Toshiba to Ship 8GB SDHC Card with Embedded Wi-Fi

Posted 09/02/2011 at 5:48am | by Paul Lilly

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Toshiba just trotted out what it claims is the world's first SDHC memory card with embedded wireless LAN functionality baked in. It's called the FlashAir, it has 8GB of storage capacity, and it sounds an awful lot like the Eye-Fi line of SDHC cards, doesn't it? In some respects, the FlashAir is similar, but it's also different in one very big way.

While both the FlashAir and Eye-Fi allow users to upload data from the SDHC card to other devices, like your PC, the FlashAir supports two way communication. It can deal with peer-to-peer transfers, and supports uploading to and downloading from servers, Toshiba says.

"FlashAir's embedded wireless communication functions 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 that are FlashAir compliant and, smartphones and PCs that support wireless LAN," Toshiba explains. "All transfers are done wirelessly, without any need for a cable connection. Key features of the card include the ability to receive as well as transmit and lower power consumption than other cards with similar functions."

Even if your digital camera isn't compliant with FlashAir, it will still share digital images with other devices on a Wi-Fi network. Other bullet points include 802.11b/g/n, Class 6 speed rating, and support for various security protocols, including WEP, TKIP, and AES (WPA, WPA2).

Toshiba will begin shipping samples in November; retail availability expected in February 2012. No word yet on price.

Image Credit: Toshiba