Intermediary device turns any digital camera into a Wi-Fi-enabled transmitter and storage device (reg. required): In Thursday's New York Times, I write about Wi-Pics, a portable device that connects to a digital camera's Compact Flash slot on one side and a Wi-Fi network on the other. It ships in June for $1,700 with additional fees for a 40 Gb hard drive and bar-code scanner, and it appears to fit a niche that certain kinds of professional photographers are hard-pressed to find an alternative for today.

A few technical details that didn't make it into the Circuits article: Wi-Pics uses Atheros chips and an Intel Xscale processor. It can make secure, encrypted connections over FTP and the Web for storage. It has a Compact Flash slot built in as well as the option of adding a hard drive. The cable from the Compact Flash adapter to the Wi-Pics uses a flat profile so that you can close a Compact Flash door (which many digital cameras require to be closed to operate) and not hurt the cable. The cable connects through a tripod mount to a thicker cable that runs to the camera.

While my article focused on some of the more typical uses that professionals might find for this camera, I'm also interested in how Wi-Fi starts percolating into individual application devices instead of multi-purpose computers and handhelds. With the cost of Wi-Fi dropping and with Wi-Fi SD and Compact Flash cards available, it's a short matter of time before $500 to $1000 cameras will support Wi-Fi cards.