Sungale ID800WT Digital Photo Frame

Sungale’s ID800WT do-everything photo frame has a spec sheet designed to please the most discerning photo lover. For that reason, it has moved right into the same neighborhood with one of our favorite frames – the iGala Wireless Digital Picture Frame. The ID800WT, like the iGala, is priced around $250 and offers features well beyond the norm – including internet connectivity, improved screen, touchscreen interface, streaming media playback and more. The ID800WT is certainly not cheap, but the promise of so many features demands attention even in a crowded market.

Read on to see if the ID800WT capitalizes on the big ambitions of Sungale’s engineers.

The Hardware

Sungale’s announcement of the ID800WT recently garnered interest among technophiles.

The highlights of the hardware are a generous 800×600 resolution, high-quality screen, touchscreen interface, built-in Wi-Fi, a multi-format card reader and a capacious 512MB of internal memory. The ID800WT is right at the top in terms of hardware in this price range.

The look of the frame is classic, understated but pleasing. The back panel reveals two easy-to-use thumbscrews to remove the stock frame and replace with another frame., at least in theory. At this time, Sungale has published no information on where to obtain additional frames.

One other oddity – the unit has an infrared receiver centered just beneath the bottom edge of the screen. Sungale however includes no remote and again does not advertise how to make use of this feature.

In all the hardware is well designed and of high quality. The eventual availability of replacement frames could bump up the “style” factor, but even so we find it suitable for nearly any desk – home office or executive penthouse.

Features & Software

As excited as we were with the hardware specifications, it was the long list of internal applications that really got our attention.

The feature list – copied from Sungale’s ID800WT page:

• Youtube: Top ten YouTube programs for your entertainment
• RSS news: Google &Yahoo
• IP Radio:  Thousands of stations for your selection
• Picasa:  View and download your photos
• Stock: Real-time stock quotes and market news
• Gmail: Watch your email without a PC
• Weather: Real time weather report in your area
• Video:  AVI
• Music:  WMA
• Photo: JPG, TIF, PNG, BMP
• Calendar: Digital Calendar
• Clock: Analogue Clock display
• Touch Screen: Touch screen to do your operation

Sounds great, but how did it perform?

Unfortunately, we found the actual operation of this feature list to be a mixed bag.

Features: The Good

Displaying photos, it’s no surprise that the ID800WT does quite well. The screen is bright and crisp – not the very best we’ve used but well above average. The 512MB internal memory is more than adequate for storing oodles of your favorite photos. The transitions between photos are snappy.

Connecting to the wireless network is simple and smart and painless.

Most of the software features (but not all – read the next section) work as advertised. RSS reading, video & music playback, internet radio streaming, weather, Gmail, etc all operated properly.

Features: The Bad

Unfortunately we encountered a fair share of problems, or at least annoyances, during our time with the ID800WT photo frame.

We crashed the unit on several occasions attempting to play “Top 10″ videos from YouTube. Not all Top 10 videos seem to cause this, but the ones that do do so consistently. The entire frame became unresponsive and our only recourse was to power cycle the unit. Very frustrating.

Despite trying on multiple WiFi networks, verifying our login many times, and patiently typing and retyping the login information, we were unable to connect to Picasa. This was disappointing as Picasa is a great photo service and we were excited to see how Sungale’s product enhanced it. This may work great for others, but we were unable to enjoy this feature.

Beyond these errors, we were perplexed at the rough edges and inconsistency of the interface. Each application seemingly was designed in a vacuum (possibly each by a different designer & programmer?), making individual features feel like stand-alones rather than part of a well-planned whole. In too many cases, small icons without accompanying labels served important purposes, but only trips to the manual would reveal them.

In another example, we could not get the stock application to recognize popular stocks symbols such as Apple (“AAPL”). This was not a major drawback to us but again, a case where things don’t work quite as you would hope, gimping the effective feature list. No onscreen help pointed us in the right direction.

The Gmail application does indeed read email, but be forewarned that email  content is displayed in a test-only, bare-bones and is needlessly cramped on-screen. As a result reading Gmail on the ID800WT requires lots of sifting through technical headers, scrolling and patience. We doubt many this application will replace customer’s home computer or iPhone for reading email.

The difficulty of typing accurately on the touchscreen was our final frustration. The Sungale is not alone in this respect among photo frames, but typing passwords especially was troublesome. Happily you won’t find yourself typing too often on it – once you’ve got your favorite applications configured you shouldn’t need to reenter text again.

The Verdict

We came in hoping that the Sungale ID800WT and it’s amazing feature list would unseat our reigning photo frame champ, the iGala Digital Picture Frame. Sungale’s hardware specs are up to the task but ultimately the ID800WT is let down by the implementation of its myriad software features. The frame that looks unbeatable on paper but after spending hours with it, a surprising number of rough edges appeared. With a little more thought to a cohesive interface design, improvements to some of the functionality and some overall polish, we believe the ID800WT could be a winner.

At a price of just under $250 however, we continue to recommend the iGala Frame. It doesn’t have quite as many features listed on the spec sheet but what it does do – and it’s plenty – it does slickly and we found the iGala’s apps to all be fully usable. Sadly we did not find the same to be true of the Sungale.

There is a niche market out there for the Sungale ID800WT because it does offers unique features. It has a great physical screen, attractive design and some may find that one or two of its software applications are compelling enough to warrant the purchase. Overall we are left feeling that the ID800WT is a major software update or two away from being the product we know it can be. At an asking price of $250, that’s tough to swallow. If Sungale releases updates to the ID800WT we will revisit this review with updated impressions to share with you.

The iGala Wireless Digital Picture Frame from newcomer Aequitas LLC is quickly turning heads among photo fanatics. The iGala may prove to be the best digital picture frame in a market already crowded with lackluster products. We can’t help being reminded by the iPhone in many respects – the touchscreen, the attractive uncluttered on-screen interface and internet capabilities (via built-in wireless). Oh, and the name. The iPhone was definitely on iGala engineers minds during the design process, and that’s not a criticism.

Also like the iPhone, the iGala finds itself in a maturing market crowded with digital frames that may look good on the Target shelf but ultimately disappoint due to dubious photo quality, poor design and more emphasis on swappable faceplates (hey, extra revenue right?) than usability. In that context iGala’s specs are pretty impressive and we like its chances. Peep this:

• Touchscreen Interface
• Built-In WiFi wireless
• 800 x 600 Resolution
• Automatically updates photos over internet from email (Gmail) and Flickr
• Load more photos via SD Media Card or any USB drive/device
• 1GB internal memory; store up to 5,000 photos
• Auto Power Save, Alarm and Clock functions
• No PC Needed
• No subscription needed

The screen is plenty bright, sharp and nicely offset by the understated clear plastic bezel. Configuration of the unit with iPhone-esque buttons and keyboard via the touchscreen interface is a snap – you don’t want to set Flickr and Gmail configuration/url/username/password via two arrow buttons and an enter key, right?

For such a unique and powerful photo frame, the price (roughly $239 at the time of this writing) in our opinion is justified. There is really no other entry that can compete with the iGala at this time.

This is also a device that would look right at home on any executive desk and, if we may say so, would complement a high quality set of GLA-55 speakers very nicely.

 
LINUX provides the UI and performance muscle under the iGala’s pretty skin. So naturally we hope iGala will expand further on the nice start they’ve made. We see support for Facebook albums, TwitPic and more as smart next steps to make this the must-have digital photo frame for the well-connected geek. This would be a great project platform if it’s ever released to open source or supported by an extensible plugin architecture. But we digress.

As it stands already the iGala is a sweet looking, cutting edge picture frame that’s sending the competition scrambling back to the drawing boards. That’s going to be good for all of us.

I Want One!

Available from ThinkGeek (UPDATE: BACK IN STOCK 4/24).

Mt. Haleakala, the dormant volcano that dominates the Maui landscape and attracts thousands of visitors every year, is getting some geek cred too.

The University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS program (Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System) is proudly detailing the design of a 1.4 gigapixel digital camera capable of snapping some candid photos of the night sky. The design not only has impressive stats but the utilization of a large number of small CCD’s increases data read speeds and minimizes impact of an occasional bad chip.

The primary goal of Pan-STARRS is to detect potential earth-impact objects presumably so they can call Bruce Willis and take care of the issue as only he can.

Sorry all you DSLR adopters out there – the ante has been raised by *just a bit* now. Still, Pan-STARRS probably can’t even use all the neat interchangeable lenses you bought with the kit. And we’re guessing the gigapixel camera might be a bit of a budget-buster for the prosumer out there.

The Nikon D-90 DSLR is out and it is a stunner by all accounts.  But here’s a question noone is asking: Is it better to get the Nikon D60 (the previous generation) or the D90 ? This may sound like a no-brainer until you realize that these cameras are $600 apart in price! Both Nikons are excellent cameras, considered to be at the top of the prosumer camera category. So with that context, here are the key differences:

 
Gonzo Recommendation: Nikon D60 Learn More about Nikon D-60

 
Summary: The Nikon D60 may be missing some bells-and-whistles offered by the new kid on the block, but the Nikon D60 is a rock solid DSLR camera available now from folks like Amazon at unheard of prices while (or because) the Nikon D90 grabs all the headlines.

Those who can afford to join the state-of-the-art will find the Nikon D90 is a step up from the D60 in nearly every respect. It offers incredible photo quality and usability, as well as the all-new movie mode, next-gen accessories, better optics and additional megapixels. Learn More about the Nikon D-90.

In this economy many consumer will side with the D60, choosing to avoid the additional expense of joining the latest generation of digital camera technology. Those who opt for the D90 will be very pleased. We feel the Nikon D60 is the best overall value but this is one of those cases where either choice is a good choice, provided you are aware of your budget.

Read More Information & User Reviews: Nikon D60 w/ Kit Lens
Read More Information & User Reviews: Nikon D90 w/ Kit Lens