By Becky Waring

When you think of digital cameras, wireless is not usually the first thing that comes to mind, but the new Eye-Fi SD card brings true Wi-Fi connectivity to almost any SD card-equipped digicam. This tiny device, which won Best of Show awards at both the Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld Expo, doubles as an 802.11g Wi-Fi adapter and 2GB flash memory card.

With the Eye-Fi, you can send photos directly to a PC or Mac over Wi-Fi—no more worrying about packing a card reader or USB cable on every trip. Not only is the Eye-Fi a cable replacement, but the real power lies in its ability to upload photos directly to online picture sharing and social networking sites like Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket, Webshots, Snapfish, Windows Live, TypePad and more.

No computers are necessary to send photos to the Web. All you need is a Wi-Fi network, at your home, work or friends' house. Wi-Fi encryption passwords are supported, although sadly it won't work yet at places that require a Web browser to get online.

Eye-Fi's Web uploading works in one of two ways. If your computer is on, it will send photos to the Eye-Fi Manager software on your PC or Mac, which will then relay it to the appropriate site. If your computer is not available, it will connect to the Web-based Eye-Fi Service, which then delivers images to your photo-sharing site. By leveraging your computer if it's available, the Eye-Fi will conserve battery life and finish file transfers faster so you can go back to taking pictures.

As you would expect with any Wi-Fi card, the Eye-Fi will add to your camera's battery load, so you'll want to keep some spares around. But the ability to send your latest vacation pictures directly to sharing sites, without a computer, more than compensates. Or imagine being at a party or family gathering and just clicking a button to send your photos straight to Snapfish.

Camera vendors are taking notice. Nikon recently announced support for the Eye-Fi in its new top-of-the-line D60 DLSR. And Kodak is making sure to design its new cameras with Eye-Fi in mind and will even market its own branded version of the card. At Macworld, Eye-Fi also announced integration with Apple's iPhoto software allowing you to upload pictures right to your library.

So next time you toss your camera in the bag, consider adding an Eye-Fi to your kit.