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Though still pricey, the 4GB Eye-Fi card is now a much better deal.

(Credit: Eye-Fi)

I really dig Eye-Fi memory cards, which wirelessly beam photos from your digital camera to your PC (and/or an online sharing service). But I always thought they were overpriced.

They still are, but at least you can score a deal on one: Costco has the Eye-Fi 4GB Anniversary Edition for $59.99 shipped. Nonmembers pay an extra $3, and nearly everyone pays sales tax.

In case you're not familiar with it, the Eye-Fi is a standard-size SDHC memory card (meaning it's compatible with most cameras) that happens to have built-in Wi-Fi.

When it's in range of your home network and your camera is on, the Eye-Fi automatically transfers photos to your PC. Alternately, it can upload photos directly to the online service of your choice: Facebook, Flickr, Snapfish, Photobucket, etc.

Ultimately, it's a convenience. A pricey one, yes, especially considering that you can get an ordinary 4GB SDHC card for about 8 bucks. On the other hand, the last time I posted this product, it was $99.

So now that it's $40 less, will you jump on it? Or are you satisfied with your perfectly cromulent SD card reader and/or USB cable?

Going to a retail store for consumer electronics purchases can be both exciting and frustrating. After working at Best Buy for two years, I have a few opinions to share that you might want to consider before your next shopping trip.

1. We have no formal training in the field of consumer electronics.
Upon transferring to the computer department from home theater, I expressed concern to the manager: "Will there be time for someone to train me on laptops/desktops? What do these specifications mean?" His reply was simple: "Just do your best. A good salesperson can just read the labels and compare specs." Ouch.

Salespeople are not necessarily experts in the products sold in their departments, even if they are expert salespeople. Though many express a strong interest in the products they sell, your time spent at a retail store fishing for information about a future TV purchase could be better spent online researching the products yourself (I heard CNET has pretty great reviews).

"You need those HDMI cables, you know you do."

(Credit: Amazon)

2. We make little off the big-ticket items, so we smother you with accessories.
Remember the story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? Well, if you tell a salesman you're going to buy a TV, he's going to want to sell you a DVD player to go with it. Once he sells you the DVD player, he's going to want to get you to buy an HDMI cable, too.

Managers at Best Buy (and possibly all retailers) tell employees that the store profits surprisingly little from video game consoles and computers. Cables, accessories, mice, and other components, however, have a huge profit margin-- stores can make about $120 from a $150 Monster HDMI cable. Angry yet? The point is, we're going to work really hard to convince you to purchase that big item, but once you've said "OK" you've opened Pandora's Box.

Here's my advice: Grab the big item, and run. Purchase all accessories online, including memory cards, cables, traveling cases, and so on. Amazon, Monoprice, and Newegg are all reputable discount Web sites. You'll find what you need at a much lower price.

4GB of storage for 7 bucks?! At that price, buy two!

(Credit: Kingston)

Not every day offers $99 iPhones and $25 TV tuners. Sometimes, the deals are small and unexciting, the items utilitarian.

So it is today: Newegg has a 4GB Kingston SDHC memory card for $6.99. No rebates, no shipping charges.

That's the lowest price I've seen yet on a 4GB card (though only by $1). If you found a new digital camera under the tree last month, you definitely need high-capacity storage to go with it. A 4GB card can store about 800 10-megapixel snapshots or 60 minutes of video.

And, hey, there's nothing wrong with packing a spare card, in case you spot, say, Bigfoot. Or Paris Hilton. Or Bigfoot at a club with Paris Hilton. Could happen.

This isn't some no-name brand, either. All Kingston memory cards come with a lifetime warranty. Thus, this is pretty much a no-brainer for anyone who needs extra storage. A 4GB SDHC card for 7 bucks may be boring, but it's still a helluva deal.

Falling somewhere between the Discman and most standard MP3 players is SanDisk's $20 Sansa slotMusic Player, an extremely basic device that works much like the original Walkman. The music media is strictly removable, songs play in album order, the battery is alkaline, and no computer is required to use it--but the player is much smaller and music playback requires no moving parts.

Read the SanDisk Sansa slotMusic Player review.

(Credit: Newegg)

Need more storage for your digital camera? If you buy a memory card off the shelf at, say, Best Buy or Office Max, you'll pay way too much. Witness: Newegg has a Kingston 4GB SDHC card for just $7.99 shipped (lowest price I've seen yet, btw). And no rebates! Best Buy sells the exact same card for $37.99, plus sales tax.

Kingston is a well-known brand, and the card comes with a lifetime warranty. Just make sure your camera, PDA, MP3 player or whatever supports SDHC media (some older devices don't).

So... good weekend? My six-year-old played in his first peewee-football game, which was fun to watch. Oh, why the small talk? What more can I say about a memory card that's 30 bucks cheaper than you'd pay at retail?

Update: It appears the $7.99 price is good only when you combine the card with another purchase. My apologies! Looks like if you want the card on its own, it'll cost you another buck. Still not too shabby.

(Credit: Eye-Fi)

By now you've probably heard of Eye-Fi, the Wi-Fi-enabled SD memory card that wirelessly beams photos from your camera to your PC. When it first came out last year, I thought it was overpriced at $99--but now you can scoop up an Eye-Fi Home card for just $59 shipped.

(Note: The above link takes you to CNET's product page for the Eye-Fi Home. On the right-hand side, you'll see that several vendors are offering the card for $59. To get free shipping, choose either BuyDig or Beach Camera.)

I've been testing an Eye-Fi for the last couple weeks, and it's pretty cool. The only downside is having to leave your camera on while the photos get transferred, but it definitely beats having to fish out a USB transfer cable or pop the memory card out of the camera and into a reader.

If you want a little more versatility, BuyDig has the Eye-Fi Share for $79. In addition to beaming pix to your PC, it can automatically upload them to any number of online photo services (Facebook, Flickr, Snapfish, etc.). But wait: Starting Oct. 5, owners of the Home card can get the same Web-sharing feature for an annual fee of $9.99. (Eye-Fi also plans to roll out a free firmware update that will improve transfer speeds.)

My advice: Buy the Home card now, spend the extra 10 bucks if you decide you want Web sharing, then reevaluate after a year. You'll still come out ahead.

(Credit: Epson)

We're excited about Epson's newest multifunction printer, the Stylus NX400. The all-in-one printer, copier, and scanner is outfitted in a glossy black finish and uses Epson's DURABrite Ultra ink to produce photos that can reportedly last up to six times longer than the average printer using plain paper.

Under the hood, you'll find Epson's MicroPiezo DX3 print nozzle head that uses variable ink droplet sizes from 4 picoliters and up, which translates to finer detail in the quality of your photos. The printer also has a 2.5 inch tilt LCD screen, memory card slots, and a PictBridge port for direct camera connectivity. Priced at $100 square, we're anxious to see how it stacks up to other entry level multifunction printers. We're going to give it a full review, including speed and quality tests, in the near future.

(Credit: PQI)

Cell phones and smartphones increasingly rely on microSD media for added storage. A 2GB card would let you carry a few ripped movies, about 500 MP3s, loads of photos, countless documents, and so on. SuperMediaStore.com has a PQI 2GB microSD card on sale for just $8.99. No rebates, free shipping, beat that.

The card comes with a fairly important extra: an SD adapter so you can use it with the vast majority of media-card readers (few of which have microSD slots). It even comes in a retail package, so it qualifies for PQI's lifetime warranty. Pretty sweet deal if you want some cheap storage for your phone. If I didn't already have a 2GB card in my Palm Centro, you can bet I'd be snapping one up in a (sorry) flash.

(Credit: eCost)

I know memory cards are boring, but it just blows me away to see 8GB SD media selling for $29 when a few years ago you'd have paid hundreds for a card with half the capacity.

This is a Transcend Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) card, meaning it should be compatible with all devices (smartphones, digital cameras, etc.) that meet the SD 2.0 standard. It includes a lifetime warranty, and best of all: no rebate. Alas, you'll pay about $9 for ground shipping, which is ridiculous given the size and weight of the product. But even at $38, this is still a pretty sweet deal.