The Eye-Fi Mobile x2 card at $79 is fun.

 

It sends your photos and videos to an iPad or iPhone.  This card does Direct Mode transfers with no cables.

 

Connect the card to your Mac/PC, install the software, click the setup file and follow the steps.  You even get cued to transfer your first photo, wirelessly.

 

After setup, just slide the Eye-Fi card into the Secure Digital (SD) memory card slot in your camera.  No wi-fi hotspot needed.  What is the secret for photography?  Just set your camera and iPad to be turned on all the time.

 

Is this enough reason to buy an iPad or other iOS device if you are a photographer who does not have one of them?  Yes, I think so.  But if you choose not to, you can still directly transfer images to your Win XP/7/Vista or Mac OS X10.4 system.

 

When you transfer your photos and videos with Direct Mode, they are saved in the device’s  built-in camera roll.  The images will show up in the Eye-Fi app where they can be previewed or uploaded to your Mac/Win notebook or your online sharing service like Flickr, Facebook, Costco.com, Evernote, Kodak Gallery, MobileMe, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Smugmug or WalMart.  On the Mac, Eyefi automatically organizes your photos and videos by date or drops them into iPhoto.  Want to send some shots to Facebook and others to Picasa?  No problem.

 

Would you like to record where you took the picture?  You can get a Pro X2 card with geo-tagging, but you'll need to download the Eye-Fi direct mode app through the iTunes store to go mobile.

 

Imagine wedding guests passing around an iPad wedding show with music during the reception.  Visualize children seeing the first photograph they ever took appear on an iPad, in a remote area without internet access.