David Pogue of the New York Times wrote a fascinating article last week about how technology constantly improves itself. He says, and he’s spot-on right, that “Every fast, slick and successful product today has a crude, expensive and annoying ancestor.”
He then goes on to say that wireless/digital picture frames have improved drastically over the years, in almost every possible category and aspect. Please click over to Mr. Pogue’s article; he gives his honest opinion of seven wireless/digital picture frames. He tell us why these frames are superior, and he’s also not afraid to make some suggestions.
Don’t forget to watch the video!
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eStarling, Inc. announced last week that its new 8-inch wireless digital picture frame is now available to consumers.
The new wireless frame has many unique features designed to enable users of social networking sites to send and share photos without using the internet. Each wireless digital frame has its own unique e-mail address, so photos can be received and displayed from computers or cell phones almost immediately. There is no special setup, and there are no monthly fees.
Users with more than one eStarling wireless frame can use them all with a single email address. You can even use the timestamp setting to make sure certain pictures are posted on certain dates. Happy Birthday! Happy Anniversary! Merry Christmas! Etc!
You can even email someone’s wireless digital eStarling frame from YOUR wireless digital eStarling frame.
Andrew Caffey, senior vice president of eStarling, says that “There are millions of photos being stored on web sites today, and now customers of those sites have an alternative to viewing those photos beyond their computers and cell phones. By using eStarling’s API, these sites will easily integrate with eStarling’s online web service, SeeFrame live, letting users duplicate their online experiences for the first time with a connected wireless digital picture frame.”
The new eStarling wireless digital photo frame supports the following RSS photo feeds: AOL, Flickr, Gallery, Photobucket, Picasa, and Smugmug.
We here at FrameMedia really like this new eStarling frame, but we really, really wish eStarling would allow its wireless digital frames to access FrameChannel, as we consider FrameChannel to be the very best media-sharing photo feed on the internet today. Maybe someday? And why not now?
This new eStarling wireless digital picture frame can be purchased on Amazon ($269.00), thinkGeek, and the eStarling website. ($259.00)
FrameChannel uses the open RSS standard that millions of devices can interact with. FrameMedia uses RSS in order to make using FrameChannel as easy as possible for both users and frame manufacturers.
But PF Digital, the company that makes the eStarling, doesn’t allow its users to add whatever RSS feed they’d like to their eStarling frames. We think they ought to.
The eStarling frame currently supports a handful of external RSS feeds: Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, and a few others. The company’s position on adding new RSS feeds is:
More RSS support will come. Please send email to suggestions@estarling.com to
include a new RSS.
We’re asking WirelessPictureFrame.com readers and FrameChannel users to email PF Digital/eStarling and ask them to add FrameChannel to their list of supported RSS feeds.
PF Digital needs to open the eStarling to other RSS feeds — including, but not limited to, FrameChannel — for a number of reasons.
Not allowing users to add whatever RSS feed they want is similar to Microsoft creating a version of Internet Explorer that can only visit certain websites. No one would stand for that — or probably use that browser for too long. PF Digital isn’t Microsoft’s size, of course, so they may need to move more deliberately. This would be a good next step.
PF Digital should also open up their RSS feeds because open standards and systems are better for users. When companies leverage open systems, interoperability increases, in turn increasing the value of products to customers. After all, the open Internet has proved to be more appealing than cloistered systems like AOL.
PF Digital isn’t the only frame company that isn’t open enough when it comes to RSS. Kodak needs to open up, too, and we’ll revisit that issue in the future.
The companies that have opened up already, like BigEFrame, should be applauded for their forward-looking stance. More frame makers are certain to be joining that list soon.
We hope that the eStarling will join those ranks, too, and if you’d like to see them do so, please email suggestions@estarling.com and ask them to add FrameChannel to their list of supported RSS feeds.
The eStarling frame from PF Digital was one of the first digital picture frames to have wireless capabilities, making it an object of the techno-lust. That lust turned sour, though, when customers found that the first batch of eStarling frames had problems with stability and WiFi signal strength. Frustrated users vented on the Web and eStarling took a public relations drubbing.
The eStarling is back with version 2.0, which PF Digital says adds Mac compatibility and fixes the WiFi and cosmetic issues that frustrated customers.
To make amends, the company is replacing all eStarling 1.0 frames with the new eStarling 2.0. The frame is also for sale to new customers at US$249.99.
To find out more about the replacement program, what PF Digital learned from the problems with the first frame, and what new features are coming to eStarling frames later this year, we spoke on May 4 to Andrew Caffey, executive vice president of PF Digital.
WPF: What was the cause of the problems with the frame that shipped during the 2006 holidays?
AC: We had one or two poor decisions that were made by our manufacturers in China on the hardware that was selected for our frame design, in particular the chips that were selected. I’m afraid in our dash to get the product to market in time for the Christmas season, these frames were not individually tested and the problems that resulted from the chip selection weren’t evident to us until the frames got into the market.
Many frames were sold at the Christmas season through the ThinkGeek.com site. What we’ve done for all of those purchasers — we felt very bad about those problems of course — and have moved to replace each and every one of those early eStarling frames with a new eStarling 2.0. I understand those customers will be receiving those new eStarling 2.0 frames starting (Friday, May 4).
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