Even though my own friends would not see me as much the sentimental type, I’ve been in the market for a digital photo frame for quite some time now.  I actually feel quite warm and fuzzy being able to look at photos of my mates, family and past.  There have been a few reasons though why the current market of digital photo frames have not lived up to my requirements however.

Digital Photo Frames Obsolete?

• The screens on photo frames are generally of poor quality
• The screens are relatively small and you pay quite a great deal more for small increments in size
• The navigation on current digital photo frames are absolutely shocking. Hard buttons on the back are used to switch between photos.  Other frames with touch screens and navigation areas on the frame have been introduced with limited success
• The prices for digital photo frames are well over the mark, they have just the one purpose and as you can tell, in my opinion, they do not cater for that purpose all too well. For a decent sized digital photo frame you are looking at a couple of hundred dollars and they are still plagued with the same problems I see on digital photo frames time and time again

The End of Digital Photo Frames

The iPad may not be the perfect replacement for digital photo frames, mainly due to it’s price, but as far as the photo frame experience, the iPad fits the bill beautifully.

• The quality of the crystal clear screen allows for large viewing of photos and plenty of space for easy and effective navigation
• Speaking of navigation. It doesn’t get much better then this. Thumbnails ordered by how you want them whether it be by location, event, person (using face recognition techniques), you name it. Then of course all this is done via the touch screen rather then clunky buttons. To get a good idea of how this works, just take a look at iPhoto, there’s a nice short video here  “get to know iPhoto”.
• There are also specific photo album modes on the iPad so that photos can be displayed in unique photo album styles manners. I haven’t found out much about this feature but saw a snippet of it in a CNET review and it looked pretty neat.
• The optional stand and keyboard seems to support the iPad very nicely like a photo frame
• I’m assuming the iPad will not generate heat like a computer, leaving it safe and cool to touch and reasonable to leave in sleep mode for long periods of time (battery life in sleep mode is 30 days!) with a nice and fast boot up like a photo frame.

The Future of Digital Photo Frames

It does not have to be the end of digital photo frames, in fact, this could be the beginning. The iPad is clearly too expensive to own purely to serve as a photo frame, though the iPhoto software is so cool it’s tempting. But surely, either apple or another company can closely replicate the functions of the iPhoto in a more reasonably priced version of the iPad with a decent sized touch screen with clarity. I await such products to surface. Either that, or for the price of iPads to reduce.

The Fat vs Skinny Debate Continues

Ricki-Lee has posed in Woman’s Weekly to show off her curves and in response to the Jennifer Hawkins shoot that caused so much debate.  She is making the statement that she is proud of her body which is more representative of the “average” woman.

Good Career Move Ricki-Lee

Ricki-Lee has curves, she’s not thin by any means.  Through Woman’s Weekly, where I imagine the average reader would be a bit on the frumypy side, this should further secure Ricki-Lee’s popularity amongst this large Australian audience.

Woman vs Woman Prejudice

This debate as a whole and this photo shoot by Ricki-Lee further fuels the jealousy and prejudice woman have towards those who don’t fulfill the body of the “average” woman and we are left with this inverse prejudice. This was reflected well in an article in last weeks Age (which unfortunately I can’t seem to dig up) that spoke of woman who were not fully figured as “not normal”.

Something to Bitch About

The defense behind Hawkin’s shoot seemed perfectly reasonable.  They had put more “average” figured woman in the magazine before without a popular response.  Now no-one can argue that the spread of Jennifer Hawkins has not created a response, but it’s interesting that it takes the debate for people to really pay attention to the bikini shoot by the likes of Ricki-Lee or Bianca Dye. Would their shoots have drummed up the same interest without the Hawkins debate to ride upon? Would the response to Ricki-Lee’s photos be as positive without a direct comparison to be made.

Who’s Healthy?

Ricki-Lee is looked at as  full figured and curvy whereas Hawkins needs to eat something. Is this true? Ricki-Lee said that she felt healthy? But is she? If we were to check her Body Mass Index or Fat Percentage would she fall within acceptable limits? If we put Ricki-Lee and Jennifer Hawkins up against each other in various fitness level tests, who would fair better?

Creating a New Prejudice

So if there is a push for the curvier and fuller body to be the accepted “norm” what happens to the thinner girls whose metabolisms are out of control or whose bone structure or genetics doesn’t allow curves even if they tried. If the larger girls are the majority, and thanks in part to our growing obesity epidemic they clearly are, is society wanting to trample and drill thinner girls into the ground in the process of accepting the “norm”.

Should we not have a Sudanese model on the front of Woman’s Weekly because she does not fit the “norm”?

Whose Body Would You Prefer to Have?

At the end of the day Ricki-Lee can say she prefers the body of Bianca Dye to Jennifer Hawkins but if god were to visit her in the middle of the night and told her she could choose to have one of their bodies for the rest of her life, I wonder what her choice would be (career moves aside).

I know whose body I would prefer to date and by saying that, I don’t mean to be prejudice, it’s just a personal preference and as a guy I think I’m better positioned to be unbiased in that respect.