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Samsung Galaxy Note first impressions

John / April 23, 2012 / Mobile, Reviews, Technology / 4 Comments

After a disappointing experience with an Android tablet recently, it was timely that Samsung offered to loan me their latest Android device, the Galaxy Note. This is a bit of a strange device though…it’s a 5.3″ tablet that is also a phone…commonly referred to as a ‘phablet’.

I got the chance to briefly use one at SXSW earlier this year but a few minutes with a device is rarely enough to tell if it’s a winner or not (I didn’t have high hopes at the time). It seemed too big to be practical and it comes with a stylus! I thought decent touch screen technology had finally killed off the stylus…although my first true smartphone (a Treo 650 and all the Palm PDA devices I had before that) used one.

But now it’s been just over a week with the device and I have to say, I’m really surprised at how much I enjoy using it. It’s not without some issues which I’ll describe in a bit but it’s been a nice fresh take on the mobile experience.

It is HUGE and does look kind of ridiculous as a phone. There, I stated the obvious. But when I considered how infrequently I actually use my iPhone as a phone (by holding it up to my ear), it became less of an issue. Fact is, I don’t make/receive a lot of phone calls…and if I do, it’s usually in my car while I’m driving and I have hands-free Bluetooth built into my car’s stereo.

Things I liked:

huge, beautiful & vibrant Super OMOLED 5.3″ screen with a great viewing angle at 1280×800 resolution
speedy with a 1.5 GHz Dual Core Processor inside and crazy fast 4G LTE internet speeds (I’ve been testing on the Telus network in Canada and it’s been faster than many home internet speeds)
one of the better Android cameras I’ve used so far (8 megapixel with autofocus on the back) that can shoot up to 1080p HD video
despite the giant screen, battery life was on par with my iPhone 4S…each lasts me a day with a little juice left over
nice finish on the back cover…not slippery and feels solid despite the back battery cover being wafer thin
surprisingly great form factor for a tablet…fits nicely in your hand (slightly bigger than my Canadian Passport)
it comes with a stylus, but isn’t required to use the Note – artists can really use the stylus to create some great art and regular people like me can quickly scribble notes – bonus: you can easily take screenshots using the stylus by pressing & holding the button as you tap the screen

Things I didn’t like:

looks silly as a phone when held to your face
no easy way (by default) to type (two handed) on the device unless you lay it flat and/or prop it up on something – a smart/flip cover or stand would be useful (which are available separately from third parties)
difficult to use one handed due to size of the screen – you can’t easily navigate with 1-2 fingers/thumb like a smaller device
uses a normal/full size SIM card
still running Gingerbread 2.3.6 version of Android OS (likely due to Telus update schedule)
somewhat slow autofocus on the back camera and the shutter is a little laggy, the moment you hit the button, the image is captured, despite the image processing delay, you still get the shot you intended
the stylus centric handwriting recognition works but is a little clunky to use

The screen really is something to behold…it has a fantastic viewing angle and is the correct aspect ratio for HD movies:

The screen is also particularly good at showing photos. My previous Android phone, the Nexus S was too saturated so colors looked over done. The Note’s screen seems just right.

If you think you’re good at Draw Something with your finger, you should be amazing at it with the Note’s stylus…sadly, it hasn’t helped my artistic ability.

One of the first things I like to test on a new device is how well it runs M.A.M.E. and the Note excels at it.

Everything runs smoothly, and looks fantastic. You can rotate the screen and it rotates immediately, moving the onscreen controls as well. Despite it’s large screen, it’s quite comfortable to hold in landscape mode to play.

As I mentioned above, it has one of the better Android cameras I’ve used.

With similar 8 megapixel specs as the iPhone 4S, I was able to take some great shots on the go in many different lighting situations.

It’s definitely going to be difficult to send this back to Samsung as it’s one of the best Android experiences I’ve had…and will only get better when Android 4.0 is released for it. I was certainly a doubter at first but after using it for an extended period, I have to say I’m quite impressed with the Galaxy Note.

Asus Transformer Prime tablet first impressions

John / March 30, 2012 / Hardware, Mobile, Reviews, Technology / 2 Comments

Last night I finally caved and picked up an ASUS Transformer Prime TF201-B1-GR and the mobile keyboard dock for it.

Yes, I actually bought a non-Apple tablet (that thinks it’s a laptop). I’ll wait while you soak that in.

After seeing both Derek and Morten, in the span of about 6 hours (ironically on the release day of the new iPad), using their Transformer Prime’s, I started to think about it a lot more and did some research.

I already have a work provided iPad 2 but find that I rarely use it at home since I have a laptop (MacBook Air). The iPad was a choice I made when it came time to get a new laptop at work…I opted to go the iPad route because of what I was mostly using the laptop for at work – to attend meetings, have access to my calendar and email anywhere in the building, etc. The iPad works fantastically better for these tasks than a laptop for me at least.

So at home, I wanted something different to play with. I already had an HP Touchpad which I hacked and put Android onto but it was a little bulky (think the size of the iPad 1, inside a case) and didn’t have any external ports for memory cards. Also the Android 4 install I recently did is still considered very alpha so a number of things didn’t work or weren’t aware of the hardware I was using.

I really liked a few things about the Prime almost immediately:

the nicely integrated and detachable keyboard dock (an optional, separate $150 purchase which is actually a no brainer because of what it adds) which adds a really nice keyboard, touchpad(!), SD card slot, USB port and battery pack that extends the Prime’s battery to over 18 hours
integrated microSD card slot for additional storage. I opted for the cheaper 32gb model because I can extend this with memory cards easily thanks to the two slot option with the keyboard dock
it runs Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) which is currently the best Android experience available
very speedy processor and video card that seems to rival Apple’s iPad speed. Simple things like just rotating the display always seemed laggy on my previous Android devices whereas this is very comparable

I’ve only had it for less than a day and already the frustration with the Android Marketplace (now known as the Play Store) has surfaced since unlike Apple’s App Store, there is no clear distinction between phone and tablet apps. I’ve talked about the fragmented Android marketplace before and now it’s even more obvious with a device like the Prime.

I spent a bunch of time downloading apps only to find that they are really meant for a phone display. While they still work on the Prime, it’s not the best experience.

Another interesting point is the unboxing experience. It feels like Asus completely copied Apple’s method for packaging and presenting the device. Very similar foam padding inside the box, internal user guide bundle and even the shape of the charging cable feel more than simply ‘inspired by Apple’. But that said, it is still a good experience, with minimal excess like the days of old with the huge styrofoam inserts.

My Prime is the ‘Amethyst Gray’ model…the other color option was champagne which appears to be more silver/pearly white and this grey looks more like purple or stained deep red wine than gray. Whatever.

Asus has done a great job of not mucking too much with the Android experience and really making an effort to think things through rather than simply bolt them on like in the past. I’ve noticed a bunch of little things that work like you’d expect and want (finally an integrated screenshot solution via the keyboard or onscreen button). The keyboard also has an integrated trackpad which makes using a tablet much easier for some tasks while typing on the keyboard – something I found lacking on the Apple side when using an iPad + keyboard combo, so much so that I stopped using an external keyboard.

It’s easy to see something like this could be the future of mobile computing with the software and hardware finally working together in a manner that makes sense.

Once I spend more time with the unit, I’ll post more about my experiences. So far though, I’m enjoying it.

UDPATE: First weekend with the device and I’ve seen this message far too often in the stock browser:

Google’s own Chrome Browser (which is an early beta on Android) isn’t much better with it’s crashiness.

UPDATE #2: Well, I tried for a over a week to love the Transformer Prime but in the end, I returned it. Despite having some really killer features, I found the overall performance subpar when compared to my iPad 2.

The wifi was incredibly weak – something that seems to be well documented online, due to the aluminum shell which reduces the range of the antenna. While not a main reason I bought it in the first place, the built in GPS kind of worked and Asus has even begun offering a GPS dongle for all customers due to the weak performance of the built in module (they’ve also removed the feature from the unit’s main specs).

The final straw was when I was simply browsing the Play Store (app market) trying to find tablet specific apps and this popped up:

I guess my Android friends are okay with this kind of performance…but I’m not and certainly not for a $700+ device (keyboard dock included). I wasn’t doing anything other than running a stock unit with the latest Android updates. I know I can root, unlock the bootloader, etc but I shouldn’t have to do that to simply use the browser.

I may try again with Google’s rumored upcoming 1st party tablet (which may actually be a rebranded Asus) or maybe even a Kindle Fire from Amazon which has a curated app store of apps that are optimized for that tablet.

Why I love Hipstamatic

John / February 20, 2012 / Mobile, Photography / 2 Comments

Let me start by saying I don’t hate Instagram, I’m just not a fan…this post is why I love Hipstamatic (for the iPhone) and use it constantly. This post also isn’t about the sharing community that is behind Instagram (which is pretty impressive)…anything that inspires people to take more photos is awesome in my book.

But first, a little background.

I became a photographer while in high school, shooting film. Most often it was a Pentax K1000 like so many others started with:

(pay no attention to my hair, it was the 80′s after all)

After high school, one of my first real jobs was working in a mall photo lab. This gave me unlimited access to nearly free film and processing thanks to my staff discount. This enabled me to shoot film like people shoot digital today: to shoot LOTS of photos without counting the cost of every frame.

I still have boxes and boxes of film negatives and prints that I’d like to scan one day.

But this post isn’t about that. It’s about the feeling I had (and still get) when I shoot film. You compose your shot and hope for the best because in most cases, it could be days or weeks before you see the resulting photo. This process makes picking up a set of prints better than Christmas for me. Even more so if there are a number of different sessions of photos on a particular roll.

Doesn’t matter if I’m using a 35mm SLR, one of my many Holga’s or some other weird film camera I found at a flea market. It’s all the same nostalgia for me.

Shooting film also requires you to make a number of decisions outside of composition. You have to choose why type of film (and speed) you’re going to use. You also choose what type of lens you’ll use (which of course is the same with a digital SLR). All these factors come into play before you’ve even shot a frame.

When I go on photo walks, I regularly leave most of my gear at home and only use a certain lens for the entire walk. This tends to force you to think more creatively how you’ll capture something with a limited set of options.

Anyways, back to Hipstamatic.

I don’t think Hipstamatic was the first one, but it certainly came out during the gold rush of iPhone apps that simulated a vintage camera look and feel. It immediately captured my attention because of the way that it works: you choose your lens, film, flash and even the case before you take your shot. You don’t get to preview it nor do you get to mess with it afterwards. It worked just like film cameras do. You also couldn’t open your previously shot photos to run them through the different lenses and films (well, unless you shot a photo of that photo I guess). I use CameraBag for that anyways.

You even have to wait for the photo to process with Hipstamatic…just like film. Then, if everything worked and the app doesn’t crash, you get to see your result.

All of these variables go into crafting the photo before you press the big yellow shutter button.

This is why I like Hipstamatic. It feels comfortable. It feels like Christmas when you get your shot processed.

I rarely do much, if any post processing to my digital photos. If I do, it’s usually limited to cropping, white balance correction or bumping up the contrast a little. This is likely because in the pre-Photoshop days of film photography, all your post processing was done in the darkroom. I loved playing in the darkroom but it was an expensive endeavor since the materials to develop your film and make prints was pretty expensive to a high school student. Digital changed that and allowed us to experiment to our hearts content. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it’s just that I learned early one to try and get it right in the camera and not use the darkroom (or post-processing) as a crutch to fix a poor photo. That’s not to say I don’t fix my own bad photos (I definitely do) but I don’t make it my normal process and it’s usually limited to ‘one-timers’ if I can help it. I probably have thousands of amazing photos, save for one flaw that I couldn’t fix, that will never see the light of day.

This is one of the things I don’t like about Instagram – you shoot a basic photo and then you process it all to hell. The net result is not that different than making the choices of lenses and film in Hipstamatic, since there are a plethora of choices (in app purchases & freebies) but the choice was made up front, not after the fact.

This post may label me a film (or Hipstamatic) snob but I don’t consider myself as such. It’s more about the joy of photography for me and why I have well over 6,400 photos on my iPhone from the last few months…a large percentage of which were shot with Hipstamatic.

I even bought the ‘real world’ Hipstacase for my iPhone for it (with a nicely integrated & removable tripod attachment):

It adds just that little extra to the whole experience.

Coming full circle with the Chevy Volt

John / October 12, 2011 / Mobile, Reviews, Technology / Comments Off

As regular readers here will know, I’ve been lucky enough to have seen the Chevy Volt from million dollar prototype stage during the 2010 Olympics, all the way through to the final, shipping product that I got to test drive in Alaska earlier this year.

One thing that I wanted to do from the beginning though, is try out the electric vehicle on my own personal commute. I live in Port Coquitlam and drive to North Vancouver every day. It’s about 70 kilometers round trip. Last week, GM Canada loaned me a Volt to try it out on my local commute.

As with previous posts, this is more a overview of the technology in the car than a traditional car review… so I’m going to focus on a couple of things including the realities of charging an electric car at home, driving one on my daily commute and what you can do with GM’s smartphone app for the Volt.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Volt is meant to be charged with a regular 110V wall outlet. It has a dedicated port on the front left side of the car (complete with push button on the key fob and on the driver’s door to open it). It’s a proprietary port for use with the cable reel that is located in the trunk. I had initially spent way too much time looking for a long extension cord inside my house before I realized the cable reel had plenty of cord to go from my garage outlet to my carport without issue. Using this method takes a depleted battery about 10 hours to charge to 100%. This gives you anywhere from 40 to 80 kilometers of electric travel depending on a number of factors including road/traffic conditions, what you have running inside the car (air conditioning, heated seats, charging up your phone, lights, etc). The gas engine tops up the available range to just over 400 kilometers with a full tank of gas & fully charged battery.

If you want to charge it faster, you can get a 220V outlet installed (think of your washer/dryer connection) and the Volt will charge in 4 hours.

Unfortunately for me, at my office, I wasn’t able to find any parking stalls that had ready access to a wall outlet. I’m sure they exist, I just wasn’t able to get a stall that had one during my loan period. So I had to go all day at work without charging that meant I’d get to see if I’d get to go my full commute under battery power.

On the days that I had the car, I seemed to have had some of the worst traffic days in quite a while so it took longer than normal to get home. At the end of the day though, I usually only had to dip into the gas tank for a couple of liters of gas to get home with the battery getting depleted just minutes from my front door. I think during my whole week of usage, I used less than 10 litres of gas.

Since this is a GM vehicle, it came with OnStar and the model I had included the full navigation system which is an optional add-on to the base Volt.

One thing I really liked was the ‘Traffic Events’ that would pop up on the screen via the OnStar service. It was pretty consistent with what the local news radio station was reporting (slightly more realtime) and also reflected the reality on the road in front of me. The events popped up a few kilometers from where they were and showed me exactly where the accident was located and even suggested alternate routes if any.

I also liked the heads up display with navigation right above the steering wheel with key turn by turn directions (I was being audibly told by the nav system to do a legal u-turn when possible in this photo):

The free OnStar RemoteLink app is available for iPhone and Android smartphones in their respective marketplaces. It gives you a lot of control and information about your car at your fingertips. Everything from being able to lock/unlock & start your car remotely, being able to monitor & review your battery life, tire pressure and other vehicle diagnostic information to even honking the horn.

One particularly cool feature was the navigation tab which would give you the ability to search out a destination on your phone and send the routing information to the car. You can also set reminders for charging the vehicle and schedule the charging to begin at specific times if your electricity is cheaper during different times of the day.

One thing I can say after having a few non-geeks in the car during my time with it is that the dash and display screens can seem overwhelming to the uninitiated. Personally, I loved it but I can see how the large console area with it’s plethora of buttons, busy dash and touchscreens can be confusing. No doubt there is a lot going on in this car. Fortunately, you can turn off the screens and just drive normally if that’s your thing.

I really enjoyed my ‘real world’ week with the Volt. If I was looking to upgrade my car right now, I would give it some serious consideration after reviewing my annual gas expenses and mileage. It’s just too bad my home province of BC doesn’t have any rebates for eco vehicles like many other provinces do. It would make the purchase price that much more attractive.

UPDATE: Looks like BC is finally getting on board with rebates for cars like the Volt beginning December 1, 2011!

Use your iPhone as a 3D scanner with Trimensional

John / July 12, 2011 / 3D Printing, Hardware, Mobile, Technology / 2 Comments

I first saw this app a few months ago, well before I had decided to get into 3D printing.

Trimensional is an iPhone app that lets you take 3D photos. I thought it was just a fun camera app to make animated gifs like these:

That is until they added the ability (via a modest in-app purchase) to export the scans as files that can be read by a 3D printer (.STL), like my MakerBot:

So here’s the scan of my face from above, printed in ‘nuclear green’:

Pretty cool and just a little creepy!

Toon Paint for iPhone

John / May 18, 2011 / Mobile, Photography / Comments Off

I stumbled across a very interesting iPhone app today called Toon Paint. It lets you take or process iPhone photos into line drawings and then gives you the ability to paint them.

I love the look of the converted images and actually prefer the high contrast black and white output rather than the painted images…possibly because I suck at painting. Seems to work really well with Hipstamatic shots which all these examples are.

Here’s an auto painted version (via the in-app purchase of Toon Color):

It’s just available for iPhone but the iPad version is on the way…well worth the $1.99 purchase.

Here’s a few more of my favorite images ‘tooned’ (non-iPhone originals):

I’ll be adding all my Toon Paint images to a set on Flickr.

My latest iPhone 4 case

John / May 10, 2011 / Mobile, Photography / 2 Comments

Likely my last case for the iPhone 4 because it’s awesome and because the iPhone 5 is due out later this year…but I’ve said that before.

It’s from the folks that make my favourite iPhone camera app, Hipstamatic and made by Agent 18.

It’s really overpriced ($40) for what it is and doesn’t offer much protection but I still love it. It comes with a metal tripod mount and a lanyard that is removable.

I bought it here.

Hands on with the Blackberry Playbook

John / April 19, 2011 / Hardware, Mobile, Reviews, Technology / Comments Off

This morning I had an opportunity to check out the new tablet on the block, the Blackberry Playbook from Research in Motion.

Of course, I had to try the camera(s) on the Playbook (shot with the rear camera in low light):

It has a 3mp front facing camera and a 5mp rear facing camera which seemed pretty decent.

The Playbook fits easily inside the touchscreen area of my iPad 2.

What I found surprised me. Here’s my quick takeaways after playing with it for a brief amount of time:

I liked:

Form factor – fits nicely in your hand and is about the size of my Kindle 3 in it’s leather case which means it’s perfect for curling up on the couch with
rubberized back…something I like immensely over the Apple aluminum backed iPad
Multitouch bezels – let’s you swipe from the black bezel areas in order to get to options, switch apps, etc.
Multitasking – works as advertised and you can swipe from side to side in the bezel area to switch between apps
There is a file system! I was able to log into Flickr and use the uploader to access the breakfast photo I took and post it directly online – something I wish was possible with iOS

What I didn’t like:

App World – obviously it’s launch day so there aren’t a ton of apps…this should get better with time if enough people buy the Playbook. I’m still skeptical about the Android integration but we’ll see.
Custom connectors for HDMI – I’m sure it’s a space thing but it would have been nice to have a standard port instead of having to buy a dongle (could have been included at least)
Blackberry required for native email/contacts/calendar – this is a huge dropped ball…other than webmail, there is currently no native email app unless you pair with your BB. I can’t imagine any non-Blackberry owners getting one anytime soon until they release some native apps to address this (which I’m told is coming soon – but it should have been there on day 1)
cheesy neoprene case included in the box

I guess only time will tell if there is a market for the Playbook. It launched at 7am around North America and there wasn’t a single person lined up to buy one (most pre-ordered them I’m told). I also know that my company is giving them a pass, at least this year, which is a little surprising considering the Blackberry centric enterprise I work for.

My thanks to Elliott, Paul and Brittany at Future Shop for the hands on playtime with the Playbook.

Hands on with LG’s Windows Phone 7 smartphones

John / April 6, 2011 / Hardware, Mobile, Reviews / Comments Off

Recently, my friends at LG loaned me a couple of their new smartphones running Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7.

The one on the left, the LG-C900B (aka the LG Quantum) has a slide out keyboard and the one on the right is the LG-E900h (aka LG Optimus 7) which is a full on touchscreen model.

As with previous LG smartphones I’ve reviewed, I found the build quality to be excellent and the form factor, especially on the Quantum, to be great in the hand. The Optimus was a little large and it’s edges a little sharp for my liking.

Both smartphones have 5 megapixel cameras with flash, a dedicated camera shutter button and also a bundled app for taking panoramic photos.

I quite liked the built in panorama app that made it really easy to create images like this one by simply holding the cameraphone up and moving it in the direction you want to capture. The app will snap a photo when you are lined up and take care of the stitching automagically:

My only complaint about the panorama app is that the resolution is quite low considering the ability of the camera.

The camera itself was pretty decent although even at the highest settings, it still looks a little web cammy to me.

I didn’t have a ton of time to really put the phones through their paces but overall I quite liked them. Not unlike the Zune MP3 player, I found the user interface to be fast, responsive and very slick. It felt much more polished than I’ve seen on Android devices and even made me wish my iPhone did some of the same tricks.

During the time I had with the phone, I didn’t get to try a lot of the applications in the marketplace but all the usual suspects were there with quite polished versions of Facebook, Twitter and the like. Even Netflix was there and worked very well.

Like Android & iOS devices, using Windows Phone 7 is centered around a core user account from Microsoft. Android uses Google accounts and Apple uses iTunes. The frustrating thing on WP7 was the fact that if you enter your initial account information incorrectly (I had mistyped my Windows Live password) you are basically screwed. There is no way on the phone to delete the account and try again or even correct the mistyped password. You can add additional accounts but the primary one has to be valid and correct for ANYTHING to work properly on the phone.

The only solution was to do a complete factory reset. While I hadn’t been able to setup much on the phone yet, it was still incredible that the only way to resolve the situation of a mistyped password was to reset the phone.

Initial pains aside, I still really liked the Windows Phone 7 platform based on my brief experience with it…I think it’s an easier platform for people new to smartphones to use and understand compared to the brutally fragmented Android arena. Microsoft also has the potential to really capitalize on its Xbox integration with these devices although the current implementation was a little weak with only minor connectivity to your Xbox Live account. Using your WP7 smartphone as a controller for your Xbox 360 could be very cool indeed.

I’m still not ready to give up my iPhone 4 but I certainly welcome Microsoft and it’s partners like LG to compete on an ever increasingly level playing field. Only time will tell if they can help make things better for all consumers. As I’ve said many times, competition is great to keep Apple in check and we’re finally seeing devices that at least have a chance to compete for market share.

Eye-fi Pro X2 Wireless SD card review

John / January 19, 2011 / Mobile, Photography, Reviews, Technology / 3 Comments

During the holidays, I came across a boxing day deal for the Eye-Fi Pro X2 8GB wireless SD card.

I’ve written about these Eye-Fi cards before but this is a much newer version with some key differences that address the previous model’s shortcomings.

These memory cards are unique in that in addition to being memory cards for storing your photos, they also contain tiny wifi antennas (in this case, with support for 802.11N) that allow you to upload your photos and video straight from the camera. This usually requires you to have already setup a wifi connection (at home, work, school, etc) in advance using a laptop.

The main reason I picked it up is that the Pro line supports ad-hoc wireless modes. This means that I can use my iPhone as a wireless hotspot and have this card connect to the internet directly via my iPhone and upload photos in near real time. It did require advance setup, via a computer, but once setup, you shouldn’t have to do anything for it to work going forward. This is huge for me when I’m shooting events and such and I really want to upload some photos right away, I’m now able to do it with nothing more than my camera and iPhone with me.

My Nikon D7000 has dual SD card slots that are configurable. I’m able to choose what the second slot is used for. Normally, it’s just overflow storage. But when I use an Eye-Fi card in that slot, I set the camera to send a jpeg copy of the photos I’m taking to that card. While the Pro cards now support RAW files, it just seems faster/easier to store RAW on the main card slot and drop a much smaller JPG file onto the second slot for uploading.

You can set the upload options via the Eye-Fi card management software. It can upload everything or you can selectively choose what to upload by using the camera’s ‘protect’ option. This lets you pick and choose which files get uploaded. You also choose where the files are uploaded to via the software with support for a lot of common photo sharing sites, Facebook, etc. Mine all go to Flickr with custom tags, sets and other settings I can setup in advance.

An added feature is that many newer cameras have support for Eye-Fi cards in their menus.

My relatively new Nikon D7000 (as did my older D90) has a menu function to turn off/on the wireless uploads which can save battery if you don’t need to be uploading on the go:

The back LCD screen on the D7000 has an interesting icon that I didn’t immediately notice when an Eye-Fi card is inserted – a wifi icon! It’s static normally and then blinks when it’s actually uploading photos:

I’m currently using this card with my jailbroken iPhone 4 running MyWi as a personal hotspot. Apple recently unveiled a newer firmware for iPhones that may potentially give you this function without having to jailbreak but it’s still to be determined if your carrier will allow that. Eye-Fi also recently announced at CES 2011 an update is coming called Direct Mode which also allow this:

Ziv, one of the Eye-Fi co-founders confirmed on Flickr to me that this will be a free update for X2 card owners which is awesome news.

So any downsides?
I can only see three issues with the card given my use case:

Speed: the cards are only class 6 which is very slow for some cameras…I usually use class 10 (or higher speed) cards but given that I’m only dumping jpegs and not RAWs to the Eye-Fi, it may not be that big of a deal. The upload speed from the card to the internet is pretty fast and a non-issue with it taking around 2 minutes from shot to appearing on Flickr in my tests.
Price: these cards aren’t cheap…my 8gb card is usually around $150. I got mine on sale for $100. In comparison, you can usually get 16gb pro speed SD cards for ~$100 from a name brand company
Post-Processing: while I don’t do much, if any post processing usually, obviously, your photos are going straight from the camera to the cloud…this may be a deal breaker for some photographers. I figure in some cases, it might be better to get the shot online and publish (or replace) that photo with a processed version later otherwise this card may not be that useful to you

I think this card will be a huge asset in my camera bag for event photography where I can truly be a photo ninja.