The digital camera finally gets a perfect companion
With all the benefits digital photography brings to the table - great-looking photos, reusable memory cards and the ability to see the photo immediately after taking it - many Canadians are simply dumping these precious memories onto a computer hard drive and forgetting about them.
OK, so perhaps we'll use the odd one to email, print out or create desktop wallpaper, but many of us are treating our PC like a digital shoebox. What a shame.
It's time to liberate those trapped photos with the aid of a digital photo frame.
By now you've probably seen one of these doohickeys on a friend's wall, kitchen counter or office desk. A digital photo frame -- which typically range in size from 7 to 12 inches, and with various trim colours and materials -- might resemble a traditional photo frame but instead of showing one paper photo, they can cycle through your memories every few seconds, minutes, hours or days.
Users get the photos on the frame by popping in a memory card or connecting the frame to a PC via a USB cable. In other cases, a frame can wirelessly access photos on a nearby PC.
If you're in the market for your first digital photo frame, here's a look at a few features to consider.
Video and music
Many new digital photo frames not only show your static images in slideshow format but also play music (MP3s), which can really add emotion, or play video clips captured by the camera, too.
Touch screen
Some digital frame users don't like the small buttons along the side or back or have misplaced the small remote, therefore a few companies now let you use your fingertip on a touch screen for you to organize and play your photos.
Wi-Fi
Some digital frames offer built-in Wi-Fi support, so as long as you have a wireless network in your home or office, all your photos, videos and music can be conveniently accessed on a nearby computer's hard drive -- without a cable.
RSS feeds and more
Finally, some Wi-Fi-connected frames can show you info such as news headlines, weather and sports scores (via RSS feeds "pushed" to the frame), while other products let you send and receive photos over the Internet with another frame user.