DIGITAL FRAMES
A BRIEF HISTORY
With the advent of digital frames, there is now a "high-tech" way to connect with family and friends through sharing photos.
Only a few years ago, the digital photo or picture frame was more of a curiosity than the ideal gift it is today.
Those who had them usually didn't have much of an idea of how and where to use them. Those who gave them as gifts usually found out later that their friends and relatives were clueless about how to operate them!
The Digital Camera
It was the ever-growing popularity of the digital camera that paved the way to the prominence of the digital frame in today's electronics market.
The digital camera has forever transformed the way we view our lives through pictures.
Even those of us who are fairly technology-challenged found we could master the art of picture-taking with this product.
Today, it is possible to take near-perfect pictures by just pointing at a target and clicking a button! No learning curve needed!
The digital camera was such a welcomed development...If you had and knew how to use a computer, there was no longer any need to go to the photo store to print out pictures (based on how many we could afford to print).
It became possible to store hundreds and thousands of pictures on your computer hard drive and access them whenever you wanted.
It was a "green" idea, pretty far ahead of its time! No waste of paper with this product!
But what about those thousands of pictures "stuck" inside our cameras, memory cards or our computers? What a task to organize and share all of them with family and friends.
The less computer-savvy of us skipped the computer route and simply removed the memory cards from our cameras (as we had done with our film) and took them to the photo store or drugstore to have the photos printed out.
But as digital cameras grew in popularity, so did the PC, and with it the availability of the Internet. Today almost everyone has access to the Internet through a computer. The computer is now as commonplace as the television set!
So, of course, it was only a matter of time before we turned to the Internet for our answer...
Email
Email has quickly become a very popular way of sharing our "trapped" photos. (That is, if the person you are sharing photos with has access to the Internet.)
The photos may be sent through a regular email account or through special accounts called RSS photo feeds. Examples of these are Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, etc. These services help us to manage our photo collections online. (Still not an easy job for the computer novice!)
Wireless Digital Frames
Today there are digital frames with wireless capabilities that allow the user to transfer photos from the computer (and those special accounts) directly to a frame.
The wireless frame does not even have to be near the computer to do this. We can now send photos to frames anywhere in the world! For more information on wireless frames and technology, please click here.
Beware that there is a price to pay for this technology, usually in the form of monthly payments or in a much higher initial cost for the frame.
But what if the intended recipient of your photos does not have computer access?
No Computer?...
So...how do we send pictures to relatives and friends who do not or don't want to have access to computers and the Internet or those who are not really computer-savvy?
Snail Mail
Do we still have to go to a photo store to have any number of photos printed out for those who do not or will not use computers? Or, do we first print them out on our own photo printers and then send then by "snail mail?"
NO! This is a most expensive project and not exactly "green" thinking (as far as saving paper goes).
And...what if we do send those pictures by mail, what do our friends and family do with those photos after they see them?
We know very well what happens! Who can just throw out those memories? It would be almost sinful!
Those photos will most likely end up in boxes, albums, on mantels, shelves, etc., until they become just so much clutter and more items that collect dust!
Just how long do we keep a picture of that adorable one-year old who just got married!!??
We all have busy lives and changing pictures in and out of the frames on the wall or on the piano would ordinarily not be one of our priorities! So what to do?
The answer for photos is easy!...There are plenty of digital frames that do not require the user to have access to a computer. Load pictures on one of those to send to your computerless friends and family!
The answer for the walls (and desks, shelves, etc.) is also easy...Load some digital frames with photo art--those pictures that never get old.
Do you get tired of looking at the same scene? Set up a slideshow or flip on to the next picture on the frame. 
Would you be interested in eye-popping landscape and architectural photos? Here's a great site...
The Future of Digital Frames
This field of technology (as well as the entire electronic digital industry) is developing at an exponential rate. New products and new uses are constantly in the news.
Digital signage for small businesses as well as large corporations is one direction for large digital frames.
3D digital frames are some of the newest products. Yes, pairing a digital frame with a digital camera that creates 3D images for viewing on the frame. And -- without the need for special glasses!
For the majority of us, though, continuing improvements in features such as screen resolution, image quality, content management, ease of setup and use, etc., are what we are looking forward to as this amazing industry evolves.
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So There You Have It!
The popularity of the digital camera led to the decline and fall of the camera film industry. The rise of the digital frame as a unique way to display photos taken by the digital camera was inevitable.
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THE CONCEPT
WHY I LOVE DIGITAL FRAMES!
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