SlashGear

Westinghouse have announced their latest digital photo frame, the DPF-1411, which offers a full 14.1-inches of space to show off your favorite images. Unfortunately, while the 1280 x 800 resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio are both well and good, Westinghouse foolishly left out WiFi and as such have let the whole thing down.

It’s a shame, because the feature list is otherwise reasonable. Multiple memory card formats are supported, with JPEG and AVI motion JPEG files displayed, and there’s 128MB of onboard storage included too. Images can be displayed stationary, as a manual slideshow or in an automatic slideshow with various different transition effects. It’s also possible to select multiple pictures to be shown on-screen at the same time.

We asked Westinghouse why the DPF-1411 – which will retail for $299 – does not include WiFi. Their argument is that consumer demand for wireless-enabled frames is still relatively low, and that the increased cost and “potential software and network issues that can occur” are putting people off. We’re sticking with the argument that a standalone digital photo frame with only memory card compatibility will, in pretty short order, become ignored, whereas the frame that’s able to automatically pull new images from Flickr and elsewhere online is the frame that gets turned on every day.

Are we so addicted to high-tech gadgets that we’re missing the point? Let us know your thoughts about wireless and digital photo frames in the comments. We’ll let Westinghouse know what you think.