As though that glowing monstrosity sitting on your desk wasn't enough already, this tool of Satan gives you a 1.5-inch, 128x128 screen that can display an entire megabyte (!!!) worth of photos. What next? Digital photo frames on my speakers?! On my phone?! On my digital photo frame?! But if this is your thing, by all means shell out another $23 and support the digi-frame invasion.

And laugh if you want, but when you're running down a dark alley shouting "PILLS HERE," you'll regret not taking me seriously. [Memory Cup via Coolest Gadgets]

The battery lasts for 2 hours, or you can opt to use USB or AC power. HP also announced a 10-inch wood-accented digital photo frame that does all the same things as the smaller one, but also has Pictbridge capability, support for all the major flash formats, and MPEG video playback. In addition, it has a remote and stereo speakers.However, it looks like it's more your grandmother than anyone else.

Both frames are available now, with the 3.5-inch HP Digial Picture Frame selling for $60, and the 10-inch selling for $220.

HP has expanded its easy-to-use digital picture frame portfolio to help consumers show
off photos, create slide shows and play videos – with no computer needed. The picture
frames come in a variety of sizes, including a portable, 3.5-inch pocket frame and an
attractive 10-inch cherry wood-finish frame. The frames feature clock and calendar
options, support MP3 and other audio formats, and play music through stereo speakers.

A variety of interchangeable, double-matting options give HP frames a more professional
look and allow easy personalization. PictBridge functionality allows consumers to print
photos right from the digital picture frame.

The RSS headlines can be overlaid on the photos, as can a clock. As you can see above, Sony has eschewed tacky photo frame styling for a sleek, minimal look, which makes the somewhat steep price tag hurt a bit less. The network, RSS and audio streaming are welcome additions to normal frame fare, but as the sole widgets on this $300 frame, they are as much reminders that this apparently capable hardware is being underutilized as they are useful features. The CP1 will be available at Sony Style stores and online sometime in mid-October. Full press release below. [Sony]

DENVER (CEDIA Booth #600), Sept. 3, 2008 ⎯ Sony today unveiled the wireless VAIO® CP1 Wi-Fi photo frame, making it easier than ever to share digital images as well as receive news and stream Internet radio in real-time.

Utilizing built-in Wi-Fi technology, the CP1 model lets you stream photos from a VAIO PC directly to the device. Featuring more than 16 million colors and 800x480 resolution, photos locked away on your PC will now come to life on the photo frame’s brilliant 7-inch LCD screen.

In addition to streaming images from a VAIO PC, the CP1 model can also connect to Google™ Picasa™ web albums. This enables you to view up to four web albums simultaneously, as well as upload photos directly to a Picasa account.

“How many times have you uploaded images to our PC— vowing to share them— never to see them again,” said Xavier Lauwaert, product manager for VAIO product marketing at Sony Electronics. “This new frame provides an easy way to retrieve and share these precious memories that otherwise would have been forgotten.”

In addition to its ability to wirelessly access photos, the CP1 model can display images from compatible Memory Stick® media, SD cards or digital still cameras providing instant access to your latest shots. It is also CompactFlash® media card-compatible, making it convenient for those who use a digital SLR camera.

And with 128MB internal storage, up to 100 digital images can be saved directly to the new photo frame for viewing anytime.

Keeping your images and slideshows organized is easy as well. Content is grouped into sections called “frames,” making it easy to enjoy photos, information and music. You can choose from Slideshow— for movie-like presentations, Flow— which creates a slideshow with fun, special-effects, and Dissolve— a more traditional view that fades images into one another.

It also has an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader built-in, which enables it to grab news headlines and entertainment content from the Internet and display it along with your slideshows. Operating in real-time, the RSS function provides you up-to-the-minute information.

The new CP1 model also features built-in stereo speakers and an Internet radio player for enriching slideshows with your favorite style of music.

Other features include a digital/analog clock and the ability to save energy by dimming the screen automatically when a room’s lights are turned off.

The VAIO CP1 digital photo frames will retail for about $300. They will be available at Sony Style® stores and online at HYPERLINK "http://www.sonystyle.com/cp1" www.sonystyle.com/pr/cp1 starting in mid-October.

The Price: $240

The Verdict: Works mostly as advertised, but at a price of $240, we expect a bit more polish to the unit.

The 10-inch display is roomy, but its 800x480 resolution looks somewhat pixelated when you get up close. Loading photos from its internal memory and USB slot (or SD slot) works just as well as you'd expect, which is nice. However, 1GB of built-in memory is pretty tiny for something that costs $240.

You can also stream photos from various online photo sharing networks, which works pretty well over its 802.11g connection or its 10/100 Ethernet port (you really want to use the Wi-Fi to make this truly wireless, but seeing as there's a mandatory AC adapter, that's pretty much an impossibility anyway).

One of the goofs we find is that the default setting on FrameChannel.com, the online utility you use to manage all your internet feeds, sets the default photos at a maximum of 5, so you only get 5 pics in your rotation at once. Easy enough to fix if you know where to look, but your parents would have to call you first. Again, for $240 we expect the kind of user interface that you can actually tweak settings on without having to use a separate computer.

Is it fairly solid? Yes. Would we recommend this to our parents? Probably not. We'll wait for the second-gen (or is it fifth-gen now) photo frames—something we can give to our parents and have them figure out themselves. [D-Link]

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