. You can also pick and choose which photos and videos are uploaded.
It's a cool idea, but it's screaming for support from a mobile broadband carrier. The ability to upload content from hotspots is nice, but how often do you snap photos and record video from inside a Starbucks or Barnes & Noble? The Eye-Fi would be a lot more useful if you didn't have to worry about location at all, as long as there's a good cellular signal. But at least this is a better solution than cameras with built-in Wi-Fi, which keep you locked to just one device.
