Customer Reviews

Kodak Pulse 7-Inch Wi-Fi Digital Frame with Custom e-Mail Address for Immediate Sharing

5 star:		(123)
4 star:		(55)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(29)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

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.

7/14/2010 Update - A couple of days ago I turned on the frame and all the photos I had added via SD card were gone. I unplugged it a couple of times and cycled the power but they never came back and the frame said they were gone. So I tried to upload them again but the frame stopped halfway through and said it was full. This meant that even though the frame said the pictures were not there, they were, since the memory was still being used. I had to reset the frame and start from scratch but was able to get all the photos on there again. I'm hoping this was just a one-time fluke. If this happens again, I'll update this review and revise my rating.

3/12/2011 Update - I downloaded a new software update for the frame and you can now send a quick canned message (LOL, Wish I was there, That's a Kodak moment, etc.) to the person who e-mailed you a photo through the frame. It's a cute little touch. Additionally, you can now create frame playlists via the Kodak Pulse website.

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.

The other reviews lead me to believe this was the frame I was looking for - remote management of photos for my parents, what a great idea. It is a great idea, but so far their implementation falls short of that goal.

Please note that I actually bought a Second Pulse frame from a local store because I couldn't believe the issues I was encountering. With both frames running side by side it is pretty certain that the issues I am experiencing are not isolated to just my frame or frames, but rather are shortcomings in how Kodak has set up the frames and their intended interaction - or lack thereof - with the Kodak Pulse website.

Here are the fundamental issues and problems:
- Pulse Frames do not return information to the Kodak Website.
- Kodak Website's report of photos on the Frames may not be correct.
- No ability for remote delete of ALL Pulse Frame photos.
- No ability for remote awarness of incomplete transfer.
- No refresh from server option on the Pulse Frame
- No thumbnail review on Pulse Frames.
- Poor transceiver strength.
- Very limited transition options between photos.
- With no folders, the claim of 4000 pictures would be a confusing mess.

Kodak has setup the Pulse Website to be one-way communication to the frames. You upload your pictures to the website or email them, and the Website sends them to the frame, and reports to you how many pictures are on the frame. But this isn't always true as it is strictly based on the photos received by the Kodak Website.
In testing , I would upload 40 pictures at a time and found that repeatedly the frames (both of them) would each receive only about 4 to 6 of those uploaded pictures, yet the website would tell me that all 40 pictures were there. It didn't happen every time, but frequently enough to be a concern.

As the intent is to have my folks in another state see different pictures based on different events, changing the photo library currently displaying on a monthly basis was the major desire behind the selection of the Kodak Pulse. It's failure to permit this to occur reliably is a huge problem.

Because the frames are communicating over the wireless network and receiving photos that have been uploaded to the Kodak Pulse Website, your system should not matter. Whether dealing with a Mac, or PC (Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer) my results are the same - the photos do get to the Kodak website, but they don't always get to the frames. It's also not the same photos that always fail, suggesting that it's not an issue inherent to one photo or another.

According to Kodak Technical Support the frames do not report basic details, like how many photos are actually present back to the Kodak Website. So if the frame doesn't get all the photos intended, you will never know if you are only looking at the website. I also learned that if local photos are uploaded to the frame via a memory card or USB jump drive, the website doesn't receive any information about these new photos. Even a simple indicator that local photos are present would be nice and helpful to a remote administrator.

There is also no way to actually see thumbnails of the photos on the frame - you can scroll through them, but it's a random presentation so you may see the same photo multiple times before you confirm which photos you have and which never got there.

I have devised a workaround that almost guarantees that the photos do get there, but it is a pain, and can result in unknown duplicate pictures on the frame - which will remain until they are manually deleted at the frame.

The workaround is this - I upload a folder of pictures and then as soon as the upload has completed and the first few pictures are arriving on the frame, I switch over on the website and DELETE the very first picture received - which is also the LAST picture uploaded. Then I go back to the upload screen and reselect this one deleted photo and upload it again. This seems to force a refresh to the frame and nearly all the pictures will come through. The one that was deleted may or may not come through even though it will show up on the Kodak website. In other words the Website may tell me that I have 45 pictures on my frame but I may only have 44. In other instances the delete and re-upload results in a double of that one picture on the frame, such that the frame says it has 46 pictures while the website says the frame has only 45. Deleting from the website permits the double image to remain on the frame - the only way to remove this is to manually delete from the frame.

To be clear, on the Kodak Website you can certainly see a display of what pictures are supposed to be on the Pulse Frame. You can select one or all of them and delete them. If you delete all of them the site will tell you that there are no pictures on the Pulse Frame. But if there was a duplication of one or more pictures as a result of the less than assured transfer from the Website to the Frame, those duplications will stay there on the Pulse Frame and unknown to the Website, even though they originated from the Website.

Both Pulse frames do this and I have had lengthy conversations with Kodak Technical Support about this behavior. Having a "Refresh from Server" button on the Pulse Frame would go a long way in helping keep the frame in proper sync, and this has been suggested to Kodak.

I also found that emailing photos directly from Aperture (Mac app) by clicking the email icon after selecting a series of photos resulted in only the first two (2) photos being received. Switch the order around and still only the first 2. Dragging and dropping into email, exporting and then dragging and dropping into email or sending from iPhoto does get all the intended photos to the Kodak website, so it seems to be a quark with Aperture - but assurance that the photos will go from the Kodak Website to the Pulse frame is anything but certain.

I sent one Pulse frame to my parents as that was my original intent. I have now discovered yet another frustrating behavior. Their wireless router is in one room and the Pulse frame they desire to have in another. It's signal strength is sitting at about 45% and occasionally it looses the network. When this happens it reverts to the base setup - asking for a choice of language and for you to select a network.

The suggestion to put the frame next to the wireless router is not practical as it defeats the ability to enjoy the frame in the desired location.

While there are some folks in the Kodak Tech Support group who seem earnest in their efforts to help, others take a canned approach - sending back instructions for how to set up the frame in the first place. If I was not on the network , I would get nothing. Truly there is nothing more annoying then sending in details of a problem and having the tech support group fail to even read your comments before sending out a worthless suggestion.

The Picture quality is great, and when all the photos actually get to the Pulse it's nice. The second Pulse frame will live closer to me at my in-laws which also affords me the opportunity to check on it.

With a capacity sufficient for 4000 photos it would be nice if you could organize them into folders - and then display one folder and not another. But that's not an option. The transitions are also very simple. That's fine - I wanted display quality, but some other choices would be nice.

So in the end it's a great concept and when it actually works as intended it will be great. If you are willing to go through extra steps like the upload - delete - upload I describe above to insure that transfers have occurred, great. But it is a pain.

Resolution of these issues should be achievable by software upgrade, I hope. But until then the Pulse Frame falls short of expectations.

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 800x600 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.

The first thing I liked about this digital frame is the way it looks. It is an elegant 7" glossy desk frame in black (note it is not designed to be wall mounted) It certainly looks better (in my humble opinion) than the average digital wooden frame (or plastic that looks like wood)

The frame is light and not bulky at all as other reviewers have stated, that of course depends on your perspective, but after comparing this one to others I have seen and owned, this is actually slimmer and lighter.

The touch screen works just great, menus are very simple to use and they will display simply by touching anywhere in the screen. first time you turn it on it will ask you to configure it, I had to go through all the process of configuring my Wi-Fi network and it was a fast process without any problems; one thing to note is that both the manual and the prompt messages in the screen fail to inform the user that the network configuration is not necessary to start using the frame. Other than that, the process is simple and will not take much of your time.

Once configured, you can have Facebook pictures in which you are tagged to load automatically to it, you can enter the Kodak website for your device and upload pictures there that will then upload into your frame. Awesome technology if you intend this to be a present for someone not familiar with this type of gadgets.

There are a couple points of concern with the device though: The first one is related to the quality of the pictures, I have a Sony DSC camera and always snap my pictures in a wide-screen format to be displayed in a high definition screen.; well, the Pulse will automatically re-size the pictures once you load them, which translates in loss of the HD quality (resolution supported by the Pulse's LCD screen is 800x600 pixels) and details lost, if you have a wide-screen picture the Pulse will automatically frame it to fit the 4:3 aspect ratio. For me, as a photo enthusiast, this is a major flaw. The second item I found annoying is the input for the USB thumb drive, it is awkwardly positioned on the back of the frame, say you have a regular sized thumb drive, there is a small protuberance on back of the frame that will push away the drive, if you move it for some reason the drive may get disconnected (It has happened to me a couple times and I will try to upload some pictures), so you may want to ensure you use one of those small sized drives available not to have this issue. In the end, what may be an inconvenience to me may not be for another person but I thought it would be worth mentioning.

Other than that, it is a great device and has performed incredibly well the time I have used it. I could strongly recommend this over other devices I have tried in the past. Well worth the price once you consider all the advantages it offers over other models and brands.

After working out some bugs I now love the frame and am planning to purchase another for our home. The first one was a gift. The ability to transfer photos wirelessly, the touchscreeen, and the collage mode place this frame above all others. Be sure to spend the extra money for the 10" model so the photos won't be too small on collage mode!

However, I had the following issues with set up that I had to figure out on my own. Three contacts with tech support were useless:
1) There is a major problem with the orientation of photos taken in portrait mode which often display sideways. However, this is easily solved. After spending a lot of time on this issue I have figured several things out.
This problem does not affect all cameras. Portrait photos taken by the two phones I have tried- Motorola Razor and I phone 4- have no problem when sent directly to the frame wirelessly. However, the orientation will be sideways if you try to send the I phone photo to the frame after it has been downloaded to a Windows computer (mine has Windows 7 as the operating system).

When using a digital camera it depends on the brand. There is no problem with a Nikon or my Kodak Playsport. However, with my Pentax Lumix camera (my main camera) all portrait pictures will display on the frame sideways. Tech support kept telling me that I just had to make sure that the photo was upright in Windows Picture Gallery or Photoshop or whatever photo organizer I was using. THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG. When it is vertical on the computer it will display sideways on the frame. Instead, it needs to be rotated one turn counterclockwise so it is lying sideways. When transferred to the frame in this position it will display correctly.
This same method works for the I phone photos that have been transferred to a computer.

And the way to see how the photo will display is to look at the Kodak Pulse interface called "Add pictures from your computer". If you look at the little thumbnails that you can choose to display on the frame you can easily see the orientation. Portrait photos that have been rotated one turn counterclockwise will be vertical here. Portrait photos that have not been rotated will be laying sideways. So you can check out that the photos have been rotated correctly here before they are sent to the frame.

2) And another more minor but irritating issue. When setting up the frame as a gift you need to NOT register the frame with the gift recipient's email address. I did this initially as the frame was not going to be mine. I had no idea that Kodak would immediately send the gift recipient an email welcoming him to Kodak Pulse. I can only hope that he will think this is spam. I quickly changed the email address to mine.

Now that I have figured all of the above out on my own I must say that I do absolutely love the frame. However, don't count on tech support to help you out with any problems. It is obvious that they have not used the frame with various cameras to look for any glitches. I even had one person tell me to just not use any portrait photos or to retake them!!!! Well, I can't travel through time to make my granddaughter two years younger so that won't do.

The Kodak Pulse is a cute device for sharing pictures, but it has severe limitations: (1) It's nice that friends can email pix to your frame, but if the picture are oriented incorrectly (like they rotated the camera to portrait orientation instead of landscape when taking the picture), there is no way for you to rotate the picture right side up. (2) There is no way to print the pictures, not from the frame, not from the KodakPulse.com web site than manages the frame, not even to the Kodak print service! (3) Sometimes there are long, inexplicable delays from sending a picture to having it display on frame. I had to update software and reboot the device to get some of my pictures from web site to frame. (4) Once in the kodakpulse environment, there is no way to get pictures out of the system. You cannot transfer to USB stick, SIM card, PC, or anywhere outside the kodakpulse environment where you might be able to view, rotate, crop, print, email, or otherwise use the pictures.

I say this is a cute device that could be vastly improved if Kodak would simply extend their web site. The web site could allow pix to be printed, rotated, stored locally, or emailed. Without such improvement, kodakpulse is like to roach hotel--pictures go in but they never come out. Why Kodak isn't nimble enough to make such low-cost, high-value corrections is hard to understand. I'm recommending my children not buy any more for other relatives until they at least add the ability to transfer pictures out of the kodakpusle environment so pictures can be rotated, printed, and shared.

In short: the device is great, but know what to expect.

Positives:
* Well worth the price once you consider all the advantages it offers over other models and brands.
* The totally awesome feature of this frame is the fact that you can actually email images TO the frame from a computer or even a cell phone. You set up a specific email account that pertains specifically to your frame and you and anyone else who knows the address can email images to the frame.
* Remote management of photos for my parents, what a great idea.
* The ability to transfer photos wirelessly, the touch screen, and the collage mode place this frame above all others. Be sure to spend the extra money for the 10" model so the photos won't be too small on collage mode!
* The size is great, images are great, it's real easy to post pictures to the frame simply by emailing from anywhere in the world. So, give the frame email address to all family and every couple days you can get new photo notifications from the frame.
* 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 Wi-Fi and then displays an activation code. You then go to website 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.
* The wireless setup is extremely easy and the picture quality is great. Pictures are bright, beautiful, and clear.
* 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. A fairly broad left-right viewing angle.
* Small frame border. Some frames have a ridiculously large border, which takes focus away from the pictures. Design wise it is a nice looking frame with a glossy black front and a chrome strip running around the edge.
* As long as you know how to log into your home wi-fi network and how to go to a website, you should be fine.
* Once configured, zero-configuration needed to use. Perfect for non-technical viewers.
* It is platform independent.
* The touch screen works just great, menus are very simple to use and they will display simply by touching anywhere in the screen. first time you turn it on it will ask you to configure it, I had to go through all the process of configuring my Wi-Fi network and it was a fast process without any problems; one thing to note is that both the manual and the prompt messages in the screen fail to inform the user that the network configuration is not necessary to start using the frame. Other than that, the process is simple and will not take much of your time.
* Touch screen interface, for simple management and flipping through photos (you can disable touch screen interface). The touch screen controls are relatively straightforward and simple to use.
* 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.
* Once configured, you can have Facebook pictures in which you are tagged to load automatically to it, you can enter the Kodak website for your device and upload pictures there that will then upload into your frame. Awesome technology if you intend this to be a present for someone not familiar with this type of gadgets.
* 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.
* 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.
* This frame works as advertised in terms of the ability to email pictures directly to the frame with no monthly fees. You receive a nice "You have new pictures" message and then press the touchscreen to see the new pictures.
* You can send photos from your computer by emailing them to the frame (you set up a special email address on the Kodak website, and you can give it to friends so they can email pictures to your frame too), or by sending them through the Kodak site. You can also set your frame to connect automatically with your Facebook account, so that any photos that are tagged with you in them will be automatically sent to it.
* Collage mode, where individual pictures in the collage update in sequence.
* You don't need to worry about compatibility with this device. It just jumps on to your wireless network and you e-mail pictures to it (it only accepts photos from pre-authorized e-mail addresses, but you can allow your friends to drop photos in your frame if you want, and they're easy to delete). You can set it up to pull down any photo you're tagged in on Facebook. You can add photos right on the Kodak web site. You can take a photo with your phone and send it to the device.
* The device turns itself off at night and on again during the day, so you don't have to worry about it keeping you up at night from the glow. Or you can hit the switch on the back to turn it off.
* 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. Great gift for none technical people who can set it up and forget about it. If you give other people access to the frame's email address, they can email photos to the frame too, from anywhere.
* Perfect for connecting with other friends and family members. Perfect for Mother's Day. It is loved by grandparents as well as children.
* It makes it so easy to connect with family and see new pictures of the family.
* No software, you email pictures to the frame (or feeds from Facebook and Kodak), you even manage the frame itself from the browser. No other wireless frame does that.
* As a person who has given digital frames as gifts to both my parents and in-laws, this is a technology that will revolutionize the frames as a gift.
* Kodak has really captured a great opportunity here with this product. You are almost excited to see what new pictures popped up on your frame for the day. The pictures come across beautifully, and once you set up an email address for the frame, it's as simple as emailing a photo and it shows up. There are a multitude of other features, such as linking to Facebook, etc. to bring in even more content, but I have only used the email functionality, to great effect.
* This product will make the old digital picture frames obsolete and boring by comparison within a few years.
* I love the design of the frame. It is the best that I have ever seen. I tell everyone about it and suggest it as a gift to everyone I talk to. Everyone loves the idea of it.
* "A photo taken but not shared might just as well have never been taken"


Note: this is a list of "negatives", and while rather long, is more to clarify what to expect from the device and not to take from the greatness of it.

Negatives:

* major limitation: ADDING MEMORY DOES NOT EXPAND THE FRAME'S CAPACITY. So don't waste your money buying SD cards to go with the frame when sending it off to your parents. There is no way to email a photo to the frame or upload a photo to the Kodak Pulse website and have the frame store it onto the memory card, even when the internal memory of the frame is maxed out.
* 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
* It does not come on when it receives new pictures.
* The instructions are not for the non-techno person - there are very limited instructions. For example, you are supposed to connect to a wireless network so you can register your frame with the online Kodak Gallery (where you need to have an account and pictures already stored online). But if you don't have a network - wireless or otherwise - there is nothing to explain what to do next. Also, if you don't have an account or use Kodak Gallery online, there is no explanation about what to do.
* No remote! (Although this can be considered feature!) Since it has web management, there is no remote control to lose. And photo navigation is done thru touch screen.
* The email is unfiltered so anybody (including spammers) can email the frame to contribute their new pictures. I am somewhat concerned that once spammers figure this out, my parents will be greeted by new pictures advertising scams (or worse). Note: this can be mitigated by setting up an online account with all the filtering required and forwarding the emails from "allowed" addresses to the frame and sharing this email address without worrying where is might end up. This will also solve the problem of being able to "extract" pictures sent to the frame by other family members.
* Management must be made thru Kodak website. What if Kodak website is down, or decides not to support product anymore?
* The frame does trade simplicity for configurability, so you can't do things like link to an RSS feed to see stocks / weather / news headlines. But for non-techie types, it's probably better to not have this.
* The frame actually does not even have the option of connecting to a computer - even firmware updates are handled wirelessly.
* Portrait photos taken by the two phones I have tried- Motorola Razor and I phone 4- have no problem when sent directly to the frame wirelessly. However, the orientation will be sideways if you try to send the I phone photo to the frame after it has been downloaded to a Windows computer (mine has Windows 7 as the operating system).
* When setting up the frame as a gift you need to NOT register the frame with the gift recipient's email address. I did this initially as the frame was not going to be mine. I had no idea that Kodak would immediately send the gift recipient an email welcoming him to Kodak Pulse. I can only hope that he will think this is spam. I quickly changed the email address to mine.
* Don't count on tech support to help you out with any problems. Conveniently there is NO PHONE NUMBER associated with the Kodak Pulse frame.
* Pulse Frames do not return information to the Kodak Website. Kodak has setup the Pulse Website to be one-way communication to the frames. You upload your pictures to the website or email them, and the Website sends them to the frame, and reports to you how many pictures are on the frame. But this isn't always true as it is strictly based on the photos received by the Kodak Website.
* Kodak Website's report of photos on the Frames may not be correct.
* No ability for remote delete of ALL Pulse Frame photos.
* No ability for remote awareness of incomplete transfer.
* No refresh from server option on the Pulse Frame
* No thumbnail review on Pulse Frames. There is also no way to actually see thumbnails of the photos on the frame - you can scroll through them, but it's a random presentation so you may see the same photo multiple times before you confirm which photos you have and which never got there.
* Poor receiver strength- occasionally it loses the network. When this happens it reverts to the base setup - asking for a choice of language and for you to select a network.
* Limited transition options between photos.
* With no folders, the claim of 4000 pictures would be a confusing mess
* A small caption function would help a lot. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but not all the words. For my father-in-law to have a picture pop up but not know that it was last Sunday's winning ball game, or the twins recent camping experience, seems a little too dumb.
* If the pictures are oriented incorrectly (like they rotated the camera to portrait orientation instead of landscape when taking the picture), there is no way for you to rotate the picture right side up.
* There is no way to print the pictures, not from the frame, not from the KodakPulse.com web site than manages the frame, not even to the Kodak print service!
* Once in the Kodak Pulse environment, there is no way to get pictures out of the system. You cannot transfer to USB stick, SIM card, PC, or anywhere outside the Kodak Pulse environment where you might be able to view, rotate, crop, print, email, or otherwise use the pictures. This is a cute device that could be vastly improved if Kodak would simply extend their web site. The web site could allow pix to be printed, rotated, stored locally, or emailed. Without such improvement, Kodak Pulse is like to roach hotel--pictures go in but they never come out.
* Unable to download photos back out of the Kodak Pulse website. (I wanted to grab all the photos that my siblings from around the world uploaded to the Kodak Pulse website so I could manually copy them to the SD card. This is not possible).
* No support for short video format like many other frames.
* Can't just play all the pictures you've loaded in a row... it randomizes the pictures which would be GREAT if most of the pictures got about the same amount of play or show time. But instead it seems to have picked about 15 pictures that are getting played over and over. And the other thousands of pictures are occasionally seen.
* There's no way to get the pictures to play in order. Some people have said that if you select the source you want to play the pictures from (instead of the "play all" source that enables the frame to play pictures from multiple different connected sources), then it will play them in order. It does that for a few hours, but eventually it starts playing them randomly.
* No mass delete capability. There's no "delete all" option on the frame. The manual says there is a "delete all" functionality in the Web Site, but the tab they reference doesn't exist. Not only that, but the Web site can only delete the pictures uploaded THROUGH THE WEB SITE. So if you uploaded 5000 pictures directly to the frame from a memory card, you will have to delete them one at a time on the frame. There's no way to reset the frame to factory default either.
* There is a power save setting, but it only permits on start time and one stop time, so if you can't have the frame only running at night after work and in the morning before work. So you either have to have it running while you're sleeping or while you are at work. You can't have multiple running times (sheesh, even my thermostat on my furnace and air conditioner supports that and it's 5+ years old). (for example, you can set it to turn on at 8am and off and 10pm, but you can't set it to be on from 6am to 8am, and then 6pm to 10pm, so that you have pictures before work and after work, but the frame isn't on while you're out and while you're asleep).
* Moreover, you can't change the frame's schedule through the frame itself, it has to be done via the website.
* The on-screen keyboard is alphabetic instead of qwerty
* Can't independently select how the photos transition. If you want the pictures up for 3 seconds, it can do a wipe transition, but at 30 seconds your only option is fade. Which would be fine, except the fade is more of a sickly-flicker.
* 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.
* There's no battery option, so it always has to be plugged in
* Can't mount the Pulse on your wall - it is not designed to be wall mounted
* 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.
* 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.
* Make sure your photos don't have quotation marks anywhere in the title.
* It does NOT show up on your LAN (at least I couldn't make it show up and the instructions do not indicate this is a feature). You have to use email or the Kodak web site to wirelessly load photos.
* The top to bottom viewing angle is fairly narrow. This matters if the frame is on a mantel. If the angle is wrong, the photos look dark.
* Documentation is very limited and there is minimal help on the Kodak web site. I had a very hard time making sure that I wasn't missing some other features.
* No sound or movie capabilities.

Ordered two of these picture frames and both of them had lots of issues. My wife had a picture frame that I made out of an old laptop...it worked flawlessly for 5 years. I decided that, maybe, just maybe, the price had come down enough to look at one that had all of the features we had in the previous one. I searched and searched and the only one I came up with for a 'decent price' was this. First, yes, it is wireless, but you have to UPLOAD your pictures to the Kodak website...no drag and drop from the computer to the picture frame. She had nearly 1000 photos totaling about 1GB on the laptop. You have to drag 200 at time and it takes the website forever to finish! UGH!

Second, it would be happily running along and then BAM, it would literally reboot...and then after a while would come back. I thought it was a bug or something...so I let it set. The next day I find it sitting on the INITIAL configuration screen...causing me to have to enter my wireless route name, encryption key etc. At some point, I simply said, this must be a 'bad one'...not the case...the same exact thing happened to the one I received two days later. I had plenty of space on it, it claims that the device can hold up to 512MB internally, but it compresses the files down to fit the screen...according to the website I only used 21% of the space. Just not worth the hassle and time...especially, if you have to enter the setup information EVERY OTHER DAY

This holiday season, we'll be giving gifts that are unique, from the customized talking H-mark cards to items like this picture frame. But some of the people on our gift list may not be as technically savvy as we are, and don't want to "log on" or "reboot". That's where Kodak connected the ordinary person who wants a thing of beauty for all their pictures with the technically savvy photographers who want to send the latest baby photos, the latest vacation photos, the grandkids to grandma, etc.

Requirements: The Kodak frame can work in everyday mode like all the other fames on the market - you could make a SDHC card and mail it to grandma and hope she gets it stuck in the frame right. After all she has a 50/50 chance of getting it the first time and the mail is kinda reliable. That's how all the other frames work - you put a memory card/usb stick into it and they show the pictures.

But kodak wanted it simpler than that. So simple in fact that all the person needed was a wireless internet connection (could even be a dialup wireless connection provided it had a wireless access point to work with the 802.11 b/g/n radio in the frame - which is very sensitive!) and they can get their photos from friends without any sticking of cards in and loosing their old card with the best photos. Let me explain how the system works.

The frame needs wireless access for the advanced feature set to work. Nowdays municipalities have free wireless in many cities (especially the technoloigcal cities) - or you can put one in your home if you don't already have one to use with your iphone, your laptop or other things. If you already have a wireless access point near where the frame is going (and it will give you a list of what it can hear), 98% of the job is done.

From here you simply plug in the frame and it downloads the latest firmware automatically (a small UPS would be a good idea for this step - you can do it at your datacenter before sending it as a gift but you do not want power to be lost during the upgrade which takes 5 minutes) Kodak cautions you to DEFINITELY get the latest firmware and I took their advice - I have heard that older firmware is not nearly as good as what they are downloading today.

Then the frame gives you its 6 digit serial number on screen and the url at kodak to go sign up. I was done in 2 minutes. I entered my name, my password, the frame's serial 6 digits, and you enter that code along with one of those funky looking lines through it to make sure you are a real human - and thats it. Optionally you can create an email address at kodak to email pictures to THIS frame. I tested that feature from my cellphone and it worked great too.

Now give the frame as a gift - its pre-prepared with the latest firmware and you can load a few images too. You may have a different access point where it will live than where you prepared it as a gift, so be ready to change the ssid name if need be - but the frame is smart and will try to get on the net if at all possible - it may need some help if you are running encrypted data transfer. If it finds an open ssid it will call home, otherwise you need to give it the password to a closed ssid.

The best part
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Say grandma is in florida, and you are in california and the frame has been setup on either a highspeed net at grandma's house (wireless) or a dialup service provider (also with a wireless link) Grandma just plugs the frame in and it senses what time of day it should power up and displays its picture sequence - but those need to be updated as babies grow into children, so you take new pictures - perhaps with your DSLR camera, perhaps with your phone - just email them to grandmasmail@kodakframe.com [not real but close] and automatically they will be sent to the frame and included in the next rotation.

Could it be easier?

I've got a small pet peeve - i've seen frames with motion sensors in them that run for 30 minutes while you are in the room and when the room is empty they shut off. I guess that idea went to a competitor because you can only specify time blocks to run in. The timer is easily set though and can be changed by remote control if grandma calls and says she's going to bed an hour earlier now and wants it to turn off sooner. The tech savvy person in california can change the schedule and it will download just like a photo does so as not to disturb grandma with using the touchscreen.

Yes, if you have alot of pictures to send - you can log into your account at kodak and upload from your pc in california the best 10 or 20 pictures. The frame comes with room for 4000 (est) photos and you can add more memory should that not be enough! Kodak will get ahold of grandma's frame the next time its on the network (dialup) or immediately if a constant on link is installed and send the latest photos. This way grandma has something to look forward to.

With smartphones (iphone/android) you can even snap a photo on the street and email it to the frame right there. Minutes later it will be seen in the house. No "logging in" No "rebooting" Nothing technical for grandma to do except sit back and enjoy the photos roll in.

So what will you buy this season - a $30 frame that takes CF media cards or SDHC cards, or a kodak pulse wireless frame. I set one up for my mom - took me a total of 5 minutes (and I'm the technical person) -but my mom is not - so for her it's just something to plug in. (I already wired her house with an access point and DSL for when I am there with my laptop).

Finally, I'll judge the picture quality and framing of photos. I sent a variety of shots to the 600x800 display - some were long and tall, some where short and wide - none came out distorted on the frame like lesser designs; they just put black bars around the tall photos and kept my aspect ratio. Again - the right way to do it. The color gamut is fantastic - I would not expect anything less from kodak.

Kodak did it right. That's not to say that all others are wrong, but kodak's approach is easy for me and easy for the final user, along with beautiful quality pictures, and not a single dead pixel on the freame. I am more than impressed as to how well things turned out. Yes, it was about $100 more, but anyone in the family can email photos to my mom and she can see them right away. The frame has become a connectivity tool for people who are out of touch.

This arrangement is clearly a 5 star product - its the top of the line in kodak's frame collection, and its cheaper here on amazon every day than even kodak sells it with all the shipping costs. If you want to keep sending photos to loved ones log distance over the net, this is the best way to do it.