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07-01-2016, 04:33 AM   #1
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Eye-Fi orphans 14 products, which will therefore cease to function

QuoteQuote:
Eye-Fi makes clever wifi hotspots in the shape of SD cards; your camera sees them as SD cards but you can mount them on your network and automatically feed the images captured by your camera to a nearby laptop. But to make all this work with some models, you need an account on "Eye-Fi Center," a cloud service run by the company that sends configuration data to your card.

Some of the company's early cards have security problems, and so the company is end-of-lifing them, and taking down the Eye-Fi Center at the same time. They've warned customers that when this happens, many of the features that enticed them to buy their cards will cease to function, and they will no longer be able to readily send new configurations to their cards.
The article does not address how Ricoh is tied up in all of this, since they are in the process of buying the cloud service. What ever happens, the stink will still affect them....


07-01-2016, 04:45 AM   #2
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Yes and I will be annoyed with Eye-fi if my ability to tfr images from my existing Eye-fi card to a device of my choosing is nobbled by this announced action. Unfortunately this looks as if it will be the case.

If so, that will be the last time I buy anything with that brand name on it.

Ricoh has unfortunately just bought a brand name that will no longer have much value.

Last edited by southlander; 07-01-2016 at 05:10 AM.
07-01-2016, 06:35 AM   #3
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Interesting article and how it also applies to light bulbs and thermostats. Thanks for sharing it.

Maybe the solution is that if your item needs an active internet connection to configure or function, then don't purchase it and let the company know why you're not buying it.

I had thought of trying out Philips smart light bulbs but reading that you need an account with them to use the bulbs, I'll avoid them.
07-01-2016, 06:59 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by southlander Quote
Yes and I will be annoyed with Eye-fi if my ability to tfr images from my existing Eye-fi card to a device of my choosing is nobbled by this announced action. Unfortunately this looks as if it will be the case.

If so, that will be the last time I buy anything with that brand name on it.

Ricoh has unfortunately just bought a brand name that will no longer have much value.
I don't follow... Ricoh had bought Eye-fi? Don't they have the Flucard standard, which is similar but different?
(Asking because I genuinely ignore the answer)

07-01-2016, 07:01 AM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by LensBeginner Quote
I don't follow... Ricoh had bought Eye-fi? Don't they have the Flucard standard, which is similar but different?
(Asking because I genuinely ignore the answer)
Ricoh bought the cloud platform that Eye-Fi created. Eye-Fi still controls what cards they make and support.
07-01-2016, 07:26 AM   #6
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Reminds me of Adobe a few years ago. I upgraded computers and went to install piece of their software. The software had to be activated by Adobe. You installed it , called Adobe and they activated it over the internet. In any case, Adobe refused to activate it on the new machine saying they didn't support software after two years. By support they meant enable me to use the software I paid for. As mentioned above, I've never bought another Adobe product. That's tough now that I'd really like to move to a Lightroom style product with Apple abandoning Aperture. But, the boycott is still in place, and theirs no plan to rescind it. They don't get another cent until they give back what they took from me, admit they were wrong to do what they did, and refund everyone's money who bought that product.
07-01-2016, 08:52 AM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by southlander Quote
Yes and I will be annoyed with Eye-fi if my ability to tfr images from my existing Eye-fi card to a device of my choosing is nobbled by this announced action. Unfortunately this looks as if it will be the case.
If your card requires an account at EyeFi Center to do the magic, then yes, the feature may go away.

QuoteOriginally posted by interested_observer Quote
What ever happens, the stink will still affect them....
QuoteOriginally posted by southlander Quote
Ricoh has unfortunately just bought a brand name that will no longer have much value.
Ricoh's research branch (Ricoh Innovations Corporation, a company separate from Ricoh's imaging and business machine entities) bought EyeFi's cloud service. The anticipation is that the service will eventually be renamed and repurposed to fit the research branch's needs while continuing to offer EyeFi Cloud as a product. I suspect that the new (Ricoh) ownership of the cloud service may be one reason why EyeFi has ceased support for EyeFi Center.


Steve


Last edited by stevebrot; 07-01-2016 at 09:00 AM.
07-01-2016, 08:54 AM   #8
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EyeFi's FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions ? X2 Migration

BTW...what EyeFi has done sucks.


Steve
07-01-2016, 09:24 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by LensBeginner Quote
I don't follow... Ricoh had bought Eye-fi? Don't they have the Flucard standard, which is similar but different?
(Asking because I genuinely ignore the answer)
QuoteOriginally posted by enoeske Quote
Ricoh bought the cloud platform that Eye-Fi created. Eye-Fi still controls what cards they make and support.
It was not Ricoh Imaging. Ricoh Innovation (part of the B2B office equipment company) bought the Eye-Fi Cloud Sharing service, apparently as a platform for printers and copiers document management services.
07-01-2016, 09:35 AM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by monochrome Quote
It was not Ricoh Imaging. Ricoh Innovation (part of the B2B office equipment company) bought the Eye-Fi Cloud Sharing service, apparently as a platform for printers and copiers document management services.
I never said it was. Ricoh, indeed, bought it. We can only speculate on why.
07-01-2016, 10:23 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by enoeske Quote
I never said it was. Ricoh, indeed, bought it. We can only speculate on why.
Ricoh Corporation built the entire company buying already defunct and orphaned assets of failed companies or failed brands.

They relabel anything of value 'RICOH', exploit any valuable patents across the enterprise and send everything else down the memory hole. They actually don't really try to be the market leader. They try to stay in the meat of the product of evoluition cycle, offering bulletproof engineering at 'high-value' prices as an alternative.

This deal looks like it is taken straight from the playbook.

Pentax is an exception in that rebranding the cameras was met with such stiff resistance that they removed the tiny Ricoh on the back.
07-01-2016, 11:37 AM   #12
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The moment wi-fi became embedded in cameras Eye-fi as a standalone product was on borrowed time.

Eye-fi is orphaning products because the larger consumer base orphaned Eye-fi.
07-01-2016, 01:20 PM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by mtansley Quote
Interesting article and how it also applies to light bulbs and thermostats. Thanks for sharing it.

Maybe the solution is that if your item needs an active internet connection to configure or function, then don't purchase it and let the company know why you're not buying it.

I had thought of trying out Philips smart light bulbs but reading that you need an account with them to use the bulbs, I'll avoid them.
Nothing scares me more than the thought that someone else might have the ability to switch off my lights. The potential for misuse there seems rather horrific.
07-01-2016, 01:41 PM   #14
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Well, could never get my wifi card to work in my K-50 anyway; I think the camera kept bricking it, and went through 2 sent from EyeFi before I gave up. Too fiddly.

Now if Pentax turns off wifi cameras that would be more upsetting....
07-01-2016, 06:55 PM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by pathdoc Quote
Nothing scares me more than the thought that someone else might have the ability to switch off my lights. The potential for misuse there seems rather horrific.
Switching off your lights is the least of your possible problems....
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