CES 2010: Final Thoughts

The Consumer Electronics show, the behemoth of tech, the Valhalla of gadgetry, has come and gone for yet another year. But this time, rather than arriving with a bang, it slinked into sight with something more like a whimper. CES…

CES 2010: Day 3 Round-Up

Another day, another Tech Digest CES 2010 round-up. Fancy Tweeting hands-free in your car or controlling your PC by breathing? Check today's top stories below and find out how. Twitter coming to Ford cars The digital equivalent of drink-driving? Motorola…

Skyla Memoir – digital photo frame that incorporates a scanner

skyla-memoir.jpg

How’s this for a smart idea? A digital photo frame that also includes a built-in high-resolution photo scanner. Traditional photos can be scanned into the device and then instantly displayed on the screen.

It’s a perfect, neat, solution for the technophobes in your family. If your grandma can’t cope with digitising all her old pics, then just give her this and show her how it works, and she’ll be sorted.

There’s 1GB of internal storage, which will hold 2-400 scans. It’s also got a light sensor, so it can adjust brightness based on its environment and an 8″, 800 x 600 display. They’ve also chucked in a card reader, for grandparents who’ve progressed to digital cameras, and two USB ports so you can get the data back onto a PC if you need to.

I’m a big fan of simple concepts that make sense, and this is exactly that. So long as the interface is good, this seems like a great product. Perhaps a little overpriced at £178, but all digital photo frames are overpriced – let’s hope that competition drives down those costs a bit over the next year or so.

Skyla Memoir

Parrot puts on airs with its Andrée Putman designed digital photo frame

parrot-digital-photo-frame.jpg

Parrot’s been busy putting on airs recently, trying to shed its image of being a pocket-friendly company, with the launch of a new digital photo frame designed by French designer Andre Putman.

At £250, it’s a fair cry from Parrot’s usual offerings, yet the 7″ frame offers the standard fare, of Bluetooth connectivity plus an SD card slot for displaying photos, otherwise the internal memory can reportedly hold…