Introduction

Not so long ago I went to a friend’s house and she showed me her wedding pictures. What I liked the most was how she presented the photos. They were not enclosed in a big and bulky photo album but in a digital photo frame, replete with fancy effects and transitions. She just kept the photo frame on the table and pressed the play button and we enjoyed them together. 

I want to show you not one but three innovative digital photo frames - all different sizes and having slightly different uses. We will start with AV Labs 1.5 inch digital photo frame (DPF) which can serve as a keychain. Then the AKAI DPF, ideal to sit on your table or shelf and run a slideshow. And thirdly, the Abit FunFab, which offers the added option to print a photo.

AV Labs 1.5 inch Digital Photo Frame

This is a smart way of carrying your photos wherever you go. The1.5 inch LCD supports a single mode and a slideshow mode of showing off photos. It can store around 80 photos thanks to its 8MB built in memory. On the back side there is the menu button and up and down buttons.

Via the setup menu you can delete photos, set the contrast level of the LCD screen, adjust the clock settings, turn the automatic slideshow on/off and select the display mode.  There are two display modes for either manually flicking through photos or starting a slideshow.

The AV Labs DPF has a lithium ion battery which is charged by hooking up the unit to a PC via USB. That's also how you transfer photos from your hard disk to the photo frame as well. You can’t just hook it up to a PC and transfer photos across like you would to a USB flash drive. Instead it comes with a driver CD which includes Photo Viewer software. You just install it and then use it to select photos from your hard drive. Before transferring you can also choose the best possible size by cropping the photos. Once you’ve select the photos you want on the DPF, you hit synchronize and it will update the memory on the DPF. It supports the JPEG, MPEG, TIF and GIF formats.

The AV Labs 1.5 inch DPF comes up with the keychain, lanyard and a USB cable. It is compatible for PC and Mac. Hang it around your neck, place it on to your desk or use it as a key chain. For just US$10-15 it's a fantastic budget-conscious gift idea. Setting up all of your best photos from the year on it and then giving it to a relative is a fantastic idea.