Why You Can Trust CNET Get a Nixplay Edge 8-inch digital photo frame for $79.99
A smart frame like this is too good for grandma. Actually, it's perfect for grandma, and you should get one, too.
Digital photo frames are awesome. Well, good digital photo frames are awesome. The junky, expensive, complicated ones of yesteryear? Not so awesome. And yet I think it was precisely those early-generation efforts that soured people on the idea.
Thankfully, here in 2015, frame makers have gotten a lot smarter, and they've made their products smarter, too. And that's why I'm tickled about today's deal: Nixplay is offering its Edge 8-inch Wi-Fi photo frame for $79.99 shipped. That's after applying coupon code CNETUS at checkout, and it's the lowest price ever anywhere. (Bonus for UK shoppers: apply coupon code CNETUK to get the frame for £69.99!)
The Edge solves the problem with most first-gen frames: how to easily and continually add photos. We're long past the days of copying them manually from a PC or memory card; instead, the Edge slurps up snapshots from all your social-media and cloud accounts: Dropbox, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Picasa and so on.
What's more, you can assign the frame its own email address, meaning you can easily send any frame-worthy new photo straight from your phone. That's a super-convenient way to share, say, your latest baby snapshots with, say, the grandparents.
Best of all, there's no monthly fee involved. I wouldn't pay a monthly fee for a photo frame on a bet (cough Ceiva, cough). And I suspect few users will need more than the 10GB of Nixplay cloud storage that's included -- a service that includes syncing for up to five frames. (That means you and far-flung family members can all be sharing the same photos, which is insanely cool.) If you outgrow that, Nixplay Plus bumps you to 30GB of storage and 10 frames per account. It costs a very reasonable $19.90 per year.
The frame itself measures 8 inches diagonally and sports a 1,024x768-pixel IPS display. The latter is not something you typically see in photo frames, especially at this price point, and it allows for very wide viewing angles. Another cool perk: a motion sensor that will activate the frame when you walk in the room and deactivate it when you leave, the better to conserve energy.
All told, this is a steal at $79.99. I've tested the Edge myself, and it's without question one of the best digital photo frames to date. And check the user reviews at Amazon, which are mostly of the 4- and 5-star variety.
Bonus deal: Whether you're creating a how-to video or a presentation, nothing beats a good screen-recording utility. Camtasia Studio is widely regarded as one of the best, but the $300 price tag? Ouch! Fortunately, for a very limited time, AppSumo has Camtasia Studio 8 (Win) for $149 -- by far the lowest price I've seen anywhere (save for the academic version, for which most of us don't qualify). The deal includes two licenses, and there's a 60-day (!) money-back guarantee.