Interview With Eye-Fi CEO Jef Holove

Wired: Gadget Lab: Yesterday the WiFi memory card people, Eye-Fi, announced a new SD card which we at Gadget Lab think will change the way photos are shared.
The Eye-Fi Explore brings a slot-in geotagging solution to anyone with an SD card slot in their camera, so every photo you take will be stamped with the location you were in. In addition, you can finally use a digicam without a computer. The Eye-Fi will log on to free hotspots and send your snaps out into the cloud, to end up at your photo site of choice.
We had a chat with Eye-Fi CEO Jef Holove to see how the card works and what it might mean for the future of photography.
Gadget Lab: The Eye-Fi Explore is a huge step for geotagging. It costs the same as a standalone box and needs no extra work from the user. Do you think this is the kick in the pants geotagging needs to really take off?
Jef Holove: Geotagging is already generating excitement, especially on sites like Flickr, SmugMug and Picasa. It really makes organizing, searching and sharing pictures better. But, as compelling as it is, it hasn’t yet taken off like you’d expect because, today, it requires either time-consuming, manual entry or expensive, cumbersome gear.
The digerati may be geotagging, but that’s too much hassle for the every-day photographer. Our approach is to make geotagging automatic. And, yes, we do think making it that easy will kick the trend into high gear.
GL: You’ve obviously done some deals with Skyhook and Wayport. Is this going to slow down the rollout of the Eye-Fi range to the rest of the world? And if I was to buy an Eye-Fi Explore in the US and ship it back to Europe, would the geotagging feature work here?…