A digital photo album that plays music
It slices, it dices and even does Windows.
Digital Foci (pronounced foe-sigh) has just released its compact digital photo album/MP3/video player/FM radio that is compatible with multiple digital media formats, operating systems and devices.
The Picture Porter Elite is currently available in two versions. The one with the 40GB hard drive for $449 holds an average of 15,500 digital images, 9,300 songs or 160 hours of video. The 80GB version costs $549 and holds an average of 31,000 photos, 18,500 songs or 310 hours of video.
Both versions are 5.3 inches by 3.1 inches by 1.1 inches, weigh 11 ounces fully loaded and sport a 3.6-inch LCD screen (larger than the current iPod video screen) at a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels.
It accepts JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF or RAW image files, and a memory card reader allows users to copy or send photos to multiple cameras. (According to the company, the device accepts CF I/II, MD, MMC, SD Card, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo and MS PRO Duo memory cards.) It will print photos directly to any PictBridge compatible printer and conduct a slide show of images on a television set.
But perhaps more interesting (given its screen size) is the Picture Porter Elite's capability as a video player. It is compatible with MPEG-1, MPEG-4, WMV9 and MJPEG video formats. A USB outlet leaves the potential for downloading video content from a computer. The device can also record directly from television or any device that has a video output, according to Tiffany Guh, a spokeswoman for Digital Foci.
In other words, you could potentially use the device to download your favorite television shows from the Internet, or your TV set, and watch them at the beach on a screen of reasonable viewing size.
The Picture Porter Elite supports Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems and allows files to be transferred between any devices that use them via the USB outlet. Its MP3 player feature supports MP3, WMA, AAC and WAV files. The device can also be used to listen to or record FM radio.
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
