The Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card.

Before I get to the nitty gritty, I have to brag about how cheap my eye-fi card was. I went to Circuit City on Valentine's Day '09 and they were all but wiped out. The store was so empty that a stranger came up to me and just gave me a gift card because she couldn't find anything for herself. I was kind enough to accept her offer and so I was +$24. The Eye-fi card was discounted 50% bringing it down to $50. So I ended up with an Eye-fi card at the cost of about $28 after tax!

Setup of the Eye-Fi is fairly simple. Upon inserting the card into the USB port using the adapter that comes with the package the card is automatically recognized and the installation process is completed quickly since the install files come preloaded on the card. Since Eye-fi is a wireless SD card, when I first saw that they included an adapter I thought it somewhat contradictory. Although funny at first, for the card to properly connect to wireless, one has to use the adapter to set it up first, so it's not really that strange. The user must have the card, a camera (which powers the card), and a wi-fi router in order for the card to work properly.



Once installed, my first impression of the Eye-Fi was one of restriction. The card works through an internet application called the Eye-Fi Manager which proves to be a sort of middleman. The reasons this is implemented are to promote the Hotspot Access Service (H.A.S.) at $15 a year, which allows the user access to more than 10,000 hotspots in the U.S., to allow the user to automatically upload photos to the a wide selection of photo-hosting sites and to keep things more secure.



The problem with uploading directly to photo-hosting sites is that not every photo I take is a masterpiece. It also eats away at a weekly limit quickly on Flickr. It is still an interesting feature that would be really nice with a subscription to the H.A.S. if you're on vacation and a lot of your friends and family want to see how the vacation is going with little lag time before the photos are posted.



The biggest reason I wanted this card is for time lapse photography. I want to transfer files directly to a laptop that's in range while shooting in remote locations. Since the card requires access to the internet in order for it to work, that feature isn't an immediately obvious option.

I have found a couple work-arounds to this major flaw of the card. Photojojo tells about how it could be possible to upload wirelessly to a laptop by connecting a wifi router to the laptop, whether there is internet or not. The other method as detailed by Dave Hansen would be to host a stand-alone server of which seems to prove difficult to do. I have yet to test either method but I think the latter would tailor to my needs. I will post an update when I test out these different methods.

An In Depth Look at the Logitech Freepulse Bluetooth Headphones.

I've had many problems with regular wired headphones when I once used them. I would get them ripped off my head when I would get up from my chair by having the wire snag the arm rests of my chair. I would constantly run over the wire with my chair and get it tangled, and when I jogged, sometimes my dog would run up behind me, leap, her front paws would snag the wire, and then she would yank my headphones off as she landed. I don't know how my ears are still attached.

Before I pick it apart I need to say that I really really enjoy this pair of bluetooth headphones. Since I enjoy dissecting things so much and getting very detailed in my description, I feel this review has its place on this blog as well. I'll make an attempt to put this review up on a couple of websites as well.

I decided to buy a pair of Logitech Freepulse headphones.



I got them new on J&R Music and Computer World for $56.94 which includes shipping. This was a great price because now they're selling them for $84.99. And the cheapest on a google search is around $70 currently. Since I've used them extensively I decided it was time to write a review about them.

The first thing that stands out about them, is that they only have a 6 hour battery life. Now, that seems like plenty, unless you always have headphones on while you work. I sit in this computer chair anywhere from 9 to 12 hours a day. I also use my headphones when I workout. So I probably have headphones on from 9 to 13 hours a day during the work week. This will clue you in that these headphones are at least tolerable to wear for long periods of time.

So I still had to go back to the old wired headphones at the end of the day and plug up the headphones to charge. I wish that these headphones had a removable battery so that I could have one battery charging while using another, but the battery is sealed inside the headphones and so I ultimately ended up buying another pair later on at Circuit City for $76.64 taxes included (they'll match their online price).

The marketing for these headphones seems somewhat misleading because they push that these headphones will adapt to any iPod on the market. I don't have an iPod. This set of headphones doesn't come with a USB bluetooth transmitter. Instead they come with a transmitter that plugs into any 3.5mm jack which makes it much better suited for using with an mp3 player.



Included is an array of different "adapters" that snap onto the transmitter so that it squares up with the iPod when plugged in.



If they really wanted to push it for the iPod one would expect the color of this headset and transmitter to be white but this is not the case at all.

The reception is reserved for a few feet. The signal has trouble going through walls and the advertised 30 feet is probably on flat unobstructed land. I've even found that if I have the transmitter in my left pocket, the signal has trouble going through my body and will sometimes go silent for about a second periodically. But when in the right pocket the silence isn't as frequent because the bulk of the electronics are in the right side of the headset.

Since I did end up getting two pair of headphones I found that each transmitter will only work for its corresponding headset. I find this unfortunate because I have yet to run the battery out on a transmitter, and if I could use the same transmitter on both pair of headphones I wouldn't have to switch to the other transmitter, perhaps using it the entire day.

After extensive use I have found that the rubber ear pieces eventually stretch out and can be easily lost. I somehow managed to keep track of them however and have resized them -- reads cut the excess off -- and glued them to the headsets permanently. The only reason that they come off that I can see is to gain access to the tiny screw so that they can be worked on and perhaps to replace the foam ear pieces (the headphones come with extra ones) when they wear down.



As an aside I'd like to mention that I also bought a different pair of bluetooth logitech headphones that also has a mic built in for my girlfriend as a gift and it turns out that they also will not connect to the transmitter that comes with my Freepulse headphones. Nor will my headphones connect to the USB transmitter that came with her pair either.

Oh, and supposedly the Freepulse headphones sync up to cell phones, but I don't have a bluetooth cell phone so I don't care.

CNET Video Review

Songs as Ringtones

Using songs as ring tones don't make you look cool. I don't care what the song is, in fact I may even like the song, it's just rather pretentious. Plus the sound quality is crap and doesn't do the song any justice, it just sounds like a cacophony of blather. Instead, try using every day sounds. Maybe something like the noise of a crowded room for when you're at a party or in a restaurant? Crickets for when you're outside? Or Birds and wind? The sounds of traffic?

I know! How about the sounds of a car crash for when you're driving. A lot of fun can be had with that if you have a person in the car with you when someone calls. Plus, perhaps it'll keep you from answering and will keep people like me safe, who actually pay attention to driving instead of blabbering about nothing on the phone and endangering people on the road. No even better. Just put it on vibrate, cell phones are annoying. Learn some cell phone etiquette people. Especially in restaurants and theaters.

If you do have to talk while on the road, tell the person on the other end immediately that you are driving and blurt "Driving!" when a matter on the road deserves your attention, drop the phone and use your other hand if need be, then when things are back to a comfortable pace continue talking.