eStarling’s first digital photo frame was roundly panned for being user-unfriendly and having a shonky external wireless dongle. Now the company is back with a new version, and we’d like to think they’ve learned from their initial mistakes. The eStarling 802.11n Touchscreen Connected Frame lacks a snappy name but does, as the title suggests, get a WiFi b/g/n update to support the faster standard, as well as a new touch-sensitive interface.
With new features continue to evolve in digital frames, it’s hard to differ nowadays’ photo frames from PMP or MID devices. They stay stationary and much bigger but not longer burden a single role digital slideshow device for photo display. A recent Japanese frame maker even went as far as incorporating a digital TV tuner.
eStaring is widely known for its multi-functional digital picture frame. Its previously releases are more than just simple photo frames for displaying art- piece; wireless connectivity, sending photo via email, RSS feeder and social network integration with varies image gallery sites such as PhotoBucket, Flicker and Facebook contacts are among many advanced features we’ve seen from the vendor. Here’s another first of its kind from eStaring – their latest Impact IV digital photo frame can stream video via WiFi network.
One of the common justifications we hear for digital photo frames missing out on wireless connectivity is that it makes the display too expensive. eStarling have decided to turn that premise on its head, with the arrival of the Impact7: a 7-inch display with WiFi, touch-controls and a remote control, priced at under $100.
I almost linked to this glowing review of the eStarling Digital Photo frame yesterday, but it slipped my mind. Now I’m glad it did, since Gizmodo have taken a look at the display in the meantime and roundly trashed it. In no particular order, the eStarling looks ugly, has an oddly-shaped and low-res display, is over-logo’d, relies on a protruding (and unreliable) wireless dongle, oh, and it’s starting to smell funny.
This is a shame, because you might remember that I was quite impressed by the frame’s specs back when Think Geek started selling it in November, and was looking forward to getting one in to review.
Okay, before I start I’d like to apologise if these are your children. I mean no true offence, and I’m sure they’ll grow up into perfectly respectable adults. But seriously, would you really advertise your digital photo frame with some Village of the Damned-esque make-up encrusted scary kids? I certainly wouldn’t, and I’m having trouble reading any of the specs for this eStarling frame because their demonic eyes are following round the room.
Still, it’d be a shame if I didn’t manage to take it all in, because the eStarling is one of the few frames I could actually recommend. Not only does it have the standard bevy of memory card slots (MMC, SD, MS and CF) to locally load photos onto the 7-inch display, it also comes with WiFi in both b and g flavours and 128mb of on-board memory. Make sure you read on after the cut to find out just what having that WiFi lets you do…
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