Get a 4GB Eye-Fi SD card for $99

(Credit: Eye-Fi)

Just got some interesting news from the makers of Eye-Fi, the Wi-Fi-enabled SD card that wirelessly beams photos from your camera to your PC (and/or an online service like Facebook or Snapfish): There's a new 4GB Anniversary Edition of the card, and you can get one for just $99. The catch? You'll have to walk into your local Costco.

Yeah, I know, that kinda bites. And $99 is still about $90 more than the price of a regular 4GB SD card. On the other hand, it's $30 less than the Web price ($129.99 at Eye-Fi's online store), and it saves you the hassle of connecting your camera to your PC or pulling out the memory card every time you want to upload photos.

I'm the first one to admit the Eye-Fi's not perfect, but you gotta admit it's cool. Mrs. Cheapskate (who's beautiful but not particularly tech-savvy) absolutely loves it. And at a recent gadget seminar I conducted at a local library, everyone went ape over the Eye-Fi.

Basically, you're paying a premium for convenience, much like you do when you buy a fancy universal remote for your home theater. Is it worth it? You'll have to tell me. At the very least, I'm glad to see they've finally bumped up the storage capacity (2GB just isn't enough in these days of 10-megapixel cameras). Oh, the Anniversary Edition offers "faster memory speeds," too, but the company doesn't provide any specifics on that.

[loose_screw]

A true cheapskate would forgo the $80 premium and use a cheap cable or card reader to get the pictures off their memory card! :-P

[Pishkado]

Sounds to me like a solution to a problem nobody has. Is it really that hard to connect a camera to a USB port?

[rickbroida]

Like I said, it's a convenience. And the bottom line is that for $99 you can get a 4GB version of a card that was previously 2GB.

[Zarland]

Interesting idea, but it's probably cheaper and alot easier just to get a bigger card-once the card is full, transfer by either using a card reader or cable.

To use the card, you have to be within the range of a computer. LIke many have said, it's a cool idea, but a little real use.

[gjl229]

The real time is taken by making sure you get the right images into the right folder, then scrubbing that group for the obvious misfires. I'll leave editing, fixing, printing, ect. out of the equation for now.

I swear I spend more time getting the photos into the right place and eliminating the really bad stuff than I spend doing anything else. The time spent moving a card from the camera to the reader and back is negligable. I don't see paying $100 for negligable. Perhaps we should substitute "prodigal" for "cheap". But then, if you're a gadget addict ......