IPEVO Kaleido R7

There is a sea of picture frames out there and this is one of the better ones...Not only does it look cool but it has very good resolution for its size. It wireless capability and remote were pluses for me… that I really wanted. Did I mention it works great with Mac? Some frames don't. The only real issue I had was there doesn't seem to be a way to have multiple photo albums, they all appear in one big MyGallery. You also cannot have some on the internal and some on the external. Oh and with a firmware update (it is expandable) you can shuffle the photos. My other complaints are minor: No ethernet jack (cannot use wireless at work and it can be slooow), no direct connect option. Also the internal memory is only 512MB. C'mon guys 2GB is $10 these days! All in all I highly recommend this frame.

expand

collapse

We replaced an early model Ceiva frame with the Ipevo, and couldn't be happier. The quality of the display is infinitely better, and the frame's styling is, in our opinon, the best in the business. We've… loaded a Picasa album with hundreds of our favorite pictures, set the time per slide at 10 seconds, and have found ourselves watching, spellbound, as the photos wirelessly cycle through. Even though I'm not the brightest when it comes to technology, I found setup to be relatively easy, and had everything up and running within an hour. When I contacted Ipevo customer service by e-mail on a weekend to ask about a feature (transition effects) that didn't seem to be working, they responded within 20 minutes with assistance (Note: transition effects only work with Gallery...not Live). Although I was intially a bit hesitant to spend the money on this frame (I'm cheap as well as being technically challenged), I now consider it money very well spent.

expand

collapse

I had seen a story on the Kaleido in January for CES 09 and I was struck by how elegant it looked. I purchased it and am giving my knee jerk review after having used it for less than a day. First the… positive: It is a very handsome looking digital picture frame. The pictures appear bright and reorient themselves as needed if you pivot the picture frame. Pivoting the frame by the way, is pretty neat and gives the frame an overall different feel when you change its position. The installation of the eyestage and synchronization between my laptop and the Kaleido was also quick and hassle free. Now for the down side, and what is really frustrating is that many of these things are rudimentary. First, there is no way to delete a picture directly off the Kaleido. You would actually have to remove the photos when it is synched with your computer if on the hard drive, or you would have to transfer your memory card to your computer if the photo is on your card. Second, it does not play MP3's, so you can forget about music accompanying your photo collages. Speaking of collages, this takes us to number 3 and personally the most unbelievable to me- There is no shuffle of photos. Let me repeat-NO SHUFFLE. That means your photos will always play in the order that they were taken since digital photos usually have an internal date stamp. The Kaleido knows the order of the photos you've taken, and will play them accordingly. Now this may initially seem like a minor quibble, but my son is 4 years older than my daughter, and I have taken hundreds of photos as any proud parent would. Without a shuffle this potentially means that I will not see a photo of my daughter for HOURS. The Kaleido has a cool albeit superfluous function where you can program the device to turn on and off at a certain time. I guess if I want to see a photo of my daughter, I can program it to turn on about 2 hours before I leave from work or open separate folders with different sets of photos and play as needed; but again, shuffling photos on a digital picture frame should be standard. It's like asking for volume control on a radio, they go hand in hand, or assuming a camera doesn't have a built in flash. Customer service has responded quickly to my incredulous e-mails and the Kaleido can be upgraded, but I don't know if that means they can add shuffle or photo delete to this incarnation. The frame does chirp when you hit command functions, so I am optimistic that MP3 playing is possible, since it can at least emit sound. Also if you download RSS feeds from websites, they cannot be deleted from your Kaleido, the messages you have all ready read can only be overwritten when you upload RSS updates. I guess this would not matter if you have the Kaleido at your desk at work (which may be an ideal place for it, but then again only if your office is wireless and you are alowed to use their servers for your personal use), but at home it's just extra clutter. To sum up, the Ipevo Kaleido is definitely style over substance. It definitely looks higher end, but it should also perform higher end.

expand

collapse