Anything's Possible
i-mate Momento Digital Photo Frame
I decided to get my grandfather a 7″ i-mate Momento digital photo frame thinking that I could set it up to pull photos from my photoblog via rss. Well, I just got it today and I’m trying to set it up before I go back to Malaysia on 15 December so that he will just have to connect it to the WiFi network to run it
Well, firstly, this thing is super cool! It looks quite slick and the picture quality is quite good as well. You can set it up to pull photos from any PC on your network and I’ve also read that it supports Vista SideShow gadgets which is great if you’re unfortunate enough to be running a Vista machine on your home network. You can also pull pictures off the web by signing up for a Momento Live account but that’s where the problems strt.
Momento Live is actually pretty cool. When you sign-up for an account, which I’m guessing is free since they haven’t asked for any payment yet, you get a Momento Live email address which you can use to send pictures straight to your photoframe. You can also send pictures straight to your photo frame via MMS.
Unfortunately, if you want to do what I want to do (display pictures from your non-Flickr-Windows Live-or-Picasa-powered photoblog via RSS) you’ll be disappointed. Momento Live will actually work pretty well for most people since it can pull pictures from almost anywhere else on the web (Flick RSS, Flickr Tags, Picasa Web Albums, Picasa RSS, Windows Live Spaces, etc.) but not fromyour own RSS. I could sign up for a Flickr account and somehow import all of my photos from my server but then I’m not the only one who’s going to be posting pictures.
I come from a HUGE family and once everyone hears about this they are all going to want to be able to post pictures straight to the frame. So I decided to write a script which basically generates an RSS feed from all photos in a directory. To make it easier for Momento Live to process it I’ve structured in exactly the same way as a Flickr RSS feed but now Momento Live does not recognise the URL as a valid Flickr RSS URL. I’ve sent an email to the Momento Live support team about this and I’m hoping they get back to me soon with some good news.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Joe Jacobs on 12th December, 2008 at 1:44 pm, and is filed under General. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
I also bought two of those frames, tried to set them up so they would update without a family member breaking his/her head over it. Signed up to flickr, but the feeds just don't appear on the frames. Mailed the support team (about a week ago), still no answer…
about 1 year ago
@Joe: Try the FrameChannel account. There you can merge your own RSS-feed as well as Flickr&Co feeds to be shown on you frame.
@David: I have the same problem, that the frame is not updating the feed-settings and live pictures. The support only tells me something about maintenance. Does anyone know more about it? Will it be working again?
about 1 year ago
@Thomas: FrameChannel works perfectly with MomentoLive. Haven’t had a chance to test it out with the frame though. will let you know how it goes when I do…thx!
about 1 year ago
I came across this post while troubleshooting said e-frame. I have had NO success with getting the Momento live site to recognise any flickr RSS feed I enter and although I have got images to show up in Momento live from Frame Channel “sending” them to the frame has not resulted in any pictures reaching it yet despite the frame saying it is connected to Momento Live.
The only reason I got this was for the wireless and RSS feed capability so I am on the verge of sending it back. No word from support in reply to my problem. Right now I am not terribly impressed with the Momento i-Mate.
about 1 year ago
Me too, I am afraid,
Got the frame as a Christmas gift. Not yet got any photos to it via Momento lve.
I wonder if the the service running for existing users?
I am thinking of doing a factory reset to see if that will improve things
about 1 year ago
@RiK Tripp: I’ve done a factory reset but nothing has changed. The frame says it’s connected to Momento Live but I can’t get it to display any pictures from the net
about 1 year ago
My Momento Frame has just (19:30 GMT 1st Jan 09) started to stream uploaded photos from Momento Live, and Frame Channel for the first time.
Oh Happy New Year
RiK
about 1 year ago
@RiK: I’d love to know how you managed it….
Happy New Year!
about 1 year ago
Here’s another disappointed user.. bought three of them but doesn’t get it to work. The (automated?) mails that are send out by the helpdesk about maintenance are sending out for more than four months now. I hope i-mate realizes they aren’t doing any good to their brand with this “service”…
RiK’s message give me a little hope though!
about 1 year ago
Bad news guys. I have just received this via email from Momento live support
‘The Momento Live service will be terminated on February 25, 2009. After that date you will not have access to the Momento Live website or services’
I had a feeling that something was up when I noticed that the Momento frame was no longer in the list of supported frames on the Framechannel site.
Lets hope somebody puts up an alternate service
RiK
about 1 year ago
There is an alternate service. Looks like they are offering a deal to momento customers.
http://www.ceiva.com/home/nf/momentolive.jsp
about 1 year ago
Yea heard about it but I doubt I’ll be willing to spend more money on a new frame. but if it’s really good then why not!