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NYT Reviews Digital Picture Frames
prostoalex writes "New York Times reviews the digital picture frames available commercially: 'Yes, with the ultimate digital camera accessory: the digital picture frame, a flat-panel screen designed exclusively for showing digital photos. A digital frame can do something no ordinary frame can do: change what's in it at the touch of a button, or even treat you to a slide show. Think of it as a screen saver that doesn't tie up your computer.' For those who would rather build the devices themselves - both Linux Toys and Wi-Fi Toys contain the chapters on creating Linux-based digital picture frames out of old laptops. Channel 9 on Microsoft Developer Network also has a step-by-step walk-through of building a Windows-based digital picture frame."
WHy would I want that if I cant even afford the 21" Flat Screen I so desire? I like my familys photos stuffed away where they can't annoy me.
Party at O'zorgnax's Pub! Buy me a Slurmtini aye?
I have seen this idea for ages and seen many implementations (inc. my own) but I still dont understand why people bother. Last thing I need is something stitting on my desk distracting me. Its not as if paper pictures are that inconvenient and sure when you may want to remind your self of what your wife looks like before returing to the wrong home (again) but you have a great big 19 inch screen to look at her with.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
And if in a fit of rage you get in a fight with your spouse...
Building one seems like a neat idea, but using a laptop seems like such overkill to me, in terms of processing power and power requirements.
Is there some solution like the EtherNut that can also drive a flat panel display? And where to get a decent deal on a flat panel? If I'm builing a picture frame, bigger is better! I guess displays up to 1280x1024 have dropped in price a fair amount, but what about more resolution than that?
Some ThinkPads have got some nice resolution in a small format screen - anyone have a good source for those? (I know, I know, probably ebay!) I suppose in the end the cheapest solution is going to be a whole laptop from ebay... Perhaps diskless and underclocked to reduce the power consumption and heat generation. Anyone tried that?
Such devices look very interesting the day they launch but get oudated in six months or so; since there will devices in market with higher resolution at lower price in next six months.
So unless and untill there is a very unique idea behind it like iPod, it's not worth the money you spend.
Now my question is, Can I install Linux on it?
Basically, you take an old discarded laptop and build a picture frame around it.
I'm pretty sure I can build one for less than $160. Plus, it sounds like a fun project. OTOH, I really like the idea of having a seperate remote like the AV Tech picture frame and similar models have. And having a WiFi picture frame would be neat, I guess (remind me to adjust the firewall rules ;).
... when picture frames have their own IP adresses.
Another option is to get a cheapo portable DVD, in Canada RadioShack has a Nexxtech for C$149. Burn your photos to disc and away you go.
I have a table comparing various digital picture frames.
There have been some public trials of these already. Very good, if you like blue. :-)
As an amature photographer, I wouldn't mind having one, I would love to keep seeing my work as I pass the digital frame doing my business. At the moment they are in a folder on an external drive just sitting there. No point using them for my desktop either because i'm always doing work.
On another level however, I wonder if they could be used in waiting rooms, it would certainly add variety in those mind numbing places.
However, I'd also want as little interaction with the device as possible, just upload the photos, configure how I would want them displayed and leave it. Making it the same 2 steps as with a normal picture frame (nailing it in and then setting up the picture to display). Anything else like useless software is a waste and takes everything away from the point of decorating your room. Just have a simple UI to upload the photos and be done with it, wireless would be nice for the picture uploads and a neat tidy power cable coming out from the wall behind it.
Jonathanjk.com
... cubic inches (of centimeters), as they say in the automobile industry. Well, in terms of showing photos to family and friends, there's no substitute for resolution.
Not until we have a standard 13x18 cm (European size, don't know what the US equivalent is) picture frame that's capable of displaying 3 or 4 megapixels (i.e. the entire photo without downsizing), that isn't too heavy or power-consumption happy and that accepts standard memory cards, this market will bloom.
Come to think of it; where are our 4 megapixel monitors? Why do we still have only 75 or 100 DPI effectively on our current monitors?
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Wife factor is very high, especially because I had it professionally framed, which cost more than the motherboard!
i built one myself using an old Dell Latitude xpi 133, a perl script, and redhat 5.0 at the time...the laptop wasn't doing anything else, so i just did it as a project...i had the perl script generate an html file with javascript that would cycle through all pictures in a given set of directories every minute or two
turned out pretty good except for the UGLY LAPTOP SITTING ON THE TABLE IN THE DORM!
I have always considered digital picture frames to be the most colossal waste of time, money, and hardware that has ever been conceived by the technology industry.
Hey, look, a beautiful high-resolution large LCD monitor. Let's tack it to a wall and use it for displaying still images, despite the fact that still images display perfectly well on paper and have infinitely better contrast that way. Not to mention colour gamut issues that are generally solved quite well with photo-printing inks relative to how they are solved on LCDs.
I have an idea. If you have an urge to buy one of these, give me five hundred dollars instead, and give you a frame, and whenever you want a picture call me, and I will print the fucking thing for you and manually (yes, I know, scary word) put it into the physical frame.
I think it's a great idea, but there's just one issue that comes to my mind here:
.
All we seem to be doing these days is making things require electricity, when they never used to.
I'm not an environmental freak or anything, but it's shocking to see how much we're becoming dependent on electricity; even razors that don't currently require batteries will probably become battery operated, like this
See how many wind-up watches there are these days; at the rate technology is progressing, your average picture frame could soon be battery powered.
Linux/Open Source/Anti Microsoft News
Tablet PCs are ideal for this project. Its already compacted to just a screen, plus it has the added bonus of pen enabled screen. You could use it as a digital noteboard if you so desired.
The pricetag may be a little high, but you end up with a device that is still useable as a laptop/tablet PC. When you want to use it you can just unhang it and go.
FTFA: The Wallflower incorporates a laptop-like screen (1024 by 768 pixels), the Linux operating system and a 40-gigabyte hard drive (which is, unfortunately, not completely silent).
Where are the e-ink picture frames?
At $110 the ceiva seems to be bargain, if you wouldn't need that expensive subscription. If you could emulate the ceiva server or exchange the Ceiva firmware to something more useful it could be a really nice device.
Jan
Someone already figured out how to get linux running on it and made a page about it on sourceforge
Jan