Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It? - Gizmodo Comments

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

Floobtronics — Tue, 22 May 2007 08:49:14 EDT

By the way, if you need the phone number for these geniuses (it seems to have disappeared from eStarling.com), here you go...

Tel: (571) 348-3181

McLean, VA, so +1 for your outside of the US types..

Floobtronics

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

Floobtronics — Tue, 22 May 2007 08:45:24 EDT

I made the mistake of buying one of these little disasters from Thinkgeek. It showed up yesterday, looked pretty, but hasn't done much of anything. Currently, their interface to add RSS feeds, at least Flickr ones, is borked. Nice ASPX error guys.

Ok, so I filed a support request on their site. I got an autoresponse back advising me to go to a particular site and login with a provided username/password to view my ticket status. Oops, the braintrust at eStarling removed the ability to login on the support site, so you can't view anything other than a message that tells you to login -- and NO login box.

I tossed a CF into the thing and was horrified at how bad this little display is. I wasn't expecting 1080p-like display performance, but man, the Atari 2600 I played Kaboom! on nearly 30 years ago looked better.

I just started the Thinkgeek RMA process. Hopefully they'll make the suck a distant memory, and fast. I wouldn't even wish this thing on someone I didn't like.

Floobtronics

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

smackswell — Sun, 20 May 2007 18:16:35 EDT

whatevs, my museum is in the pic.

GO BREWCITY!

smackswell

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

maddog — Sun, 20 May 2007 17:47:05 EDT

I think this review is overly harsh. I also had the disastrous 1.0 version of this frame and this version is much, much improved. I agree that the resolution of the screen is still sub-par and the aspect ratio is non-standard but overall this is a huge improvement over the first version.

maddog

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

Trackback — Mon, 14 May 2007 09:14:31 EDT

I do not bash products lightly, and I feel I have been extraordinarily patient with the eStarling digital photo frame. However, there is a limit. It is now mid-May, five months after the eStarling debacle started, and my parents’ main Christmas present is still not working as promised.

Trackback

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

LuckyMike — Fri, 11 May 2007 11:13:32 EDT

Gizmodo - Guys! You are not talking about the same estarling frame I have! Based on your comments, I'm surprised the poster above can even tell that the photo on top is the Milwaukee Museum! Seriously, the res and pic quality is fine, and the cool features more than make up for any lack in pic quality.

LuckyMike

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

Baggo — Fri, 11 May 2007 09:24:42 EDT

I've had a very positive experience with the new frame. My wife emailed a picture from her cel phone of our daughter playing soccer. It showed up on the frame we put on our kitchen counter within 15 minutes. As I write this, I'm home from work with a sick son and my wife has taken our daughter (and her cel) to her Gymnastics "Award Ceremony." I can't wait for the pics!

As to the picture quality, it's not high def, but I can tell that the picture is my daughter playing soccer and not a bowl of fruit. It's definitely good enough for me.

Baggo

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

framebuilder — Thu, 10 May 2007 23:24:33 EDT

There will be a new brand of Wifi Frame iGala coming out this summer. It has 8" 4:3 top of line LCD display (which will give you the image quality equivalent to your laptop) with support of flickr and email. It will also be cheaper than this one. Hang in there. I will keep you folks posted.

framebuilder

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

yertle — Thu, 10 May 2007 19:04:25 EDT

"After noting our Wi-Fi network's ID, in choosing an email address, the eStarling congratulated us you, telling us that "your frame is get connected and ready to use." Great, now we have set up us the bomb, and all your base are belong to us."

I'm fairly amused by the typo "us you" before they rail on the company for bad grammar. :)

yertle

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

gizak — Thu, 10 May 2007 17:07:01 EDT

*sigh* I had high hopes too. I want a picture frame that does this, but not that horribly hehe. I'd love to do the laptop thing, but I don't want to waste power consumption on that one purpose hehe. IMO, a wireless picture frame that does all this + has a motion sensor to turn the screen on when people walk by (to save power) would be perfect.

gizak

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

wfbnadador — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:13:01 EDT

milwaukee is my hometown... and that building is probably the one beautiful thing in the entire city.

wfbnadador

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

Tek Elements — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:12:27 EDT

I love the idea of this. I have an old Powerbook G4 that I was going to give to my daughter. I bet I could find a hack somewhere to turn that into a picture frame that can be addressed, have pics delivered to it, etc. If only there were time.

Tek Elements

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

kaneshadow — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:10:23 EDT

"It won't fit 4x3 photos which are the shape of most shots taken by consumers these days, nor will it fit 16x9 pics."
You guys are thinking of TV. 4:3 is a ratio of width to height on a standard def TV. Standard photos are 4"x6". Also I've never heard of a 16:9 pic unless you're loading this puppy with movie screen caps.
Of course none of this matters since 480x234 is a ridiculous resolution any way you slice it. That's a 80:39 ratio by the way.

kaneshadow

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

fastm3driver — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:10:22 EDT

oooo, the Milwaukee Art museum. That is a sweet building

fastm3driver

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

phi — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:54:37 EDT

i got v.1 for my parents and that was a disaster. I got v.2 in the mail the other day too. I wonder if the shoddy picture quality is enough for non-tech geeks.

phi

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

Luke — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:40:52 EDT

I'm more interested in the Aluratek 10.5" photo frame. It's under $200, but doesn't include Wifi capabilities. The resolution is much better at 1024x768, but I have yet to see any reviews anywhere.

http://www.aluratek.com/product_info.php?products_id=27

Luke

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

CarbonatedWater — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:36:26 EDT

I'd rather show a video. A picture is worth a thousand words but a video is worth.....more..than that.

CarbonatedWater

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

greysky — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:08:18 EDT

at 249 dollars I would say that they didn't fix it

greysky

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

q4norm — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:51:46 EDT

From SamCostello's article, I quoteth:

"This summer we're also going to be offering a larger screen. That should be coming probably June or July"

if it looks all shinafied after that will blam stick this down his pants?

q4norm

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

notfred — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:29:21 EDT

Most digital frames have amazingly bad resolution. I'd rather show pictures on a dedicated PSP than almost all of them.

notfred

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

adammarc81 — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:25:10 EDT

Or you can get the momento (momentolive.com)
7" for 200 bucks.
9" for 300 bucks.
I have the 7" and the wifi works great, uses the shared pictures folder in vista as well as sideshow.(i don't use the sideshow part). Bottom line is its easy to use and works well. You can set up an email acount to send pictures to the frame directly, but they charge for this service. Giz unboxed it a few weeks ago.

adammarc81

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

SamCostello — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:23:52 EDT

Should have added: Too bad v. 2.0 seems to have a new set of problems.

SamCostello

Next-Gen eStarling Picture Frame Hands On: Did They Fix It?

SamCostello — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:21:49 EDT

If anyone's interested in eStarling's thinking about the new frame/debacle with v. 1.0, we did an interview with their Exec VP. a few days back: http://www.wirelesspictureframe.com/2007/05/08/interview-w...

SamCostello