It’s always a rat race for gadget-makers to be the first ones to make a product. Apparently, the achievement counts more than what the product actually has to offer in terms of features. Kodak’s photo frame stakes claim to be “the first OLED-panel wireless picture frame for consumers.” However, generous though we may be, the 7.6inch photo frame has not many stand-out features that Kodak can gloat about. And most of them have already been featured in gadgets belonging to this category. These include Wi-Fi connectivity for PC access, as well as online photo and video sharing with sites such as Flickr, FrameChannel, and Kodak Gallery. Some respite, though, is offered in the form of sharp image viewing, with a contrast ratio of 30,000:1 at 800×480 resolution. 2GB of internal memory, in-built card reader, and speakers round-up the feature range of this rather mundane looking digital picture frame.


Pricing and Availability: Kodak’s OLED Wireless Frame will retain in the 2008 holiday season for $999. The product will be made available online and at retail stores.

Watch This: There are space-filling gadgets that exist just to help you get rid of the “stuck to my indispensable gadget” feeling. The OLED wireless picture frame, despite offering some decent features, would snuggle into this category without making too much of an effort since the segment in itself is yet to pick up.

Word around the Web:

Thomas Ricker from Engadget says:

Unfortunately, it’s got a price you’d expect from this nascent display tech: $999. Sparky, had better be worth it.

Elaine Chow from Gizmodo says:

While OLEDs are still a little too small to be used as full fledged television sets, there’s at least one job where the high-resolution, vividly colored screens function incomparably—as high end digital picture frames!

Source: Cnet / Gizmodo320898