Eye-Fi (2007 – 2017) | Museum of Obsolete Media (original) (raw)

The Eye-Fi card was a Secure Digital (SD) card with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, and was introduced by Eye-Fi in 2007. The later Toshiba FlashAir card is a similar format.

The cards were designed for digital cameras without built-in Wi-Fi but with a Secure Digital card slot, to make it easier to transfer photos from them without connecting cables or removing the SD card. Some cameras came with the built-in ability to control Eye-Fi functions.

Users would put the card in their camera, install desktop software or a mobile app, and then connect to the Wi-Fi signal from the card (on some versions it was also possible to connect indirectly via a Wi-Fi router). Any new photos taken by the camera containing the Eye-Fi card could be then be automatically transferred. It was also possible to automatically share photos to photo sharing or social network sites.

The earliest cards were sold in 2007 under names such as Eye-Fi Home, Eye-Fi Share and Eye-Fi Explore, with different features such as the Explore’s geotagging support. These were superseded in 2010 by the X2 line, again with a number of variations such as the Connect X2, Pro X2, Explore X2 and so on. The X2 line was based on Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) and offered capacities of up to 16 GB.

In 2013, Eye-Fi released a new version of the card, branded as Eyefi Mobi, followed in 2015 by the Eyefi Mobi Pro, with the Mobi Pro offering capacities of up to 32 GB.

In 2016, Eye-Fi announced it would stop supporting X2 and earlier cards.

Also in 2016, the Eye-Fi Cloud service was sold to Ricoh and rebranded as Keenai but was closed in 2018. The Eyefi Mobi Pro was sold until 2017.

Figures

Dimensions: 32 mm × 24 mm × 2.1 mm

Capacity: 2 GB to 32 GB

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