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You might take a look at this: http://www.ceiva.com/home/hp/index.jsp

Personally, I liked the Temple of the Monkey God.

Anything like this?

Built with vxWorks, I believe. Just saw one today at the local Coffee Bean. Cool toy, though I wouldn't be likely to shell out any $$ for it ...

iFrames? Do you think they're an Apple invention or something? That's probably what they'd call a photo viewer like a Ceiva.

Product Page

The frame dials into the Cieva site and gets it photos from there based on the ID of the Frame. Charges for this are about $3.00-$8.00 per month or so. It's 5x7 frame, and works great for any of you that want your tech-unfriendly grandmother to see new photos of her grandkids.

I wish apple would make one of the convertable flip-over type tablets because I'm betting they could get it right on the first try.

I 100% agree with you. I was holding out and hoping for an Apple laptop/tablet, which would combine the creme de la creme of two fields -- Apple makes the best laptops, and tablets are the best kind of laptop.

Unfortunately Apple has been mum (though OS X has integrated handwriting recognition, so there's hope). Instead I broke down and bought on Acer. It has been incredible for these reasons:

- it's small. not quite as small as the smallest vaios, but it's very, very small. people see it and say "hey, that's a sexy laptop". When I pop the clips and flip the screen, their jaws drop.

- it is an excellent paper replacement. if you like to do your thinking using graphs, rough sketches, outlines, or on a whiteboard, it's very handy. i used to go through reams of lined paper, now I use MS Journal. draw, erase, move, highlight, undo, everything.

- if you like to doodle, you will love it (the Acers are pressure sensitive, and Alias Sketchbook is a nice app).

- it's a perfectly functional laptop. i'm typing on it right now. i code on it.

- in a couple of minutes I'll take it out into the living room (integrated wireless). flip it around, and browse the web with the stylus. most web pages display better in portrait orientation, and most don't require keyboard input. the only sucky thing is typing in URLs -- make sure you have a rich list of links in your favorites list, homepage, etc.

If you've read this far, let me also describe the first truly new computer-interface experience I've had in a long time. the built-in microphone sucks, but here's what you do:

- get a headset with a boom mike
- plug it in, configure XP Tablet voice recognition
- flip it into tablet mode
- dictate to your heart's content.
Long-term usage of a computer without a keyboard is quite possible with this setup. The voice rec is about 85% for me, but with the stylus I can be correcting previous mistakes while I continue to speak. It feels very natural.

Okay, now the drawbacks:

- pen alignment isn't perfect. i keep trying to recalibrate it, but it never quite lines up right, especially at the edges of the screen. the can make detail sketching a pain in the neck.

- the TFT LCD screen is bright and sharp, but contrast changes significantly with viewing angle. this can make sketching a pain in the neck (lines look too soft from one angle, to dark from another. hard to tell what the final will look like on other monitors).

Best anecdote: last night I took it to a party, put it in tablet mode, put a cheap wooden picture frame around it, installed a slideshow screensaver, and hung it on the wall. it looked like a digital photo frame, and drew a lot of startled compliments.

I can't recommend it enough. If you like drawing and are considering getting a laptop, it's well worth the extra money (after rebates, the Acer was about $1800).

If you want to share photos with family, I like the ceiva picture frame, because my mom doesn't have to use a computer to enjoy it. She has a very strong tremor in her hands, and so surfing the web is really not an option for her. Again, the ceiva web page makes it easy to upload photos to send to their frame.

A digital picture frame is already made by a company called Ceiva, you can find out more here
It's only like $100 from some places, and it can either be in single-picture or slide-show mode. Plus, it dims in low light and a button can advance you forward.
The only catch is that it's a subscription service, and you have to pay like $5 a month, but it's still a nice piece of technology.

The picture frame that the Discovery Channel Store sells, made by Ceiva, that is found here, charges a monthly fee plus initial purchase price. Imagine having a few of these frames for a few years.. adds up quick.

The frame has arguably one of the simplest interfaces possible. It presents pictures to the user. It normally runs in a slide-show mode, showing pictures for a pre-set amount of time. A white button on the back allows the user to step through the pictures at will. A black button (camouflaged with the back of the frame) allows the user to adjust brightness. Two cords, a power cord and a phone cord, connect the device to the outside world.

On several occasions, my grandmother has called upon my father (and would have called upon me had I lived closer) to fix one of those cords when it came unplugged. Reducing the number of cords would make the interface simpler - but not by much.

Once in awhile, we talk about some picture I've sent recently, and I suggest she could show it to her friends - but she says she doesn't know how! All she has to do is push the white button on the back of the frame. Each time I explain it to her, she seems to understand. I wonder how many more times I'll be explaining it.

The Ceiva frame is an example of technology made simple. Yes, I had to do some setup, but that was just at the start. The Ceiva folks were smart to give the frame a slide show mode - so users need only look at the frame to see whatever pictures are there. The optional button on the back lets tech savvy folks display whatever picture they want.

User interfaces don't get much simpler than the Ceiva frame. You could use just a power cord and a wireless modem and do away with the buttons entirely, but they found a good balance between the simplest of devices (the old-fashioned picture frame) and a technological variation on that simple theme - and it's certainly not too user friendly for my grandmother.