Digital photo frames explode into a living room near you
PHOTOGRAPHS HAVE LONG been the most popular way to capture a moment in time, but the good old-fashioned family photo album is rapidly being replaced by Harry Potterish digital displays.
According to a survey by Futuresource Consulting, the market for digital photo frames "exploded" across Western Europe last year, hitting 3.8 million units, up from 0.6 million a year earlier.
For consumers, "design and price" were the most important elements in the purchasing decision, with few having any clue about the resolution, aspect ratio or screen size of their purchases.
It seems the gadgets are popular as gifts. Possibly because they look like a good idea for someone else's home not your own.
What struck us in the day and age when the North Pole is shrinking away to nothing and - if you ask the Editor - environmental collapse is just around the corner.
Asked for their take on this, chief spinner Andy Watson said Futuresource had. "looked at power consumption relating to flat panel TVs, but not carried out much research into digital photo frame power consumption as yet." So not much help there then.
Futuresource says that by 2011, household penetration is expected to reach 14 per cent across Western Europe as a whole, with the UK and France leading the charge at 29 per cent and 23 per cent penetration respectively.
Which is bound to have a massive environmental impact compared to those innocuous pictures you have hanging on the wall today. µ
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What happened with that high resolution electronic paper that only needed energy when it changes images?
Too expensive I guess.
Digital photo frames often contain the worst quality panels out there. They're made of the "off-cuts" of the LCD manufacturing industry and image quality is far worse than on a humble photograph printed on a piece of card. I think these frames would be an ideal partner with OLED panels, since currently OLEDs are limited to small dimensions. The picture quality would be stunning, the power requirements minimised. It might also help to convince the average-Joe consumer that the vast majority of LCD displays are pretty awful to look at and that they should be demanding something better.
Not on this account, I mean:

LCD-based photo frames are not long for this world, I believe.

Google "color epaper", when you have time.
Please, please, please, enough with global warming already! How much power does a digital frame draw, anyway? One watt, two maybe?

Global warming and other theories aside, I'm all for reducing power consumption and finding cleaner sources of energy, but this is getting really ridiculous. Reducing your car's power consumtion by 20% and its oil consumption by 30~40% or more thanks to hybrid solutions is great, but come on, bitching about digital photo frames? Seriously?
Paper pictures use more chemicals to produce, ergo more pollution. LCD pannels are GREEN! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Please...
environmental concern in this case is not about how much energy those frames draw, it's about the impact of the production. LCD monitor does prove to have better energy efficiency than CRT monitor but the CO2 emission of the production of OLED, LCD screens is far worse. it's the same as other energy resource. making solar cell panel has enormous CO2 emission that some countries are considering moving back to nuclear power which the construction process and running life circle emit smaller amount of CO2 (funny, isn't it, but that's true). bio fuel may drive the price of food. Again, those are all about the impact of the productions