Gizmodo: digital photo frames

Kodak Photo Frames Come Pre-Loaded With Pics (Yours, Dummy)

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:40:00 EDT

While we recognize that digital photo frames are at the least tech's spammiest product, and at the most a sure sign of the Apocalypse, Kodak has come up with a very good idea for its frames: 100 pre-loaded photos. And not just generic mountainscapes and shots of strangers posing on beaches, either. When you order your frame, you select 100 uploaded pics from your account in the Kodak Gallery, and they are saved to an SD card that ships with the frame. This has one very obvious implication: Giving a frame as a gift is no longer like assigning homework. Besides, 100 pics should take care of Grandma for at least 3-5 weeks. I have to hand it to Kodak for this one—it's not a bad idea at all. [Kodak]

Inevitable: The Bastard Offspring of a Fridge Magnet and Digital Photo Frame

Kit Eaton — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:35:22 EDT

Digital picture frames are deepening their grip on society... they're bored with being on your keychain and desk, now they've got designs on your fridge door. Meet fridge magnet digital picture frames and try not to scream. Expensive fridges with built in LCD screens? No... just chuck a couple of these up and you can have cycling slideshow of all the family members. 2.4-inch LCD screens, 32MB memory, 11 hours of pics from the USB-rechargeable battery and a built-in clock display. What more could you ask for? $60. [Redferret]

Kodak Quick Touch Digital Photo Frames Are Ticklish on the Side

matt buchanan — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:50:00 EDT

Kodak's Quick Touch photo frames don't quite go all the way on being touchscreen, though they're spinning that as a plus, since you don't leave grimy fingerprints on your screen. Instead, the border itself is a touchpad, so you can scroll through pics with swipes of your finger.

The $180 M820 and $230 M1020 support all of the major memory card formats and USB drives, as well as make with the MP3 and MPEG (1 and 4) video playback. The $120 P720 is more basic, dropping the multimedia and CF card support. Can we get some Wi-Fi syncing, at least in the higher end model, please? [Kodak]

It's a Frame, It's a TV, It's a Cookbook? Pandigital's New 15-Inch...Whatever

Wilson Rothman — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:34:52 EDT

Today, digital photo frame maker Pandigital is unveiling a frame that's also a 720p HDTV and a "digital cookbook." Say what you will about digital photo frames, but one thing's for sure: they can be anything their makers want them to be.

This $400 15-in. "mess-proof" sealed display has MP3 and video (MPEG, MP4, AVI) playback and includes a 6-in-1 card reader and an HDMI input (so you still have to remember to put the lid on your blender). It comes with both table stand and cabinet undermount, and its software includes not just an expandable collection of recipes, but an alarm clock and a calendar. What, no egg timer? [Pandigital]

Mustek PF-E700: a Digital Photo Frame With Extra Clock Screen

Kit Eaton — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:25:19 EST

Mustek's PF-E700 is yet another LCD photo frame, but with added alarm clock and indoor temperature gauge functions on a second small LCD screen at its base. The standard alarm snooze also gets an extra feature as a moody room light: you can set it so that each time you hit the snooze button you keep the frame's backlight on. The display is a 7-inch TFT LCD with 480 x 234 pixels, it plays MP3s, AVIs and MPEGs and takes SD, SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick Pro Duo, and Compact Flash memory cards. Available in April for $150. [Electronista]

20 Million Digital Photo Frames to be Sold to 20 Million Tacky Idiots in 2008

Adam Frucci — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:45:50 EST

It's official: you people have no taste. How else to explain that 20 million digital photo frames are expected to be sold in 2008? Yes, 20,000,000 digital photo frames, the red-headed stepchildren of the consumer electronics world, will soon adorn the walls of McMansions in every backwater suburb in the country.

There's no amount of functionality you can cram into a digital photo frame to make it a worthwhile product. Until e-ink reaches a point where it can be used in digital frames so they look like actual photographs and don't suck up energy 24 hours a day, they're just going to be glorified little computer displays that make your home look terrible. I don't care that they can be updated from afar or play slideshows: they suck. Don't waste your money on these things and encourage more companies to spam the marketplace with them, I beg you. You're only hurting yourselves here, people. [Digitimes]

Toshiba's Tekbright Photo Frame for Finger Strolls Down Memory Lane

hook — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:25:00 EST

Digital photo frames can be boring, but Toshiba's Tekbright pumps up the features with a 7" touchscreen LCD display with 720x480 resolution. The translation of Toshiba's French site was unhelpful: the Tekbright was oddly described as "retro," and we still don't know why, if it's a touchscreen, it has an array of buttons along the bottom rim. Like many frames, this one can play MP3s and includes 64MB of flash memory plus support for assorted memory cards. The catch is that the Tekbright is in Europe but not in the US, so it will set you back 129 euros plus the cost of your plane ticket. [Akihabara News]

Trim Your Tree with Senario's Digital Photo Frame

hook — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:30:00 EST

You've barely finished swallowing that bite of turkey and stuffing when BAM! the onslaught of Christmas crap begins. We feel your pain, but the Senario digital photo frame Christmas-tree ornament might actually be cool enough to justify the whole holiday spirit thing. This festive ball has an embedded 1.5" display and enough memory for a 50-picture slideshow. Unfortunately, Mac lovers are out of luck since the frame only supports Windows 2000, XP and Vista. You can snatch one up from Wal-Mart for about $30. [Shiny Shiny]

ViewSonic Digital Photo Frames Show Off Your Digital Snaps

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:00:37 EDT

Viewsonic is getting into the digital photo frame business and the first digital frames to launch will include an 8-inch widescreen frame with an 800x480 screen resolution that displays popular movie formats, has an integrated speaker for MP3 sounds and a remote control at a price under $200. ViewSonic will also have an 8-inch DF87G frame (pictured) with a resolution of 800x600 with similar features to the 8-inch widescreen frame. The price is expected to be under $200 for this model as well. Finally, we will see a 7-inch DP701W4 widescreen with a resolution of 800x600, 220 cd/m2 brightness and a 400:1 contrast ratio sporting a 30ms response time. The frame around the LCD will be silver with a white acrylic bezel at a price of under $150.

ViewSonic didn't provide an exact storage capacity for the frames, but did say that the internal memory will be enough for about 400 5-megapixel photos. Photos will be transferred to the frame via USB or via memory card from the camera. ViewSonic will be making a formal announcement of its new line of digital photo frames in a few weeks so expect more information then. Viewsonic says when the complete line is rolled out it will have about ten digital frames in all. I hope that some of the future frames will integrate WiFi and MMS support similar to the new Parrot digital frame. Now you will have more ways to display all those pictures of your dog, kids, or really hot girlfriend/wife you take and stash on your hard drive. - Shane McGlaun

Ceiva 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame Now $2,248, Comes with Fridge

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:28:55 EDT

Digital-picture frame pioneer Ceiva is jumping the gun on Whirlpool's latest refrigerator announcement, called "centralpark" I believe. The concept has been shown off before, but this is its first production application: it's got a modular interface at the top, and Ceiva (and presumably others) have built something to fit the module. Why did Whirlpool go with a Wi-Fi-enabled LCD frame first? Because the #1 complaint is that magnets no longer stick to modern fridges, and people want to look at their damn baby pics! [Ceiva]

ThinkGeek to Make Amends for Defective PF Digital eStarling Photo Frames

Charlie White — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 07:39:15 EST

The ugly duckling of digital photo frames, the PF Digital eStarling, has gone into full recall mode, where its online retailer ThinkGeek will graciously exchange all of the original defective units that were shipped with a new version 2.0 model sometime next month. It looks like most of the problems with the first version of the eStarling might be solved, except for one:

PF Digital promises the following improvements in the eStarling photo frame:

- Full Wi-Fi range of at least 120 feet
- New motherboard and updated firmware
- Internal antenna not visible from the outside of the frame
- New front bezel design with no eStarling logo on the front of the frame
- Standalone feature allows frame to pull photos from any POP e-mail address without needing to connect to the eStarling server
- View photos on a media card without needing a wi-fi Internet connection

Unless the eStarling 2.0 has a modification that ThinkGeek didn't mention in its e-mail to disgruntled buyers, one problem that we didn't see fixed is that 16x9 display, which will still show black bars on the sides of most digital photos.

The last we heard from ThinkGeek, a new Wi-Fi transmitter was in the offing, which the company said would be shipped to us within a few weeks. Fast-forward six weeks, when we received this e-mail yesterday afternoon.

Clicking through the link on the e-mail, it was a simple matter to sign up for this recall program, which includes free shipping of the new unit, and a shipping label to return the hapless version 1.0 as soon as version 2.0 arrives. ThinkGeek will also accept returns of version 2.0 if doesn't measure up for 30 days after receiving it.

It's a remarkable effort on the part of ThinkGeek to make good on a product that was certainly not up to snuff. Nice move, ThinkGeek. We'll keep you updated, dear readers and fellow eStarling sufferers, on what happens. – Charlie White

Support (links to press release) [eStarling]

Digital Picture Frames: By Kodak...and Everyone Else...and Their Mother

Mark Wilson — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 14:30:00 EST

Kodak announced 4 new Easyshare digital picture frames at CES to be released in March this year.

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