Apple’s resisted consumers’ calls to equip future iPhones and iPads with build in SD and microSD card slots thus far, making getting your photos to your iDevice a matter of either picking up a Camera Connection Kit (which only works on iPad) or accomplishing the same feat more indirectly through iTunes.

At CES, much beloved memory card makers Eye-Fi unveiled a cure all for these woes: a new feature coming soon to their line of WiFi-equipped SD cards called “Direct Mode” which allows the card to broadcast itself as its own WiFi network, made accessible to any iOS mobile device just by loading up an official app.

It’s taken a few months, but Direct Mode is now here. If the prospect of slurping your SLR’s photos or videos onto your iPhone or iPad wirelessly appeals, you’ve got two options. If you’ve got an existing Eye-Fi X2 card, you should be able to invoke the new mode just by installing a firmware update, due out next week along with the appropriate iOS app. Otherwise, the new Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card with 8GB of storage and Direct Mode bake in will go on sale on April 17th for the price of $79.99

Best Buy hasn’t exactly been playing fair cricket when it comes to distributing iPad 2s to customers. First, Best Buy admitted they were holding back iPad 2s, supposedly for an “upcoming promotion” but rumored to actually be to manipulate their sales quota numbers. Strike one.

Now we’ve got strike two. A reader writing to Crunchgear says a Best Buy manager effectively blackmailed him into buying a $109 rip-off Best Buy protection plan before he would sell him an iPad 2.

We start off with three hardware deals, one for the desktop, one for the laptop and one for the on-the-go. First up is a Core i3 iMac running at 3.06GHz with a 22-inch screen. Next is a 1.4GHz MacBook Air, along with several other Airs from the Apple Store. We wrap the spotlight up with a deal on a 32GB iPod touch with FaceTime for $232.

Along the way, we also check out other hardware and add-ons, ranging from the Xserve to a 27-inch Cinema Display. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at the CoM “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

According to several reports from various sources recently, it seems there could be a nasty ‘virus’ lurking in dodgy internet adverts that wipes your iOS device when you tap on them. Users searching for jailbreak and unlock methods on their devices are the ones currently at risk.

When performing a search for these hacks on an iOS device, false adverts are returned that claim to unlock your device for free. Tapping on them takes you to a webpage that shows an animation lasting 10 to 15 seconds, followed by a message that says: “DOWNLOAD UNLOCK 2 NOW FREE.” By this point the device is completely wiped of all your information.

Intel, watching the torch pass from laptops to tablets, is determined to make 2011 “about becoming relevant,” as its marketing manager told one reporter Monday. The chip maker is taking another whack at finding an answer to the iPad, launching the Oak Trail chip designed specifically for tablets.

Although Intel doesn’t plan to launch its new 45nm Atom chip until May, the company says 35 tablets are set to use the component. However, some question whether the Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm can make a dent in the existing tablet marketplace. While Intel CEO Paul Otellini told employees he is “very optimistic about our opportunities in tablets,” Gartner’s research head Michael Gartenberg warned tablet users “seem to be quite happy with the Arm architecture.”

Thanks largely in party to the debut of Epic Games’ cross-platform Unreal Engine on iOS through titles like Unreal Citadel and Infinity Blade, games on the iPhone and iPad have finally reached a level of graphical excellence indistinguishable to the untrained eye from many of the last’s year’s console games.

Dream:scape is a new iOS title currently pending approval with Apple that aims to add to that rich pedigree, not with another action game, but with what appears to be an adventure game. Not much is known about Dream:scape, short of the impressive trailer above, and this blurb of a description:

The player takes on the persona of a coma patient unlocking his past by exploring the dreamscape of his memories. As the player explores the huge open world, memories are unlocked. These are represented by cut-scenes, featuring audible dialog, and diary entries, which the player reads in-game via a 3-D representation of a leather-bound book. The player must determine which areas to explore so as to find and unlock the story.

It certainly looks gorgeous, and the plot seems suitably Silent Hill style for my liking, but I’m a bit worried about the voice acting, which seems just a spot too amateurish for a game that is largely supposed to be about exploring relationships and memories of loved ones in the past. Then again, the developer seems to be a small one, so I’m more than willing to give him a break.

Like many of JBL’s speaker docks, the On Air Speaker Dock looks less like a piece of stereo equipment than a Sharper Image Anti-Ionization Purifier repurposed by the BBC into the helmet for one of Doctor Who’s more disposable villains, but look beyond the strange styling and you’ll see JBL’s first AirPlay-capable dock.

Now shipping to BestBuys and Apple Stores around the country, JBL’s willingness to write a check for AirPlay’s licensing fees mean you should be able to stream your iTunes library directly to the dock no matter where you are. The unorthodox design is meant to fill the room with 360-degree sound; otherwise, you’ll find a color LCD, digital FM radio, inbuilt alarm clock and more.

$349.99, though. AirPlay or not, that’s way more than any Doctor Who helmet should ever cost.

Amazon’s goal is to have a Kindle in every pair of hands in America. That’s Apple’s goal with the iPad too, but the difference is, Apple wants to do it while remaining profitable on the hardware. Amazon’s willing to give that up if it means they can make boatloads of cash on the ebooks.

That’s why Amazon releases free Kindle software for every platform capable of running text on a screen, and that’s why — if you plot the Kindle’s price decline over the past couple of years — you can see that it is on track to eventually be free in November of this year, at least to Amazon Prime customers.

For the rest of the consumers out there, though? Amazon’s now working on a new plan: ad-supported Kindles. And while users don’t get much of a discount off of the regular Kindle now (just $25 off the $139 entry-level Kindle price to have your e-reader “sponsored” with advertisements on the homescreen and in the screensavers), I expect that the savings will drop to free soon enough.

Amazon’s plan has never really been to build the best e-reader, although the Kindle’s an excellent device. Their plan has been to make a good enough e-reader cheaply enough that they can just give one away to anyone who wants one.

Steve Jobs is keen to bring wireless syncing to iPods this year, and carbon fiber may be the key.

Following the news that Apple has just hired a leading carbon fiber expert, we can reveal that the company has been testing Wi-Fi syncing in iPods for the past two years.

Getting large libraries of music and movies to synchronize wirelessly over WiFi hasn’t been easy, according to a source close to the company who asked to remain anonymous. But Steve Jobs himself sees it as key to updating the aging devices, which are becoming increasingly obsolete in the iPhone/iPad era.

“Jobs is pushing hard to get WiFi syncing into the next-generation of iPods,” says our source.

Visitors to The Establishment Hotel in Sydney, Australia, can now enjoy access to an iPad 2 during their stay after the hotel recently deployed one of the devices to each and every one of its 31 rooms. The iPads are free to use and include a selection of movies and music including the hotel’s welcome video. There’s also a collection of apps that provide access to international news in addition to travel and restaurant guides.

Justin Hemmes, Merivale’s CEO, said the company is looking at ways in which it can further integrate technology into its hotels:

Now that we have the hardware, we are only limited by our own imagination. Well, maybe also by the software developers’ abilities but seriously, we will be looking at ways in which we can integrate this technology further into the whole guest experience

As well as the iPad, guests also get an AppleTV and surround sound system in their room which enables them to enjoy the iPad’s content on the big screen over AirPlay. If I wasn’t in Sydney, I wouldn’t want to leave the room!

[via MacStories]