Is the Pix-Star Wi-Fi digital photo frame with weather app any good?
Pix-Star’s Wi-Fi digital photo frame with weather app offers a user-friendly and versatile digital frame experience. From sending photos and videos to your frame from anywhere in the world to managing up to 25 connected frames remotely via the web interface, viewing the weather, and listening to the radio – the Pix-Star frame is one of their best.
While viewing the weather shouldn’t be one of your primary deciding factors when looking at a digital photo frame, it’s quite a handy feature to have if you’re interested in forecasts. Pix-Star’s frame includes weather forecasts into your slideshows (you preselect the cities, states, and countries you’d like to see included) according to the update frequency (e.g., 15-minutes apart).
It’s the Pix-Star’s other features that make it an excellent digital photo frame with a weather app. You can send photos to the frame via the mobile app (and import them through the web interface), by email, through USB/SD cards, and view photos albums from your social media and photo-sharing accounts.
The mobile app is one of the best out there, letting you send up to 250 photos at once to multiple frames at the same time. Adding new frames is quick and easy through the app’s intuitive interface. Both the frame and the Pix-Star web interface have intuitive layouts. You can take control and remotely manage up to 25 connected from a single user account. It’s an excellent feature for big families and those with elderly users (and other non-tech-savvy users).
Pix-Star’s high-resolution display and versatile 4:3 aspect ratio boost and enhances immersion, bringing you one of the best and most natural viewing experiences on the market. Most photos don’t need to be cropped or stretched to match the frame’s aspect ratio, as 4:3 is the most common aspect ratio on most smartphones and point-and-shoot digital cameras. A smart fill feature also ensures that pictures with less than 30% of unused space intelligently fill the display.
Slideshows are also highly customizable with the Pix-Star digital photo frame. You can adjust the transition style, speed, and frequency without needing to leave slideshows. Slideshows can be set to show newer photos from the past “x” number of days exclusively – or more frequently. Color and brightness settings can also be adjusted within the slideshows to make sure you get the perfect picture every time.
How does a Wi-Fi digital photo frame with a weather app work?
Most Wi-Fi digital photo frames with weather apps work through partnering with a weather forecast provider. It usually works on update intervals where the forecast provider gives them digital frame information about a particular city or location based on preset intervals. This means that digital photo frames won’t give you up-to-the-moment weather reports, but it’s generally close enough to maintain accuracy.
Digital photo frames like the Pix-Star include these forecasts into slideshows according to preset locations and time intervals. The result is that you see forecasts for your city throughout the day as naturally and non-interruptive as possible. It’s quick and simple to set up and is easily managed through the Pix-Star web interface.
The specifics of how the weather function works varies between digital photo frame brands and models Most digital photo frames don’t offer this feature at all, as it relies on Wi-Fi connectivity and in some cases, cloud support and compatibility.
How to set up the Pix-Star Wi-Fi digital photo frame with a weather app?
Simply log in to your frame’s dashboard at Pix-Star.com on a computer. Once you’re in your dashboard, locate the “Weather Forecast” section in the left-hand panel of the main display. Click on “Configure Weather” and you’ll be taken to a new screen.
Under “Add the following country”, select your country from the list. The countries you’ve added in the past will show just below under the “Countries already added” heading. In the right box, under the “Cities from (selected country)”, you can select all the cities you’d like to be displayed on your Pix-Star frame. When you click on a city, it will be automatically added to the list and you’ll get a notification that this has happened. Note that it can take up to a couple of hours for the initial sync to take place.
Now head over to your Pix-Star frame. Start a slideshow. Once in a slideshow, press the menu button on the remote control or the frame’s controls. Scroll down to the bottom of the list to the “Slideshow Options” and press “OK”. In this panel, scroll down to the “Daily Information” and click “OK”. Now you can select the time intervals that you’d like the weather forecasts for the selected cities to be updated and displayed within slideshows.
Use the “back” button to move back through the menus and back into your slideshow. It might take a while for the weather forecasts to show up in the slideshows. New cities and time intervals can be added or changed at any time.
Can a Wi-Fi digital photo frame with a weather app work without Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi digital photo frames with weather apps are heavily reliant on Wi-Fi to receive new updates and to display forecasts. If you want the weather feature to work as intended, you need to leave your digital photo frame connected to an active Wi-Fi network at all times. This generally isn’t a problem in most households. If you disconnect from Wi-Fi, your frame won’t receive any new updates or forecasts until you reconnect and sync again.
What other features should a Wi-Fi digital photo frame with a weather app have?
As we mentioned before, weather forecasts shouldn’t have much of a bearing on which digital photo frame you choose. That being said, it’s a helpful feature if you want regular updates on the weather in your city or for the places where your loved ones live.
Wi-Fi connectivity is an essential feature as weather forecasts require Wi-Fi for updates and syncing. Internal storage space of at least 4GB is key if you want enough space for all your photos, plus any saved forecasts and related software. Cloud storage is optional, as some weather features can be controlled by or are dependent on cloud synchronicity and compatibility.
A good display with at least 800×600 resolution and preferably a 4:3 aspect ratio (due to the slightly taller display) is best. This also offers the most balanced viewing experience and immersion for photo slideshows. One final feature is a responsive remote control and the ability to set up weather forecasts on a computer or mobile device as they offer more intuitive and familiar experiences/interfaces.
