Parrot Digital Picture Frames: Setting the Standard for Design

Okay, time to call off the Aesthetic Police! Finally we have found a line of digital picture frames that are actually designed. Parrot has been a bit of a loner on this front and most recently announced a new 7-inch Bluetooth digital picture frame created with famed French designer Andrée Putman. You will find many more styles at Amazon--everything from fabric and zebra print to leather and wood. The frames are small, only 3.5- or 7-inch, but perfect for accents around home and office. Pricing and technical capabilities are on par with the market. Check it out!

Digital Picture Frame that Doubles as a Computer Monitor: The Asus UFOTO UF735

While part of us says, "Hey, you can use any computer monitor as a digital picture frame" the other part says, "hey, you can't use any digital picture frame as a computer monitor." Such is the UFOTO UF735, the latest innovation from Asus. It's a 7-inch high-resolution digital picture frame that does all you would expect--play audio and slideshows--but it also offers a sub-display function that allows you to use it as a secondary display on your computer. So how cool is this? While it will allow you to visually drop things from PC to the frame, those who would benefit from this intuitive and visual method would probably not find setting up a second PC display so intuitive. And who gets excited about a 7-inch computer monitor? Right. We're not sure what consumer Asus has in mind here but it sure hit the news wires in June thanks to winning a Red Dot design award. No release information yet--stay tuned. (via Engadet)

Pandigital's Collage-Style Digital Picture Frame

Um... we're not sure about this one. It's a 7-inch digital frame, one 5x7 still frame and two 4x6 still frames attached together into this Collage Monster. Roar. We kind of wish they were all digital frames, it seems like a clunky marriage of the old and the new. At any rate, Pandigital is a hearty player in the digital frame world and this offering at a reasonable $140 (Amazon) is no exception. It's got all the features you should expect from a digital picture frame: plays photos, music and video, remote control, auto settings, clock, calendar and compatibility with more memory cards. (via ChipChick)

New Digital Picture Frames from Transcend: The T.photo720 and T.photo710

Well, these new digital picture frames sure have been hitting the news wires. We like the designs, but per yesterday's post we'll be keeping an eye on these frames as they get closer to releasing price point and retail details. Transcend is known for its products in memory, not multimedia. The 710 is already available for sale (see below) but the 720 has just been announced. At any rate, here are the features of note:

T.photo720
- 7-inch widescreen with HD (800x480)
- 2GB internal memory plus room for memory cards
- Automatic Orientation Sensor (AOS) which will rotate image to be right-side-up on screen
- Supports photos, video and audio (including FM radio) as well as slideshows

T.photo710 ($101.59 at Amazon)
- 7-inch flat panel display (480x234)
- 1GB internal memory plus room for memory cards
- Supports photos, video and audio as well as slideshows
- Calendar and alarm clock feature

(via Gadgetell)

Fire Warning: Cheap Digital Picture Frames Rejected at U.S. Border

This is case in point of "you get what you pay for." With the rising popularity of the digital picture frame, all kinds of unqualified manufacturers are getting in the game, usually in China. These cheap frames are branded generically or sold as private label frames for stores like Best Buy and Wal-mart. Fortunately, U.S. port officials have caught on and just rejected almost 1 million digital picture frames manufactured in China due to fire hazard concerns.

Fire? Yes, indeed. Many a cheap digital picture frame has been blamed for fires in homes and offices across the country because the frames spontaneously catch on fire. Manufacturers are using substandard materials that run at high temperatures and/or LCD screens and operating systems that are not engineered to handle the constant usage that the average digital picture frame is under. Buyer beware of manufacturer Sun Plus Technology -- their screens and operating systems were originally designed for portable DVD players and have been identified as fire starters. Take it from us -- stick to the trusted brands and if the price is too good to be true, as Dad said, it usually is. (via DigitalPictureFrameReview)

HDTV + Cookbook + Digital Picture Frame = The Pandigital Kitchen

We like this movement to beef up the digital picture frame --these devices can serve more than one purpose at a time. Welcome the Kitchen Technology Center from Pandigital. Introduce your kitchen to this glorious invention (mount under cabinet, on wall or stand on counter) and enjoy morning news, evening recipes and entertaining photo slideshows. The frame comes with preloaded recipes and you can upload additional ones. The frame has got 512MB built-in memory to hold your MP3s, photos and video -- transfer files with memory sticks or Wi-fi and connect to your favorite photo-sharing site. Screen is 15-inch with 1280x720 HDTV resolution. And the best part, is this device is designed for messy kitchen life with a glass seal to protect from greasy splatters and make it easy to wipe clean. Comes with three faceplates to match your décor -- brush steel, black and white. You'll be able to pick this up in August for $400, stay tuned! (via Kitchen Contraptions)

Frame Channel: Manage Your Digital Picture Frame's Wi-Fi Feeds

If you've got a Wi-Fi digital picture frame in your life and haven't heard of Frame Channel, check it out. Here you can manage your RSS feeds and multiple photo sharing accounts. Through this single membership (free) you can set up your digital frame to receive your photos (and those of friends and family) from all kinds of sites like Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, MSN, Photobucket -- the list goes on. You can also set up RSS feeds to receive news and sports updates right to your frame. A centralized place to manage this stuff is fantastic. (via wirelesspictureframe)

Digital Picture Frame Meets Phone with the GE PhotoPhone

This is for all of us who ever wanted to live like the Jetsons. The PhotoPhone from GE is a cordless phone that has a 7-inch LCD screen to display photographic caller ID. You simply load your average memory card (up to 100 digital photos) and associate those photos with phone numbers of your friends and family. When the phone rings, no more deciphering of the caller ID screen, you get a photo! When you're not using the phone, the screen operates like any digital picture frame, playing a slideshow of your images. A must-have, right? Yeah, well, we think this could be a great product for the elder population who may find caller ID screens difficult to decipher. And hey, this is a whole lot more fun. You can load photos of the grandkids -- simple pleasures. Amazon's got the PhotoPhone for $124.19.

Samsung and Thomas Kinkade: Make Way for the Digital Masterworks Art-TV!

Start saving your shekels for the holidays, folks. A couple weeks ago Samsung announced a collaboration with The Thomas Kinkade Company where they will marry large-scale high-definition displays with fine artwork. The working name is the Digital Masterworks Art-TV and it's a whopping 46-inch 1080-pixel LCD screen with a 40GB hard drive. The display is set in a traditional Thomas Kinkade frame giving it that gallery feel through and through. Once they've got this hulking beauty working, the idea is to distribute Thomas Kinkade artwork via the internet -- whether this is like purchasing PodCasts of art or a subscription, we aren't sure. There are even audio tracks that will narrate about the art period and artist as well. (There is talk of touch screen functionality but we sincerely hope they skip that smudgy idea.) There's no pricing reported yet, but expect to shell out. Thomas Kinkade Signature Galleries will have exclusive distribution of the Art-TV at the end of the year, and they expect broader distribution in the second half of 2009. We love the possibilities of this creation -- stay tuned for developments. (via SlashGear)

Sticky Fingers: NuTouch 7-inch Premium Digital Touch Picture Frame

We're still not sold on the touchscreen idea for a viewing screen, but manufacturers sure think it's a good idea. Doesn't this make you wonder why they don't have touch TVs? Funny, it doesn't, does it? Well, latest on the touchy scene is NuTouch (get it?) from Digital Spectrum Solutions with a 7-inch digital frame that plays your photos and MP3s -- um, all at the touch of your fingers. 128MB internal storage with room for memory card, screen resolution is 800 x 480 with a 3:2 ratio, connects to PC via USB and best of all, there's an internal battery so you can avoid the ugly cord blues. You can pick this up at iwantoneofthose for about $250. Wash first, folks. (via engadet)

Get Your Bling On: Digital Spectrum 17-inch Digital Picture Frame in Gold!

Now here's a frame for your crib. Digital Spectrum has a wide range of digital frame styles, which is nice to see in this sea of sameness. If gold's not your thing, you can experiment with other faceplates like woods and silvers and blacks. The 17-inch screen will delight you! (That screen size is what's causing the price point, by the way.) Plays JPGs, MP3 audio and video with built-in stereo speakers. Connect to your computer via USB. Operates via remote control. Pick it up at Amazon for $350.

eStarling's WiFi Digital Picture Frame with Facebook Feed

Love this. eStarling's 8-inch wifi frame has just been updated with a Facebook feed -- that means you can link it to your Facebook account and view your and your friends photos directly on your frame. You can already connect with Photobucket, Flickr and Smugmug. eStarling's tactic is to add new feeds like this rather than revise its hardware every 6 months -- a frame that keeps on giving. They use Seeframe Live to facilitate your photos -- it's a website where you can store, organize and share your photos. (via Crave)

Here's some stats on the frame -- you can find it at Amazon for $224.
- 8-inch widescreen, 800x600
- 128MB built-in memory, can store additional files on Seeframe Live
- Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with WEP encryption
- Easy photosharing -- frame has its own email address

Smartparts SP8PRT: Is it a Digital Picture Frame or a Printer?

Welp, you guessed it -- it's both. And it's got the clunky body to prove it. In theory, the SP8PRT sounds like a plausible product. In actuality, we are sorry to report that this offering feels a bit premature with undeveloped features making this a questionable investment at $250.

To be frank, this is a picture frame with a thermal-dye printer mounted on its backside. From the front it looks like a frame, and acts like a frame, but at an angle you'll see the hulking girth -- obviously you can't mount this puppy on a wall and you'll want to choose placement carefully to draw attention away from the printer growth.

Frame supports USB keys and camera memory cards, plays movies and sound. There is no way to connect a computer to this frame -- all file transfers, displaying of images and printing is done through the USB keys and memory cards. (Great.) There are no editing capabilities aside from the ability to rotate photos. Remote control included.

Printer uses a continuous roll of paper and a single "ink cartridge" (technically called a "dye pack"). The roll paper means it will be thinner than your average photo paper and tend to curl. (Great.) Prints are limited to 4x6. On the bright side, color is good and photos are water-resistant and scratch-resistant. Smartparts has no data that guarantees the color-fastness of the prints, so it remains a mystery how long a print will last. (Great.) In addition, when compared to printing from a dedicated photo printer, which costs about 25-30 cents per photo, the SP8PRT is practically double at about 55.5 cents per photo.

All this kind of leaves us scratching our heads. For now, keep your digital picture frames and photo printers separate. We're grading it an Incomplete. (via PCMAG)

Fidelity Electronics Digital Picture Frames: Vibrant & Reliable

While a lesser-known brand, Fidelity Electronics is kicking up some dust in the digital picture frame market. The latest invention, due to hit stores in July, is the Digital Photo Vault. (via Marketnews) Fidelity has always been known for crisp and vibrant displays. The biggest difference between the models is screen size and screen resolution. If you plan on using your digital picture frame with your computer, the word on the street is that Fidelity frames are not excellent with MACs. They could use some better product photography too, don't you think? Digital Photo Vault (Available in July for $399)
Featuring an 8-inch screen and enormous 80GB hard drive (expandable with flash memory), this frame is meant to be a convenient storage facility for a vast collection of photos. Plays MP3 and video and comes with a rechargeable battery -- ideal if you like a wire-free display situation or want the frame to be portable. In addition, the frame has a motion sensor that will automatically power up the frame when it senses motion in the room.

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