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Eye-Fi Mobile X2 SD Card Review

July 5, 2011 Leave a Comment Filed under: Blog, Camera & Video Gear, Gear Reviews, Latest, New Gear

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Three months ago, we purchased an Eye-Fi Mobile X2 SD Card for our digital camera.  We’ve taken the Eye-Fi on three different trips and wanted to share our review.  Overall, we like the card and the idea behind it.  When it works, it works great.  But it could still use improvement.

Setup

Setting up the Eye-Fi card is easy. You plug the card into the card reader (one is supplied) and connect it to your computer.  Once it’s connected, the software you need to install on your computer is included on the card. You can have it setup and working in less than 2 minutes.

The documentation included with the card is very poor. You get a small sheet of paper (at least it appears to be paper, cheap onion-skin may be a better description) with the steps printed in a very light ink.  It’s extremely hard to read even if your vision is 20/20.  Luckily, the Eye-Fi website also has the information you need.  If you’re spending $80 for a memory card, Eye-FI should include some basic instructions that are at least readable.

Initial Test

Once setup was complete, we put the card in the camera.  We used a Canon G12.  Most digital cameras that are fairly new and from major manufacturers support the card.

On our initial test, we couldn’t get the card to connect wirelessly to our computer. We tried over and over, reread the instructions, but no luck.  We called support.  The first time we called (around 9AM MT on a weekday), we were on “eternal hold” for about 10 minutes and gave up.  We called back a few hours later in the early afternoon and our call was answered immediately.

The support person was very pleasant.  We stepped through all of the instructions again, twice, but still no luck.  After a short time on hold, he suggested reformatting the card with the camera.  Once the card was reformatted and we went back through the setup steps again, it worked fine and we haven’t had a problem since.  We took a few sample pictures with support on the phone and they uploaded without issue.

Purchasing Add-Ons

After setting up the card, you have options to purchase “service add-ons” to the card.  You can do that at any time.  You have three services to choose from:  Geotagging, Web Sharing and Hotspot.

The Geotagging service will automatically geo-tag your photos for you as you take them, assuming there are wi-fi routers in the area.  It uses the wi-fi routers to coordinate and pinpoint the location data to write to your photo.  Newer cameras have geotagging built-in, so you may not need this.  Remember also that the service merely “triangulates” the Geo data based upon available Wi-Fi signals in the area, so it may not be 100% accurate.

Web sharing is already included with the Mobile X2 card.  The add-on service here is to allow you to keep your photos on the Eye Fi sharing site beyond 7 days and also gives you unlimited storage.  This is an annual service.

The hotspot service allows your photos to automatically upload to your computer and the web sharing service automatically.  When you’re in an area that has an accessible Wi-Fi hotspot (there are tens of thousands across the US) the card will automatically upload it’s photos for you.  This was the one service we did order.  It’s one way to protect against your photos being lost if your camera is misplaced, lost or stolen while you’re out and about.  It’s also a great “backup” system should the card or camera “flake out” during your trip.  We really like this feature.

The prices on these services vary, but average around $30 per year, each.  The bad news is, is that this fee is “per SD card”, not “per customer”. This is not very convenient for those that may have more than one Eye-Fi card.  It can get expensive very quickly.  Usually, we carry three or four cards with us on each trip.  All are for use in the same camera.  Eye-Fi really needs to come up with better pricing for customers with multiple cards.

Uploading Options

The Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card, gives you multiple options for uploading photos wirelessly from the camera.  In addition to uploading to your computer, there’s also options to upload to your iPhone, iPad or Android devices.

Day to Day Use

For our first real outing with the card, other than just trying it at home, we took the card in our camera to NYC for a long weekend.  It worked flawlessly.  We paired the card with our iPhone and as we took photos out and about town, they were automatically uploaded to our iPhone as we went.  That was perfect for sharing photos on the spot with friends without having to wait until we got back to the hotel to upload them.  Since NYC obviously has a ton of hotspots throughout the city, our photos were also uploaded directly to the Eye Fi site and our computer at home.  Very cool.

Next we took the card to Seattle for a weekend.  Pretty much the same story as NYC, except for our photos didn’t upload quite as often to the Eye Fi sharing site.  I chalk that up to the fact that hotspots weren’t quite as dense as they are in NYC.  Otherwise, it worked flawlessly.

Our final test was to take it on our trip to the Maldives.  When we travel on longer trips, we take a laptop, an iPad and our iPhone. Our main test on this trip was to see how it performed uploading photos to various devices.  While it uploaded to each device just fine, changing where the card uploads photos to is a pain.

The only way to “redirect” where photos upload to is to reinsert the card into the laptop and reconfigure it to upload to a different device.  Optimally it would upload photos to any device nearby that it can connect to, without “reprogramming” the card.  We also found out that counter to the Eye-Fi claim that it works with almost any SD card reader, it doesn’t work with them all.  We have a basic SD card reader that we always travel with, so we left the Eye-Fi SD card reader that came with the card at home.  Big mistake.  We were now “stuck” with having the card upload photos to the last device programmed on it, which happened to be our iPhone.  So, now we were stuck with having our photos upload automatically to the iPhone, instead of our other devices.  It’s certainly not the end of the world, because you just remove the card from the camera and upload photos manually to any device.  But, since you’re paying about 3x for this card, what you could for any other decent SD card on the market, we would prefer it work more seamlessly with multiple devices.

Our Overall Impressions

PROS: The Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card is a great idea.  And, if you’re primarily syncing with just a single device, it works great. Sharing photos via the web just minutes after a photo is taken is a great feature.  Eye-fi makes it easy to backup photos without  user intervention very handy.  If you lose your camera while traveling, you now at least have a good shot at saving your photos.

CONS: Documentation included with the card for initial setup either needs to be improved or just simply direct people to the website.  There needs to be a better way to easily change devices that can upload to, without having to change settings on the card via computer.  If you don’t have access to your computer while you travel, you better make sure you have it set appropriately to upload to the right destination before you leave.  Add on services for the card need to be less expensive if you own multiple cards, especially since you’re already paying a premium for the cards.

OVERALL: Is it worth 3x what you’d pay for other SD cards?  If you do a lot of traveling, yes.  That’s exactly why we purchased it.  It makes sharing photos quickly much simpler and is an easy way to backup photos throughout the day (assuming you purchase the hot spot service).

Other reviews:  Consumer Reports, TulsaWorld


 

 

 

Winter Gloves for Touchscreens

November 10, 2010 Leave a Comment Filed under: Blog, Gear Reviews, New Gear, Travel Gear

If you’ve ever tried to use your touchscreen phone (iPod, Droid, Blackberry, etc) with regular everyday gloves, it doesn’t work so well, if at all.  Well, Agloves to the rescue.  These lightweight gloves contain silver, which is a natural conductor which allows you to operate any touchscreen device easily.  So, whether you’re on the ski slopes, snowmobiling, or just out in cold weather, you can text, flick or whatever without exposing your hands to the cold.  We saw these at a ski expo in Denver and immediately bought a pair.  We had to try them right away and they worked perfectly.  The gloves are thin enough to wear inside of other gloves if you want.  But, don’t underestimate them.  Silver is a natural conductor of heat which uses or your own body heat to help keep your hands warmer.  Give these a try, we think you’ll like ‘em.

Beats by Dr. Dre

September 20, 2010 Leave a Comment Filed under: Gear Reviews, Travel Gear

Rating: ★★★★½

Beats are our #1 choice in a noise cancelling headphone for sound quality, even if they aren’t the best noise cancelling set of cans out there.  We’ve owned Bose and Audio Technica and the Beats are miles apart in all around sound quality.

Now, we aren’t exactly into the heavy driving techno type bass, nor should everything sound like tin can treble either.  The right mix is really hard to find in a set of headphones, but Dre and the people at Monster have definitely found the right mix.  The sound is always crystal clear and clean.

Where these ‘phones could use some improvement is noise-cancelling.  If you’re buying these strictly to drown out other noise and not for playing audio, then you should probably go with the Bose.  In a side-by-side test, the Bose were much better at drowning out ambient noise without an audio source.

From a build perspective, our Beats have held up very well on our travels.  Battery life is great, although since AAA batteries can be difficult to find in some countries, it’s always best to carry a spare set.  Murphy’s Law always seems to come into play when you least expect it.  While the case is somewhat oblong shaped and thicker than most competitors, it does a good job at protecting them, as well as providing storage for extra cables.

Beats comes with two cables:  one for audio only and one with a mic if you use your headphones with a cell or smartphone.  The mic works very well at picking up just your voice and eliminating background noise when talking.  Definitely, a plus.

Overall, you just can’t go wrong with these.  The audio quality is amazing and will fit a wide variety of musical listening styles.

GoToob Travel Bottles by Humangear

September 20, 2010 Leave a Comment Filed under: Gear Reviews, Travel Gear

Rating: ★★★★☆

We absolutely love these GoToob Travel Bottles.   We started using these bottles about a year ago and we’ve been very pleased with the results.  They fit very nicely in those tiny quart bags you have to use these days to keep your liquids in.  Each one is also easy to fill and refill.  Just unscrew the cap and fill.  We also appreciate the “textured” surface which keeps them from slipping out of our hands when using them in places like the shower.  Don’t be put off by the flexibility of these bottles.  The caps really do stay on and we’ve never had one leak.  Each bottle has a handy suction cup attached.  It’s great in small bathrooms when counter space is at a premium.  Just suction it to the bathroom mirror and you’re good to go.  The bottles are available in 1.25 oz, 2 oz and 3oz sizes as well as a variety of colors.  Because of their unique shape, you can fit a few more into that Ziploc bag than ordinary sized bottles.

Fresh & Go Travel Toothbrush

September 20, 2010 Leave a Comment Filed under: Gear Reviews, Travel Gear

Rating: ★★★★★

Unless you’re one of those people who have to take their electric toothbrush on a trip, these toothbrushes are a godsend.  These come with both the toothbrush and toothpaste all in one convenient package.  We’ve taken these on several trips and one will last from 8-10 days, assuming you brush your teeth two to three times per day.  Since they are just slightly longer than a regular toothbrush, you’ll save room by not having to cram another tube of toothpaste in your Ziploc bag.  Each brush comes with a “cap”, so you won’t have to worry about unsanitary conditions.  These brushes work so well, you’ll have less mess than you do with a regular brush and paste.  We buy these by the box and have never had any issues with them staying “fresh”, even after a year in storage.

PacSafe

August 30, 2010 Leave a Comment Filed under: Gear Reviews

Rating: ★★★★½

What do you do if your hotel room doesn’t have a safe?  What do you do if it’s not big enough to hold everything you want to protect?  PacSafe is the answer.  We use these whenever we want to leave our backpacks, camera equipment or other baggage in our hotel room, without worrying whether it will be there when we get back.  The PacSafe Backpack and Bag Protector comes in four different sizes.  For us, the two largest sizes work best.  You can easily fit a regular size carry-on or large backpack in these sizes.

The PacSafe expands in seconds and easily fits around your bag.  Once it’s around your bag, you tighten it and secure it to anything in your hotel room.  You’ll want to pick something that can’t be easily removed.  We usually pick something like a bed frame, dresser or even a toilet.  All PacSafes come with a tamper proof, strengthened key padlock.  The one downfall is that then you have to hope you don’t lose the keys.  We purchased a PacSafe combination lock to use instead.  That way we don’t have keys to worry about.

The PacSafe collapses and stores easily in a compact carrying case.  We have several, so we always make sure to pack one in our carry-on and put the others in our checked baggage.  That way should your checked bags take a detour, you still have at least one to keep your valuables secure.  PacSafe also makes travel bags, laptop bags, wallets and others using similar technology.  With “slash-proof” straps and reinforced slashguard panels.  You can checkout more at Amazon or on PacSafe’s website.

Jansport Odyssey Backpack

April 9, 2010 Leave a Comment Filed under: Gear Reviews, Travel Gear

Rating: ★★★★½

The Jansport Odyssey Backpack is one of the best backpacks around for travel. We’ve used ours for over four years and it’s held up better than we ever expected and most importantly, it carries a ton of stuff and is comfortable to carry.

We’ve travelled through the backcountry of Vietnam, the islands of the Maldives to Palm Springs with the Jansport Odyssey and it’s great. From carrying all of the basics: laptop, phones, power adapters, magazines, books, newspapers and a change of clothes, this bag performs. This bag holds a whopping 2350 cu inches of cargo and the exclusive “air-lift” straps make carrying even the heaviest loads, effortless.

There are plenty of pockets for storage, including a place for pens, key clip and many zippered compartments. The zippers and material of the bag are top notch. You rarely find many Jansport or many other backpack manufacturer’s keep the same bag “series” or “design” around for more than a year or two at most. The fact that this bag has been around for almost five years is a tribute to its success and popularity. We’ve lived with this bag and give it two thumbs up.

Mini LED Flashlight

October 1, 2009 Leave a Comment Filed under: Gear Reviews

We’ve learned from traveling all over, that it never hurts to have a small flashlight with you.  Ours have come in handy during power outages overseas, reading on an overnight flightMini LED Flashlight or even looking for house numbers on a dark street.  We prefer the small travel size LED type flashlights.  The batteries last forever and you can’t beat the brightness and the distance of the beam.  Plus, it can also come in handy in an emergency to signal for help.  Almost all of travel-size flashlights are extremely small, lightweight and very easy to pack.

Travel Watch & Travel Clock

September 4, 2009 Leave a Comment Filed under: Gear Reviews

I’m always amazed at the number of fellow travelers we see who are wearing expensive jewelry.  When you travel, the last thing you need is one more thing to worry about.  When you wear gold necklaces, fancy watches (or at least those that look like the real thing), rings, etc., all you’re doing is making yourself a potential target.  Whether you choose to believe it or not, no country, city or hotel is completely safe.  Why take the risk?

Sure, okay, you say, I’ll just leave it in my hotel safe.  Well, that’s not as secure as you think either.  You can take a look at this video demonstrating how easy it is to get into “…the most secure safe” or just take a look at these articles from Gadling and the BBC.

Timex Expedition WatchWhen we travel, we leave the Tag Heuer watches at home and switch to the Timex.  We’ve had several of these over the years, as each one lasts us about 2-3 years.  Rather than spend $9 for a new battery, it’s just easier to buy a whole new watch for less than $30.  The best thing about these watches is that if you lose one, leave it behind in the hotel, or have a monkey take it off your wrist, you’re loss is limited.  We’re especially fond of the Timex Expedition series of watches.  They have multiple time zone capability (usually 2-3), multiple alarms, Indiglo night light and all-use wristbands.

Elgin Travel Alarm ClockFor travel alarm clocks, we’ve had a few, but our favorite is the Elgin Travel Alarm Clock.  It’s relatively small, compact and easy to read both during the day and night.  It does use two AAA batteries, but we’ve had ours two years and have yet to replace them.  The other things we like about this clock is that it’s lightweight and easy to set both the time and the alarm.  Plus, at less than $8, should you accidentally leave one behind when you check out of your hotel, you aren’t out a huge investment.

Power Adapters

September 3, 2009 Leave a Comment Filed under: Gear Reviews

Whether we travel in or out of the country, we always make sure to take along our power adapters.  With everything that needs to be charged today, laptops, iPods, camera batteries, video batteries, etc., you require an adapter that can handle it.  At the same time, the last thing you want to do is lug along some huge powerstrip or heavy adapter with 75 different plug combinations.

Plug Adapters vs Voltage Regulators

Before we delve into our favorites, there’s always a lot of confusion over “adapters” vs “regulators”.  So, let’s try to clear up some misconceptions.

Plug adapters are exactly that.  The ability to accept a plug of some type and then via the adapter plug it into a different type of socket.  They don’t change the power, they simply allow you to plug your device into a different style of plug.  The US runs on 110-120V, while most other countries run on 220v-240v.  So, if you plug in an ordinary device that you use in North America into a European socket, you’ll probably end up with a permanently damaged device.   Not fun, not pretty and very expensive to replace.

If the item you’re bringing from North America has a power supply, (think laptop, camera battery charger, etc) and it’s relatively new, (say the last 5 years) you may be able to use just the plug adapter.  You should read the label on the power supply of the device you want to plug in and see what the voltage requirements are.  If it has a range, that says 100v – 240v, you’ll probably be fine with just an adapter, like the Kensington below.  If it has just a single number on the label such as 120v, you’ll definitely need a plug adapter AND a voltage regulator.

The one thing you should NEVER do, is plug in a hair dryer you bring from North America, into an outlet somewhere else in the world.  Hair Dryers take a HUGE amount of power and can easily be damaged, catch fire or worse.  You should always use the hair dryer supplied by your hotel.  There are certain travel hair dryers (their clearly designated as such) which may work in a foreign country.  Some come with an adapter you can use.

Voltage Regulators can actually adjust or “step up” or “step down” the power source to charge your device.  They actually change the voltage that your device receives from the outlet.  These usually tend to run rather “warm” when you are using them.  Sometimes, they can also have a very faint hum as they change the voltage.  Usually, but not always, if you need a voltage regulator, you’ll still need a power adapter.  The power adapter will allow you to plug in the device and the voltage regulator will adjust the power.  Voltage regulators tend to be more expensive than just a plug adapter.

When in doubt, you should always read your owner’s manual for the device to see what they recommend or call the manufacturer of your device and see what they say.  We haven’t used a voltage regulator for about 4 years.  We use a plug adapter only when we travel to foreign destinations to charge our Canon video and camera batteries, Ni-Mh batteries, iPod, iPhones and Apple laptops.  We haven’t had any issues and its certainly been nice not to carry any extra equipment.

We’ve tried alot of different adapters over the years and we’ve used these for the past three.  Frankly, we haven’t found anything that works better, nor any that are more compact for the number of outlets offered.

Belkin Adapter

Belkin Mini Surge Protector Dual USB Charger

Rating: ★★★★☆
The Belkin Mini Surge Protector works great whether your traveling domestically or internationally.  First, you never know how many outlets you’re going to have where you’re staying.  There’s almost always a shortage of outlets in any hotel room when you’re in international destinations.  Second, how many adapters have more than one 3 prong-outlet and with them positioned on their side so you can easily plug in larger plugs?  The best thing about this adapter is that it also has two USB ports on top, that allow us to charge our iPhones and iPods without having to get out our laptop.  The one downside of this power adapter is that it’s not small.

Kensington AdapterKensington 33117 International All-in-One Travel Plug Adapter

Rating: ★★★★½
Who ever thought a plug adapter could be controversial?  Well, if you read some of the reviews about the Kensington All-in-One, you may believe that it’s not the right one for you.  Let’s dispel some of the rumors you may hear in reviews on the adapter….(and no, we don’t have any relationship with Kensington).

This adapter does work with 3 prong devices.  It does NOT provide grounding, even though the 3 prong plug works in the adapter.  We’ve used this adapter in Dubai, Germany, Argentina, Chile, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Maldives, Thailand and have never had any problems with it working.  The one thing we like about this adapter is that it’s small and light.  It also works with just about any combination of foreign outlet you’ll come in contact with.

The only two downsides of this adapter is that it doesn’t bear alot of weight, so can come out of loose outlets easily.  This isn’t a problem in Europe, but is somewhat in Asia, where the outlets tend to be loose.  The other is that you have to make sure you push a button on the side before sliding out the prongs you need to fit the foreign outlet.

We use this adapter in conjunction with the Belkin Mini Surge Protector and the Monster Outlets-to-Go powerstrip described below.

Monster Outlets-to-Go

Monster MP OTG400 BK Outlets To Go Power Strip

Rating: ★★★★★
The Monster Outlets to Go is one of our favorite power accessories.  If we’re taking our laptop on a trip, we’ll utilize it for the USB charging capability and take this instead of the Belkin Mini Surge Protector mentioned above.  It’s much more compact and easier to pack.  Plus it has one additional outlet and they’re spaced further apart for bulky charging devices.  Monster will soon be coming out with a similar model, with a USB charging port, but one less outlet.  When that happens, we’ll probably stop taking our Belkin along. If space and weight are big limitations, we highly recommend this for any type of travel.  At less than an inch thick, you can’t go wrong.