A far cheaper solution is to buy the iphone app 'Trails' which costs $2. You can just have it sit there open tracking how you move as well as timestamps. Then, if your camera time is synchronized with your iphone time, you can use a free mac app like GPSPhotoLinker which will take the timestamps from the camera and the iPhone and match them up, geotagging your photos. This works even if you don't have a data connection on the iphone, and its total cost is $2, and uses gps instead of wifi (making it far more accurate, and more useful in a variety of circumstances). Admittedly, your battery drains faster, but you can always buy an extender for $50 which is still less than this eye fi thing, and is useful in a variety of situations beyond geotagging.
this looks very exciting. downloaded the app now, and ill try it all out after work.
Interesting idea, and great to upgrade an existing camera's functionality.
A couple of questions I can't find an answer to...
1) Does it require wifi access at the time of taking the photo, or does it just record the MAC address of local access points and look them up when you're back at home?
2) The skyhookwireless database is 'incomplete' (to be nice) in Australia, though it's getting pretty good in the biggest cities. Anyway, if a wifi point is unrecognised, but I enter the location manually, is there any way of that updating the skyhookwireless database? That way the many unknown tourist spots would, once a couple of people had visited, become known.
... (I've looked for an app on the iPhone that does similar... something that uses the iPhone GPS and collects the visible wifi points around, uploading them to skyhookwireless later on.... No luck).
This article is misleading and deserves some editing. Are the interns writing the articles for AI?
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
Apple gave a lot of airtime this week to the new geotagging features in iPhoto 09, which allows users to organize and search photos based on the GPS data assigned to them. Eye-Fi's SD memory cards will enable any camera to tag photos with a location, making the cards a great camera upgrade for iLife 09 users.
NO. Not all EyeFi models, just the Explorer - at least upon retail purchase.
Added:
Actually - it seems that EyeFi will allow you to purchase geotagging, webshare, and hotspot access from their site for any of their cards. These features can be added to your account associated with your particular EyeFi card: http://www.eye.fi/services/
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
Adding GPS features to a camera just for geotagging the photos it takes isn't very practical, but a Mountain View-based company has packed WiFi features into an SD memory card, enabling the chip to perform an iPod touch-style WiFi location lookup using wireless base station data from Skyhook Wireless.
Again, only the EXPLORER model and it's NOT GPS. It uses information from Skyhook but relies mostly on a database of available WiFi networks where you are shooting your photos. If you are in an area with no WiFi signal or no MAPPED WiFi signals, you get no geotags. (I have the explorer - geotagging doesn't work well where I live.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
In addition to geotagging photos taken by any camera using the cards, the Eye-Fi card can also wirelessly upload the photos to iPhoto, as well as directly to a wide variety of online services, including Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Evernote, and MobileMe.
This part is salvageable. You should say "All EyeFi cards can do wireless uploads, but in addition the Explorer model can do geotags. You can add geotagging to any EyeFi card after registering the product for a small fee."
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
The 2GB cards start at $79.99 for a basic WiFi enabled "Home" card without geotagging, $99 for a "Share" version with online upload features, and $129.99 for an "Explore" card with both the geotagging features and WiFi syncing to online services. The Explore version includes a year subscription to Wayport WiFi network access, which usually costs $14.95.
True, but you left out half of their product line. They actually have FOUR EyeFi models, including a 4GB model. Again, none of these have geotagging except for the Explorer version. You can see for yourself here: http://bit.ly/gWab
The big thing that bothers me about this article is that the EyeFi (though a nice product - I have one) is NOT new. These have been out for several months, with the explorer a bit more recent.
1) Does it require wifi access at the time of taking the photo, or does it just record the MAC address of local access points and look them up when you're back at home?
You don't need ACCESS but you do need WiFi signals. The card theoretically (b/c I've yet to get my Explorer to work) picks up the MAC address from available WiFi nodes and uses the SkyHook database to plot your location. So, you don't need to be able to login to a node, but you must be near a node to get geotagged.
As to WHEN the tags are actually imprinted on the files, I'm not sure. It may do this when the photos are being uploaded, or earlier if it can get that info from the SkyHook database without logging in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GregAlexander
2) The skyhookwireless database is 'incomplete' (to be nice) in Australia, though it's getting pretty good in the biggest cities. Anyway, if a wifi point is unrecognised, but I enter the location manually, is there any way of that updating the skyhookwireless database? That way the many unknown tourist spots would, once a couple of people had visited, become known.
... (I've looked for an app on the iPhone that does similar... something that uses the iPhone GPS and collects the visible wifi points around, uploading them to skyhookwireless later on.... No luck).
Yes, you can submit a new location - I'm doing that now, b/c in Japan my home lies just outside the mapped area (metropolitan Tokyo). And my guess is that the mapped areas are actually only mapped partially (that is not all wireless nodes are known and maybe gaps in the mapped areas). There can't be complete overlap of wifi signals.
I will probably post a review on my Explorer in my blog in a week or so.
Thanks Umijin. You did a great summary of the cards geo-capability.
From eye.fi's forums the the geo-tags get applied when the files are downloaded from the camera using their own file manager. If you don't use their manager you lose the geo-data.
I also get upset when people misuse GPS. GPS is a particular, government run system that gives precise geographical position data anywhere in the world. This uses Skyhook that give an imprecise, guissetament of where you might be located. And if you are not near a Skyhook mapped WiFi device, like me, you get no data.
Greetings, this is my first time posting here but I feel compelled to respond.
Over and around Christmas, I had purchased 2 cards for family and friends through Amazon. Unfortunately, the first one failed after 5 shots, so I endeavored to return it and by another card at a local Best Buy. The result? That one ALSO failed.
-snip-
If you look at their forums, many people were traumatized by their Eye-Fi experience that day.
-snip-
Actually, they had a huge problem with the overload on their system. So it may not have been your card or the software, but their uploading service itself.
A far cheaper solution is to buy the iphone app 'Trails' which costs $2. You can just have it sit there open tracking how you move as well as timestamps. Then, if your camera time is synchronized with your iphone time, you can use a free mac app like GPSPhotoLinker which will take the timestamps from the camera and the iPhone and match them up, geotagging your photos. This works even if you don't have a data connection on the iphone, and its total cost is $2, and uses gps instead of wifi (making it far more accurate, and more useful in a variety of circumstances). Admittedly, your battery drains faster, but you can always buy an extender for $50 which is still less than this eye fi thing, and is useful in a variety of situations beyond geotagging.
I think this is a great idea IF you have an iPhone and IF you want to put up with the low resolution camera. I want to tag my photos from my compact digicam which has >4x the resolution of the iPhone camera. That's what this product is targeted towards, not iPhones.
I think this is a great idea IF you have an iPhone and IF you want to put up with the low resolution camera. I want to tag my photos from my compact digicam which has >4x the resolution of the iPhone camera. That's what this product is targeted towards, not iPhones.
imcquill was talking about using the Trails app to create a database of timestamped locations. Then syncing that with the timestamps in the pictures you take with whatever camera you use. (that's where an app like GPSPhotoLinker comes in)
If imcquill was talking about using the iPhone's camera, there wouldn't be a point to using the Trails app, since the iPhone tags the photos automatically.
Out of 10 reviews 6 gave it 1 star, 3 gave it 2 stars and 1 gave it 4 stars. And the 4 star reviewer wants to change his review to 1 star. There were no positive comments at all.
Comments
Edit: Never mind. It looks like it doesn't work with compact flash cards.
the ATP device does support CF cards, in fact you can plug a usb card reader into the device and it will read whatever cards the reader supports.
A far cheaper solution is to buy the iphone app 'Trails' which costs $2. You can just have it sit there open tracking how you move as well as timestamps. Then, if your camera time is synchronized with your iphone time, you can use a free mac app like GPSPhotoLinker which will take the timestamps from the camera and the iPhone and match them up, geotagging your photos. This works even if you don't have a data connection on the iphone, and its total cost is $2, and uses gps instead of wifi (making it far more accurate, and more useful in a variety of circumstances). Admittedly, your battery drains faster, but you can always buy an extender for $50 which is still less than this eye fi thing, and is useful in a variety of situations beyond geotagging.
this looks very exciting. downloaded the app now, and ill try it all out after work.
thanks for the info!!!
A couple of questions I can't find an answer to...
1) Does it require wifi access at the time of taking the photo, or does it just record the MAC address of local access points and look them up when you're back at home?
2) The skyhookwireless database is 'incomplete' (to be nice) in Australia, though it's getting pretty good in the biggest cities. Anyway, if a wifi point is unrecognised, but I enter the location manually, is there any way of that updating the skyhookwireless database? That way the many unknown tourist spots would, once a couple of people had visited, become known.
... (I've looked for an app on the iPhone that does similar... something that uses the iPhone GPS and collects the visible wifi points around, uploading them to skyhookwireless later on.... No luck).
From the original post..."While many modern smartphones can tag their photos with GPS coordinates (including the iPhone and iPod touch), "
the ATP device does support CF cards, in fact you can plug a usb card reader into the device and it will read whatever cards the reader supports.
Got it. This other page only lists SD, Memory Stick, and MMC cards.
http://photofinder.atpinc.com/what.html
This will really be useful when I'm backpacking.
Except that without any WiFi nodes when you are backpacking, you are SOL.
Except that without any WiFi nodes when you are backpacking, you are SOL.
I think you might want to turn up the gain on your sarcasm detector.
Apple gave a lot of airtime this week to the new geotagging features in iPhoto 09, which allows users to organize and search photos based on the GPS data assigned to them. Eye-Fi's SD memory cards will enable any camera to tag photos with a location, making the cards a great camera upgrade for iLife 09 users.
NO. Not all EyeFi models, just the Explorer - at least upon retail purchase.
Added:
Actually - it seems that EyeFi will allow you to purchase geotagging, webshare, and hotspot access from their site for any of their cards. These features can be added to your account associated with your particular EyeFi card: http://www.eye.fi/services/
Adding GPS features to a camera just for geotagging the photos it takes isn't very practical, but a Mountain View-based company has packed WiFi features into an SD memory card, enabling the chip to perform an iPod touch-style WiFi location lookup using wireless base station data from Skyhook Wireless.
Again, only the EXPLORER model and it's NOT GPS. It uses information from Skyhook but relies mostly on a database of available WiFi networks where you are shooting your photos. If you are in an area with no WiFi signal or no MAPPED WiFi signals, you get no geotags. (I have the explorer - geotagging doesn't work well where I live.)
In addition to geotagging photos taken by any camera using the cards, the Eye-Fi card can also wirelessly upload the photos to iPhoto, as well as directly to a wide variety of online services, including Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Evernote, and MobileMe.
This part is salvageable. You should say "All EyeFi cards can do wireless uploads, but in addition the Explorer model can do geotags. You can add geotagging to any EyeFi card after registering the product for a small fee."
The 2GB cards start at $79.99 for a basic WiFi enabled "Home" card without geotagging, $99 for a "Share" version with online upload features, and $129.99 for an "Explore" card with both the geotagging features and WiFi syncing to online services. The Explore version includes a year subscription to Wayport WiFi network access, which usually costs $14.95.
True, but you left out half of their product line. They actually have FOUR EyeFi models, including a 4GB model. Again, none of these have geotagging except for the Explorer version. You can see for yourself here: http://bit.ly/gWab
The big thing that bothers me about this article is that the EyeFi (though a nice product - I have one) is NOT new. These have been out for several months, with the explorer a bit more recent.
I think you might want to turn up the gain on your sarcasm detector.
1) Does it require wifi access at the time of taking the photo, or does it just record the MAC address of local access points and look them up when you're back at home?
You don't need ACCESS but you do need WiFi signals. The card theoretically (b/c I've yet to get my Explorer to work) picks up the MAC address from available WiFi nodes and uses the SkyHook database to plot your location. So, you don't need to be able to login to a node, but you must be near a node to get geotagged.
As to WHEN the tags are actually imprinted on the files, I'm not sure. It may do this when the photos are being uploaded, or earlier if it can get that info from the SkyHook database without logging in.
2) The skyhookwireless database is 'incomplete' (to be nice) in Australia, though it's getting pretty good in the biggest cities. Anyway, if a wifi point is unrecognised, but I enter the location manually, is there any way of that updating the skyhookwireless database? That way the many unknown tourist spots would, once a couple of people had visited, become known.
... (I've looked for an app on the iPhone that does similar... something that uses the iPhone GPS and collects the visible wifi points around, uploading them to skyhookwireless later on.... No luck).
Yes, you can submit a new location - I'm doing that now, b/c in Japan my home lies just outside the mapped area (metropolitan Tokyo). And my guess is that the mapped areas are actually only mapped partially (that is not all wireless nodes are known and maybe gaps in the mapped areas). There can't be complete overlap of wifi signals.
I will probably post a review on my Explorer in my blog in a week or so.
From eye.fi's forums the the geo-tags get applied when the files are downloaded from the camera using their own file manager. If you don't use their manager you lose the geo-data.
I also get upset when people misuse GPS. GPS is a particular, government run system that gives precise geographical position data anywhere in the world. This uses Skyhook that give an imprecise, guissetament of where you might be located. And if you are not near a Skyhook mapped WiFi device, like me, you get no data.
Greetings, this is my first time posting here but I feel compelled to respond.
Over and around Christmas, I had purchased 2 cards for family and friends through Amazon. Unfortunately, the first one failed after 5 shots, so I endeavored to return it and by another card at a local Best Buy. The result? That one ALSO failed.
-snip-
If you look at their forums, many people were traumatized by their Eye-Fi experience that day.
-snip-
Actually, they had a huge problem with the overload on their system. So it may not have been your card or the software, but their uploading service itself.
A far cheaper solution is to buy the iphone app 'Trails' which costs $2. You can just have it sit there open tracking how you move as well as timestamps. Then, if your camera time is synchronized with your iphone time, you can use a free mac app like GPSPhotoLinker which will take the timestamps from the camera and the iPhone and match them up, geotagging your photos. This works even if you don't have a data connection on the iphone, and its total cost is $2, and uses gps instead of wifi (making it far more accurate, and more useful in a variety of circumstances). Admittedly, your battery drains faster, but you can always buy an extender for $50 which is still less than this eye fi thing, and is useful in a variety of situations beyond geotagging.
I think this is a great idea IF you have an iPhone and IF you want to put up with the low resolution camera. I want to tag my photos from my compact digicam which has >4x the resolution of the iPhone camera. That's what this product is targeted towards, not iPhones.
I think this is a great idea IF you have an iPhone and IF you want to put up with the low resolution camera. I want to tag my photos from my compact digicam which has >4x the resolution of the iPhone camera. That's what this product is targeted towards, not iPhones.
imcquill was talking about using the Trails app to create a database of timestamped locations. Then syncing that with the timestamps in the pictures you take with whatever camera you use. (that's where an app like GPSPhotoLinker comes in)
If imcquill was talking about using the iPhone's camera, there wouldn't be a point to using the Trails app, since the iPhone tags the photos automatically.
Here's another product that seems to be popular
http://photofinder.atpinc.com/
I love the idea of Geotagging....just wish I traveled more.
The reviews on Amazon are ripping this a new one.
http://www.amazon.com/Tagging-Pictur...1628589&sr=8-1
Out of 10 reviews 6 gave it 1 star, 3 gave it 2 stars and 1 gave it 4 stars. And the 4 star reviewer wants to change his review to 1 star. There were no positive comments at all.