Buy Microsoft Office Home & StudentEye-Fi, the maker of camera storage cards that can also beam photos directly to a computer or Web site via Wi-Fi, on Wednesday celebrated its first anniversary with a new special-edition product.
(Credit:
Eye-Fi)
It's called the Eye-Fi Anniversary Edition, and it offers 4GB of storage space for $129.
Like other cards, the new card wirelessly sends photos from a digital camera to a computer and to one of more than 25 online photo-sharing sites. However, it doesn't come with one year of hot-spot service, as found in the existing 2GB Eye-Fi Explore card.
Eye-Fi's product line includes the Eye-Fi Home, Share, Anniversary Edition, and Explore cards, with prices ranging from $79 to $129.
The Eye-Fi Anniversary Edition is supposedly limited, so if you're a big fan, you probably need to move quickly.
(Credit:
Swann)
I don't remember any scene where James Bond has to secretly record anything, but if you do, the MovieStick camcorder that Swann announced on Thursday would come in handy.
Slightly larger than a pack of gum and weighing less than 7 ounces, the MovieStick easily fits into your pocket and can be taken anywhere. It uses a removable microSD card (not included) to store recorded footage, up to 2.5 hours of video on a 2GB card. The device supports only older microSD cards (cap at 2GB). It can't handle high-capacity microSDs like those ScanDisk recently announced.
The MovieStick's picture quality is about the same as that recorded by a cell phone. It uses 3GP video format and its CMOS image censor can offer an image resolution at only 176x144 pixels, for both videos and still photos.
The device uses a built-in lithium battery, which is rechargeable via a USB port. The battery provides enough power for the device to operate up to 2.5 hours.
While the MovieStick is no technological wonder, it will make a cool toy that allows you to quickly, and perhaps secretly, capture footage while traveling or hanging out with friends. Just make sure you use it responsibly.
The MovieStick is estimated to cost $120 and is available later this month.
Pretec announced on Tuesday its latest CompactFlash cards, which are substantially faster and higher capacity than other available CF cards.
The new cards come in two speeds: 233x (35MB per second) and 333x (50MBps), which is for now, as far as we know, the fastest for CF cards. The 233x model comes in 64GB and 100GB capacities while the 333x model comes in 32GB and 50GB capacities.
These cards can be used with digital cameras or mobile devices or reconfigured to work as solid-state hard drives. As I blogged recently, this is also good news for those who want to make their own SSDs.
There's a catch, though, and it's huge: the price. Pretec 233x 64GB and 333x 32GB CF cards are available this month with the hefty price tags of $399 and $630, respectively. The 233x 100GB and 333x 50GB, on the other hand, will be available by the end of the year. It's unclear for now how much they will cost but you probably don't want to know.
Lexar Media, a maker of digital storage cards, announced on Monday its 16GB version of the Kodak-branded Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) high-speed card.
The new card offers speeds up to 60x, which translate into about 9MB per second, allowing for capturing full-motion video without interruption. However, this speed is still not fast enough for dSLR cameras, whose photos can easily be as large as 9MB each, especially when you want to snap multiple photos at a time.
The new SD card works not only with Kodak cameras, but also any SDHC-compatible digital cameras, camcorders, and PDAs. It comes with a lifetime warranty and will be available in October, at which point you will also find 8GB and 4GB versions. At the moment it's unclear how much the new cards will cost.
(Credit:
Swann Communications)
From the folks who brought you the creepy and simultaneously cool (depending on who's using it) DVR flashlight, comes another 007-inspired piece of high-tech security gear. On Wednesday, Swann Communications introduced the IP-3G ConnectCam 1000.
The ConnectCam is a 802.11G wireless network camera that lets users view their own surveillance video on their 3G phone (setup of the camera's options requires a PC) from anywhere in the world, according to Swann. I really need to get my superiors to send me to New Zealand to test out this whole "anywhere in the world" thing.
The camera also features the following:
- 4x digital zoom
- Six infrared LEDs for night vision
- Omni-directional microphone
- MPEG4 and MJPEG compression formats supported
The camera can be configured to take a snapshot whenever it detects motion, and you can then have that pic e-mailed to an address of your choosing. The two-way unidirectional microphone allows remote communication between whoever is in earshot of the camera and the person monitoring it, whether from their 3G phone or PC.
(Credit:
Swann)
This has some interesting potential applications.
If someone was to break in to your house or business while you're half a world away in Barcelona, for example, you could actually get on the speaker and pretend you're god and tell them you can see everything they're doing and that they will be punished for this. Or tell them that you have friends in high places and that you've just sent every cop in the city to your house.
I would almost wish for something like this to happen, just to potentially drive some would-be criminals insane.
The IP-3G ConnectCam 1000 is "coming soon" to Swann's retail and online resellers for $299.99.
The Photo Safe II can store thousands of high-resolution digital images.
(Credit: Digital Foci)Do you think the 4GB SD card for your digital camera is large? Well, it is, especially compared with a few years ago when it was a big deal to have a 512MB card. How would you like 160GB of storage space for a camera? Now that's really large.
Today, Digital Foci introduced Photo Safe II, a portable photo storage device that can spare your laptop from a photo-shooting trip.
The device is essentially a battery-operated external hard drive that has a built-in card reader with an automated copy function. The Photo Safe II's card reader can handle all popular card formats, including CompactFlash (Extreme III, IV, UDMA), MMC, SD/HC Card, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, and xD-Picture cards. You just need to stick a card into the proper slot and press the copy button, the entire contents of the card will be copied to the Photo Safe II's internal storage at speed a fairly good speed, it takes about 3.5 minutes to copy 1GB (so about 11 minutes for your 4GB card).
The Photo Safe II automatically organizes the contents of each card by creating sequential numbered folder names. It connects to a computer via USB 2.0 and, when plugged in, charges its replaceable lithium ion battery. It also acts as an external memory card reader for the computer.
The Photo Safe II is compatible with both Macs and PCs and comes in two versions, 80GB and 160GB that cost $139 and $189, respectively. The device ships with a rechargeable lithium ion battery, dual-plug USB cable, AC power adapter, and a one-year warranty.
The FlashlightDVR awaiting upload to The Matrix
(Credit: Swann)Well, maybe not quite 007. I mean, for one thing, could you imagine James Bond walking around with a huge flashlight sticking out of his back pocket? Well, maybe the Timothy Dalton 007, but he was never that cool to begin with. Dalton did redeem himself in my eyes with Hot Fuzz, however.
Anyway, before this becomes a huge diatribe about how Daniel Craig is second only to Sean Connery as the best Bond, let's get back to the issue at hand. Swann Communications, a company that specializes in security monitoring devices, today announced a covert surveillance tool, the FlashlightDVR. The tool combines a working flashlight (with three degrees of brightness), color camera and Digital Video Recorder (DVR) all in one. In addition to being able to take pics, the FlashlightDVR also records video in one of two ways. Either internally, via the included 128MB flash memory, or externally through an SD card which is sold separately. The DVR in the device uses MPEG4 and records at a resolution of 640x480. The recorded content can be transferred to a PC via the embedded USB port. The camera also includes a night-vision mode, which is appropriate if you're a Cheaters staff member waiting to record a late-night hookup. There is also a built-in mic if you need just that much more incriminating evidence.
LCD schematics
(Credit: Swann)At the top of the flashlight are all the controls a poor man's James Bond would need. This includes an LCD screen that gives info on everything from the SD card storage capacity to the battery charging status and several one-touch control buttons for recording, turning on the flashlight and taking snapshots. The flashlight can be powered by either three C-size batteries or rechargeable Ni-MH batteries. Conveniently the flashlight includes a Ni-MH charger with a 12V input.
This is undeniably cool as potentially creepy as it is
(Credit: Swann)According to Swann, the device is being aimed at police, security guards and PI's, however I feel they're missing their biggest potential market--uber-creepy creeps--as long as they can afford the $500 price tag. Still as potentially creepy as this device is, the idea is undeniably cool and should fit nicely on my belt.
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Eric Franklin's colleagues once had the following to say to him: "Eric, you've been doing this performance testing thing for over 10 years now. How about you try something different?" To which Eric responded, "How about you shut the #%$@! up?" This candid attitude
allows him to go toe-to-toe with the most extreme of personalities, including that of Dong Ngo. This bio was written by Eric Franklin.
Dong Ngo is a knowledgeable, opinionated individual who wants to convince the world that he's just a normal person; but he hasn't had much success. According to him, this is because the world itself is abnormal. Dong loves traveling and is well-versed in several languages. He, unfortunately, is not so well-versed in English. Still, it's best to ask him questions. From networking and how to optimize your system, to turning a strange place into home or what the meaning of life is…most of the time, he has the answers. The question is: Will he make himself understood? Subscribe and find out!
