a slightly different focus

You’re familiar, of course, with a digital frame. If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting for something, well, better.

It’s coming, soon:

Now here’s a thought: add Wi-Fi to a frame.

Once it’s on your wireless network, Kodak’s beautiful two-toned black frame can display pictures that sit on a Windows computer elsewhere in the house, provided it’s running Windows Media Player 11. Unfortunately, Macs need not apply.

But here’s the best part: Once you’ve signed up for a free account at Kodakgallery.com and set up some photo albums there, the frame “sees” them immediately and begins a slide show of the albums you select.

This is huge. It means that you can give the frame to a technophobic relative and send photos to the frame from thousands of miles away. The lucky recipients wake up each morning and enjoy the updated photos from your life. (If they’re a bit more ambitious, they can copy their favorites to the frame’s memory, or even connect a printer to the frame.)

All of this is free.

“Soon,” of course, is a reference to the stupid no-Mac and gotta-be-Kodak.com BS. That said, something using a gallery of your choosing, available on any network of your choosing, seems like the next logical step.

That would be better. Can’t wait.