Suggestions for a digital frame that will download wireless pictures I upload to a photo site?

May 3, 2008 12:22 AM

Suggestions for a digital frame that will download wireless pictures I upload to a photo site? I'm getting this for mother's day as I live hundreds of miles away from her I would like to just upload pictures to a site and have the frame automatically updates. Budget is between $150-250.
posted by herbiehancock00 to technology (6 comments total)

How about Ceiva?
posted by amyms at 1:11 AM on May 3

I guess I can suggest what not to get - I asked this question a few weeks back after being disappointed with the viewing angle on the wireless 15" Sungale, compared to most other frames. But it's more like $300+ anyway.

The answering Momento suggestion might be worth checking out though.
posted by -harlequin- at 1:34 AM on May 3

I gave my parents this: http://www.estarling.com/

I can't totally say that I can recommend it, however, but I haven't seen anything else out there that does precisely the same thing.

Here's what it has going for it:

1. The image quality is pretty decent. (it's like a 800 x 480 screen, or something like that)
2. It does do what you are asking for, even to the point of being able to pull pictures off of flickr or any RSS source.
3. It is wireless.
4. There is no monthly fee.


However! Here's what it doesn't have going for it:
1. It pretty much didn't work properly out of the box. I had to do a firmware update, which was totally not something that you would want your parents to do. I was prepared for this (I had done my homework prior to buying), but it is still disappointing.

2. No matter how much setup you do at your house, there still is no foolproof way that it will arrive at its final destination and be guaranteed to work. I had a somewhat unusual situation, because my parents didn't have WiFi when I got them the frame. They were able to get the WiFi going, but they absolutely NEVER got the frame to work over WiFi. I'm guessing that the only way that it will finally work is when I go out there to visit.

3. The RSS thing does work, but MAN is it mysterious what it thinks is a new picture, how many pictures it decides to pull, how often it pulls, etc. I was doing this all from a Gallery2 photo feed, which might have been part of my problem, but even then, it should have been much easier to debug when it wasn't working. Maybe if I had been using flickr, it would have been easier.

4. Lastly (and this is kinda a weird one)-- while it does not have a monthly fee, everything about the way that the system works seems designed around the idea of a monthly fee. Your photos do not go directly to the frame. The frame appears to only talk with the companies site. You configure your frame by configuring your account at estarling's web site, uploading or configuring RSS readers at estarling's web site (which is usually pretty slick), and then the frame itself goes out and gets pics from it.

There is nothing wrong with #4 except for one thing-- what happens when estarling goes out of business / EOLs this product / gets bought by some other company who decides to discontinue the frame business? As far as I can tell, you would suddenly have a frame that would have no network ability.

(sorry for the ramblingness of this post).

In short-- the estarling will do everything you are asking for. But make sure you know what you are getting into.
posted by gregvr at 2:43 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]

There's this if you're a modder (or the non-modded version if she'd be into a picture frame that's also a pillow).

[caveat: I've never used these. See reviews here, though!]
posted by trig at 4:01 AM on May 3

2nd-ing the Chumby mention. I have one and it will do exactly what you're looking for and more. Has wifi to stream its content. Display is a bit small though. I've had no problems with mine; no need to be a techy geek to operate it either. Upside is that you can manage it for your mother from the web. I have used mine to stream a Picasa album as well as some Flickr photos.
posted by bxg at 7:54 AM on May 3

I have a momento frame that I am pretty happy with... they are pretty reasonably priced, allow connection to wifi out of the box.

I hooked it up to framechannel to make it easier to manage and connect to other picture sources...
posted by niteHawk at 4:09 PM on May 3