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Coby's Digital Photo Keychain Is a Picture-perfect Gift!
So you've got the digital camera... you've probably had it for a while now. And with memory cards available with gigs of storage space, you might take more pictures than you could possibly fit in your wallet (no matter how nice your photo printer is). So what's the solution? You could lug them around on your laptop, of course, but you don't always have it with you when there's a chance meeting at the mall with an old friend. The same goes for digital photo frames, of course.
But what if you could have a portable version of the digital photo frames? Something small enough to fit on your keychain, so you'll always have it around? Something so simple that great-grandma could use it to show off the latest generation of kids? And something inexpensive enough that you can load them up with pictures and give them as stocking stuffers this holiday season? I've done precisely that, and I selected Coby's DP-151 Digital Photo Key Chain.
THE SCOOP There are a number of these on the market, ranging from the really cheap (in more ways than one) "flea market or corner store" models from about $19, on up to super-nice ones that can run you $50 or more. I selected Coby's DP-151 as a simple-to-use, inexpensive model ($30 list price, Amazon's cost is $22.05) that comes with everything you need, including software and a USB cable! It stores 62 photos (JPG, GIF or BMP file formats) onto 16MB of flash memory built into a device that easily fits in your pocket, and the built-in Lithium-Ion battery (that's the good kind) has four hours of viewing time before it will need a recharge.
To use the included software app you will need a Windows-compatible computer or a Macintosh. The Macs should have OS X, and the PCs should use Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, XP "or newer" (meaning Vista). Your computer will also need a free USB port to get the photos onto the device using the enclosed USB-to-Mini-USB cable.
THE DESIGN The full-color LCD screen is 1.5 inches at 128x128 resolution (typical of this sort of device, and plenty big enough to show off most photos), on a white-and-silver device that measures 2 1/4 inches wide, 1 1/2 inches tall and half an inch thick. The keychain is around two inches long and pretty firm, so you don't have to worry about the chain breaking and losing your gadget. The mini-USB port is on the right side (opposite of where the chain is) and easy to access, without being in the way.
Three buttons along the top are very easy to use: middle button held down for a second or so powers the unit on or off. If the unit's on, pressing the middle button starts a slideshow of all pictures loaded. The right button manually advances to the next picture, and the left button takes you the previous pic. Holding down the left or right buttons long enough will prompt the unit to either delete the current photo or all the photos. Don't worry; you have to confirm the request by then holding down the center button before it would do that. As you scroll through manually, pictures take a fraction of a second to load.
WORKING IT The included application used to load photos comes on a 3" CD (smaller than a typical CD, but works on any PC or Mac). Before using the cable to hook up the device, load the software onto your computer. Then connect the device, and presto! You're in business.
The "Photo Viewer" software is easy to understand and use. In the center of the application's screen you can browse through your computer's hard drive (or attached digital-camera memory cards) for photos to put into your collection. The collection, displayed on the right of the screen, has 62 slots and a counter under the gallery that tells you how many "vacancies" are left open. There are buttons nearby that allow you to change the order of photos in this collection, and to save and load collections.
Thanks to the latter, you can easily have entire libraries of photos you switch out for various purposes. For example, if you're going to visit some friends you haven't seen in a while, maybe you want to load up pics from that most recent vacation you went on, instead of having the normal pics of the wife and kids. In the bottom center is a simple cropping tool that lets you take a highly detailed photo and crop/zoom in on any portion of it you like. On the left of the screen, you can see the pics that are currently on the device. Moving the collection you're currently working with to the DP-151 is as simple as clicking the "transfer" button on the lower right corner of the screen. Yep, this one screen does it all for you!
BATTERY LIFE According to the documentation, this unit's built-in Lithium-Ion battery offers up to four hours of viewing time. Since I intend to give these as gifts for the holidays, I haven't had the chance to test that claim out yet. The intended method of recharging is to hook the USB cable (included with the unit) up to a computer. Since the photos are stored in flash memory, don't worry about them getting erased because you let the battery go dry; they'll still be there after the recharge!
PAINS None whatsoever, other than the small print in the included manual. And most of you are going to dive right in without reading the manual anyway. Am I right?
THE PRICE As I said before, this is a good mid-priced device at $29.99 SRP, and being able to order it from Amazon at a discount (currently $22.05 as I write this) is a nice bonus. The perfect price point for a neat gift for any loved one during the upcoming holiday season.
— Dave L.
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Dec 6, 2007 2:56 PM
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This does NOT work on an iMac...the side slot for cd's does not accept the mini cd...it keeps rejecting it so it's not possible to load photos if you can't laod the software!
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Dec 8, 2007 11:37 PM
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Wow, Reillymon, I wasn't aware of this, but apparently it's true that iMac drives don't like the 3" discs.
That would have to be a fairly serious problem on Apple's part, because 3" CDs are part of the so-called redbook standard, and should always be supported. And I've seen a number of hardware devices sold on the market with a 3" CD containing the install software/drivers, so this isn't exactly being a oddball item here in that it comes with a 3" disc; while not an everyday occurrence, it's not uncommon for the mini-disc to be shipped with hardware, either.
Plus camcorders that write to DVDs almost always do so on 3" discs, with the concept that you can pop the resulting disc into your DVD player or computer and immediately show off whatever you recorded, so iMacs ought to support that, right? It's getting to be a rather popular thing!
At the link above, which is a short discussion on this subject at an official Apple message board from a few days ago, the simple solution mentioned is to buy an external drive.
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Dec 9, 2007 6:32 AM
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A claimed 4-hour battery life and you couldn't test it? If you bought them as gifts, why review it now?
This is at least the second recent Gadget Team review that doesn't check a battery life of just a few hours. I'd like to know how frequently I'll be changing batteries, and whether it's easy or not to replace them.
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Dec 9, 2007 10:01 PM
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Fair questions. Here are the answers:
re: "A claimed 4-hour battery life and you couldn't test it?" The simple answer is that I wanted to keep it hidden, so the recipients don't spot it in my home office. The recipients are also unlikely to come here and read this; I know that they still could, but that's a gamble I chose to take. 
re: "If you bought them as gifts, why review it now?" I considered waiting until after Christmas to review this, but if I did wait, then I couldn't recommend them to you guys for possible giving as gifts.
re: "I'd like to know how frequently I'll be changing batteries, and whether it's easy or not to replace them." As I said, the rechargable batteries are built into the unit. Integrated. They are not replacable, and that seems to be the norm for this type of unit.
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Dec 10, 2007 7:08 AM
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These photo keychains are really cool. I have 2 of them. Great way to show off photos of the kids.
I also found some really unique Digital Photo Ornaments at The Digital Gift Shop. These make great gifts.
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Jun 13, 2008 4:20 PM
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