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What To Do With Those First Generation Photo Frames?

First time accepted submitter icepick3000 writes "There are probably many digital photoframes unused these days laying around. Mine is from the first generation meaning you can only insert a compact flash card and display photos. Newer models nowadays can display weather, news, and stocks. Anyone have some good idea's how to give these old frames a second life? I have been thinking about compact flash cards that support wifi... maybe someone has a better idea?"

31 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Why choose to be unhappy? by MrLogic17 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Um, use them as designed? Why do you need all of those extra features for just a photo frame?

    If you're still on the upgrade treadmill, give the old frames to someone who will use it.

    1. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bravo for saying what needed to be said so politely!

    2. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by Scutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I thought this was Slashdot. This should be the home of people hacking devices and breathing new life into them.

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    3. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by tibit · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's a photo frame for crying out loud. If it doesn't work, you can perhaps fix it. If you want weather on your fireplace's mantle, punch a hole to the outside and be done, mmkay?

      --
      A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
    4. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by Scutter · · Score: 5, Funny

      You seem very angry about some guy who just wants to tinker with some old piece of electronics. Did a digital photo frame once fall on your head or something?

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    5. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > give the old frames to someone who will use it.

      Like your local animal shelter - we use them at ours to display pictures of adoptable animals in local businesses, a volunteer drives around once a week with updated CF/SD cards. Much better than static posters.

    6. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Frankly there needs to be a "+10 Truth" mod because you sir should have one! I mean what is this complete obsession with putting every damned thing on everything else? I gave my GF a photoframe that...gasp! Just shows photos a couple of years back and she still loves and treasures it, it sets in the middle of the TV shelf right above the set so anybody who sits down in her home has their eyes drawn to its constantly changing pictures and with the 8Gb SD card and reader she can just slap pics straight off her phone onto the card and have them instantly ready for viewing which she loves.

      You already get news and weather on your PC, your laptop, your phone, why can't a picture frame just be a picture frame?

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    7. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by asmkm22 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You're thinking of Hackaday.com

      Here's a fun project, even if it's limited in scope.
      http://hackaday.com/2011/06/13/wifi-sniffing-digital-picture-frame/

    8. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They.. They took my job. Those photo frames.

      I hate them all.

    9. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by tibit · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I thinker too, but man, if you need to ask around on slashdot for inspiration, you're in a real dry rut :)

      --
      A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
    10. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your first grade teacher was wrong, there are such things as stupid questions.

    11. Re:Why choose to be unhappy? by Mondo1287 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Dey took yer jerb!

  2. Simple solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    1) Download image http://i.imgur.com/Oq3OW.jpg
    2) Place image on digital photoframe.
    3) Place digital photoframe outside front door.
    4) ???
    5) Peace and solitude.

    1. Re:Simple solution by msevior · · Score: 4, Funny

      OK I bit...

      awwwww cute!

  3. New Year's Gift by guttentag · · Score: 4, Insightful
    1. 1. Open MSPaint or similar program
    2. 2. Create a horrendously-ugly pixelated painting
    3. 3. Superimpose large (not anti-aliased) text over the painting that reads "New Year's Resolution"
    4. 4. Create a second painting with the text "Stop buying 1st Gen Hardware"
    5. 5. Repeat step 4 with "?????" as the text, where ????? Equals your other new years resolutions (as many times as necessary)
    6. 6. Profit!
  4. Porn by Anubis350 · · Score: 3, Funny

    A giant wall of porn to great you when you, er, come home. /burn karma, burn!

    --
    "goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
  5. Surprisingly not Goatse by Anubis350 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm actually slightly disappointed, slashdot AC trolls.

    --
    "goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
  6. idea by viperidaenz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Pray your old photo frame supports SD cards
    Use the GPIO on your Arduino/RaspberryPi/Anything network connectable really to emulate an SD card with a filesystem and produce the images to display stock prices/weather/intertubes content on your legacy photo frame.

  7. Personal Telescreen by guttentag · · Score: 5, Funny

    Take headshots of your significant other looking very impatient, occasionally slightly moving to create the appearance of a live image. Glue a black plastic sequin to the middle of the top frame so it looks like a built in camera. Set the frame in portrait orientation and have it display the images in quick succession on your desk. Then whenever someone you don't want to talk to approaches, start apologizing to the frame, then turn it around for them to see, and whisper this: "I've got my wife on the telescreen... I have to take this call..." Bonus points if it is your wife who you avoid talking to in this way.

    1. Re:Personal Telescreen by rwa2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Heh, I like that!

      It's almost Halloween... I would just hook one up to a battery pack and make it part of my costume somehow. It could display the blue screen of Death! Or you could just get the t-shirt.

      Maybe load a few pictures of evil-looking eyes, and hang them out in a dark corner of the yard.

      Or load a few pictures of x-rays on it.. with a little rehearsal and good timing (or maybe it just has a "next photo" button). Then you can hold it in front of various 'ahem' parts of your body, and show off or something.

      There are so many crappy old laptops around with nicer displays and better functionality to waste time hacking a photo frame, though.

  8. Hack the firmware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Use them as a video output device.

    Many picture frames can be hacked and used as displays. Cheap and very handy for devices lacking traditional a traditional video out.

    Some smart people have been working on this over at the Doozan forum.

  9. Display information by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Do you want a bigger house? Own your own business? Climb Kilimanjaro? Put frames that show those goals into it and let the photo frames remind you. This will make a powerful subconscious urge for you to achieve your goals.

    Do you want to learn rote things, such as another language? How about showing word - translation flashcards for the language, or whatever information you need to know. Put them on your desk and occasionally glance over and try to guess which translation will follow the shown word. (Or the times tables, or whatever info you want.)

    How about installing quick-reference sheets for work? (I personally have an ASCII chart hanging in my office since I can never remember the codes.) You can have a "perl quick reference sheet", "perl debugger sheet", "Cisco router quick reference sheet" and so on. Most of the frames have buttons to stop or flip through the images - find the reference sheet you need and freeze it.

    The photo frame can hold all sorts of static information within limitations.

    1. Re:Display information by dasunt · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Googling "digital photo frames hacks" I find the following suggestions as well:

      • Put recipes on it, store in the kitchen.
      • Store pictures of art you like.
      • Store poems you like.
      • Scan manuals you use frequently.
      • Two images, the first saying "breath in", the second saying "breath out", in slideshow mode with the shortest delay possible. ;)
  10. A status display for your Linux device by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    e.g on openwrt

    https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=34133

    Where are the nerds today?

  11. Disgusted with lameness by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You seem very angry about some guy who just wants to tinker with some old piece of electronics.

    It's just that it's so very lame to ask a question that is essentially "what can I do with an LCD panel?". If you don't know already, you probably will have no use for the answer.

    It's also a bit absurd to think a photo frame it broken because it doesn't display something besides photos you can get more easily and with better detail on your smart phone.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  12. You mean second generation? by naranek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think you mean second generation photo frames. The first generation had superior DPI, didn't use any power and was a lot cheaper. It was also often made of wood.

    --
    Only dumb birds land downwind.
  13. Re:This is stupid by Robert+Zenz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm pretty sure you can use the Dead Badger Tutorial also on cats.

  14. What to do with useless crap I bought 2 years ago? by BlackPignouf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We seem to get a "What to do with this useless crap I bought 2 years ago?" question every month.
    Don't buy it in the first place!

    If you think you want to buy something, write it down in a "could_buy.txt" list.
    Take a look one month later, and more often than not, you'll ask yourself why you even considered it.

  15. Use it for education. by Radak · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anyone have some good idea's how to give these old frames a second life?

    Display a different grammar rule every day. You can start with correct use of apostrophes.

  16. This is quite unorthodox but by silentcoder · · Score: 4, Funny

    what if you put some favourite pix on a compact flash card, load it in there... and use the thing to look at the photos or display them to visitors ?

    --
    Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  17. Bring them to a senior center by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Help the new owner load some pics of the grandkids from their kids' Facebook page.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)