Photo slide shows framed to music
Love digital photo slide shows but hate having to lug your PC around to show friends?
The minds at Wellex have produced the Digital Photo Frame (DPF) 1040. The 10.4-inch LCD display weighs 1.6 pounds and comes with built-in internal speakers and an audio jack so you can view digital photos of that trip to the Grand Canyon or that birthday party along with a a sound track.
The frame comes in silver, piano black or redwood and is available at the company's online store. It retails for an introductory price of $279 with shipping and handling.
The DPF 1040 can only store as many as 250 JPEG format pictures depending on the resolution but the frame has a 3-in-1 memory card slot and a USB card reader for formats such as SmartMedia and CompactFlash so you can view your shots right from the camera's flash memory card without having to download them into a PC first. The device is also iPod-compatible.
The frame also comes with an optional Ethernet connection if you want to stream your photos from a home network.
The DFP 1040 also has online screen navigation to help program the slideshows, search for specific shots through thumbnails, or rotate photos.
DPF 1040 co-developer Wesley Chen said the company is now approaching retailers to help get the digital frame more visibility.
Wellex is better known as an equipment manufacturer for networking, telecommunications, medical and computer clients. But this is the company's first stab at its own consumer electronics device.
The company has its main manufacturing site in Fremont, Calif. and a manufacturing site in Shanghai, China.
