Isn’t it about time some of your gadgets started doing double duty? We only have so much space on our desks, and only so many ports on our computers, so it’s about time someone found ways of combining some of those items into one handy device.

Digital photo frames have been growing in popularity for the past few years, but their singular purpose could put some people off from buying one because it is yet even more rel estate taken up on your desk.  Our desks are slowly being taken over by monitors, hard drives, USB hubs, speakers, so you really wonder who has room for yet another deice.  Well, Samsung opted to create a frame that shows you pictures, or, thanks to USB, can turn into a miniature second monitor when you need one in a pinch.

The Samsung SPF-85H sports an 8-inch screen with 1 GB of internal memory to store up to 10,000 photos, but the memory is expandable ia an SD Card slot.  You can do all of the usual tricks of setting up slideshows, fades and so on, but where this frame separates itself from the reat of the pack in the marketplace is the fact that you can use a USB acable to hook it up to your computer and use the frame as a mini-monitor.  The screen resolution only comes in at 800×600, but that is plenty for you to run things like a Twitter application or checking out your stock portfolio as it streams by.  Then when you’re done, flip it back over to your photos and off you go, and we do mean literally “go” as it has a rechargab;e battery that will let you use it off power for up to an hour.

If you do want a bit more screen, you can go with the SPF-105P which is widescreen and has a resolution of 1024×600, although the reviews aren’t as favorable because it is a widescreen view, and doesn’t work well on pictures.

This makes one wonder what digital frames will do next, but our bet is on TV reception of some kind.

Entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 8:51 pm under Gadgets, Technology.  Print This Post