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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
... 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
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
Concur.
But a reasonable extrapolation of "outdated" every six months takes us to some pretty interesting country in fairly short order.
Consider, if you will, a roll of wallpaper with a ribbon cable coming off of one edge. Or perhaps small antennae along the back side, every meter or so. Trimmable, ten feet in width, coming in rolls up into the hundreds of meters in length, they soon colonize interior and exterior wallspace everywhere you look.
They work just as well for folks interested in proportion and harmony, as they do for large corporations and folks with an agenda.
We will love our new vistas and will wonder how people got along without them for so long.
Is it fascism yet?