Eye-Fi Geo: Seamless Geotagging for iPhoto Users

Eye-Fi-Geo-card.jpg

Picture this: You’ve just completed a whirlwind tour of Europe, and you’re wading through the hundreds of pics you snapped along the way, and everything starts to look alike. Is that the Charles Bridge in Prague, or the Chain Bridge in Budapest?

If you’re a Mac user, the Eye-Fi Geo can help keep your memories straight.

Next time you travel, pop the 2GB Geo into any digital camera that accepts SD cards: The card uses Wi-Fi triangulation to add location information to every photo you snap. Like other Eye-Fi memory cards, the Geo also lets you wirelessly upload your photos to your PC.

What makes the Geo different from other Eye-Fi cards, including the $99 4GB Explore Video, which also geotags your photos? It’s designed to work seamlessly with iPhoto 09’s new Places feature, which lets you organize and search your photo collection by location. With the Geo card, your photos are automatically imported directly into iPhoto with location information intact, so you don’t need to manually enter it for each image.

Users can also upgrade their Geo card to share images online at MobileMe or one of more than 20 other photo sharing and social networking sites for a $9.99 annual fee.

The $59.99 Eye-Fi Geo is available exclusively at Apple Stores and online at Apple.com.  We’ll take the Geo for a spin in the coming weeks, check back at PCMag.com soon for a full review.

Samsungs First E-Book Reader: SNE-50K

samsung-ebookreader.jpg

Samsung recently announced their first E-Book Reader: The SNE-50K [Via CNET]. It will be sold in South Korea initially with books provided by a local bookstore chain.

The Samsung SNE-50K e-book has a five inch touch screen and can write and store memos. Weighing a mere 6.5 ounces, it also comes with 512 mb of storage. Downloadable books are offered through Kyobo Bookstore Co., one of South Korea’s largest bookstore chains.

To download a book to the E-reader, download it to a computer and then to the E-reader. The SNE-50K currently does not support wireless downloads or connections to the internet. Software is also included to view MS Office documents and PDFs.

The reader will sell for 339,000 Korean won, or about $270. If you’re interested in trying out this e-book reader not to worry, Samsung is working on an e-book reader to be sold outside of South Korea.

Hands On with the PSP Go: Its the Same Price as a Wii

psp_go1.jpg

Yesterday at SCEA’s PlayStation Holiday Preview, I got my hands on the PSP Go, an update to the gaming device that’s due this fall. This portable pocket system is no bigger than my tiny, girly hands, and it’s pretty sleek to boot.

The PSP Go uses the same interface as the previous version and comes with a 16GB hard drive. When looking at this pint-sized system, I started turning it over wondering where you insert the games. I was soon set straight by a Sony rep, who told me that users will download all their games from the PSP Store. You will still be able hook up the Go to your computer and download games that way, but it looks like Sony is trying to push future buyers to download via a wireless network

The PSP Go will be $249 at launch and comes in either black or white.

More images after the jump.

Guinness Book of World Records Goes to Comic Con

sdconventioncenter.jpg

Comic Con International 2009 may be over (phew), but it will surely live on in our hearts–and record books. The Guinness Book of World Records made the rounds at San Diego to hand out a number of awards to “[t]op luminaries in the fields of television, film and comic books.”

Among those honored this year were Simpsons creators Matt Groening and Al Jean who received dual awards for Longest Running Sitcom and Longest Running Animated TV Series. Comic creators Stan Lee and Todd MacFarlane received the Best-selling Comic award for Spider-man.

Batman series Detective Comics got the award for Longest Continuously Published Comic Book, Doctor Who was awarded Most Successful Sci-fi TV Show, and Farscape received a nod for Most Digital Effects in a TV Series.

The awards will be listed in the 2010 edition of the book, out in September.

Comic Con is Over (Bye Bye Bye)

At 5:00 PM on the dot, an ominous voice booms, “Thank you for attending Comic Con 2009. We’ll see you next year.” It’s time to clear out. That’s all she wrote. Of course we’ve still got plenty of writing to do. In the meantime, please enjoy this video shot a few minutes after the floor closed, which I think sufficiently sums up the feelings amongst vendors after one of the longest weekend in recent memory.

Hillcrest Labs Loop Pointer: The Mouse Takes Flight

loop-sm.jpgThe design of Hillcrest Labs’ Loop Pointer may be unique, but can it excel in function as well as aesthetics? This $100 in-air mouse designed for multimedia PCs requires a dramatically different approach to interacting with your computer.

Want to know how it stacked up to the competition? Check out our full review, here.

Comic-Con 2009: The Eagle Has Landed, and Hes Already Sick of Twilight

comicconline.jpg

I’m out here in sunny San Diego to cover this year’s Comic-Con International for PCMag. I’ve only been here for a few hours, but stimulation overload is already beginning to set in. CES, Toy Fair, Auto Show, E3–I’ve covered them all, and I can safely say that those shows, and hectic and draining as they are, have absolutely nothing on the pop-cultural explosion that is Comic-Con.

Some 126,000 people are set to attend the show this year, and I feel pretty sure that I’ve already managed to wait in line between most of them for the bathroom. You’ve got no concept of a line, however, until you’ve seen the sheer volume of young attendees queued up for a Twilight panel. This event saw a seemingly never-ending line down the San Diego street, as the largely female fan-base braved Palmetto bugs, rats, and the mean southern California streets overnight for a chance to get in.

I watched it in part from the relative safety of the second-floor press room. Tween fans asked the male actors hard-hitting questions about what it was like to film a scene topless. “It was cold,” answered Chris Weitz.

If all goes according to plan, that’s the last you’ll hear from me about teenage emo vampires. Check back here for plenty of Comic-Con coverage throughout the weekend. Including the interview I just wrapped up with Spider-man creator, Stan Lee. ‘Nuff said!

D.C. Train Control System Continues to Malfunction

Sometimes, technology goes from being the face of a beloved iPhone 3G to a force that makes us all very nervous. Today, the Washington Post published a story suggesting that the technological failure responsible for the deaths of nine people on the Red Line Metrorail train in June may in fact be a flaw in the system as a whole. The Post obtained internal documents which suggest that at least six other track circuits could be problematic, though Metro officials say that none of the problems are as severe as the one that caused the wreck.
Though it may be a far cry from full-on, sci-fi style destructive, this tech debacle is certainly a reminder that systems designed to be fail-safe rarely are. The full story provides an in-depth report that is sure to cause DC residents to become adept at hailing cabs.

Hands On: Zeo Personal Sleep Coach

The Zeo Personal Sleep CoachSleep is probably the thing in our lives that we spend the most time doing but that we understand the least. As the least observed component of good health, sleep has simply lacked the data and analysis that has been applied to the other two–diet and exercise. The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach from Zeo ( $399) aims to change that–and I had an opportunity to try it.

Using technology products to measure and then analyze performance and progress lets us apply expertise that in the past required visits to the expert nutritionist or personal trainer. Tech has empowered the individual
to take control over his diet (food’s calories and composition and weight
tracking) and exercise (heart rate monitors, digital
distance, and pace trackers).
The secrets of sleep, though, have been locked away in the expensive and time consuming dungeon of professionally administered sleep labs. If you wanted to know how you slept and what to do about it, you had to fork over megabucks and spend a night with wires taped to your head in a sleep lab with multiple visits to the medically trained sleep doctor’s office–a process that has been reserved for only those with serious problems.
The Zeo gives non-scientists the power to measure, analyze, and adjust behavior, with the  objective of getting the most out of sleep. Think it doesn’t matter? Consider this fact shared with me by sleep expert Dr. Michael Brues, PhD and Zeo Special Advisory Board Member: The day wiht the most traffic fatalities in the U.S. is the day after we lose an hour to Daylight Savings Time.

PCMag After Hours: Comic Con Pre-Game Show

timmy-williams.jpgI’m flying out to San Diego for Comic Con early tomorrow, so on this week’s edition of PCMag After Hours, we’re getting fired up the show. We’ll be talking about fanboys (and fangirls), outlining a convention survival guide, and previewing what we’re most looking forward to.

We’ve got Timmy Williams from IFC’s The Whitest Kids U Know in the studio, and Mike Nelson (Mystery Science Theater 3000), Blair Butler (G4’s Attack of the Show), Alex Zalben (of the comedy troupe Elephant Larry), and the cast of BBC’s The Mighty Boosh on the phone.

You can tune in to a live video stream of the show tonight at 5:45 PM ET at U Stream, or download it from PCMag.com or via iTunes on Friday.

And keep checking back later in the week for Gearlog’s Comic Con coverage!