There’s an old saying you can’t teach a dog new tricks, but Kodak has taken the digital picture frame and taught it a few new neat tricks that have the potential to take photography another step up the evolutionary scale.
Two Kodak Pulse digital picture frames, released late last year, the W1030S 10 inch diagonal model and the W730S 7 inch diagonal model feature an aSi TFT active matrix screen with 800 x 600 resolution in 4:3 format with a 400:1 contrast ratio. The frames come stock with 512 MB of internal memory, plus two card slots and a USB port.
The frame is wi-fi enabled and features touch-screen control menus that are easy to use.
Probably the neatest trick is the integration with Kodak’s web site, which allows you to manage all your frames features from the web and gives your frame its own email address. Friends and relatives can email photos to your picture frame from anywhere in real time. You can also set up your frame to download pictures automatically from either Facebook or Kodak Gallery.
It’s a small step in technology, with some reports of inconsistent service from early models, but Kodak brings the price point down a notch from some of the other wi-fi enabled picture frames and makes the technology far more approachable for novice users. Prices have come down some this year from their introduction, making them all the more attractive.
I can imagine it won’t be long before some events are offering live photo previews and professional photographers start offering services like live wedding photos, as the ceremony is taking place, for friends and relatives who can’t be there. That’s a step beyond where even this frame puts us, but as the ubiquity of wi-fi enabled image display devices increases, the demand for complimentary services will increase.
Video from PCMag.com