Or better yet, do what I do: Forget this thing and take out one of those archaic dead tree cookbooks, turn a few pages, and read the mysterious "ink" that resides on them.

No? Still craving the frame? OK, then some details... The $271 8-inch digital frame plays 48 instructional videos featuring chef Brian Turner. The action can be controlled by the included remote control, which we hope is waterproof or otherwise protected from flying food in some way.

When not in use, say the day after Christmas when this goes into the closet forever, the frame doubles as a calendar and photo frame. Bon appétit, chumps! [Appliancist via Engadget]

The Digi-Mug is packed with 1MB of memory (not a typo) that allows you to store 50 or so images for playback on its 1.5-inch display. With a lithium ion rechargeable battery, you can view your loved ones (or just a simple clock) to your heart's content.

I know you think that your Valentine would like jewelry, but trust us on this one—load this baby up with 50 photos of yourself (clothed) and she'll associate the experience of getting her caffeine fix to seeing your face. At best, she'll unconsciously associate you with a coke dealer. At worst, you'll put off a Starbucks employee vibe. Either way, you will make her totally dependent on you when she's at her most ornery. You're welcome. [Urban Trend via Nerd Approved]

Okay, so it won't blow you away on the specs, but it could be a handy device, especially when you consider that the pocket-sized photo viewer can be removed from the base for easy transport. No pricing or release date information has been announced. [WinWin via Coolest Gadgets]

INTRODUCING THE WORLD'S FIRST TOUCH-SCREEN WIFI-INTEGRATED DIGITAL PICTURE FRAME

Shogo Poised To Revolutionize The Digital Picture Frame Market

January 07, 2008—2008 International Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas— Global technology company RealEase today announced the availability of Shogo, its revolutionary flagship product that is the world's first touch-screen WiFi-integrated digital picture frame. A unique lifestyle device, Shogo brings digital content such as pictures, music, Internet radio, weather forecast and data directly to you— without the need of a PC or any technical knowledge.

"It's our goal to bring digital content to everyone in the family in the comfort of their home anywhere around the world without the hassle and limitations of today's digital photo frame products," explains Daniel Schneersohn, RealEase CEO. "Our design point was to make a digital picture frame product easy enough for grandparents and parents to automatically share family pictures and a product flexible enough for teenagers to be able to access and broadcast their favorite Internet content to friends. Shogo is a living digital photo frame that packs all this and more capabilities into a simple, stylish, easy-to-operate mobile form factor."

Introducing Shogo and the myshogo.com service

Shogo is the world's first touch-screen WiFi-integrated lifestyle digital picture frame with a number of groundbreaking category-first features. Its touch-screen and simple user interface makes it very easy to use and navigate its menus to select various photo albums and other content for viewing. The integrated battery means no more wires and makes it easy to use your Shogo as a portable digital photo album that can be shared with family and friends anywhere around the house. Shogo's high-resolution digital panels provide superior picture quality and its large internal memory offers unsurpassed storage that can hold up to thousands of pictures.

For the first time, the new Shogo digital frame makes it possible for everyone to easily receive and share pictures as well as content remotely frame to frame. With its Shogo Friend capability, you can share your favorite shots from your Shogo, instantly and with one or multiple friends without a PC.

Every Shogo frame is easily managed from the free myshogo.com portal, an internet-based portal that is fully integrated with major photo portal sites such as Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug and .Mac.

From an industry perspective, myshogo.com is a fully functional Internet-based content provisioning service that provides back end web-based services that automatically "update" each frame with pictures and other digital content such as weather forecasts and RSS feeds. From the user's perspective, it's like magic: with myshogo.com, you can manage your mother or grandmother's Shogo frame remotely. And with the "Shogo Friend" capability, you can share your favorite shots from your Shogo, instantly and with one or multiple friends without a PC.

With the Shogo digital frame and the myshogo.com subscription service, managing content and getting connected to people around you has never been so easy.

The global market for digital picture frames is expected to explode, going from 2.8 million units in 2006 up to 42.3 million units by 2011 (according to IDC)***. Shogo is well-positioned in the market, especially as WiFi connectivity becomes more pervasive and it offers valuable functionality and sex appeal that has been missing in existing products available in the market today.

"To date, the digital picture frame has been a decorative gift with limited functionality that is soon stored away in the family closet," said Schneersohn. "We believe Shogo is well placed to do for digital picture frames what the iPod* did for the pervasiveness of the mp3 world."

Shogo is expected to be available in US retail outlets in spring 2008 at an MSRP of $299 for a touch-screen, WiFi version.

About RealEase

Shogo developer RealEase was founded in 2005 by an international team of experienced senior management, technology engineers and marketers to design, manufacture and market innovative tech-products with unique applications for both the home and enterprise. RealEase has centred its Design and Research & Development division for software and web services in France. Its manufacturing base and hardware development centres are in Shenzhen, China and headquarters are in Hong Kong. For more information about Shogo or RealEase please visit www.realease.com / www.myshogo.com

•Freescape Digital Media Exchange: Offers a simple solution to media storage and sharing using a digital entertainment center than unlocks recorded television, movies, and photos and channels them into a living room or home theater. It can also wirelessly transfer data to another Freescape device to another &nmdash;anywhere in the world.

•Freescape Mobile Player: Takes the Freescape Digital Media Exchange experience mobile. Features a 4.3" LCD screen.

•Full HD Widescreen LCD TV with Digital (ATSC) Tuner: Features full 1080p High Definition with 1920 x 1080 resolution, a built-in hybrid digital and analog tuner, and 18 inputs and outputs - including three HDMI.

•Freescape 10.2" Wi-Fi Digital Photo Frame: Features a 10.2" color LCD screen, 16:9 widescreen picture, 800 x 400 resolution, 32MB internal memory, MP3 support, integrated speakers and remote control.

• 8.0 Megapixel Camera: 3.0" TFT screen, 32MB internal storage, 20 different scene modes, 3x optical and 4x digital zoom.

[Polaroid]

The other two releases are as follows:

•Image Moments 6: Features 5.7" VGA (640x480) digital LCD with high pixel density of 140 PPI, LED backlight and two-tone, mirror-polished chrome finish.

•Image Moments 8: Features 8" SVGA (800x600) digital LCD with high contrast ratio of 500:1, LED backlight, and interchangeable frame & mat design.

We were hoping this would be a cube with screens on more than one side, but no. Even with its meager features, it's still hardly priced for giving away, either, at $51.34 if you're buying between 25-499 of them. Nice piece of swag; maybe these will become more prevalent at the trade shows as display prices continue their freefall. – Charlie White

Product Page [eNecessities, via Oh Gizmo]

I like their two WiFi versions, the EX1011 (10") and EX811 (8"). Both frames feature 128MB of internal memory, 800x480 LCD displays and photo streaming from a PC folder or their proprietary service. While most models fill their spec sheets with standards like memory card support and USB connectivity, these models can support MP3/MP4/mov/avi with audio playing out of their built-in speakers.

Look for them in March for $279 and $229.
Their non WiFi MP3 model runs $129. Video models start at $179.

But while I was impressed by Kodak's line, most of us at CES have noticed a trend:

Digital Picture Frames are everywhere.

Seriously. Kodak claimed that this is because of consumer demand, and then she quoted a study by (the CEA?) that I have since heard again from other manufacturers. 70% of consumers are on their 3rd digital camera purchase. 70% of these purchasers are women. Along with that, most digital photos never make it to any sort of viewable medium. To Kodak, the influx of digital frames is "natural progression". Philips supported the idea, adding that their product availability was very scarce over the holiday season.

I think that displays got cheap. – Mark Wilson with photo gallery by Curtis Walker