Features:

• 800×600 10.4″ LED backlit LCD touchscreen display
• weighs only 1.7 lbs.
• USB and microSD card slot
• GSM/GPRS quad-band connectivity
• $279.99

Pros:

• easy-to-use carousel menu system makes touchscreen operation super convenient
• bright display with comfortable viewing angles
• small form factor with built-in stand makes placement easy

Cons:

• requires monthly or annual VizitMe plan to use cellular connectivity
• touchscreen is not quite sensitive enough
• carousel menu is slow to respond

The Vizit frame is lightweight, thin, and feels well constructed. I’m really impressed by how svelte it is in comparison to other digital frames I’ve reviewed. The touchscreen interface means there’s no remote control to lose, nor any buttons on the frame itself, which makes this a really great choice for placing in your living room. The touchscreen plus 3G cellular connectivity makes this a great choice to stick out at Grandma’s house, since Grandma probably doesn’t have a wireless router hooked up yet.

The on-screen controls are easy to use, but you need to really press on the screen to make things happen. This isn’t an iPhone with a super sensitive display. A number of times I found myself pressing a little harder than I was comfortable with to make the menu pop up. Once the menu does pop up, you need to press again to “spin” the carousel menu to the next option. The transition effects as the menu moves to the next item is unnecessarily slow. It might be okay for Grandma, but for the neophile readers of CrunchGear, most of them will find it laboriously unresponsive.

The Vizit frame works just fine as a stand-alone frame, thanks to the USB and microSD ports. Although, interestingly, photos on USB or microSD are not automatically scaled to fit the screen. Odd, that. If you really want to take advantage of all the frame’s features you’ll need to subscribe to a service plan for wireless access. Your choices are $6/month with a limit of 100 photos per month, or $80/year with an annual limit of 1,450 photos. Your plan gives you an account on www.vizitme.com which connects to your frame. You get an email address for your frame, and a basic address book at vizitme.com: anyone you add to your address book can send photos to your frame via email or MMS.

Photos sent to your frame’s email address are stored in their original resolution at vizitme.com, scaled appropriately and sent to your frame for display. From the frame, you can use the carousel menu to send one of several replies (configurable at vizitme.com) to the person who sent you the photo. The default replies are generic responses like “Thanks!” and “Great photo!”. Also from the frame’s carousel menu, you can forward a picture to someone else in your address book. The forwarded image is the original resolution stored at VizitMe.com, so no fidelity is lost. I can’t think of too many situations where this would be useful, but it’s available to those who want it. And finally, you can subscribe to RSS feeds, Photobucket accounts, etc.

At almost $300, this is one of the more expensive picture frames on the market. Add in the monthly or yearly subscription for wireless access and the price climbs even higher. There’s no doubt in my mind, though, that there are a number of great uses for this frame.

Product page: Vizit: See. Touch. Feel.

To enter, please leave a comment telling us about who you plan to gift this frame to. That’s right: the winner is expected to give the frame to someone else. Whether that’s grandma in another state, or your kid going off to college, or maybe just your spouse because you travel so much, the intent here is to give the Vizit frame to someone else! Tell who that person is, and preferably a little about how the Vizit frame will be used by them, and we’ll pick a winner Monday morning.

As usual, this contest is unfortunately only open to people with a U.S. mailing address.

jWIN, producer of inexpensive electronics, just announced that they have entered into a licensing agreement with Polaroid, the film and camera titan that’s fallen onto tough times lately. Obviously, this all comes down to what’s in a name, and jWIN is hoping to leverage the Polaroid brand into the new digital world that Polaroid couldn’t find their own way in.

From the press release:

PORT WASHINGTON, NY – (December 29, 2009) – jWIN Electronics Corporation, a leading consumer electronics company that brings uniquely styled brand name quality products to consumers worldwide, announced the signing of an exclusive long-term licensing agreement with PLR IP Holdings, LLC, (PLR) owners of the Polaroid brand. jWIN acquired the exclusive rights to produce and market in numerous countries throughout the world an extensive assortment of peripherals for PC’s, console games, mobile phones, audio/video as well as telephones, certain laptop carrying cases and cleaning care accessories starting January 2010.

“Polaroid is excited to partner with jWIN, a solid company with proven product development and distribution capabilities in the US and around the world” said Scott W. Hardy, president of PLR.”

“We are proud to partner with PLR in this major licensing agreement that will enable jWIN to offer quality Polaroid-branded products by leveraging our core competence of creating award winning innovative products at competitive prices with the global awareness and built-in equity of the Polaroid brand,” says Sean Cho, director of marketing and strategic planning at jWIN. “We thrive in the consumer electronics, peripherals and accessories markets by offering consumers high quality products with innovative designs at smart prices. We look forward to bringing that same value proposition into the new line of Polaroid branded products.”

For more information on jWIN products please visit www.jwin.com and www.i-luv.com

I’d rather listen to nails on a chalkboard all day than review a digital picture frame. What’s the big deal with these things? It’s probably something I’d buy for my parents. That’s how I used to feel about digital picture frames until I got my mitts on the 7-inch Kaleido R7 from Ipevo. The Wi-Fi-enabled frame not only streams my personal photos from my Mac/PC, but I can also stream custom feeds from the likes of Flickr or Picasa, and get my news fix with RSS feed streaming. It also rotates from landscape to portrait mode.

Features

• Screen: 7-inch TFT LCD with LED backlight
• Resolution: 800×480
• Brightness: 350 cd/㎡
• Contrast Ratio: 400:1
• Supported Image formats: JPEG, up to 10MB
• Built-in memory: 512MB
• Memory Card Types: SD/ SDHC, MMC, MS
• USB flash drive support
• IEEE 802.11b/g with support for WEP, WPA, WPA2
• Language Support: English, Traditional Chinese
• Size: 7.8×6.7×2.9 inches
• Weight: 2.05lbs

Build quality

At $200 the Kaleido R7 doesn’t look like your typical digital picture frame. And by that I mean, it doesn’t look like a cheap piece of junk with faux wood accents. It has a nice modern looking design with a mix of glossy black and ivory accents. As I mentioned earlier the R7’s display can be rotated from landscape to portrait mode and adjusted for optimal viewing with 25 degrees of freedom.

The touch controls are surprisingly responsive and allow you to navigate through the menus without the use of the included remote control. However, I take my time with touch sensitive controls and others might be inclined to tap away at a frantic pace. The same can be said about the remote control. The on/off switch is located on the right side near the power button as well as a green/orange LED to indicate whether the display is on or off. What looks like a webcam in the upper left corner of the display is actually an IR port for the remote control.

On the back of the frame is a USB port for thumb drives as well as a miniUSB port. What’s nice about this particular frame is that it won’t automatically go into slideshow mode when a memory card is inserted, which is located on the left side of the display.

And the entire frame is more or less plastic with a heavy base that prevents it from being easily knocked over.

Display

The 800×480 resolution LED display is vibrant and does a fairly good job of reproducing color accurately. With six levels of brightness you can easily adjust to compensate for changing lighting in the room. Direct sunlight will, however, wash the frame out.

Colors don’t change too much based on viewing angle but with all things, it’s always best when you’re looking at it straight on.

Software/Menu

The menu system is bare bones and not overly complicated so it’s very easy to navigate. From the main menu you can pick from Live Channels that you’ve created, view your stored images, access images from memory cards or dive into the settings.

Firmware updates can be automatically downloaded when connected over Wi-Fi, which is a pretty big deal if you ask me.

To view online content such as your Flickr feed or a friend’s you’ll need to activate Live Channels by installing the EyeStage software onto your PC or Mac. You can also point to specific folders on your computer for the R7 to access. If you currently use an RSS reader then using the EyeStage software won’t be a challenge. The only caveat to viewing Live Channels is that your computer will have to be on so the Kaleido can communicate with the desktop software.

Viewing news from the likes of CrunchGear or Yahoo (which comes preinstalled) is hit or miss. The formatting just doesn’t look that great and slides are often repeated.

Pros

• Easy to use software that works with both PCs and Macs
• Menu system is painless
• Great screen

Cons

• Doesn’t support video or music playback
• Less than desirable RSS viewing
• Computer has to remain on for Live Channels

Conclusion

I was never a fan of digital picture frames until the Kaleido R7. Despite its shortcomings in a few areas I’d spend $200 because of everything else it can do. If Ipevo can fix the RSS output with a firmware update then the R7 is a must have digital picture frame. Of course, being able to watch videos would be a nice feature but it’s definitely not a deal breaker for me. I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Product Page

[PSGallery=60hfwy4oam]

OK, fellas, you know what tomorrow is and if you’re like me then you probably haven’t even thought about a gift for the lil lady yet. Luckily there’s always some gadget pusher out there with a worthwhile last minute gift idea. This time around it’s SmartParts and their 1.5-inch digital picture frame keychain.

Listen, this isn’t going to get you any play but it might win some brownie points. It’s a tiny digital picture frame that holds up to 100 images. Cheesy? Oh yeah. But it’s $20 and you can pick it up at Adorama or Sears since it’s a little too late to order online.

Available at Amazon for the low, low price of $1,000, the Kodak OLED 7.6-Inch Wireless Digital Frame sports a widescreen 800×480 resolution, 2GB of internal storage, and WiFi connectivity to Flickr or Kodak’s Gallery service. Just the thing you need to show off pictures of your dog!

In addition to photos, you can also stream news, weather, sports updates, and more. Plus, act now and you’ll get a “unique coupon code for a free calendar from Shutterfly–a $19.99 value”! Hurry!

The OLED technology in this thing is cool, but the price is astronomical. In these hard times, can anyone really justify dropping a grand on a digital picture frame?

Digital picture frames aren’t exactly the hottest gadget item anymore, but maybe iriver can somewhat breath new life in the totally overproduced niche item. The 7-inch Framee-L has a bit of understated art deco look, while at the same time sport’n the standard fare of digiframe features. It has a 720 x 480 resolution display, 1GB of internal memory, a full array of memory card slots, a USB port, and can handle just about every video file. Japanese peeps can get their hands on the frame starting on December 20t at an estimated price of 17,800 yen ($198).

AV Watch via SG

The latest frames from iGala utlize WiFi and Microsoft’s FrameIt service for some spiffy features. The connection associates the frame with Windows Live, Flick, and Gmail in a unique twist. No, you can’t check your email here but rather the frame can get its own email address so people can simple email that address photos to have them show up on the frame. Neat. Plus, the Internet connection provides news, traffic, and weather info. Oh, yeah, it can display photos too on it’s 8-inch 800×600 LCD touchscreen display. $239 and available now.

via DigitalPictureFrameReview

Rather than bore you with words, I chose to do a video review for the Smartparts digital frame mashup. It poops out 4×6 glossy photos and handles a variety of memory cards. The UI is simple to navigate and there isn’t a whole lot to it, so it’s perfect for anyone with any sort of tech knowledge. One ink cartridge is good for 36 prints and refills cost $20. Swapping ink cartridges was easy and took less than a minute. Photo quality is decent and the 800×600 LCD displays photos quite nicely. The only downside to these mashups is that it takes up a lot of space due to the printer and it weighs a ton. The SP8PRT retails for $279 and is available now. But I’d save your money.

They both also sport Bluetooth connectivity so you can shoot your photos right over from your mobile or Bluetooth-able camera. And the thing that might actually make them worthwhile is the HDMI-out through which you can view your photos on your HDTV. Now you can bore your friends and family in vibrant, razor-sharp 1080p!

Sony Announces Bluetooth Digital Photo Frames with HDMI Ports [Gearlog]

To some, Gigantor is a huge remote-controlled robot that fights crime for some reason. To others, Gigantor is a giant digital photo frame that displays images of you and your loved ones. I’m here today to talk about the second Gigantor.

ThinkGeek.com is selling a 15-inch cherry wood digital photo frame for $249.99, which I believe is a fair price for an item of this size. Photos are displayed at 1024×768 resolution in JPEG or BMP formats (up to 12-megapixel) and the frame can handle MPEG-1, -2, or -4 movie files and MP3 audio files. You can use a variety of memory card formats and control slideshows, music, and videos with the included remote.

15" Gigantor Digital Photo Frame [ThinkGeek.com]

The frame, made with solid birch, has a 24-bit display with a resolution of 1,024×768 and shows 16.7 million colors (seriously, that’s a decent laptop screen). There’s 256MB of flash memory built in, which also acts as an MP3 player using the built-in speakers. A card reader lets you go directly from camera to frame letting you shaft your computer from the entire experience and a wireless remote lets you quickly bypass any people you’d rather not see.

There was no pricing, yet, but Smartparts’ 10.4-inch frames sell for around $180, so expect this to be more than $200. Personally, I think it’s a waste of a perfectly good 15-inch LCD, but what do I know? I’m dead inside and have no children.

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