I bet you love to share your family photos online with family and friends.  We all enjoy sharing the photos of our kids when they are dressed up especially for Halloween or walking their first steps. Do you upload your pictures directly to your photo sharing website or facebook?  Maybe you load them to your computer first and then upload them online.  Or possibly you haven't started sharing your family photos but want to start (the Grandparents are demanding it).

Recently we talked about how to save time and space on your camera by editing the photos right away.  Now let's take the next step and share those photos quickly and easily online. It's possible to do this directly from your camera.

There is a great option for sharing family photos directly from your camera to many online photo sharing websites.  The Eye-Fi wireless SD card. This is an SD memory card + Wi-Fi enabled access all in one, brilliant. 

I have two of these cards. I bought the first one in 2009 and another in 2010 for our second camera.  The newer card (Eye-Fi X2) also supports wireless video uploading.

Eye-Fi connects the memory card to your home wireless network.  Once you've set it up, anytime you turn your camera on when you are at home it will automatically upload photos that haven't already been uploaded.

Share your family photos with a photo sharing site

You can choose to upload your photos to your computer or have them automatically uploaded  to several photo sharing sites including Facebook, Flickr and Picasa.  It is also possible to select which photos you want to share wirelessly directly on your camera.

No wireless on vacation?

When you are out and about and don't have access to your home network you can connect the Eye-Fi card to your iPhone, iPad or Android Phone in Direct Mode and transfer your photos to that device. Then you can share them online via the sharing options on your phone.  More to come on those options in a later article.

Where did I take that pic?

The newer Eye-Fi cards also support automatic lifetime Geo-tagging.  Sometimes we forget where we took a photo, with geo-tagging that will never happen again.  Older Eye-Fi cards also support geo-tagging but you must pay for the service.

Help, I'm running out of room on my Eye-Fi Memory Card

You can even set up your Eye-Fi card to delete photos once they've been safely uploaded and you've reached a certain amount of space used. This allows you to keep taking photos without ever running out of space.

I really appreciate the above idea.  We took Eye-Fi with us to Greece on our Honeymoon. At the end of our first day in Athens I was uploading photos and deleting them from the camera.  Imagine my shock when I found out they didn't actually get uploaded.  We lost ALL of our photos from that first day.  This was my mistake in understanding how the card worked.  I still love and use Eye-Fi but be sure you have played with your camera and your wireless network so you are comfortable that your photos were successfully uploaded before you start deleting them.

Have you ever tried Eye-Fi?  What is your process for sharing your photos online quickly and easily? Share your thoughts in the comments below or on Facebook.  Be sure to come back in a week for the next article in the Family Photos series on how to get your print photos online.

Lori Thayer is passionate about finding ways to have the best life, from healthy eating, healthy living, saving money and enjoying life. She is excited to share these tips with others. Improve your health with her FREE article "5 Easy Habits To Improve Your Health". 

Technology Travel Tips: During Your Trip

By: Lori Thayer

Enjoy your vacation a bit more and use travel technology to take a bit of the frustration out of your trip.  We recently talked about how technology can help you plan your trip.  The next step is getting to the airport with all your family on time and with everything you need can be difficult.  Arriving at the airport to find your flight delayed or not knowing where to get a decent bite to eat is unnecessary. Technology can take some of the frustration out of your trip.  

Getting off the ground with the help of technology

Know about travel updates and changes.  Find out if your flight is delayed before you get to the airport.  Most airlines and travel booking websites allow you to enter your email or phone number to get updates to on flight status. Set the update to be for a time before you leave for the airport.  Most sites allow you to specify the update time.

Alternatively if you travel a lot you may want to get the Travel Tracker Pro app. This app integrates with TripIt so you will have your itinerary at your fingertips. (Not sure what TripIt is? Check out my article on Trip Planning for more info on it and how it can help you). Travel Tracker Pro also includes automatic update of flight status, customizable packing lists.

Have you found yourself stuck at the airport or looking for a meal before your flight? There is even an app to help you in this situation.  Download GateGuru. This app has info on specific airports including what restaurants are available on your concourse and reviews. 

Technology travel tips to enjoy the flight

Watch your flight's progress through the sky on Travel Tracker Pro's zoomable map. (note: if you fly Frontier airlines you will see this same info on the screen in front of you during the flight)

Technology may also help you or your children enjoy the flight a bit more.  Once your flight is in the air use your Kindle to do some reading or even play games.   There is also a Kindle app for the computer, iPad or other mobile device. This allows you to access and read eBooks from Amazon even if you don't have a Kindle device.

Review a travel guide for the city you will be visiting while you fly.  There are now travel guide apps for many cities, read one on your Kindle or other eReader or read your pre-saved info via the Instapaper app on your mobile device. 

Technology travel tips while at your destination

Travel technology can really help you once you arrive at your destination.  The most obvious app to help you is a navigation app.  If you don't want to spring for a Garmin or Tom Tom navigation system don't worry.  These days you can get an app for your mobile device that will give you everything you need.

There are a number of options for navigation apps including the Google Maps that is free and probably already on your phone. Navigon is one that I've used personally in several states and cities where we were unfamiliar with the roads and wanted more than the turn by turn directions we could get with Google Maps. Navigon is easy to use and get us around easily. It cost about $99 when we purchased it but a recent check on iTunes showed it at $59.  It isn't cheap but it works well and they continually improve it. This is an app that we will be using for years to come.

Before you rent a car check out the public transportation in the city you are visiting.  On our recent trip to Chicago we ended up canceling our car rental when we found out how great the public transportation was in that city.  We spent less than $20 on public transportation versus over $150 on a car rental!

It can be daunting to get around in a city you are unfamiliar with but once again technology will save your travel day. We found apps specific to the city we were visiting that gave us all the information we needed to use the public transportation with ease.  There is a great app called SmartTransit, for the Android phone, that brings together transit info for many major cities as well.

Save additional money by finding great deals for your dining and entertainment. Groupon Now is a great resource, it's devoted to finding deals that are available now near your location. You enter in the zip code for your location and you can view deals nearby in categories like: Eat Something, Go Out, Get Pampered, Go Shopping and more.  They've also introduced a new app, that will use the location of your mobile phone to find deals nearby.

Once you've found a deal you may want to check the reviews with your TripAdvisor app before purchasing.  TripAdvisor will also show you the location of the restaurant or attraction on the app, including a street view.  This can be very handy in an unfamiliar city.

How do you use technology on your vacation? Share your tips in the comments below or on Facebook.

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