Crave

(Credit: Casio)

Casio's going full force after consumers shopping for digital cameras in the $100-$200 price range. First, the company announces the Exilim EX-Z450 and EX-Z90, $199.99 and $149.99, respectively. And then Monday, it announces the $179.99 EX-Z280 and $119.99 EX-Z33.

The Z280 (pictured right) is a 12-megapixel ultracompact with an f2.6-5.9 26-104mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with a 4x zoom, sensor-shift image stabilization, 2.7-inch LCD, and Casio's newest image processing engine featuring a dual-processor design for lower power consumption and better photo results. It also gives you 720p HD-quality video capture and the latest iteration of Casio's green-screen Dynamic Photo function. A very compelling package for what will probably street at around $170.

With a more entry-level feature set, the Z33 is a 10-megapixel model with a 3x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD. It does the basics I expect to find on a camera at this price--VGA movie mode, face detection, lots of scene modes--but its also very thin at 0.7 of an inch and weighs roughly 4 ounces with SD card and battery. Plus, it has built-in compatibility with Eye-Fi's SD cards for wireless transfer of photos.

The EX-Z280, available this September 2009, will be offered in a silver body color (though Casio has photos of gold and pink versions so maybe those colors, too). The EX-Z33 will also be available in September in black, light pink, vivid pink, silver, and blue.

Casio Exilim EX-Z280 and Z33--photos

For this week's installment of the weekly Crave giveaway, we've got a sexy little digital camera accessory: The Eye-Fi Pro, a 4GB Wi-Fi memory card that's got built-in geotagging capabilities and allows you to upload photos wirelessly to photo-sharing sites like Flickr, Picasa, and Facebook.

Editor Lori Grunin writes that the "Pro" version of the Eye-Fi adds three key features: "Support for raw file transfers, the capability to connect directly to a computer via an ad-hoc wireless connection, and selective file transfer. In addition, the company is surfacing a software feature--relayed uploads--which allows for transfers to your home system via the Internet."

Normally, the Eye-Fi Pro costs about $150, but you have the chance to get one gratis.

So, how do you try to win a free Eye-Fi Pro? Let me enumerate the basic rules. Please read them carefully; there will be a test.

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the "Join CNET" link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, no need to register again.
• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
• Leave only one comment. You may enter this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Eye-Fi Pro. Approximate retail value is $150.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Monday, July 27, at noon EDT.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 PM EDT on July 27, 2009. See official rules for details.

Good luck.

(Credit: Eye-Fi)

Adding a few much-asked-for features to its wireless SD card, Eye-Fi extends its eponymous product line to appeal to more than just point-and-shoot-equipped photographers. The new Eye-Fi Pro builds on the capabilities of last year's Eye-Fi Explore Video--photo geotagging via Skyhook Wireless' Wi-Fi location triangulation and camera-based Web uploads of photos and videos via Wi-Fi networks. To that it adds three key features: support for raw file transfers, the capability to connect directly to a computer via an ad-hoc wireless connection and selective file transfer. In addition, the company is surfacing a software feature--relayed uploads--which allows for transfers to your home system via the Internet. The company plans to trickle this capability down the product line, too.

I've been working with a card and was hoping to get a review posted this morning, but trying to test the ad-hoc network features has been driving me batty, in part because configuration seems to require that your system be connected to the Internet and the ad-hoc network simultaneously--which is impossible--or that you're using two computers. I'm probably just overlooking something obvious. And despite some minor annoyances with how the Eye-Fi ecosystem operates, all the other features have worked quite well across multiple computers and cameras. So I'm going to spend some quality time on the phone with tech support before delivering a verdict later today. I'll update this post when it's live.

The Eye-Fi Pro comes in a 4GB capacity and costs $149.

Eye-Fi, maker of memory cards that can automatically upload photos and video to the Web, announced Tuesday its two new video-uploading SD memory cards called Eye-Fi Share Video and Eye-Fi Explore Video.

(Credit: Eye-Fi)

These two 4GB cards are capable of uploading photos and video clips to more than 20 online photo-sharing and social-networking sites, such as YouTube or Flickr.

The differences between the two: the Eye-Fi Explore Video card can also automatically geotag photos and videos with location information about where the image was captured. It also offers hot-spot access at more than 10,000 Wi-Fi locations for photo and video uploads when you're on the go.

These new cards are available later this month and cost $79 (4GB Eye-Fi Share Video) and $99 (4GB Eye-Fi Explore Video).

The company also said that it's going to release an iPhone application that allows Eye-Fi users to share photos from their iPhone's photo library to one of 25 online photo-sharing Web sites. iPhone users who own an Eye-Fi card will be able to download the application for free from Apple's App Store.

(Credit: Eye-Fi)

Eye-Fi's now ready to unleash its next generation of Wi-Fi SD cards on the point-and-shooting public. The Eye-Fi Share Video and Eye-Fi Explore Video cards, first announced at CES, extend the capabilities of their predecessors to support uploading video directly to YouTube and Flickr via Wi-Fi.

While it'd be great if the cards could upload from the increasing number of Flash-based camcorders, they still only work with cameras; according to the company, that's because they only transmit files found in the DCIM directory. Cameras have a single standard directory structures but camcorders don't.

Eye-Fi has to stash the geotagging information generated by the Explore Video card in a sidecar file as well, since video files don't have a standard for storing it.

The geotagging 4GB Eye-Fi Explore Video card will cost $99 when it ships at the end of this month; the 4GB Eye-Fi Share Video will run $79. The company also dropped the price on its 2GB photo-only cards.

It seems like a natural fit: Evernote, a Web service that turns random pictures of information into a searchable database and Eye-Fi, a company whose SD cards enable you to turn random information into pictures and upload them to the Web. In theory, it's a great idea. Evernote, which requires input ubiquity to be really useful, gains another data stream, and Eye-Fi gains a relatively compelling productivity application.

Eye-Fi Share

Having used both Evernote and an Eye-Fi card, however, I suspect a bit less than that rosy scenario. With Eye-Fi you predetermine the various places you want to send your photos--to your laptop, to a sharing site, and so on--via the Web site. Evernote will be added to this configuration process as a target for photos--all of your photos. There are no controls with the Eye- Fi card to send select photos to a particular location, just a global enabling and disabling of locations via the Web site. That's OK, sort of, when you're uploading to a photo-sharing service or sending them to your computer, but the stuff you'll want to send to Evernote is a more intermittent and selective stream. And you can already send to Evernote selectively from a variety of phones, though in many cases not as transparently. Still, there are some situations where I think the pair could greatly complement each other, such as for house or apartment hunting, documenting accidents, or assets for insurance purposes. What do you think?

Eye-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: Eye-Fi)

Eye-Fi announced Monday that on October 5, users of its Share and Home Wi-Fi-enabled SD cards will be able to subscribe to the services available across all its cards. It's a great idea, right up until you get to the yearly service fees. It's $9.99 a year to add Web sharing to Home cards, and $14.99 a year each for geotagging and hot-spot access.

For those unfamiliar, Eye-Fi's Home card ($79) lets you send images directly from your camera to your computer over a Wi-Fi network. The $99 Share version--recently co-opted by Lexar--wirelessly connects your camera to more than 20 photo-sharing sites (now including AdoramaPix and Apple's MobileMe). Lastly, the Explore card gives you the ability to geotag images, as well as all the features of the other cards, and a year of Wayport wireless access for $129.

So, adding all the features of the Explore card to the Home card costs you an extra $40 a year to an already expensive 2GB card. I can understand the $14.99 for the Wayport subscription, but I'm not down with annual service fees for geotagging and Web sharing.

On the upside, Eye-Fi is promising double the wireless speeds for uploads at no extra cost to users. This will also happen on October 5.

When we reviewed Eye-Fi's Wi-Fi card for digital cameras back in November, it was but a lonely single child in the company's product portfolio. Today, Eye-Fi announced the birth of siblings, creating a tiered product line of SD add-in cards that deliver Wi-Fi connectivity--and now more--to digital cameras.

Eye-Fi Explore

The kid bound to get the most attention is the Eye-Fi Explore, a $129 card with two notable features. First, the company has teamed up with Skyhook Wireless to provide geotagging for your photos; Skyhook's Wi-Fi positioning system essentially triangulates your location via queries to local wireless access points. Second, when you purchase the Explore card, you get a free year of Wayport hotspot access--just for your photo uploads, of course. (I won't be able to resist sticking the card in my laptop to see what happens, though.) While an interesting, novel approach to geotagging that I look forward to trying, it's clearly a solution for those who stick to urban areas. But given Skyhook's claimed accuracy of 20 meters you could probably reconstruct a night of drinking that ended badly even if you can't quite make out the photos.

Eye-Fi Share

With Eye-Fi Share, the company simply rebrands the existing product at the current price of $99. Both Share and Explore allow you to upload your photos to most of the popular photo-sharing services and Facebook.

Eye-Fi Home

At the bottom of the Eye-Fi pecking order, $79 Eye-Fi Home basically replaces a USB cable, simply providing the ability to download photos wirelessly to your PC.

All of the cards, slated for June 6 availability, come in 2GB capacity and deliver what are referred to as "consumer grade" transfer rates. That is, so slow that no one wants to talk about it. Card performance isn't that much of an issue in point and shoots, unless your camera requires the speed for movie capture: just something to be aware of. Unless you're seriously cable-averse, the Home option doesn't seem like a great deal, though: a comparable 2GB card costs about $10 and the cable usually comes free with the camera.