<p>Hi. I’m a regular here, but I created a new username because I suspect that my daughter, who knows my normal username, reads all my posts.</p>
<p>A friend suggested to me that a digital photo frame would make a good Christmas present for my college student, who has a lot of digital photos stored on her computer and in her Facebook profile and might like a way of displaying them in her room.</p>
<p>But somebody else said that this would be an awful idea – that digital photo frames are what you give grandparents, and a college kid would not want one.</p>
<p>Your thoughts?</p>
<p>If you do think this would make a good Christmas gift for a young person, can you recommend any particular brands or models?</p>
<p>I had to laugh at “that digital photo frames are what you give grandparents, and a college kid would not want one.”</p>
<p>We gave my mother (76) a digital picture frame for Mother’s Day. We thought it would be a great idea–loaded it with new and old family pictures. She hates it. It bothers her that it changes pictures on its own, she can’t figure out how to use it if we take it off the auto rotation. She feels like if it is on she is supposed to sit and watch it, it is another remote to worry about misplacing, and on and on.</p>
<p>She is giving it to my twenty-something d. who is eager to have it.</p>
<p>Now maybe some elders are much more tech savvy than my mother, but it just stressed her.</p>
<p>My 87-year-old mother-in-law LOVES the digital photo frame- it is set on a timer to turn on in the morning and turn off at night. She does say that sometimes she sits down in front of it and gets caught for a while watching the pictures change.</p>
<p>My college student has his photos on his screensaver. The digital photo frame would be redundant, and one more thing to pack when he moves back and forth to school. Given the choice between receiving a digital photo frame as a gift, or something else on his list of equal value (or cash), I am positive he would chose the other item.</p>
<p>I just bought a pair of keychain-attachment small-sized digital photo frames for stocking stuffers for my two kids. No experience yet, but they sound promising. </p>
<p>I could check back with a report in a few weeks, but that will be a little late for your purposes. :)</p>
<p>I think Digital Photo Frames are pretty cool, but I do have my photos set as a screensaver on my computer so I haven’t really considered the digital frames due to the price. When they fall in price some more, I’ll definitely get one</p>
<p>I will say a great electronic gadget as a gift for college aged kids (and adults) – a GPS system like a Garmin or TomTom for their car. Gives you reassurance that your son or daughter won’t be driving around unfamiliar areas lost. We picked up two standard “TomTom One” for like $150 each on Black Friday for my sister and I for Christmas. I’m excited for when I’m traveling nearly all the time for my job next year, I’ll be able to throw it in my suitcase and then plug it into my rental car and not be lost in a new city.</p>
<p>I think my mother would be fine with the changing picture - she’s not particularly technically savvy, but since she just got a digital camera she’s going to have to learn a bit. </p>
<p>I didn’t even know there were keychains. Sounds like a great stocking stuffer for my sister-in-law. Unfortunately Mathson doesn’t have keys and dh’s current keychain is a Bush countdown. (413 days to go.)</p>
<p>My D has her photos on screen saver too but one of us seems to be on the computer all the time so she rarely sees them. I am considering getting her one for Christmas. She is picture crazy and I think would really like it.</p>
<p>My d. says she would like one because she can set it up in her living room for others to see, while she has oodles of pictures on her laptop–those really are just viewed by her.</p>
<p>^^ They’ll come down rapidly like all technology. The problem is that they’ll also add more features which keeps the cost up. I’m sure that next year at this time they’ll be a lot less since the prices of the base technology, the LCD display and the flash memory, keep dropping.</p>
<p>“With the Christmas holidays just past and opening up your electronic presents may get you all excited, but not for a selected lot of people who got the Mercury 1.5” Digital Photo Frame from Walmart (or other stores). My father-in-law attached the device to his computer and his Trend Micro Anti-virus screamed that a virus is on the device. I scanned the one I have and AVAST did not find any virus … So I went to Virscan.org to see which vendors found what, and the results are here and here." Update: 12/29 05:44 GMT by T : The joy is even more widespread; MojoKid points out that some larger digital photo frames have been delivered similarly infected this year, specifically Samsung’s SPF-85H 8-inch digital photo frame, sold through Amazon among other vendors, which arrived with “W32.Sality.AE worm on the installation disc for Samsung Frame Manager XP Version 1.08, which is needed for using the SPF-85H as a USB monitor.” Though Amazon was honest enough to issue an alert, that alert offers no reason to think that only Amazon’s stock was affected.</p>
<p>I received one for Christmas and I don’t want it!!(Never wanted one) Is that rude of me? Do I just keep it or get the nerve up and let my DS/DIL know??</p>
<p>laxmom, keep it, return it, donate it (perhaps to a charitable auction?) or regift it. Don’t tell the givers that you don’t want it. Thank them warmly for the thought.</p>
<p>(At least that’s what my mother always told me to do!)</p>
<p>I bought one for my parents and DH got one for me. Both are Innova. I loaded mom’s up with 200+ photos from my Mac with no trouble. Mom is terminally ill and currently in the hospital recovering from surgery; when she’s feeling better I will bring it in to her. Or when she hopefully comes home, it can be by her bed. I plan to put mine on my desk at work. Now that I loaded the photos on, all you do is plug it in and turn it on, a nice quality 200+ photo slideshow starts rolling. I guess I lucked out with the virus thing.</p>