Toshiba Announces Launch of "FlashAir" Wireless SD Card

It's been 4 years since the idea of a WiFi enabled SD card surfaced. The Eye-Fi card has proven to be very popular and I always wondered why no one else went after that market.

Well, now Toshiba has announced a competitor, the FlashAir, due to hit the shelves in February 2012. The card even offers peer-to-peer transfers meaning if you and a friend both have FlashAir cards, you can transfer pictures between cameras. How cool is that?

Here are the details from the Toshiba press release:

TOKYO�Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced that it will launch the world's first^[1] SDHC memory card with embedded wireless LAN functionality to meet the SD Memory Card Standard. The new card, "FlashAir�", has an 8GB capacity and supports both peer-to-peer transfers and uploads to and downloads from servers. Samples will be available from November 2011 and sales will start in February 2012.

FlashAir will be featured at IFA 2011, in Berlin, Germany from September 2.

At a time when digital cameras have achieved immense popularity, users want a quick and easy way to share photographs with friends and to transfer them to and from online storage services and social networks. Toshiba provides the solution with FlashAir, the world's first SDHC memory card with embedded wireless LAN functionality that is fully compliant with the SD Memory Card Standard.

FlashAir's embedded wireless communication function allows users to upload and download photographs to and from a server and to exchange photographs and other data with other devices, including digital cameras^[2] that are FlashAir compliant and, smartphones and PCs that support wireless LAN. All transfers are done wirelessly, without any need for a cable connection. Key features of the new card include the ability to receive as well as transmit and lower power consumption than other cards with similar functions.

Even in digital cameras not compliant with FlashAir, the new card can share digital images with smartphones and PCs that support wireless LAN.

Toshiba will secure certification of FlashAir for wireless communication in Japan, North America and Europe.

Toshiba will reinforce and extend its leadership of memory business by further enhancing its SD memory card line-up.

Notes:

[1]

As of September 1, 2011. Source: Toshiba Corporation.

[2]

A number of camera makers are now considering launching compliant products.