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.
Oh, great, now you’ll have fingerprints all over your digital images. Way to admire that “mirror finish.”
Awesome!…