Posted by Scott Clark @ 8:55 pm
eStarling Wi-Fi Picture Frame Third Try - Will They Get the Picture This Time?
Filed under: Geeked Out, Hardware
Sep
7
2007
7
2007
Last year, eStarling came out with a clunker. Before that they came out with a joke. But today they announced a new 8-inch frame that looks quite nice in the photos and has a kick-a** feature set on paper. But if anyone read my post last November about eStarling’s deceptive and disappointing product launch, you could tell I was an unhappy camper. Well, almost a year has past, and I’m ready to give them another shot. Frankly, I need the RSS feature badly. Because that rocks. Big time. And anyway, we put up with Microsoft when they go through this kind of pattern, so why not eStarling. Anyhow. Big difference is that I *return* eStarlings for refunds when they suck.
Here are the features that make this thing one of the coolest gadgets (on paper) that I’ve lusted after for over a year now:
– No subscription fees: There is no cost to e-mail photos to or from eStarling frames. The only cost is the frame itself.
– Immediate Direct Photo E-mailing to Frame: Each frame has its own unique e-mail address so that photos can be received and automatically displayed from computers or mobile phones almost immediately. No setup is required for senders to send photos to the frame.
– Group Frames: Users can set up a single e-mail address that corresponds to multiple frames so that photos can be easily shared and displayed on those frames.
– Community Photo RSS: The eStarling frame supports all major RSS photo feeds, including AOL, iPhoto Flickr, gallery, Photobucket, Picasa and Smugmug. Users can recommend and share their favorite RSS photo feeds with each other.
– Smart Photo Play List: Users can choose photos to be displayed on an eStarling frame on specified dates, such as displaying selected photos on a user’s birthday or anniversary.
– E-mail Photos from Frame: Users can send photos directly from their frames to the e-mail accounts of their family and friends. This is very, very cool!
- Lobby Jewelry
- Strategically Placed Advertising Screens (e.g. waiting areas, elevators, urinals)
- Silly Trivia Slide Shows (like at the Movies) in waiting areas.
- Pair it with those “security cameras” that email photos.
- Make a kitten cam network.
- Send motivational messages to sick or depressed folks
- Grab Flickr feeds and make a big rotating art display that changes as the day goes by using a little PHP and RSS aggregation.
- Display kids classrooms or daycare to parents while they are working.
- Show new products that have just arrived.
- Post personal ads.
- Display advice.
- Display warning signs.
- Display weather.
Estarling apparently has set up some kind of swap for those who bought the 2006 version through ThinkGeek also.
By the way, I ThinkGeek doesn’t seem to have it ready for sale yet, but you can order it from estarling.com or amazon.com.
Postscript: I ordered my frame from Amazon Yesterday because I have no idea how eStarling will handle returns.
Postscript: Please see my post regarding issues with the frame after 1 month.
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7
2007
[...] 9/6/07:Â eStarling has re-introduced their product, and I’ve posted about it again. Posted by Scott Clark @ 8:03 am del.icio.us Digg it ma.gnolia Netscape reddit [...]