Digital Photos Archives - Page 4 of 6

Sungale Has More Up Its Sleeve

I’ve had both positive and negative experiences with Sungale products, so I advise caution when approaching their new-to-market devices. However, that said, the company does have some interesting products waiting in the wings. First there’s the Kula TV device, which has gotten the most press attention. It’s a Wi-Fi-based mobile TV product that provides “hundreds … Read more

Dazzboard Has a New Android App Manager

Dazzboard is a newborn Finnish company that’s been getting decent press for the last six months as a media manager for the stuff on all your devices – photos, music, and video. Now the company is adding an Android App Manager to its list of features. The Dazzboard 2.0 software is a browser extension that … Read more

Welcome Wi-Fi Photo Frames… Finally!

I’ve been waiting for years for a useful Wi-Fi photo frame, and it looks like 2010 may finally usher in the new digital frame era. At Digital Experience tonight (a CES event within an event), I saw two promising entrants in the Wi-Fi photo frame market. First comes the Kodak Pulse. At seven inches and … Read more

5 Things Missing from CES 2010

The Griffin Technology folks as pictured on the CES blog Not making the trek out to Vegas this year for CES? You’re not alone. Here’s a list of five things missing from CES 2010. Cablecos and Telcos Despite the fact that we now live in a connected world, many of the providers that make our … Read more

The WeSay Sony DSC-WX1 Panorama Contest

As previously mentioned, Sony provided me the DSC-WX1 digicam (~$300) to participate in a blogger panorama contest hosted by WeSay. The winner will designate a school for Sony to donate a number of these cameras to. And I’ve got a few worthy candidates in mind. But, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s first talk … Read more

Shooting 720p Video with the Sony DSC-WX1

As previously mentioned, Sony has provided a DSC-WX1 digital camera ($350) to participate in an upcoming blogger panorama photo contest. Of course, the WX1 also happens to take traditional digital still pictures (which we’ll get to). And shoot 720p HD video. Any multipurpose device like this would have a hard time competing with a higher-end … Read more

Five Digital Photo Gifts for 2009

Scrapblog QuickMix kit

My favorite digital photo sites have some new surprises for 2009, and I’ve checked out a couple of new-to-me sites with holiday goodies too. If you’ve stocked up on digital photos all year, here are five gift ideas that take advantage of your personal image archive.

QuickMix Scrapbooks

Digital scrapbooking site Scrapblog has introduced new QuickMix kits to take some of the work out of making your own photo creations. In theory these kits are going to cost money in the future (there are still plenty of no-cost features on the site), but for right now the QuickMix packages are all free. Choose a themed kit (several holiday choices), upload or import photos, and Scrapblog generates a digital scrapbook for you. You can then customize the finished product any way you like – with more photos, digital stickers, etc. – and order prints or gifts. For a 25% discount on keepsake books, calendars, greeting cards, and postcards, type in coupon code HOLIDAY25 at checkout.

Mosaic Moo Frames

Moo Mosaic Frame

If you’re familiar with Moo for printing business cards, take a look at what you can do with Moo for the holidays. The company is selling a new Mosaic Frame that you can fill with custom Moo mini cards. Since all mini cards are the same size, this frame is one you can update easily with new photos-on-cards at any time. Available in white or black for $39.99.

Skinit!

It seems the Skinit folks are everywhere, and now they’ve partnered up with Snapfish to turn your photos into skins for cameras, phones, laptops, music players, and PDAs (?!). In case you didn’t get the custom-made Flip Mino, now you can add your own after-market, personalized imaging. Skins are not only removable, but supposedly scratch-resistant. Use coupon code PHOTOSKINS20 for 20% off skins at Snapfish through Monday. Or check out pre-made designs at the Skinit site.

A Starring Role

If you’ve got any kids to buy for this year, check out the CenterStage books available on Shutterfly. Pick from Spongebob, Dora, or Diego, upload the kid’s photo and basic details (name, age, etc.), and presto! You get back a personalized storybook with the little tyke in a starring role. Books run $39.99 each, but you can get them for 25% off through December 2nd.

Give the Gift of Photo Scanning

The best gift I ever gave my dad was a digital photo frame filled with old slides I’d scanned from his Peace Corps days. I still highly recommend this as a gift idea, but if you don’t have the time, or access to the old slides/negatives/photos you need, there are now a few places that offer scanning as a service. ScanCafe is one of these, and it offers photo restoration to boot. Consider wrapping up a ScanCafe gift card this year. At 29 cents per scan, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of even a $25 card.

And as a bonus, if none of the ideas above strike your fancy…

Hands On with the HP DreamScreen

It’s taken a little longer than I had hoped, but I’ve finally composed my thoughts after reviewing the HP DreamScreen. Bottom line: It’s a beautiful display with some very useful applications. If HP could guarantee additional apps, available in the near future via software download, I could imagine plunking down the $249.99 ($219.99 at Amazon) for my own 10.2″ DreamScreen. But the device does need some tweaking, and more apps, more apps, more apps. Here’s the complete lowdown.

The DreamScreen is a Wi-Fi-connected photo display with widgets that provide: clock, calendar, weather, Snapfish photos, Pandora, and Facebook functionality. You can also use the DreamScreen to play your own library of music and videos. The picture quality is stunning, and as HP describes it, the device itself is piano-black with a “flush-glass widescreen display.” There’s a touchbar at the bottom of the screen, but I found it largely useless. The best way to control the DreamScreen is with its remote. As other people have noted, the interface could use some work, but it didn’t bother me overly much. There are cases where you have to click up or down to get to the horizontal menu selection you want, and sometimes it’s difficult to backtrack if you’ve inputted something incorrectly (like a password). However, these types of annoyances are the kind I can get past pretty quickly, especially when there’s nothing better currently on the market.

Now on to the good stuff.