The estarling wireless digital picture frame

This holiday season, eStarling finally shipped their long-awaited (and long anticipated) wireless photo frame. The next day, a few thousand techy, twenty-something sons went out and bought the eStarling for their low-tech mothers. On December 25th, a few thousand sixty-somethings opened up Christmas presents they weren’t expecting.

“A picture frame!”

“Not just any picture frame, Ma, it…”

Then a few thousand sons told a few thousand mothers that this was no ordinary frame- that it’d cycle through online albums and work with her new digital camera.

“So guests won’t think I’m still six years old when they see all the old photos lying around. It’ll keep you up to date!”

With excitement in the air and eggnog in their veins, mothers and sons went to the mantle to set up this wireless wonder. Four hours and a bottle of peppermint schnapps later, a few thousand mothers and a few thousand sons did something they never thought they’d ever do: they kicked a picture frame to try to make it work. Seven minutes later, eStarling tech support got a few thousand angry phone calls.

So eStarling didn’t do a perfect job this time around. It happens, and it’s a hassle for us early adopters. As it turns out - the little frame that caused so much fuss - looks fantastic after everything’s set up, I mean truly fantastic. Plus, a lot of the WiFi problems had to do with a faulty power cord that eStarling is replacing as quickly as any recall I’ve ever seen. And more than that, they really hit the nail on the head with its RSS support and connectivity options, WiFi connection problems notwithstanding. Throw on some sort of plastic bezel to cover the little “eStarling” logo (heck, you could use an actual frame), pick up a new power cord, use our online support guides to set it up with your router, get a Flickr account, and you’ve got quite the little gadget.

We’re so ready to make the jump to the next big thing that sometimes we miss the forest for the trees. I can’t even remember how many MP3 players I owned before I settled down with (you guessed it) an iPod. What I do remember is that most of them were terrible. Some of only held twelve songs (32mb), and it took a few hours getting those songs onto the player. But I was a glutton for the ooohs and ahhs- I loved the look on peoples’ faces when I told them music was coming out of that little black deck of cards. It took a while, but look where we are now. MP3 players are as ubiquitous as toaster-ovens, and they do more than just play music.

So here’s to the wifi frame of the future- the frame that rotates pictures of the kids while your wife’s in the office, and sports scores the second she leaves; to the frame that doubles as a calendar and reminds you that your dentist doesn’t take MasterCard. Don’t worry, It’ll happen. But until then, let’s say thank you to the walkmen, betamax players, tube TV’s, and eStarlings of the world. As long as they keep rolling out, things can only get better.

eStarling, you’re still in the game and by next Christmas it’ll be moms (we hope) setting up these frames on their own. Conclusion: still a great buy for any early adopters out there willing to go through some set-up pain. Available from ThinkGeek at $249
Buy the estarling digital frame at ThinkGeek now

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