Digital Picture Frames

I once went to a programmer's house in Silicon Valley to do a story about a computer mod he made. Basically he turned a plastic replica of the Star Wars Millennium Falcon into a fully functioning computer. This guy was the ultimate geek! He had no artwork in his living room—only a whiteboard over the couch. But over the fireplace, he had a first-generation digital picture frame, with photos from his collection rotating through the frame. The whiteboard was dorky, but the digital picture frame was cool.

Second- and third-generation frames have come out in recent years boasting lower prices and different ways to import pictures (CompactFlash and SD memory cards, internal hard drives, and networked connections). But the functionality I've been waiting for has finally arrived: Wi-Fi-enabled frames that can receive wireless streams of new pictures via an Internet connection. 

Here's the scenario: you've already set Ma and Pa up with the wireless home network, so if they have the Wi-Fi digital picture frame, you can send new pics to Mom's frame every day (or whenever the guilt moves you). 
 
A company called Momento is releasing just such a wireless photo frame; they have 7- and 10-inch frames called "Living Picture." The resolution is an impressive 800x480, and the frame includes a multiformat card reader to preload pictures via camera and a USB port for direct transfer from a computer. To send pictures to a frame via the Internet, you sign up for service with Momento and simply upload the photos you want remotely displayed. Pretty cool. The Living Picture has speakers for audio playback and plays WMA movie files along with MP3 music files.

If you want a less expensive digital frame and don't need the Wi-Fi option, expect to pay about $200 for an 8- to 10-inch frame. For that price you could get something like the Pandigital 8-inch Digital Photo Frame. It costs $199 and stores up to 100 images on its 64MB of internal memory.

The Pandigital frame has a 7-in-1 built-in card reader for complete memory card compatibility. You can also transfer photos directly into the frame's internal memory from a digital camera, memory card, or PC. It has a remote control and offers one-button slide shows with music, zoom, rotate, brightness, and volume control. Many of these frames also support movies in the MPEG-4 and AVI formats and will play MP3 music files.