Nifty Uses for Today's Digital Picture Frames?

The ever-prolific AtariDatacenter asks: "The prices of digital picture frames have dropped dramatically over the past year. And some of the upcoming models are promising things such as MPEG playback, and Ethernet access. Are there any killer uses for the current generation of digital picture frames? How about the next generation?" Of course, before you race out to buy one of these picture frames, be sure to look at the terms of use. Last I checked, some of these things were downright useless without the service and fair-use unfriendly. Have any of you found Digital Picture Frames that were worth the price and that actually let you play with the internals a bit?

first porn

[ReidMaynard]

Imagine the possibilities....

Digital Duo

[heliocentric]

I watched a recent show on the Digital Duo [digitalduo.com] where there was a segment [digitalduo.com] about digital picture frames. I did not realize some of them were offering some sort of internet appliance like things. One I recall would try to get headlines, however DD reported that some of the headlines included what was on the Today show (not exactly a headline in the normal sense...)

Another thing to think about, beyond obvious visiable range is input type. If you can have a frame but you have to continue to pay someone to host your pictures, content, whatever you are not only paying for this, but you are possibly relying on them to stay up or you may lose content. I have heard about eth ones where you can serve your own content, however I am the only geek on my block with cat5 running around more than cat hair.

What I want to know, what is the real difference between a $300 digital picture frame, and a low low end $300 color laptop. This search [ebay.com] (prices between 0 and 300) I just ran on eBay [ebay.com] shows to me several laptops I can stick linux, (or in risk of flamebait) windows and put ontop of the TV where I have family photos now, and just run a slide show of pics on local HD, NFS, MS File Share, samba, ftp, whatever my heart dreams up. What does a magic picture frame get me that one of these laptops doesn't??

Video stream and endless possibilities...

[mini me]

If you can get some sort of video stream into these frames then you can do just about anything with them. How about a real-time usage graph from your webserver (code red anyone?). You could get a couple of them and use them as side-view mirrors in race car games. What about a tiny X-terminal? If you are really talented, you could get a bunch of them and make one big makeshift LCD screen.

Then again, you could use them to display photos! They just need to be bigger and hang on the wall so you can use them to display paintings when you aren't using them, but can also be used for tv/computer/etc.

Family scheduler

[Asgard]

I wonder if one could get a frame to display a week/month view of the family schedule, possibly having it pull (or be pushed, as it may) from a family appointments database. That way everyone can see what the next 30 days worth of 'stuff' is.

Is that what I think it is?

[gmhowell]

Please tell me that that picture on the link is not of the NYC skyline...

Re:Is that what I think it is?

[XenonOfArcticus]

I think the building with the green outline is in Texas, maybe Dallas or Houston.

Hmmmmm....

[AtariDatacenter]

FWIW, not all digital picture frames require Internet access. I purchased a Kensington Photo Album Plus off of eBay for $115 new in box. (Normally $199.)

You load pictures onto it with a USB cable. Then you place it on your desk.

Here is one artistic idea I came up with (albiet, somewhat expensive):

Purchase 20 picture frames so that you can have a 4x5 array of them. Place them on a wall, and use them to make a collage art that changes, say, every hour, or every day. It would make for some cool artwork.

Why are these things Active Matrix LCDs?

[Bazzargh]

I would get one of these things but they are such a waste of power. It looks like they need to be on to display a picture. (please correct me if I'm wrong). Does noone sell frames using technology like cholesteric liquid crystals? They only need power to change the picture. (and thus would answer the question of the poster who wanted to know 'why not use a laptop'

(ok I just answered my own question. I went to http://www.kentdisplays.com (I assume this is an offshoot of KSU? most stuff I read says they did the research) . It turns out you can't get full colour chLCDs yet, just X-and-Y combinations, for colours X and Y)