At last, a high-tech gadget that is both simple to set up and simple to use. This digital picture frame works even without a computer. All you need is "wired" family and/or friends who are willing to post pictures for you.
Imagine, baby's first tooth just appeared; you are anxious to snap a picture and send it to Grandma. E-mail would be perfect, but Grandma doesn't have a computer. Here's the solution: send Grandma a Ceiva picture frame. She only needs to plug in the power supply and then plug the frame into a telephone jack. (The Ceiva even comes with an adapter that lets you plug the frame and a telephone into the same outlet.) Then you post your pictures to Grandma's Ceiva Frame via the Ceiva Web site on the Internet. The pictures will automatically download to Grandma's picture frame during the night. When she wakes up, an adorable baby with a glistening first tooth will greet her.
The Ceiva looks like an ordinary 8" x 10" wood picture frame with traditional black matting covered by glass. The display is approximately 5" x 7" with a resolution of 640x480 VGA. The digital pictures that appear when the frame is plugged in make an excellent presentation. Brightness can be adjusted with a simple button on the back of the frame.
The Ceiva Frame holds twenty pictures. You can also keep up to1000 pictures in your Ceiva Internet account and can change the images as often as you wish. You can give others access to your account. If Grandma wants photos of her other grandchildren, she simply calls Ceiva's toll-free number and tells the Ceiva representative to allow her other children access to her Ceiva account.
Posting pictures to the frame is easy. I loaded images with many different formats. Ceiva had no difficulty with JPEGs, GIFs, TIFFs, and bitmaps. It even posted PhotoShop images without any translation problems.
Ceiva's approach is thorough and well implemented, but more importantly, it's simple. Everything is adjustable. The frame automatically can be turned on and off at certain times of day; the telephone access number can be changed; and the slide show interval can be adjusted. Grandma's computer-literate children, grandchildren, or friends, however, do all this on the Internet. Or Grandma does it by calling the support number. That means that the frame has just two buttons. One button adjusts the brightness. The other button controls the pictures. You press the button and release to cycle through the pictures. Pressing and holding the button down starts an automatic slide show of the pictures.
Holding the button down longer connects to the Internet for new pictures. Instructions that appear in the frame when the button is pressed tell you exactly when to release the button and what action will occur. It couldn't be easier.
The Ceiva frame costs $249. When you add $49.95 (a little over $4 a month) for the first year's service, you will have a total upfront outlay of $299. Ceiva has 2,500 local connection service numbers across the US. If there is no local number for your area, you can add toll-free services for an extra $49 a year.
When I first looked at this product a few months ago, I found that it was well positioned for expansion. I was able to communicate through the Ceiva by writing a simple document on my word processor, taking a screen shot of that document, and then posting it to the Ceiva Frame. This is an area that Ceiva has begun to develop. Now you can add personal messages to your photos and turn them into unique post cards. You can also set the frame to display customized information like sports scores, news headlines, local weather reports and even lottery numbers.
The Ceiva frame is unique, novel and useful. Amazingly, it appeals to a wide range of users. It would be a great present for any technical holdouts on your gift list. It would also be a wonderful novelty for the desktop of any high-tech type. If my suspicions are correct, you will see even more beneficial changes in this product in the next year.
Some folks will find the Ceiva frame somewhat expensive; others will say it is well worth the cost. If you belong to the latter group, jump in and be the first to own a picture of the future.
