Eye-Fi looks and acts like a standard SD card while slinging photos wirelessly to your Mac.

Instead of waiting for cameras to come with Wi-Fi—only a few models include it—the Eye-Fi takes wireless to the camera. This standard-size SD card packs 2GB of storage and an 802.11g radio for automated, cordless picture transfers. Nearly any camera that takes SD cards will be able to upload wirelessly to your Mac with Eye-Fi, or to the photo-sharing service of your choosing, or both. It’s missing a few important features, but the Eye-Fi is an impressive new product.

We slipped the SD card into the included USB reader for initial Mac calibration. A browser-based configuration tool let us pick from nearly two-dozen photo-uploading sites from which to auto-send our photos, including Fotki, Shutterfly, SmugMug, Snapfish, and even Facebook. We configured it for Flickr and slipped the Eye-Fi into a camera. As we shot photos, the card sent copies through our home network, placing duplicates at Flickr and on our Mac. If we turned off the camera too soon or lost the network connection, the card smartly resumed progress when turned back on.

We had fun instantly beaming pictures to the Web, but we wish the card had a few more features. It only supports JPEGs, not videos or RAW files for high-end cameras. It has to connect to a wireless router instead of directly to a Mac for ad-hoc transfers. General FTP servers, email, and .Mac uploads aren’t possible. And since it lacks an in-use interface, we didn’t know when it was safe to power off a camera.

The bottom line. Limits keep it from universal appeal, but in the right conditions, the Eye-Fi adds nifty instant uploading to a digital camera.

COMPANY: Eye-Fi

CONTACT: www.eye.fi

PRICE: $99

Uploads to photo sites and your Mac almost magically. Wide range of support for popular sites. Works with nearly every SD camera.

Only supports JPEG files (and not videos). No in-use status feedback. Can’t use ad-hoc mode. Doesn’t send images to FTP, email, or .Mac. Can’t be configured with a manual IP address.