Miniaturization has brought us amazing advances, tiny transistors, microscopic nanotubes, bite-size Frosted Mini Wheats, and now the Eye-Fi. Combining a 2GB flash card with a Wi-Fi radio, this affordable hybrid card lets you easily upload pictures directly from your camera to the web and your PC.

Setup is easy. You plug it into your PC and run the included software, pick from a list of photo-sharing sites, which including SmugMug, Flickr, and Facebook, to create an Eye-Fi account, and configure security setting like 40-128 bit WEP, WPA-PSK, or WPA2-PSK.

Like magic, images popped up on our SmugMug page and the client PC. Of course, Wi-Fi capability in a digital camera isn’t new, but it’s never been this cheap, this tiny, or this universal. Because the Eye-Fi is a standardsize SD card, it should work in almost any camera.

What is the downside? Speed.
It took roughly 6 minutes to transfer a 5MB image over our corporate LAN, which has 14Mb uploads and 30Mb downloads. Bang out 35 photos, and you’ll have to leave the camera on for the evening to upload your pictures. Fortunately, the images are also stored on the card, so if you shut down, you can resume your upload later. What is wacky is that images are sent from the card to Eye-Fi’s server, which then disperses them to your website or PC. The impact on battery life is difficult to gauge but is certainly a drag. The card also can’t upload video or RAW files and doesn’t work with access points without security or in peer-to-peer mode.

Despite all these warts, the Eye-Fi is still very cool. You could, for example, use it to post snaps of uour hot New Year’s party to the web as it’s happening. The card’s also handy for tuckered parents who don’t have the energy to upload images of little Timmy to a web page for grandma to see. With the Eye-Fi, you bang out a couple of shots and set your camera down. There are clearly improvements to be made, but for the price, it’s a fun toy to try own.

Click for details: Eye-Fi Card, Wireless 2 GB SD Memory Card

Imagine this: You come home from a day of shooting photos, and while you veg out, your images are automatically transferred from your camera to your favorite photo-sharing site. This is what the $99 Eye-Fi Card does: All you need is a Wi-Fi connection, a camera that accepts SD cards, and a PC or Mac, it’s really that simple.

The 2GB Eye-Fi Card looks like your basic SD card on the outside, but Wi-Fi technology is hidden inside. To get started, you have to install the web based Eye-Fi Manager on your PC and set up an account. First you detect and connect to a nearby wireless network: You can access secure networks if you have the password, but the card can�t connect to public hot spots. Next, you specify where on your hard drive you want to save your images and choose which of nearly 20 online photo sites you’d like to associate with the card. I spent several days shooting images and was able to upload them to a variety of photo sites without a hitch.

There is a downside: The Eye-Fi Card is powered by your camera’s battery and can be a drain during long file transfers. The Eye-Fi is a truly innovative and handy way to streamline the digital photo process and with the right equipment it works flawlessly.

Click for more: Eye-Fi Card, Wireless 2 GB SD Memory Card