Digital Photo Frames

Abbie,

Digital photo frames have come a long way, but are definitely not perfect. I can recommend the Philips frames as they are one of the few that deal with pictures of different sizes and orientations. That is, they adjust reasonably well to portrait vs. landscape vs. square pictures. Check out
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-6-5-Inch-Digital-Photo-Fram...

Now, on the wifi or wireless front, the technology is limited. While there are frames that allow wifi for a reasonable price (e.g., http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SPF-83V-8-Inch-Wireless-Dig...) the assumption is that the frame is being updated from a PC within the same local network. I suspect you want to give this frame as a gift and then send updated pictures to it remotely. Consider this alternative ...

Purchase at least 2 SD cards (instead of 1) -- look out for sales from Buy.com. I purchased 5 1GB SD cards for $20 (including tax and S&H). That was $4 a piece. When I gave the frame as a gift, I loaded it up with favorite pictures on one of the SD cards. Twice a year, I update pictures and send one of my spare SD cards to my sister-in-law. She swaps out the SD card and sends me back the one that was in her frame. It works well. The SD cards are easy to mail or if you're going to see the person, you can just swap out the SD card in person.

I like "having control" of the SD card update because I can verify on my PC that the pictures show well and are in the order I want etc. before sending the updated SD card.

Good luck,
Elizabeth

Check into ceiva.com. My parents got one for my grandmother a couple years ago. Its a frame that she keeps plugged into a phone line. The phone calls a website in the middle of the night and updates that way. My parents add pictures to it through an online account. The downfall to it is you have to pay a monthly fee which I'm not sure how much it is. I just know that my parents like it and so does my grandmother. She doesn't know anything about computers so it's nice and easy for her. My parents also gave out the account info to all the other family members so they could put pics on it as well. Check it out. If you have any more questions, let me know.

We got my mother one of these frames two years ago. One option is to give her an SD card with the photos, and you can trade the cards out whenever you want. However, we didn't do that with my mother because she wanted to be able to get new photos periodically from me and my siblings. So she gets her photos off of the Cevia web server. You set up a password protected account. Then my sisters and I can log in and upload photos. The frame rotates between the 50 most recent pictures uploaded, although you can also delete and rearrange the photos on-line at anytime. So my mom doesn't ever have to go to the website. But the frame does need to be plugged into a phone jack.

This works reasonably well for her, but it is too expensive IMHO. Besides the initial cost of the frame, the service costs $100 annually.

Hi

I got a digital frame last christmas. The only way I know how to put pictures on it is to use a flash drive. I dont know if all digital frames are the same, but mine doesnt have any way to receive emails.

good luck

Hi Abbie,
I have yet to purchase one of these frames where you can send picture updates because I have heard that they are prone to getting computer viruses, worms trojan horses, etc. You might want to check into that and see if the security has improved.

I will be the third or so person to recommend the Ceiva (http://www.ceiva.com/). It is not a computer so it is not subject to viruses. It does not receive data through email so it is not subject to spam. You can set it up for non-techie relative and it does all the work for them. You can even upload pictures straight from iPhoto if you're a Mac user. Only people who have been invited by the owner of the frame can send in pictures. My parents and aunt get to see pictures of their grandchildren and each other - it's a great way to keep up!