Eye-Fi makes Mobi wireless memory cards for digital cameras. While until now, you could transfer files from Mobi cards to mobile devices wirelessly, Eye-Fi has now announced windows desktop support for such wireless transfers.
Conventionally, if you don’t have built-in Wi-Fi in your camera, you need to take out the memory card, insert it into a card reader in your PC and then transfer files. This doesn’t take long but for many professional photographers, this may sound tedious.
Mobi wireless cards are an alternative that come with a Wi-Fi chip that lets you wirelessly transfer data. Until now, these cards allowed transfers to Android, iOS or Kindle devices by creating an ad-hoc network. Once the card is connected to the mobile device, the corresponding Eye-Fi app on the mobile device automatically pulls all photos and videos from the card.
Eye-Fi even had a desktop software which allowed transfering files from the Mobi cards to a desktop machine wirelessly. However, that required a Wi-Fi network. The new Mobi desktop receiver now allows direct transfer of files between camera and computer without requiring a network. The receiver is still a beta and is available for free, for now.
The entire operation, though convenient, is still bit costly compared to regular memory cards. Mobi cards cost between $50 and $80, so you shell out a substantial sum as the cost of all this wireless connectivity. When using the windows desktop receiver, you will be required to uninstall any previous versions of Eye-Fi’s desktop software. Moreover, you will need to disconnect your PC from all other wireless connected devices, which includes terminating Wi-Fi connectivity itself. The new receiver is certainly a convenience but with Eye-Fi aiming at concluding the beta with a paid version, it may be too costly to be worth it.
Courtesy: Digital Trends
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