Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card and mobile apps enable Direct Mode transfer of pics

The makers of the Eye-Fi Wi-Fi enabled SDHC memory cards have announced a new feature today -- the ability to use Wi-Fi Direct Mode and special Eye-Fi mobile apps to transfer pictures from a digital camera to a mobile device when there's no wireless network available. This was first announced back in January, and it's finally about to drop.

A new 8 GB Mobile X2 card with the Direct Mode enabled will be available starting on April 17 for US$79.99, and a free firmware upgrade will be available to owners of existing X2 Eye-Fi cards to add the capability one week later.

Direct Mode makes it possible, with the aid of new Eye-Fi apps for iOS and Android, to simply take photos with a digital camera and have them uploaded to the mobile devices in seconds without the need for cables. I'm personally happy about that, since I find the Apple Camera Connection Kit dongles extremely easy to lose (and they're not exactly inexpensive).

With an iPhone (or Android phone) in your pocket and an Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card in your camera, you can also make instant backups of your photos, even when you're nowhere near a Wi-Fi network.

There's a short marketing video on the next page courtesy of Eye-Fi.