By Evan Ackerman

In a totally obvious move that has only taken years to implement (thanks Apple!), ZoomMediaPlus has released an SD card adapter for the docking port on iPhones and iPod Touches that allows you to transfer content between an SD card and the device. This is a useful accessory for a whole bunch of reasons… Carry it along with your digital camera to be able to view and upload pictures on the fly, for example. Or stuff a bunch of movies onto a big SD card for traveling. Using the zoomIt app, you can transfer files in both directions, which gives you the option of bypassing iTunes’ ludicrously draconian file sharing restrictions.

Personally, I hate iTunes. It’s slow, it’s bloated, and it makes it exceptionally difficult to do even the most basic things. I’d love to use the zoomIt’s accessory to be able to transfer, say, a couple songs onto my iPhone without having to suffer through iTunes. So obviously, the big outstanding is going to be file compatibility. The zoomIt website says that you can “view, listen to, and share all of your photos, music, video and files” which also includes PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and PDF files. If this works as advertised, I’d be more than willing to pay $50 (with a $10 pre-order discount) not to have to rely on iTunes ever again. Available in April.

[ zoomIt ] VIA [ iLounge ]

By Evan Ackerman

I’m not quite sure how they do it, but Eye-Fi manages to keep on cramming feature after useful into their wireless memory cards. This time around, they’re introducing a new tier of card (above Pro), the Pro X2. It costs $150, but at least read about what it does before you scoff at the price… The X2 is an 8 gig SDHC card with a built-in 802.11n antenna. N! N means faster uploads at greater distances, so that’s definitely good. And more storage is good too. But the most useful feature of the X2 is the option to have the card delete pictures after it uploads them, giving you an infinite amount of memory (provided you’re near some source of WiFi) while sharing and backing up your pictures real time. The card won’t delete anything until it’s confirmed that the upload was successful, but hypothetically, you can just stop worrying about whether or not you’re running out of space when taking pictures (or videos).

The X2 also comes with all the rest of the awesome Eye-Fi features, like RAW support, geotagging, ad-hoc WiFi connections, and Wayport WiFi access. Unfortunately, from what I can tell from the press release, the infinite memory option will be available on the new X2 cards only. This is a bit of a disappointment, since previous useful firmware upgrades were made available to all of the cards. But, I guess it’s probably somewhat unrealistic to expect to keep getting free goodies, and for you heavy shooters, the additional SDHC space and the potential for never having to worry about space again may make the X2 a worthwhile upgrade.

Look for the Eye-Fi X2 on Amazon and the Eye-Fi website.

[ Eye-Fi ]