Eye-Fi Pro 4GB SDHC Wireless SD Memory Card Review Page 2

Initial Eye-Fi Pro 4GB Setup
Step 1 - Selecting Wireless Network
The first step after creating your account is selecting which wireless network you want the Eye-Fi Pro to default to when attempting to upload photos, this will usually be your home wireless network. The web page automatically scans for the closest WiFi networks in your area and allows you to choose one from the list that it provides.



Now, here is one of the brand new feature of the new Eye-Fi Pro SDHC 4GB card, and that's the ability to connect to an ad-hoc network or directly to a computer without a wireless network such as a router or access point. To do this, you will need to first setup your wireless card on your computer and then select "Other Network.." to get started. This is great if you are on the road traveling or stuck in a hotel with no wireless access and still want to use the wireless capabilities of the Eye-Fi Pro SDHC card.



If you already have a wireless network, you are good to go. If your network uses encryption (please tell me it does) then you will be prompted by the Eye-Fi Manager to enter the password or key for that network like show in the image below.



Step 2 - Enable Hotspots and Geotagging
After configuring which wireless network you want your card to default to, you are prompted with a few other wireless options. One is the ability to turn on the "Connect to Wayport Hotspots and Open Networks" feature. This feature allows for your card to automatically connect to over 10,000 retail locations that offer Wayport hotspots as well as any other free open network that doesn't require a password or key to use. This can be really handy if you are always on the go. You might be taking some photos in the park one morning and you don't have the ability to upload your photos right away. Then at lunch time, you might go into town to grab something to eat and while you are there, you're photos will automatically begin uploading to your computer or Internet photo sharing site.



The other feature that will be presented to you is the ability to enable "Geotagging". Geotagging is a feature that automatically adds location data to every picture that you take. It can include the GPS position (latitude and longitude coordinates) as well as the city and state details. All of the information is stored in the metadata of your photo making it easy to search for your photos by where you took them.



Step 3 - Setup Web Sharing
This feature will most certainly appeal to consumers, and it's the ability for the Eye-Fi card to automatically share your photos and videos online, without ever having to upload them to your computer first. Now days, we put everything in the cloud - it's one of the safest places to store information as its backed up (usually) and in the event of a computer crash, all of your data is still safe in the cloud. Keeping your photos safe isn't the only great thing about this service, there is also the time saving aspect. Instead of uploading your photos to your computer, then uploading the photos from your computer to the Internet and sorting them in an online photo album, Eye-Fi card can do this for you without even having the photos touch your computer.



There are dozens of compatible photo sharing services that the Eye-Fi card supports. Some of the most popular ones include; Facebook, Flickr, Kodak Gallery, MobileMe, Photobucket, Picasa, Shutterfly, snapfish and more.



For the video sharing side of the house, the software supports; flickr, photobucket, Picasa, SmugMug, and of course YouTube. Think about it, you can be shooting a video and within a few seconds it can be posted on YouTube, without even messing with a computer!



Step 4 - Upload Your First Photo
The fourth and final step for configuring your new Eye-Fi Pro wireless memory card is; disconnecting the memory stick from your computer, installing the memory stick into your camera, and snapping your first picture! A few seconds after your picture is first snapped, you will see an image preview of the photo (this option can be changed) at the system tray of your computer. The balloon popup of the photo shows the upload status and then your first photo will be shown in the web browser like the image below, indicating that your first photo upload was successful!




--- Article Pages ---1 Introduction & Packaging2 Initial Eye-Fi Pro Setup3 Configuration & Usage4 Eye-Fi On iPhone5 Benchmarking & Final Thoughts

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