Tao 80001 1.5-Inch Digital Photo Keychain (Brushed Metal)

by TAO

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6 x 3 x 5 inches ; 1.9 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000NVVG7M
• Item model number: 80001
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (99 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 27, 2007

Product Description

Style: Brushed Metal

Toting around a comprehensive digital picture collection is a breeze. Utilize TAO's user-friendly software to transfer photos directly from your PC or Mac; then share you precious memories with your coworkers and friends. The 1.5-inch OLED digital picture keychain is bigger, brighter, and clearer than before. Three times the resolution of its predecessor, our new model brings crisp images of our loved ones anywhere, anytime, and you never worry about batteries! After 30 minutes of being connected to the outlet or computer, your little gadget will brim with 2 1/2 hours of "on" time (which roughly translates to a week or two of standard show-and-tell).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More techincal specs, August 5, 2007

By 

Paul Wehr (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tao 80001 1.5-Inch Digital Photo Keychain (Brushed Metal) (Electronics)

I looked all over the web for these specs (including the TAO site), so I am adding them here:
- Display is 128x128 pixels in 24 bit color
- USB interface is NOT a standard block file device (e.g. does not show up as a disk drive), but uses a proprietary interface, so you MUST use the included software, which is not available for Linux.

Also, if you think you should be able to fit a lot more than 30 128x128 pixel JPG images into 8MB, you would be right, but the software limits you to a fixed 30 pictures, which you can (re-)extract from the device as a entire batch (for re-use later) into a (seemingly proprietary) ".itc" file (which is actually 66 bytes of header followed by the images in 49,152-byte blocks (128 x 128 x 3byte color) in simple RGB bitmap format. Even if the device stores the images in the uncompressed bitmap format (which it probably does), it is using no more than 1.5MB of the "8MB internal memory" to store your pictures.

The casing is clearly not bulletproof, and the buttons to stick out from the edge (which would explain why they are "falling off"), and the software is poorly written (bluescreened on second use -- "Handy with a soldering iron, but a menace to society behind a keyboard") but includes a built-in rechargeable battery, charger, USB cable, and a surprisingly high-quality jewelery-type box, for which I paid <$40. I think if expectations keep in line with this nearly disposable price-point, I think this product will meet them.

I have not had any problems with the device itself (in the first 3 days), and it seems ok with a few keys on it, but can see where the design may have trouble in a high-stress environment embedded in a wad of keys, and a menagerie of other key fobs. I found the display to be adequately bright (I'm sure these are mass-produced cell-phone and digital camera displays, so you can use them for a rough idea)

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, June 19, 2007

By 

R. Duscheid (Pittsburgh, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tao 80001 1.5-Inch Digital Photo Keychain (Brushed Metal) (Electronics)

Bought for my wife to show off pics of new grand daughter. Loading pics easy-great display of pics. The problem I had was very short viewing times between battery charging. On two occasions after a full charge for 30 min. and maybe total viewing time of 3-4 minutes over 5 days the unit had to be recharged. Returned unit to amazon with full refund without a problem.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly clear, May 9, 2007

By 

MH - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tao 80001 1.5-Inch Digital Photo Keychain (Brushed Metal) (Electronics)

I bought this for my mom as a Mother's Day gift and loaded pictures onto it. I was extremely surprised at the quality of the pictures/screen. I'm glad I ordered this newer model. The older Tao held more pictures, but from reading the reviews on it, I am guessing the quality of the pictures on this newer model is much better. The software is extremely simple to use and makes it very easy to crop photos for close up shots. I expected the keychain to be a bit bulky, but it's not too bad at all. I am very happy with this purchase, as I'm sure my mom will be, also.

2115|R3HJCX6JBBPX1S;2115|R188YOF8FJ4G55;2115|R1FJ80Y0AOU4MF;