What it is: Like many other digital photo frames, the Kaleido R7 will display digital photos on its very nice 7-inch LCD screen. The device supports connections from memory cards (SD, MMC and Memory Stick) and USB flash drives, or a direct connection to a PC via USB cable (not provided). What makes the R7 slightly different is a Wi-Fi connection that lets you synchronize photos wirelessly from another computer on the same wireless network. The device comes with IPEVO's EyeStage software, which allows for the synchronization of photos from the PC to the R7. The EyeStage also lets you add RSS feeds (both photo-based and info-based, like blogs) to the device, letting you view photos from online photo services, such as Flickr and Google's Picasa.
Why it's cool: I was most impressed with the R7 hardware, which includes a sleek black and white finish, and a beautiful LCD screen. The device can display images in landscape (horizontal) or portrait (vertical) mode by rotating the display 90 degrees, and the software is smart enough to adjust the photo once you've switched from one mode to the other. For example, if the device is in the landscape position and a portrait photo is on the screen, after you rotate the display physically, the portrait photo will enlarge to fit the screen correctly. A touchpad on the R7 lets you navigate through menus, or you can use the very thin remote control. The software was easy to install and connecting to my WPA2-secured home network was a simple process.
Some caveats: In order to display the "live feed" of RSS feeds or online photo services, you have to have the EyeStage software running on a PC that's powered at the same time (and on the same wireless network). That may make sense when you need to synchronize the RSS feeds with the R7 initially, but it doesn't make sense once you've established the live feed. The purpose of adding a Wi-Fi connection to a photo frame should be so you can view updated photos from the Internet without needing to go through a powered PC (if you do that, you might as well have a Bluetooth connection). The EyeStage software does let you download the live stream into the "My Gallery" section of the device (there's 512MB of memory on the R7), but that also takes away the "live" feature - if you add photos to the stream (or if you're viewing a public Flickr feed), you have to wait until the EyeStage software is running again on the PC and then synchronize it with the R7. This defeats one purpose of having a wireless frame. In addition, the $200 price tag may turn away some users.
Grade: 3 stars (out of five).