Xmas gift Digital Photo frame

Labman · November 13, 2008

ok my mom and dad are in there 80's just celebrated 60 year Anniversary my brother sister and I decided to get a digital frame for Christmas I plan to load it with photo's from the early years us kids the grand kids all the way up. figure 10" 12" frame I don't need fancy stuff I will just add photo's as we go mom still doesn't know how to stop the VCR from flashing 12:00 :roflhere is what I need

easy to see preferably at different angles
accepts different photo cards
built in timer auto turn off on
clock optional
easy for them to use again I will probably load all photo's

they have no internet so no reason to discuss this. :dunno

what do the experts recommend not looking to spend crazy but don't want a cheap piece of junk either

BradfordBenn · November 14, 2008

I use a Phillips one that I got through Club Smug. It pretty much matches everything you outlined. The only thing I did not like was the view angle is not great. It works well on my desk at work but not as well at home where the viewing angle changes.

ilbcnu · November 15, 2008

We gave my mother in law a ceiva digital photo frame. It plugs into a regular phone line and uploads nightly on its own. (Calls local number so no additional charge). There is a yearly service fee but anyone you allow can upload to it. That way there was always fresh photos from everyone despite where they were. (Our family is spread out across the US) There are some presets you can set re slideshow, when on, and I believe you could add extas like weather or ??? - don't quite remember. She didn't have to do anything once it was plugged in and running. (good thing as she also is electronically challenged).
more info at ceiva.com

ian408 · December 14, 2008

I have a Kodak W1020 frame that works well.

I'm currently using it on my wireless network and have set it up to use an RSS feed from my SmugMug account. So far, so good.

I have a Mac so the software that comes with it doesn't work for me. However, once the frame is set up, it does have a web interface making it easy to set up.

vintagemxr · December 14, 2008

ilbcnu wrote:

We gave my mother in law a ceiva digital photo frame. It plugs into a regular phone line and uploads nightly on its own. (Calls local number so no additional charge). There is a yearly service fee but anyone you allow can upload to it. That way there was always fresh photos from everyone despite where they were. (Our family is spread out across the US) There are some presets you can set re slideshow, when on, and I believe you could add extas like weather or ??? - don't quite remember. She didn't have to do anything once it was plugged in and running. (good thing as she also is electronically challenged).
more info at ceiva.com

Another thumbs up here for the Ceiva if it fits the budget. My brothers and I gave one to the parents several years ago and they enjoyed it immensely. Neither one of them had the least interest in learning about "those modern computer gadgets you all love." Of course the kids, even us older ones, now seem too busy to print out and snailmail pictures so uploading to Mom's Ceiva frame spans the generation gap nicely.

Dad is gone now and Mom eats breakfast every morning and watches the Ceiva to see what kids, grandkids, and great grand kids, have uploaded to the Ceiva during the night. She likes it better than TV.

Regardless, a digital picture frame of most any sort is a great gift for older family members who are not "connected."

Doug

ian408 · December 14, 2008

vintagemxr wrote:

Dad is gone now and Mom eats breakfast every morning and watches the Ceiva to see what kids, grandkids, and great grand kids, have uploaded to the Ceiva during the night. She likes it better than TV.

What a wonderful way to keep mom up to date with what's happening in the family

darryl · December 24, 2008

Just wish Ceiva had an API to allow uploading/importing to their service from other photo sites.

Huh, they must have something, because Adobe Elements is able to upload directly to their service:
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/family/partneroffers/photos/

Aha -- easiest solution would be to hack something that would automatically send the photo to CEIVA: http://www.ceiva.com/ccare/hlp/hp/help.jsp?hid=198

If somebody wants to gift me with a CEIVA, I'd be happy to work on this. :-}

ian408 · December 24, 2008

I bought a Kodak W1020 frame a while back. I can set it up to take RSS feeds and that has worked pretty well with my SmugMug account.

vintagemxr · December 25, 2008

This info might be a bit late now...1:00 AM Christmas morning. Last week we purchased at BestBuy a wireless frame by Digital Spectrum for my mother-in-law. I didn't even realize when we bought it that the darned thing will connect through a wireless network directly to photo sharing sites. I just thought she could send pictures from her laptop. Seems to be a leg up on the Ceiva my mom has unless one does not have access to a wireless network at home.

Info here.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Doug

darryl · December 28, 2008

darryl wrote:

Just wish Ceiva had an API to allow uploading/importing to their service from other photo sites.

Huh, they must have something, because Adobe Elements is able to upload directly to their service:
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/family/partneroffers/photos/

Aha -- easiest solution would be to hack something that would automatically send the photo to CEIVA: http://www.ceiva.com/ccare/hlp/hp/help.jsp?hid=198

If somebody wants to gift me with a CEIVA, I'd be happy to work on this. :-}

Oh! I may be able to get my grandfather's old CEIVA (he passed away this year) from my uncle. I'm going to see if he can send it to me so I can play with it.

Gita · January 9, 2009

We gave a Ceiva to our grandparents and they love it. They don't have internet but Ceivas can be plugged into a phone line, so that's how we set it up. We set the whole thing up for them. We set up their account, which we also manage, we set the frame settings, we chose the channels (weather forecasts, word a day, etc.). We put photos on it before we gave it to them too. Really easy. Display looks great from different angles. It takes memory cards but they have no need for that feature.

The best part is that they don't have to do anything to it. We can manage the frame online for them. The frame dials in a night when they're asleep and photos are waiting for them in the morning. There is a monthly fee but it's low and in my opinion, completely worth it to be able to send them photos and manage their account. I can upload photos into their online account (I use the iPhoto plug-in), which is what I usually do. Photos can be emailed to the frame too (that's what some other family members do). I can also send photos from my camera phone but I haven't done that much as the pic quality isn't great (not that they'd care really).

Hope that helps!

ian408 · January 9, 2009

Hey Gita

Thanks for the update. It sounds like you got the ideal solution for the grandparents

And it offers a variety of methods for updating. Good work!

Gita · January 21, 2009

Just a quick update. I'm so glad that I went with Ceiva. I just found out the i-mate digital frame won't have the online services anymore.

http://craigmurphy.me/

Xmas gift Digital Photo frame

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