4K-resolution video capabilities are finding their way into more and more cameras these days, even though monitors that can display the resolution currently cost as much as one or two family sedans. Heck, even the tiny new GoPro Hero3 can shoot 4K, albeit at a semi-useless 15fps.

Although photographers and filmmakers can’t do too much with 4K footage at the moment, there will come a time when it’s the new 1080p. When that time comes, will we still be calling it “4K”? If the Consumer Electronics Association has its way: no.
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Perhaps lost amidst the excitement over new cameras at CES 2012 earlier this month was the SD Association’s unveiling of a new Wi-Fi data transfer standard. This new specification should make it easier for other memory card manufacturers to jump into the Wi-Fi-capable memory card game — an arena currently dominated by Eye-Fi (and more recently Toshiba).

Eye-Fi is, predictably, not happy with this latest development. The company is itself part of the SD Association, but has chosen not to back the standard. In a blog post published last week, CEO Yuval Koren argues that any company implementing the new standard would violate Eye-Fi’s patents for technology that took “tens of millions of dollars and several years” to create.

(via Eye-Fi via Engadget)

Image credit: Eye-Fi card by sphynge

Toshiba is gearing up to take on Eye-Fi, the memory card that allows you to throw out your card reader and transfer photos wirelessly. They’ve teamed up with Trek 2000, a Singapore-based flash corp., to form the “Standard Promotion Forum for Memory Cards Embedding Wireless LAN” in an effort to standardize the technology behind wireless SD cards. Toshiba is pushing a new 8GB SD card that transfers JPEG and RAW files over IEEE 802.11 b/g, entering a market previously dominated by Eye-Fi.

This is great news for consumers, since increased competition in this space will likely help drive prices down. An 8GB Eye-Fi SD card currently costs about $100.

(via Engadget)