In one fell swoop JOBO has drastically simplified the process of getting printed photos into the digital realm with their aptly named ScanViewer digital photo frame. The 8-inch TFT LCD has a resolution of 800×600 pixels, while the built-in scanner located just below it can scan as high as 1200×1800 pixels. The automatic feeder will accept photos either 1.6″x2″ in size or the more common 4″x6″ format, and the digital versions can be stored on the frame’s 1GB of memory or copied to a memory card including compact flash, SD, MemoryStick and XD. And there’s even a USB connection for easily transferring the scans back to your PC. Expect the ScanViewer to be available sometime in December for about $380.

[ JOBO ScanViewer ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

Congratulations to Sharp for combining two devices that most tech-savvy consumers have no use for. Their JD-7C1CL/CW cordless landline phone includes a generous 7-inch LCD touch screen (800×480 resolution) that can be used for general phone functions like checking voicemail, accessing your phone book etc. and when not in use it doubles as a digital photo frame. The 128MB of storage on board isn’t exactly generous, and while you can wirelessly send photos from a cellphone to the frame, it only supports IR so be prepared to wait a while if your phone ’s camera is of the many megapixel variety.

VIA [ Akihabara News ]

Let’s be honest, I’d give a six-year-old kid better odds at figuring out how to use a regular digital photo frame than a forty-year-old adult, so the only reason I can see them needing a ‘kid-friendly’ digital frame is durability reasons. The KidiLook from VTech is designed for children aged 3 to 6 and can store up to 100 digital photos synced from your PC via USB. And while it includes a series of buttons for scrolling through the photos, kids can also just shake the device to advance the slideshow thanks to its built-in motion sensor. $24.99 from the VTech website.

[ VTech KidiLook Digital Photo Frame ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Shane McGlaun

I like digital photo frames and each time someone comes to my house that doesn’t own a digital frame, they leave wanting one. With digital frames, I can display images of the kids and other events without having to print off gobs of pictures and find a place to put the pictures on my wall.

Kodak has announced a new digital photo frame called the Easyshare S730, but has left out some important details about the device. The import bits missing are exactly how large the screen of the frame is and what the frame looks like. Pricing for the frame will be $139 and it will ship in September.

The frame features touch sensitive controls on the frame bezel, 1GB of internal memory and a rechargeable battery good for an hour away from an outlet. A memory card reader is built-in as well for viewing images without having to upload them to the frame. Other features include the ability to play video and music and a collage feature.

[ Kodak ]

By Shane McGlaun

Digital photo frames may seem boring, but anyone who takes lots of digital pictures will find that the gadgets are a great way to do something with all those pictures other than letting them sit on your computer or memory card. The price of digital photo frames are coming down as well making them more affordable.

Samsung has announced a new digital frame that is under an inch thick and sports an 8-inch screen. The screen has a resolution of 800 x 480 and a contrast ratio of 500:1. Despite the small size of the frame, it packs 1GB of memory inside.

Samsung claims that is enough storage for 3,000 photos, assuming they are suitably low resolution. An SD card slot is offered for loading photos into the frames memory and the little frame gets all the juice it needs right form a PCs USB port. That means you can place the frame on a desk and power it totally from your computer. The SPF-87H digital photo frame is available now for $129 at Fry’s and on Amazon.com.

[ Samsung ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I’m still not really on the whole digital picture frame bandwagon. Honestly, I guess I just don’t have a need to cycle a few hundred pictures on my wall or something. If I were going to get one, I’d go for something a little less than ordinary. I’d either get one that actually did a little more than show pictures, or I’d make my own. From the looks of this mod, it would be pretty easy to use an Eee PC for one.

Having a full-fledged computer working as your picture frame does leave you with a lot more options. Now you can add a touchscreen and control various media through the house with a touch. The early Eee PCs are really cheap, so this might just be a fun mod for someone who doesn’t just want a boring digital picture frame.

[ Awooga ] VIA [ HackADay ]

So you got one of those useless fancy digital photo frames for Christmas, but do you really want to spend your day looking at photos of your family? Of course not! Thankfully Bandai is the first company to come to that realization, and their new Digital Living Gallery line of digital photo frames reflects that. Instead of a cheesy plastic frame, the LCD is surrounded by a traditional, and tasteful, wooden frame like you’d find on a painting. And since that would probably seem out of place while the frame was cycling through photos of your trip to Carlsbad Caverns, Bandai will be pre-loading the frames with highbrow content.

At launch, the Digital Living Gallery will be available in a Pierre-Auguste Renoir or a Vincent van Gogh version that each come with 30 high-quality digital versions of classical works from each artist. And Bandai will be selling SD cards with works from other artists as well, so you can continually expand your frame’s collection. While you’re not going to fool anyone into thinking that’s a real van Gogh you’ve got propped up on your desk, something like this would go a long way to classing-up your cubicle, once you get rid of all those Halo figures.

The Digital Living Frames will be available starting January 30th for about $580 (52,290 Yen) while the SD cards will sell for about $55 (4,980 Yen) each.

[ Bandai Digital Living Gallery ] VIA [ CScout Japan ]

For the most part there’s very little that distinguishes the hundreds of different digital photo frames on the market. But the Memoir from Skyla (the new consumer electronics division of LiteOn IT) will definitely stand out in the crowd since it features a built-in photo scanner that makes it easy for anyone to convert an old print into a digital photo. Because of the size of the frame the scanner is limited to handling 4×6 prints or smaller, but the 1GB of internal memory should be enough to store about 200 4×6 photos scanned at 600 dpi..

The Memoir also features pretty much everything else you’d expect in a ‘modern’ digital photo frame including an 800×600 resolution LCD, two USB ports for connecting flash drives or syncing the frame to your PC and support for MP3s, MPEGs and other image files. However I don’t see a mention of slots for compact flash or secure digital cards, but I’m going to assume those are included as well. The Memoir should be available in late December and will have an MSRP of $219.99.

[ Gearlog - LiteOn IT Introduces Skyla's Memoir Scanning Digital Photo Frame ]

It seems the product designers at Parrot, or in this case designer Martin Szekely, haven’t gotten around to reading any of the reviews of the new MacBook or MacBook Pro. If they had, they would have discovered that consumers (or reviewers at least) aren’t that into highly reflective glossy displays that make it easy to see yourself, but not necessarily what’s on the LCD. And claiming that the digital photo frame can also double as a mirror just doesn’t cut it.

It’s too bad though because the SPECCHIO includes wifi (b & g) and bluetooth and can receive photos directly from a cell phone or via email, an RSS feed or your Picasa/Flickr account. There’s no pricing or availability info for the SPECCHIO frame at this point, but a similar ‘designer’ frame in the Parrot online store runs $449.99, and I don’t expect this one will be any cheaper.

[ SPECCHIO - Parrot By Martin Szekely ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ve yet to find a digital picture frame that actually made me want to buy it. There have been a few interesting ones here and there, but at the end of the day you’re shelling out a good big of money for something that’s just going to display pictures. However, Samsung has piqued my interest with their new line of frames that can also act as an extra monitor for your PC.

These new frames use a technology called UbiSync PC (likely based off of DisplayLink technology) that allows you to plug it in via USB, and have yourself either an 800×600 or 1024×600 screen (depending on which one you buy). This screen would be very useful for storing toolbars, icons or whatever. Then when you’re not using it, it turns into a simple digital picture frame. The 8-inch version runs $142, while the 10-inch is $204. Honestly, for that price, I’d just buy another monitor and set my screensaver to display pictures. You’ll get the same result, just with a larger monitor.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ Technabob ]