Vizit cellular photo frame arrives March 23rd, your mom can't afford one
By Sean Hollister 
posted March 21st 2010 7:43PM
posted March 21st 2010 7:43PM
posted March 21st 2010 7:43PM
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Useless product?
@n8equalsd lol, your kidding me. A digital photo frame you have to pay a service agreement on! What is the world coming to? What is the point of paying for service like this when "WE" all have this for "FREE"
Any usual "Photo Frame" + Memory Stick = FREE (isn't this the point)
@n8equalsd
You almost might think that, until you meet people like my parents. They have a beautiful 52" Samsung LCD (1080p), and a laptop. Yet despite all that, and me showing them their digicam images on either or both of those screens, they still prefer looking at printed pictures in those tiny 4" prints, or even those digital photo frames.
I don't know why anyone would ever prefer that over looking at multi megapixel images on a 1920x1080 screen, but... they're not me.
@paul34
Paul, we're not disputing the usefulness of a digi photo frame - even though it is an essentially unnecessary product, it can still be a nice way to display photos. What we're disputing is the point of having a 3g-enabled one when any household geeky enough to consider buying one would almost certainly have wifi already.
@n8equalsd It's not as useless as you might think. This would be a reasonable (if a bit expensive) gift for the technophobe in your family that noone lives close to. If this came out a few weeks ago, I probably would have mentioned it to my mom to use for my grandfather. She could update the pictures on his frame at any time rather than the one or two times a year she flies back to visit. (All my relatives that are even remotely not-useless with gadgets are scattered across the country)
@QChronoD
The ability to remotely load images to a digiframe has been available for long time over wifi. The only way this product would make sense is if they were able to cut a deal with a carrier to provide a very low-cost, low-bandwidth data plan. Otherwise, your money is better spent setting up a basic DSL account for your grandfather and using wifi.
After 1 year the company will collapse, the photo sharing service will be non-existent and it will just be the same as every other photo frame.
@mavoric i can share photos on my phone, why would i need this. i agree with you
@mavoric you're giving them a whole year?
My mom is obsessed with digital photo frames
Dont you go telling me what my mom can and can't afford!!
5 finger discount, bud.
@flett
Is she stealing the wireless signal?
@GenericMessage nope, she can afford that
@flett I've never met a respectable person that uses the term "Five-finger discount".
@Broderbund interesting
@flett
Your mum takes five fingers...
Does anyone buy these sort of crap gadgets aside from the randoms at Christmas-time?
I really don't understand the concept for this device - why would a digital photo frame need a cell modem? Who's going to move it around that much that it would be useful (not to mention the added cost)
No one I know with a photo frame even uses it - they might load it up and use it for the first week or so but then it simply sits there lonely, displaying a black rectangle of non-existence yearning for the day someone turns it on again.
PS: I'm fairly sure it's "make do" not "make due"
@ScottishDan Concept = Sell subscriptions to non tech savvy people and make $$$. Then complain about the bandwidth these guys use while pulling high res pictures from the web so they can limit and or cap your 3G plan or justify higher prices.
@ScottishDan
they don't use their photo frame because it needs a user to put photos on it. This doesn't!
Go tell those people they need to buy this.
anyone else notice the lady in the picture looks not unlike a cheetah? thats really serious freckle-age, and only from the nose up?
it's "make do"
Why spend $280 on a photoframe? "Flickr Clock Photoframe" turns an iPhone into a 3G connected Flickr photoframe, and it's only 99c! ;-)
Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flickr-clock-photoframe/id361363591?mt=8
ANY 10in tablet, iPad or HP Slate etc, has this as a DEFAULT most likely with a better resolution- all in a better looking device. I guess it's possible it could sell to people who have absolutely NO technical knowledge whatsoever, but even with that possibility, this device would only be serving a shrinking niche market. Sorry.
$6 per month
$72 per year
Why does this sound so wrong?
The silliness of this product has no match. Except maybe for the use of "make due".
Maybe if your broke ass would pay her some backrent for living in her basement, she could. ;P
@Krantzstone ...maybe
Maybe you guys don't get it. It's a photo frame with it's own cell number. T-Mobile did one a few years back, Cameo, but $100 for the device and somewhere like $5-10/month. Might still be around. Think about a 70 year old gandma/greatgrandma/greatgreatgrandma (had one in my family), Kids, grandkids, etc were spread from California to Germany. With a few kids chipping in for the service, the old lady can have cell phone snaps sent to the frame from friends and family around the world. No printing, no postage, no where do I store them. This generation doesn't mail stuff, the e-mail it. As for getting a PC and an ISP, that would cost more and she wouldn't use it (actually she didn't use it). This just hangs on the wall, sits on the shelf and works.
100% RIGHT!!!!
I couldn't say it better.... New Photos of their Son or daughter with their grand kids will put a big smile to their face. its like watching you grand kids grows everyday even they 8,000 Miles away.
This reminds me...when is that SONY Dash coming out?
I feel a lot of comments are missing the point of this device.
Say gandma lives on the east coast and gran kids live on the west. Since grandma doesn't have all day to download organize and thent transfer the photos of her grandkids. Now she can just set this thing up and poof she is recieving her grandkids flickr stream!
The ability of a photo frame to constantly have the latest photos on it with no interaction from a user seems pretty good to me.
At 6 bucks a month isn't a bad price point.
Oh...I'd totally do the mom in that pic...just saying.
Well, it's not all that bad an idea. There are old folks who could not care less about computers but would love some fresh pics on their digital frame.
Luckily my the people above my parent's let them use their Wifi, so they can do this for free (Kodak Easyshare 820 off Woot)
I thought extended contracts were supposed to cost less than monthly ones?
It recieves MMS??? I could see that being used to cause awkward living room situations...just saying.
Why wouldn't they make that thing just use Wi-Fi?
Everyone is bringing up their or someone else's mom, grandma, great grandma... I know that females tend to live longer, and focus more on family, but you guys are making them out to sound like widows!!