Eye-Fi's Wi-Fi answers 'Where was I?'

When we reviewed Eye-Fi's Wi-Fi card for digital cameras back in November, it was but a lonely single child in the company's product portfolio. Today, Eye-Fi announced the birth of siblings, creating a tiered product line of SD add-in cards that deliver Wi-Fi connectivity--and now more--to digital cameras.

The kid bound to get the most attention is the Eye-Fi Explore, a US$129 card with two notable features. First, the company has teamed up with Skyhook Wireless to provide geotagging for your photos; Skyhook's Wi-Fi positioning system essentially triangulates your location via queries to local wireless access points. Second, when you purchase the Explore card, you get a free year of Wayport hotspot access--just for your photo uploads, of course. (I won't be able to resist sticking the card in my laptop to see what happens, though.) While an interesting, novel approach to geotagging that I look forward to trying, it's clearly a solution for those who stick to urban areas. But given Skyhook's claimed accuracy of 20m you could probably reconstruct a night of drinking that ended badly even if you can't quite make out the photos.

With Eye-Fi Share, the company simply rebrands the existing product at the current price of US$99. Both Share and Explore allow you to upload your photos to most of the popular photo-sharing services and Facebook.
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Jade camera case for mummy

Asian mums like jade, or at least I think my mom does. She owns a digital camera but the case looks crappy.

While shopping in Hong Kong, I chanced upon this unique camera case that looks like it's made of jade. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that it was made of acrylic instead and a jade-like finish was applied to give it a more authentic feel. A green strap is attached to both sides of the case to let users sling this over their shoulder.

Last year, Canon Hong Kong organized a project where it got six designers to come up with cases that exude the spirit of the Canon IXUS lineup. Douglas Young was one of them and the mastermind behind the jade IXUS case.

For Young, Chinese have a habit of carrying jade, and it is pretty much as indispensable as watches or gadgets are to metropolitans. Thus, he conceptualized the jade case by blending a touch of east (jade) and a dash of west (gadgets).

Sadly for those who are interested, the case is no longer available online. However if you happen to be in Hong Kong, drop by G.O.D. at Causeway Bay where I spotted it for US$49. It's a small price to pay to please mummy dearest.

A picture perfect gift this Mother's Day

I'll be the first to admit. As much as I'm a geek with electronic gadgets, buying my mother tech stuff hasn't always been the most brilliant of my ideas in the past. The last time I got her a digital camera, it took me a month convincing her to get started on it. That didn't even begin to include the numerous hours clocked teaching her how to operate the camera. So if you really must get your Luddite mum something tech, try simple. Like a digital photo frame. Most frames are easy to operate and require almost no intervention from the user. Best of all, it's a great way to display all those Kodak family moments and unforgettable vacation shots.

But don't just settle for any old digital photo frames. I like Viewsonic's new 7-inch DPX704WH digital photo frame (S$239 (US$175.74)) as it supports image, music and video playback, comes with a flash memory card slot, a remote control as well as clock/alarm/calendar functions. But the bonus to it is that for a brief month during this Mother's Day, Singapore customers get a free Swarovski Crystal Wrap to add some feminine sparkle to the frame. And who knows? Mum may just give that camera a second chance, just so to show off those snaps on the digital photo frame.

Help mom digitize her old memories

For the woman who gave you life this Mother's Day, help her keep all her old memories with the Photograph to Digital Picture Converter from Hammacher Schlemmer. Looking a little like a small paper shredder, this device lets you feed in photographs which will then be converted into a format you can edit on a Windows PC.

We know what you are thinking--a sub-S$100 scanner can do exactly the same thing. But honestly, we don't think anyone will relish trying to teach their mom how to use a flatbed scanner and Photoshop Elements for resize and touch-ups. This solution is much simpler, even though it costs more at about US$150.

There's one caveat. We suggest you go hide or destroy those old Polaroids of yourself as a little child with your pee-pee exposed. Once your mom gets her hand on this product, you can be sure your most embarrassing moments will suddenly be available on the Internet for all to see.

Via Popgadget

Rover the photographer

Your dog Rover behaves so obediently that when you are in the house you refuse to believe your pet scratched the antique armchair or knocked over Dad's Ming dynasty vase. To prove Rover's innocence, you get the Pet's Eye View Camera and tag it to its collar.

You set the timer to snap a shot every 5 minutes, even though there is also 1- and 15- minute options available. Rover wags its tail as you leave for work. When you get back, you upload the maximum 35 pictures stored in the internal memory to your computer.

At 640 x 480 resolution, you can't make out much of the image but you know Rover drank from the toilet bowl (thank goodness the camera is water-resistant) and likes to jump from the couch (you got seven shots of that). Wait, what is this picture of a paw on the armchair?

With evidence in hand, your dad convicts Rover to 3 gruelling hours of exercise on the threadmill. As for you, your bank account is lesser by US$47.95. Thank Rover for that.

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