Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Pandigital primarily makes digital photo frames, so it’s not surprising to see the company doing all it can to get you to buy one for everyone room in your house. Their latest effort is the Pandigital Kitchen HDTV/Digital Cookbook/Digital Photo Frame which could probably have been shortened into a more marketing-friendly name. It’s a 1280×720 15-inch LCD display that includes ATSC & NTSC tuners as well as s-video, component and HDMI inputs allowing it to be used as a TV. But it also comes pre-loaded with a large collection of recipes that are stored in its 512MB of internal memory. More recipes can be added by the user, though I have no idea what format they’re in. Not surprisingly it also serves as a digital photo frame and has an integrated 6-in-1 card reader supporting SD, XD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro/Duo, CF and MMC cards.

Because it’s designed to be used in the kitchen, the display is sealed in glass protecting it from splattered ingredients and making it particularly easy to clean. It includes a remote control that can be safely tucked away when the food starts flying and has a touch screen interface that can be used even when your fingers are dirty.

It should be available sometime in June with an MSRP of $399.99.

[ Pandigital Kitchen HDTV/Digital Cookbook/Digital Photo Frame (PDF) ] VIA [ Digital Trends ]

By Luke Anderson

If you didn’t know, Polaroid recently announced that they will no longer be producing the instant film that made the company a household name. However, someone has created a concept gadget that would keep it alive forever.

This may look like an unusually thick Polaroid, which is exactly how it is meant to look. However, it is a digital picture frame with a small whiteboard underneath. It would have a built-in stand in the back and a memory card reader in the bottom for loading pics. If this were priced reasonably enough, I think it could sell well, if only for nostalgic reasons.

VIA [ Ironic Sans ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As digital photo frames become larger, at what point do you draw the line between a dedicated photo viewer and an LCD TV/monitor? I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure there’s a technical standard somewhere that says once you put a tacky faux-wood frame around the outside edge, the LCD has to be sold as a digital photo frame. And that’s how you end up with this huge 32-inch model from Smartparts (which I’ve typed as Smartpants at least 10 times now.)

Besides the size, there’s unfortunately not much else to be impressed with. It has a resolution of 1366×768, which is perfect for displaying your 1 megapixel photos, and includes just 256MB of internal memory. As for file support, it can load JPG files off of an MS, SD or CF card, and also supports various video formats like MPEG, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMA and AVIs. I will give it credit for also supporting PDF and PowerPoint files, making the display a bit more useful for office environments.

I’m not sure when the SP3200 will be available (it could be already) but it will supposedly come with an $899 price tag.

[ Smartparts SP3200 ] VIA [ I4U News ]

By Luke Anderson

Digital picture frames were cool when they first came out, unfortunately they never seem to have a great resolution, and they are dime a dozen these days. It would be nice if someone would actually put in some features (other than playing MP3s, because no one really cares). Thankfully Polaroid has decided to do just that.

Their latest digital frame will actually let you zoom in on a particular area of the picture at either 2x, 4x, 8x or 16x. Unfortunately, that’s all that’s interesting about this frame. It’s only going to display at 480 x 234, and like so many others plays MP3s. If they could have put in a better screen I might be a little more interested.

[ Polaroid ] VIA [ Fareastgizmos ]

By Andrew Liszewski

This is exactly the type of crap holiday-themed novelty gadget that inspired me to start the Christmas Countdown in the first place. Because the only thing better than a keychain-sized digital photo frame with a miniscule display, is one that looks like Santa which you can only carry around for a couple months out of the year.

Of course the website actually refers to the 1.1 inch LCD screen as “good sized” but since most people wouldn’t even settle for a digital watch with a display that small, I can’t imagine they’d be happy looking at their photos on this thing. The 8MB of internal memory is pretty typical for these types of devices, but since your photos automatically get resized to 96×64 when uploaded, you can probably fit quite a few on. Other features include date and time display, brightness and contrast adjustments as well as a manual or auto slideshow option.

It’s available from Chinavasion for just $15.16, but the price actually gets cheaper the more you buy. So if you grab 200 you’ll save a few bucks and won’t have to worry about Christmas shopping for the next 10 years. (Depending on the size of your family.)

[ Christmas Digital Photo Frame ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Digital photo frames were probably one of the more popular gifts last Christmas, and based on what I see in stores, this year isn’t going to be any different. But why buy a cheap model with a crappy resolution, when your digital camera is probably taking 7MP+ photos? I recently stumbled across a line of digital photo frames from a company called Ality, and while I haven’t seen one in person yet, they’ve sold me on features alone.

The Pictura Mirror PC019M model has a whopping 19-inch LCD screen and a half-decent resolution of 1280×1024. The frame also includes other basic features like support for BMP and JPG files, a high-speed USB port, slots for CF, SD, MMC and MS cards and will play back both MPEG and AVI video files. But it’s the frame’s other features that really set it apart.

First off, instead of showing a black empty frame when not in use, the PC019M actually has a mirror finish so it not only looks good, but can ensure you do too. It also has a built-in photo scheduler so you can load up specific pictures when friends or family stop by. (Or ensure that other pictures don’t get loaded into the slideshow.) But the biggest feature in my opinion is that it has a touch-screen interface! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to choose a menu option on a regular digital photo frame by touching the screen, only to remember I have to use a set of small annoying buttons instead. Unfortunately though the frame seems to be hard to come by if you’re looking to pick one up. I managed to find a price for the 17-inch version, about $350, so you can expect the 19-inch model to be even more expensive.

[ Ality Pictura Mirror Digital Photo Frame ]

By Andrew Liszewski

We’re slowly starting to see these miniature digital picture frames making their way into everything from keychains to wallets to plush toys now. Photokinz are billed as ‘huggable digital photo frames’ and while technically there’s nothing stopping you from hugging a regular picture frame, this one appears to have fewer sharp corners, and would make the experience far more pleasant.

Unfortunately Percy the Penguin only has enough storage on board for about 64 lo-res photos, and there’s no way to increase that with an external memory card. (Where would you even stick one?) He’s also apparently compatible with over 104 million photo-sharing websites, as well as all digital cameras and cameraphones which basically means it supports JPEGs.

The Photokinz are available from Amazon for $59.99 in a wide variety of animals including dogs, cows, frogs and penguins.

[ Photokinz - Percy The Penguin ] VIA [ Popgadget ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Forget about wireless, audio or video capabilities, the most important things I want in a digital picture frame are size and resolution. But for some reason these have taken a back seat to other features people will rarely use. I mean what’s the point of owning an 8+ mega-pixel digital camera when you’re only going to show off your photos on a 640×480 pixel (or less) display?

Thankfully this Gigantor digital photo frame is a step in the right direction. At 15 inches in size it looks like a giant when compared to other frames on the market, and it has a half-decent resolution of 1024×768. I mean we can still do better, but this is a good start. Other features include support for 8 different types of memory cards, a USB port for flash drives and will play MP3 audio or MPEG 1, 2 and 4 video files.

The best part of the Gigantor digital photo frame though is the $249.99 price tag from ThinkGeek. At only $100 more than most other digital frames on the market, I’d definitely recommend spending the extra money.

[ Gigantor Digital Photo Frame ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Shane McGlaun

PhotoVu announced today one of the most expensive digital picture frames ever, the PV1965w. This frame carries a massive MSRP of $1199, and while it is pretty cool, I don’t think is $1200 cool.

What you get for that much cash is a 1440 x 900 screen resolution, 16m/24-bit color on a high resolution LCD TFT display. The screen uses a 16:10 aspect ratio and measures in a 19” diagonal and 16” wide x 10” high.

The cool feature of this frame is built-in 802.11b wireless connectivity and WEP 64/128 bit security. You can even upgrade the wireless connection to 802.11g with WPA if you want. The wireless connection allows you to stream photos directly to the frame from Internet services like Picasa Web Albums, flickr, iPhoto Photocasts and more. There is also a USB port that allows you to connect USB drives directly to view pictures and the frame supports an optional USB removable hard drive.

[ Press Release (registration required) ] VIA [ PhotoVu ]