frame

Yet another consumer electronics segment is bouncing back from the recession--demand for LCD TVs is showing new signs of life.

Third-quarter shipments of LCD TVs rose for the first time in a year, according to DisplaySearch's "Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report," released Wednesday. That upward motion suggests that TV sales for the first quarter of 2010 could surpass those of the first quarter of 2009, the first gain in six quarters.

Total TV shipments will climb 6 percent in 2010 to reach 218 million units, versus 205 million for 2009, according to DisplaySearch's forecast. … Read more

For our final 2009 Crave giveaway, we've got the Insignia NS-DPF8PR digital picture frame. It's an 8-inch LCD digital frame with 800x600 resolution, 1GB of internal memory, and USB and flash memory inputs. You can find more information about it on Best Buy's Web site--and we thank Best Buy for providing the prize.

We'd also like to give a shout out to Shopper.com for helping set up this Crave giveaway. Shopper.com powers CNET's price-comparison engine, and it's a great site for finding the best prices on products. (See all of Shopper'… Read more

VidImage Splitter provides a helpful tool for converting videos into photos. With a simple layout and impressive results, this program is a great tool for taking a digital snapshot of a film.

The program's interface features a welcoming, intuitive design that never leaves you guessing. The program's commands are perfectly labeled, which makes for easy, confident navigation. The steps between choosing a video and cutting that film into photo files are few and are helpfully laid out. You can organize the program like a camera with a timer, setting it to capture a shot every few seconds or … Read more

Photowall is one of the many shareware photo enhancement packages available for download. You can use it to add various frames to your photos and use them to create desktop wallpaper treatments that can be saved and exported. The interface resembles a music player, with large concentric buttons for rotating the frame and the image within it. Sliders marked "Stretch" change the size of the frame and image, respectively.

The software's trial version comes with severe limitations, such as only one photo frame, a rather startling heart-shaped affair that makes it difficult to position most photos clearly … Read more

Sony will be bringing its S-Frame DPP-F700 printer to the U.S. in January, the company announced Thursday. It's basically a dye-sub snapshot printer, but with a 7-inch LCD. The screen can be tilted up when the printer is in use and then folded flat against the printer so that when you remove the paper tray, you can stand the unit up horizontally or vertically.

I had a chance to play around with one and, well, it's a photo printer with a larger-than-usual LCD on top. The extra screen real estate is nice, though, especially when using the … Read more

Like most companies, Apple periodically releases software updates for its applications, fixing minor issues. However, an iMovie update released on Tuesday revealed a brand new video format the company has been developing.

Dubbed iFrame, the new video format is based on industry standard technologies like H.264 video and AAC audio. As expected with H.264, iFrame produces much smaller file sizes than traditional video formats, while maintaining its high-quality video. Of course, the smaller file size increases import speed and helps with editing video files.

iMovie 8.0.5 released on Tuesday adds compatibility with camcorders using the iFrame … Read more

There are more photo frame programs out there than you can shake a memory stick at, but Ace Photo Frame stands out from the crowd because it really is easy to use. You can add a variety of frame treatments to your photos and enhance them with clip art and text, which also makes it easy to produce your own personalized greeting cards. Changing the frame is as easy as clicking a new selection. When you're finished, you can click to save, print, or e-mail your creation, or set it as wallpaper.

The interface relies heavily on visual selections … Read more

Mozilla and Microsoft don't always see eye to eye when it comes to browser technology, but they agree broadly on one thing: thumbs down for Google Chrome Frame.

Chrome Frame is a plug-in that puts Google's browser engine under the hood of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Google argues that it can modernize IE versions 6, 7, and 8 with faster page loading and JavaScript performance. It kicks in only on Web pages that Web developers have labeled with a specific tag. After Google announced it, Microsoft criticized it as creating a potentially increased risk to browsing security. … Read more

Microsoft on Thursday lashed out against Google Chrome Frame--an Internet Explorer plug-in that supplants IE's rendering engine with Google's.

The software maker, in a statement, said users are better off moving to a later version of Internet Explorer if they want the latest technology as opposed to using Chrome Frame.

"With Internet Explorer 8, we made significant advancements and updates to make the browser safer for our customers," Microsoft said. "Given the security issues with plug-ins in general and Google Chrome in particular, Google Chrome Frame running as a plug-in has doubled the attach … Read more