The gadget: The Eye-Fi. It’s an SD memory card that adds Wi-Fi to any camera. Plus the free Eye-Fi service supports automatic uploads to 20 different web photo sites (like Flickr) as well as a computer on your home network.

The verdict: It works flawlessly.

The performance: Like we said, the Eye-Fi works flawlessly. Setup takes roughly five minutes (you program the card through your computer and bundled card reader.) From there, you simply snap pics in the range of your router, and chances are, by the time you go back to your computer, the pictures will be viewable. If your router dies, you turn off your camera, or even if you take out the card and put it back in, the photos will upload when you get things sorted out again. It’s actually a normal 2GB memory card underneath all of the other functionality and can work as such.

The catch: We figured iIt must drain more battery —but apparently in-camera SD power standards dictate that this extra consumed power needs to be minimal, to the level of not noticeable to the end user. Unfortunately, the product doesn't support hotspots.

The price: $100

The verdict Part II: Sure, the Eye-Fi is basically a cradle replacement. But snapping photos and automatically uploading them in real time to share is truly fantastic, especially when the images can be better than one’s camera phone. And the entire product experience is built with Apple-like simplicity. If you can get over the price and are sick of cords, we strongly recommend the purchase. Available now. [eye-fi]

HotHardware says they just got word of a new Dell SP2008WFP 20-inch monitor coming tomorrow that has 1680×1050 resolution, a built-in 2.0-megapixel webcam, 2ms response time, DVI with HDCP connectivity, and a 2000:1 contrast ratio. Not much else is known about this, but since the 24-inch Dell is around $600, we’re guessing this will be somewhere around the $400 range, give or take a few hundred bucks. Check back tomorrow to see if this is real or just another alien autopsy. [HotHardware]

Meraki’s goal is to make multi-node Wi-Fi networking so simple that anyone can do it. Know what? It succeeds admirably with the Mini. Jack one router into your Internet connection; plug in a few more around your pad, and BAM! You’re up and running with a wireless mesh network. The few settings that you do need to tweak are all easily managed via Meraki’s online “dashboard”— we got a two-router mesh going in half the time it took to configure one Apple Airport Extreme. Even better, Meraki lets you set up variable billing plans: create a cheap or free service for low bandwidth users or yourself, and force Net-hogs to pay up for fast access to pirated movies and porn.  —Mathew Honan

WIRED Infinitely expandable plug and play mesh networking; best range extender since the Louisiana Purchase. Perfect solution for mom-and-pop shops that want to set up paid Internet services. Detailed usage data shows who connects, how and where they connect, and how much bandwidth they eat. Dashboard interface for setting up Wi-Fi router with paid, protected, or open access is incredibly easy — even a Baby Boomer could manage.

TIRED Complicated setup for static IP addresses. Web-only interface means when Innurweb goes down, so does your network control. One of two router samples sent frequently dropped connection.

$50, meraki.com

Logitech make some of the nicest mice out there, but nearly every wireless model uses a proprietary USB dongle to do the radio magic. The advantage is that you get less interference and therefore less jiggling of the cursor, but if you are a laptop user, it’s just taking up one more precious port.

Thankfully, the new V470 uses Bluetooth, which is built into practically everything these days. The notebook friendly two button mouse features a battery status light (to let you know when those AAs are ready to die), a laser sensor, side-scrolling and zoom and a handy on/off switch.

The V470 will work on a Mac or PC, and will cost you $60.

Product page [Logitech]

In an ideal world, carmakers would already be offering more useful dash-mounted power outlets than a single glorified cigarette lighter. As it is, only luxury or fashionable autos typically do, often as part of expensive upgrade kits. Brando’s 3-in-1 ciggie lighter power hub makes for triple-play on mp3 players, PSPs, laptops and the like, and even throws in a USB port for good measure.

It’s cheap, too, at $20. Perfect for road trips, or sharing the outlets on jetliners with fellow passengers.

Product Page [Brando via Gizmodo]

Remember the $130 Meizu M6 SE PMP we told you about, sporting 8GB of video in a 7mm shell? Good. Meizu just announced more details the unit.

The M6 SE will handle MPEG4, MPEG2, WMV9, H263/264, RM(VB) videos running at 720×480 while pushing 30 frames a second—all of which can be spewed to TV via video out. Viewing angles are improved to 80 degrees from each direction (a hike of about 20 degrees). Battery power was confirmed for 30 hours music, 5 hours QVG or 3 hours VGA.

We’re really liking the looks of this updated Meizu M6, but word is there could be delays from its late summer target to sometime in Q4. – Mark Wilson

Meizu Spills More… [meizume]

Blackmagic Design is now shipping Intensity Pro, a $349 PCI Express card you can install in a Mac or a PC that lets you capture uncompressed HD video via an HDMI port, and then view that video as you edit by plugging in an HDMI-equipped HDTV set.

The Intensity Pro also lets you capture and play back any analog source using S-Video or component connections. If you don’t need that analog capability, for $249 you can just get the previously available Intensity card that handles HDMI only. HDTV shooters and editors, consumer and pro, are going to love this.

Many of the latest consumer-grade HD camcorders have HDMI ports, and they’re able to send their uncompressed video images directly out that HDMI port and into an Intensity card installed in your Mac or PC, bypassing the HDV compression that’s necessary to lay it down on tape. This way, you get mainline 1920 HDTV video straight from the camera’s imaging chips, bypassing that HDV compression.

Of course, you’ll need to have a desktop Mac or PC nearby when you’re shooting this video, a cumbersome prospect for on-location shooting but perfectly suitable for studio work. Once your footage is captured, you’ll end up with some huge files on your hard disc, but Blackmagic also includes its own compression technology, if you choose to make those files smaller and easier to edit, too.

Either one of these cards could also be extremely useful when you want to view your footage on a television set while you’re editing HD footage. This is really hard to do in real time using HDV camcorders, whose video can’t looped through in real time as you can do with standard-def DV camcorders. Using Intensity’s HDMI output, you simply plug in an HDTV set and then you can see all your video in real time as you edit, even effects that usually need to be rendered if you want to see them on an external monitor. The Intensity Pro’s analog outputs can also send video to an S-Video or component monitor in the same way.

What a neat idea, solving a few of the pesky problems of shooting and editing HDV with one card and a few connectors. – Charlie White

Product Page [Blackmagic Design, via Bios Magazine]

If you’re somehow stuck with a notebook that doesn’t sport a video or a D-Sub output but are feeling that multiple-monitor itch (for “productivity,” right?) as long as you’ve got a USB port, you’re in luck. The USB-RGB is a dongle that lets you add an extra monitor to your system via USB. The $87 price tag strikes me as a bit high, but I'm kind of a cheapskate—I'm good with one monitor per computer. – Matt Buchanan

Product Page [I-O Data via Akihabara News]

Travel season has arrived, my friends, and those of you lucky enough to head overseas might be wondering how to power all those electronic geegaws you can’t do without. Coming to the rescue is this universal AC travel adapter, letting you connect a variety of plugs to one side, and then by turning its knob selector, lots of different style plug blades come popping out of its other side. Just a twist of your wrist lets you tap into the juice in 150 countries.

Although it looks a little hefty to play nicely with other things you might want to plug in next to it, it’s still a fairly compact size for the crowded suitcase, and its $17 price is not too burdensome, either. Just be careful what other juice you tap into while you’re over there. – Charlie White

Product Page [GizGeek]

Sick of the other billionaires at the Yacht Club snickering at your silly plastic mouse? Yeah, me too. Earth-Treck has answered our needs and created a mouse wrapped in the luxurious brown or black leather. If you still haven’t impressed your peers, this mouse comes with a matching USB hub. That should woo over the billionaires in no time. I think the Akihabara News translators said it best: “How sweet is that ?” No word on pricing or availability. –Travis Hudson

Leather mouse and USB hub ? Why not ? [Akihabara]