DISQUS

Sam Costello · 2 years ago

Hmm. Too bad to hear that the new eStarling is having these problems. I've read about the same connection issues you mention on other sites - looks like it could be widespread. If folks are interested in what eStarling's been thinking about the problems with their first frame and how they hoped to fix it in the second, I did an interview with their Exec VP a little while back: http://www.wirelesspictureframe.com/2007/05/08/...

Garrett Vonk · 2 years ago

I want to know why they *insist* on making their screens with a widescreen aspect ratio. I'd bet 97% of all amateur (family, etc.) photos are shot in either 4:3 or 3:2 aspect ratio. I'm just not going to buy a product for displaying my photos 24 hours a day that is shaped like 0% of my photos.

Myron · 2 years ago

Interesting...

az · 2 years ago

Your review is identical to my current setup process. Why it is so difficult to connect to a wifi network, I have no idea.

Thanasios · 2 years ago

Interesting...

Digital Photo Frames · 2 years ago

Yes !! I agree with Garrett - I think the widely available 7 inch LCD is the most popular solely because its the cheapest and most mass produced from china - which is where these products are ultimately sourced from. The 4:3 aspect 8 inch models and also 10.4 inch models out there are infinitely more practical than these 7 inch widescreen 16:9 products...

Alistair · 2 years ago

I had corresponded with them just before Christmas last year and mentioned that I would be interested if they took the Logo off. However, seeing the debacle that surrounded the sub-par hardware and thought behind the product, I am glad I didn't get involved. But I am curious - your article twice mentioned a Part 2, but I can't find it. Does this mean you didn't get it working?

Simon Lancaster · 2 years ago

I just bought one of the eStarling 2.0 frames and it worked like a charm. it didn't detect my network right away but as soon as I connected it to my PC with the software I was able to set up my wifi network (and it had all the security options: WEP, WPA, etc...). After that I just emailed a batch of photos to the frame and within 5 minutes they were being displayed! Excellent product!

James · 2 years ago

Hmmm, bought the first one for my parents for christmas. Had the bad experience everyone has, but then Thinkgeek had it replaced with the 'updated' version. I was not able to help my non-geek parents set it up, so I was happy to have my 64 year old mother call me to say it was easy to do. They set up the frame on a wall 50 ft from the wifi, and they absolutely LOVE it. My brother and I, who live 1000s of miles from our parents, email pictures on a weekly basis. They love, so I suppose that is all that matters.

Anonymous · 2 years ago

Note that v2.0 frames came out 05/07, anything prior to this is not a v2.0 frame.

IKARUS · 1 year ago

WOW is this thing a piece of SHIT!! I got my frame in 2 weeks after I ordered it, that was mostly UPS's fault, however thanks to eStarling's lack of customer care they did NOTHING to find out where my frame was when UPS told me they had no clue where it was.

Here is my overall take of my nightmare with eStarling.

If I could describe the overall build quality of the frame I would ask one to first construct a similar frame from popsical sticks and wood glue. When you are finished you will most likely end up with a product with better quality than the toy plastic rickety eStarling frame!

My frame arrived and looked as if one of eStarling's employees left it to their 6 year old to explore, or a monkey, either way the frame was completely ripped off the monitor unit!! HOW does that even make it through any sort of quality control? I'll tell you how, there is none!!

Surprisingly the frame turned on, despite my elevated blood pressure and sudden urge to throw it through a wall, I wanted to see how it worked software wise.

I connected my frame to my PC via USB, frame recognized it was attached to a PC, so far so good. I download the third party software that is required to even get the frame to run wirelessly. Go figure the software didn't run thanks to bad programming, I tried this on 3 PCs, when I called eStarling to ask WTF the deal was, they said "thats not our issue, its the company that wrote the software and they are working on it", THUS rendering the whole reason why I bought this big heaping pile of dog shit completely moot!!.

Way to go eStarling.

PS I sent the frame in last Monday (Jan 7th) second day air. It is now Jan 15th and I still don't have my money back. THEY ARE QUICK!!!!

Eric · 1 year ago

Well being a sucker for cool features I did fall for the eStarling 2.0 8" frame...

Got the box overnight, no probs, apprehension kicked in due to some of the funky reviews this thing has gotten...

Opened the box, hooked it up, filled in the blanks, and 15 min after opening the box I had photo's from friends popping up on the screen.

Tried a random RSS feed from a friends Flickr collection... And although this took 3 tries before I got the right rss feed type it worked like a dream after that, a little slow on the download for those (had to wait 8min before 1st pic showed up).

Tested the e-mail message function, works

Tested the frame to e-mail function, works (be it a slightly pointless function from my perspective)

So now I'm kinda surprised what the problems where. So I reset the whole thing, take it to a friends house and try to screw it all up... Couldn't manage it... No matter how backwards I follow the instructions this thing seems to just, well, work...

So I guess that eStarling and co has managed to work through any probs that existed.

Couple of feature requests:
Network ID, in the list on the router it just shows up as a MAC address (which is on a sticker on the back in there defence)
On the site it should display who e-mailed which picture (it's guess work right now, to great amusement of my friends)
An off button, you can only either pull the plug or use the time on/off setting.