Toshiba FlashAir: world’s first SDHC card with embedded wireless LAN functionality

Aren’t you just tired of having to dig up that memory card reader or data cable for your camera each time you want to transfer your photographs to your computer? Since cameras don’t normally come with that ability (unless you use your phone as your camera), companies have decided to take the other route by implementing wireless transfer capabilities into the memory cards instead. Companies like Eye-Fi have been doing this for a while with their own brand of SD cards but today, a new player has entered the picture.

Which brings us to Toshiba’s announcement about the world’s first SDHC memory card with embedded Wireless LAN functionality it’s created, called FlashAir. If you’re wondering about the “world’s first” brag, here’s why: while FlashAir can do what Eye-Fi does (wireless transfers to computers, mobile devices etc), it has the additional ability to receive photographs from other FlashAir cards as well. FlashAir cards used in FlashAir-compliant cameras (and other devices) can be used to send and receive photographs – which basically allows FlashAir cameras to function like mini peer-to-peer networks.

Great for big events like parties – where users usually don’t bring laptops or computers – they can share photos with each other at the end of the night just by using their cameras (provided they are all using FlashAir compliant models and FlashAir cards).

No word on pricing but the FlashAir SDHC memory cards will go on sale in February 2012. [Press Release]

George Wong
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: memory card, sdhc, Storage, Toshiba, WiFi