/personal tech/gadget/
Frames: The next generation
BY ERIC GRIFFITH
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The Ceiva looks like a simple black picture frame, but at its center is a brightly lit LCD screen like you'd find on a laptop. The frame dials into the Internet every night—you must plug it into a telephone jack—and downloads the pictures you have uploaded to the Web in your personal online gallery for a slide show effect. You can do all of this easily via the Ceiva Web site.
This means you can give a digital frame to Grandma Nellie out in Oregon, and every time you upload a new picture from your apartment in Orlando, she gets something new to see. Because the frame only calls for updates between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., this is a virtually seamless process for Grandma Nellie.
If $249 seems pricey for a frame, even if it does share your shots, also remember you must pay $2.99 a month or more to keep your account active for uploading. That might sound exorbitant, but Ceiva's overpriced competition includes the $599 Digi-Frame, $899 Sony CyberFrame and the portable $349 VideoChip Wallet, none of which connects to the Net. They instead display pictures on media cards taken from digital cameras—CyberFrame will even play MPEG movies—which is limiting if you don't have a digital camera.
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Ceiva
Digi-Frame
Sony CyberFrame
VideoChip Wallet