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(More customer reviews)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.
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Now everyone can send pictures right to your frame, giving you continuous surprises. Adding your own pictures is easy too. It doesn't slow you down with time-consuming software setups or complicated technology. It makes connecting with friends and family simple, so you'll always have new pictures to relive and enjoy.
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