Toshiba has announced a WiFi SDHC card that can both transmit and receive data. It's the first card to fully comply with the SD standard, the company says. It also claims lower power consumption than 'other cards with similar functions,' by which you have to assume it means Eye-Fi. The card will be able to share data with compatible cameras, smartphones and WiFi-enabled computers. All cameras with SD slots will be able to broadcast data from the card, and Toshiba says a number of camera makers are considering launching compatible products that will allow data to be received, too.
The announcement follows the company's work with Trek 2000 to develop a standard for such cards.
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By John Callaham · Sep 6, 2011
SD storage cards have been released with WiFi support inside for a while now. These cards, such as the popular Eye-Fi products, are mainly used by cameras in order to transmit pictures and video from the camera directly to a PC or perhaps a online service like Facebook or YouTube. A few days ago Toshiba officially announced plans to take this kind of a concept one step further. Its press release revealed the FlashAir, an 8 GB SDHC memory card that allows for two way wireless connections.
The FlashAir's capabilities mean that when it is installed into any SD card slot it will allow the equipped device to not just upload images, video and data but also for the device to receive that kind of content from smartphones, PCs and cameras that have the FlashAir card installed.
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No, what it means is that you can have a scheme something like:
- Pair Card with external device
- Take picture
- Picture is saved to 8 GB of SD memory
- If pairing is still intact, upload image to paired device
- Wait for response from paired device that image is saved successfully
- Once response is received, delete image from 8 GB SD memory space.
What this means is that a photographer can shoot until their battery runs out while a nearby notebook or WiFi enabled SAN device records the images. Instead of being limited to 32 GB, you can happily fill a terabyte drive or more.
Or if you're concerned about the data's safety locally (journalist working in a dangerous area, someone taking pictures of authorities who might take the camera away) you can even set the device that's receiving the images to upload into a remote FTP or some kind of cloud based service.
Or am I missing something?
Toshiba to Launch "FlashAir™", the World's First SDHC Memory Card with Embedded Wireless LAN Communications
TOKYO–Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced that it will launch the world's first[1] SDHC memory card with embedded wireless LAN functionality to meet the SD Memory Card Standard. The new card, "FlashAir™", has an 8GB capacity and supports both peer-to-peer transfers and uploads to and downloads from servers. Samples will be available from November 2011 and sales will start in February 2012.
FlashAir will be featured at IFA 2011, in Berlin, Germany from September 2.
At a time when digital cameras have achieved immense popularity, users want a quick and easy way to share photographs with friends and to transfer them to and from online storage services and social networks. Toshiba provides the solution with FlashAir, the world's first SDHC memory card with embedded wireless LAN functionality that is fully compliant with the SD Memory Card Standard.
FlashAir's embedded wireless communication function allows users to upload and download photographs to and from a server and to exchange photographs and other data with other devices, including digital cameras[2] that are FlashAir compliant and, smartphones and PCs that support wireless LAN. All transfers are done wirelessly, without any need for a cable connection. Key features of the new card include the ability to receive as well as transmit and lower power consumption than other cards with similar functions.
Even in digital cameras not compliant with FlashAir, the new card can share digital images with smartphones and PCs that support wireless LAN.
Toshiba will secure certification of FlashAir for wireless communication in Japan, North America and Europe.
Toshiba will reinforce and extend its leadership of memory business by further enhancing its SD memory card line-up.
Notes:
- [1] As of September 1, 2011. Source: Toshiba Corporation.
- [2] A number of camera makers are now considering launching compliant products.
Key features
| Product name: |
THNSW008GAA-A |
| Capacity: |
8GB |
| Price (tax included): |
Open |
| Start of sample shipping: |
November 2011 |
| Start of sale: |
February 2012 |
Note:Â The above product name is for the Japanese market.
Specifications
| Standard: |
SD Memory Card Standard |
| Wireless LAN Standard: |
IEEE 802.11b/g/n |
| Wireless LAN security: |
WEP, TKIP, AES (WPA, WPA2) |
| Card capacity: |
8GB |
| Speed class: |
Speed Class 6 |
| Applicable format: |
JPEG, RAW, MPEG, etc |
| Power Supply Voltage: |
2.7-3.6V |
| Operating Environment: |
Temperature: -25°C to 85°C
Relative humidity: 95% at 25°C (no condensation) |
| External dimensions: |
32(L)Ă—24(W)Ă—2.1(T)(mm) |
| Weight: |
Approx. 2g |
Note:Â The above specifications are as of September 1, 2011.
*The card can be used in devices that comply with the SDHC Memory Card Standard.
*"FlashAir™" is a trademark of Toshiba Corporation.
*The SDHC logo is a trademark of SD-3C. LLC.
