Compare Prices on Kodak Pulse 7-Inch Digital Frame
You know how good it feels to come home to find an unexpected gift from a friend? That’s the same excitement you get everyday with the Kodak PULSE Digital Frame. Now everyone can send pictures right to your frame, giving you continuous surprises. Adding your own pictures is easy too. It doesn’t slow you down with time-consuming software setups or complicated technology. It makes connecting with friends and family simple, so you’ll always have new pictures to relive and enjoy.
- Size: 7-inch
- Brand: Kodak
- Model: 1338813
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 1.55 pounds
- Display size: 7
Features
- 7 in. (17.8 cm) high-quality digital photo display
- Receive pictures via e-mail, Facebook and Kodak Gallery sites
- Wi-Fi enabled
- 512 MB of internal memory
- USB port and 2 card slots to add pictures from other sources
A very clever digital frame
I’ve had this for a couple of days now and have to say that Kodak really has a winner on its hands with the Pulse. Kodak has solved the “last mile” problem with photo frames by creating such an easy way to get photos onto the Pulse. After receiving it you create an email address at [...] and simply email photos to that address. It takes about three minutes from emailing a photo to the Pulse to when it shows up on it. Let your friends and family know the email address and they can send photos to it too.
Setting up the Pulse is easy and takes about 10 minutes from unboxing it to displaying photos on it. The frame first connects to the internet via your WiFi and then displays an activiation code. You then go to [...] and create a user account and email address by keying in this activation code. After that you can start emailing photos to your new email account. In addition you can also have it display photos from your facebook or Kodak Gallery accounts.
The Pulse has worked great for me with both photos emailed to it and from a facebook account. It has all the usual slots in the back so you can run a slideshow off a flashcard too. A nice feature of the Pulse is that you can sort the photos displayed on it based on who emailed them to you. Tapping on a photo shows who sent it, when it was sent and the subject line of the email when it was sent to you.
My one concern with the Pulse is with wireless connectivity. Where we originally wanted to put the Pulse our computers, cellphones, etc., easily get WiFi coverage but for some reason the Pulse can’t. We moved it across the room and it got coverage but it’s strange that it had a problem when other devices didn’t. Other than that, however, the frame has been perfect.
I originally bought this for my mom so all her kids and grandkids can email her photos without her having to be at a computer to view them. But I like it so much I’ve decided to keep it for myself and buy her another. One surprise is that there isn’t a simple way to print the photos from the Pulse. It would be great if you could select one or more pictures and have them sent to Kodak Gallery or some other online site and have them printed. Perphaps they’ll add this feature in a future software update.
I’m very pleased with the Pulse and recommend anyone thinking about a digital photo frame seriously consider it. Good job, Kodak.
finally, a photo frame for grandparents
I’ve been looking for a photo frame that I can give to my parents, who don’t get to see my kids often. I wanted one that allows me to update pictures remotely, and doesn’t require any technical knowledge on their part. I tried a few WiFi-capable units: Toshiba (wide-screen ratio, a mistake), Viewsonic (doesn’t auto-play when turned on), and Pixstar (seems nice, but $230?). Finally, Amazon emailed me about the new Kodak Pulse, which at the time got three 5-star reviews. Well, what the heck, I decided to buy it and try it out for myself.
Pros:
- Very nice, clear LCD display. It appears to be higher res than other frame. Maybe it’s because it is only 7″, yet 800×600 pixels. Maybe the LED backlight helps too. The colors also seem richer on this frame.
- Small frame border. Some frames have a ridiculously large border, which takes focus away from the pictures.
- Once configured, zero-configuration needed to use. Perfect for non-technical viewers.
- Impressive web management tools, with many settings.
- No remote! Yes, this is a feature! Since it has web management, there is no remote control to lose. And photo navigation is done thru touch screen.
- Simple, elegant design. The frame is also pretty thin.
- Collage mode, where individual pictures in the collage update in sequence.
- Energy save mode, where you can set times when frame is on. Also can turn on frame when new pictures are received.
- Touch screen interface, for simple management and flipping through photos (you can disable touch screen interface).
- Email upload. This is very convenient, especially from phone.
Cons:
- Management must be made thru Kodak website. What if Kodak website is down, or decides not to support product anymore?
- On first use, it automatically upgraded firmware, which is fine. However, it wiped out my WiFi settings so I had to re-enter it.
- Wished it was offered in larger screen size, which would be nicer for collage mode.
- Security. If you enable upload by email option, anyone who knows the email address can send pictures to the frame. Last thing I want is spam or inappropriate photos on my frame. They should allow you to restrict who can send photos to the frame.
So far I’m very impressed by this photo frame. Never thought of Kodak as a high-tech company, but I guess they know a thing or two about displaying pictures. I think it makes for a great gift that will keep on giving.
A clever Wi-Fi enabled frame, but it has its limitations.
The Kodak Pulse digital frame is a nicely designed Wi-Fi enabled frame that you manage through a website. It’s an excellent frame for the most part but there are some things I wasn’t fond of.
Design wise it is a nice looking frame with a glossy black front and a chrome strip running around the edge. It reminds a lot of the iPhone aesthetic. I especially like the fact that the Kodak logo on the front of the frame is very subtle. On the back of the frame is a door that covers the memory card / USB jump drive slots, a power button, and a status check button. The frame is primarily controlled via its touch screen and the Kodak Pulse website. The touch screen itself is very nicely done. It’s quite accurate and responds to the first touch most of the time. You can swipe your finger across the screen to flick through the photos like an iPhone too. While the frame is light in weight the built quality is nice and it feels solid. To store your photos there is 512MB of internal memory, and my 2,510 photos are using 56% of the available memory.
Once you take your frame out of the box and plug it in it prompts you to enter your Wi-Fi information. The process is simple and it walks you through step-by-step. I was able to connect it to both a NETGEAR and Apple Airport router without problems. Both routers have a hidden SSID and WPA2 security. Once you have successfully connected the frame to your network, you are provided an activation number, and are directed to the frame’s website.
You add pictures via several methods; 1) directly from your computer via the website, 2) from a memory card and/or USB jump drive, 3) from your Facebook and/or Kodak Gallery accounts, 4) from a custom e-mail address just for the frame.
I added photos to the frame from the website and it was a simple process (I am using a Mac running Snow Leopard and used the Safari browser). I had some friends e-mail photos to the frame and everything came through fine as well. Lastly, I accessed my Kodak Gallery photos, and the process was simple and worked well. The website also allows you to view all the pictures on the frame and delete some as needed. Being able to manage the frame this way is very convenient, and it is what makes this Kodak frame special. It’s very nice to be able to manage your frame’s photos remotely. This makes it an ideal frame to give to people who do not live close by and/or are not tech friendly because you can manage the frame for them remotely. (see my included photos for screenshots of the website)
Not only can you manage the pictures through the website, but also you can change the frame’s settings. You can adjust the picture display duration and transition effect, how the pictures fit the frame, and whether one picture or a collage is displayed. Lastly, you can set times for the frame to automatically turn on and off.
The frame’s picture quality is very high. The photos are sharp, the colors are vivid and true, and the viewing angle is good. The frame’s resolution of 800 x 600 allows you to view the photos up close without the pictures looking pixilated. Additionally, the frame’s 4:3 screen-ratio is much better than widescreen frames, since 99% of photos are not taken at a 16:9 ratio. Thus, your photos are not cropped as much. The only picture quality issue is some light leakage from the bottom. Basically when you are close to the frame, and it is displaying a dark photograph, the bottom edge looks brighter.
The only negatives I have are as follows: 1) The settings for the frame are very limited, you can only choose from 3, 10, and 30 second picture display durations. There is a smart setting that starts out fast and slows down to 30 minutes a photo, but I find all these choices either too fast or too slow. A Philips’ frame I had allowed for much more flexibility in this area. 2) There is no separate schedule to turn the frame on and off for the weekend. Again, the Philips’ frame had an automatic schedule for both the weekdays and the weekend. Moreover, you can’t change the frame’s schedule through the frame itself, it has to be done via the website. 3) If a photo is in portrait orientation there are just black bars placed on both sides of it. Some frames will tile portrait photos to eliminate this problem. 4) There is no adjustment for the frame’s screen brightness. 5) Lastly, the frame cannot do a slideshow of both the memory card photos and online photos together. It would be nice if you could so you could supplement the frame’s memory using a card. I am hoping that Kodak can fix some of these issues by updating the website, or the frame’s software, since it is Wi-Fi enabled.
All in all… a very nicely done Wi-Fi frame, with good photo quality, and a well designed website.
P.S. Sorry for the long review, but there is a lot to cover. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I will respond promptly.
3/27/2010 Update – Some of my photos had quotes in the titles and they did not upload even though the website said they did. Make sure your photos don’t have quotation marks anywhere in the title.
4/6/2010 Update – So I’ve recently run into a problem with the frame. I tried uploading some more photos I recently took. 59 to be exact, and it keeps getting stuck after it uploads a handful of them. All the photos show up in the online gallery, but the frame keeps trying to download the remaining pictures and nothing happens, I’ve waited days even. I deleted those pictures and tired them again with no luck. Then, I deleted all the photos off the frame except for the e-mailed ones and it got stuck again. I had to resort to uploading all the photos via memory card. I’ve added some additional photos via the online gallery after I uploaded all the older ones and they came through fine. Hopefully it will not get “clogged” again. I still like the frame overall and think it’s neat. I’m hoping this was a one-time issue. The problem has not re-appeared as of 4/19/2010.
4/11/2010 Update – To reset the frame and erase all its photos and setting you can click both the Power and Status buttons on the back. Be aware though that any photos that have been e-mailed to your frame will be deleted as well. Also, I’ve found that if you add photos via the website, when you display the photo’s information on the frame it shows the upload date, but if you add them to the frame via memory card it shows the date it was taken.
4/19/2010 update – Last night the frame prompted me to download a new firmware update. Very nice.
