Trending December 2023 # Nexdock Wants To Turn Smartphones, Tablets Into Laptops # Suggested January 2024 # Top 13 Popular

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NexDock wants to turn smartphones, tablets into laptops

Smartphones and tablets these days, especially the high-end ones, are almost capable of doing anything our computers can, save for a few quirks of the OS and apps they run. But their real limitation isn’t exactly the software but the form they come in. Smartphones are great to use on one hand but are terrible with larger content and input. Tablets have a bigger screen space but keyboard input leaves a lot to be desired. Accessories that address these do exist, but in separate pieces. Enter NexDock, practically a portable display attached to a keyboard masquerading and acting as a laptop, with your smartphone or tablet as the brain.

Although not the first ones, Microsoft’s Continuum and Ubuntu’s Convergence have definitely sparked, or even reignited, the imagination of many. The idea of using your poweful smartphone as the heart and brains of a PC experience definitely has some appeal, but even the Continuum falls slightly short when it comes mobility. You will need a bigger display, keyboard, and mouse to make it happen, but those three might not always be at hand on the go, especially not separately.

NexDock combines all three into one, laptop-like setup. It is primarily an external 14-inch display with HDMI input slapped together with a laptop-sized keyboard and touchpad, powered by its own 10,000 mAh battery pack inside. It was primarily designed to be a portable setup for the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, taking Continuum wherever you go. However, it isn’t limited to that at all.

It can be an always on the go display for an HDMI PC stick like those from Intel or Lenovo. It can serve as the display for a Chromecast or Miracast, opening it up even to Android devices that don’t have video out capabilities. It can even become a second monitor for a laptop, though that one is a bit of a stretch. With its own large battery, it can power many of these devices (except the laptop). Whether it can serve as a phone or tablet charger as well isn’t explicitly stated.

While the idea has merit, the actual implementation might dismay some. That large 14.1-inch screen has a barely passable 1366×768 resolution and uses TN panel technology. It also weight about 1.49 kg and is 20 mm thick, making it just as thick and heavy as a laptop but without any of the benefits of an actual laptop. Given that this is pretty much a $99 to $149 working prototype of an idea, that might be forgivable on the first try, but not if NexDock is meant to be a commercial product.

The biggest hitch for those who are enamored by the idea is that it isn’t even a finished product at all. They are currently on Indeigogo looking for $300,000 in (fixed) funding. So far, they haven’t even reached a q uarter of that but they still have a month to go. In fact, the 250 early bird slots, each costing $79, are all gone already. Pre-order shipping is scheduled for June this year.

Continuum and Convergence might indeed be pointing at a bold new direction for personal computing, and NexDock might have stumbled on a bright idea on how to help push that forward and maybe even profit from it. But they always say that idea is cheap and NexDock’s execution will be what will set it apart from dreamers.

SOURCE: Indiegogo

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Microsoft 2010 Year In Review: Smartphones, The Cloud, Tablets

Over the past several years, Microsoft has conditioned its audience to expect the company to debut its latest big thing at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas the first week of January.

For instance, during his keynote at CES 2010, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer showed off a Windows 7-based slate computer from HP that shipped to enterprise customers in late October.

Now rumors are circulating again that Ballmer will show a “slew” of Windows 7 slatesat CES 2011 in two weeks — granted that much of the delay has to do with a new line of power-saving chips, codenamed Oak Trail, coming from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) early next year.

Microsoft did somewhat better in the smartphone arena. At Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain in February, Ballmer introduced Windows Phone 7, its challenger to the iPhone and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android.

Ballmer said then that Windows Phone 7 handsets would be available in time for the 2010 holiday sales season. The phones began shipping to U.S. customers on Nov. 8 and six weeks later on Dec. 21, Microsoft announced that 1.5 million handsetshad been “sold.” However, the company made clear that figure represents sales between phone manufacturers and wireless carriers, not actually sales to end users.

In fact, in June the company claimed to already have signed up 40 million paid users for its cloud-based subscription services. Many of those customers use Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), which provides Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications, and Live Meeting hosted in Microsoft’s giant datacenters or via third-party hosting firms.

In a related move, Microsoft shipped Office 2010, the latest iteration of its cash cow business productivity suite, in May, which includes the Office Web Apps, a Web-based competitor to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Docs.

Then, in October, the same week that Ozzie announced his departure, Microsoft announced that next year it will combine the Office Web Apps and Office 2010 with the latest 2010-branded versions of the servers in BPOS to create a new subscription package it has named Office 365.

But no matter where Microsoft turns these days, it seems to run into Google.

In October, Google sued the U.S. Department of the Interiorfor not considering its Google Apps online e-mail, calendaring, and collaboration tools offering before awarding a contract to provide those services to as many as 88,000 government users via Microsoft’s BPOS.

The two have been increasingly colliding in those markets.

For example, Microsoft has won several important customers recently, but so has Google.

There is another area where Google has so far completely trounced Microsoft.

It’s the Google Android smartphone operating system, which has already been in the market for two years. Microsoft, in September, sued Motorola for patent violations in its Android-based phones. But the software giant’ emerging Windows Phone 7 devices have a tough haul to catch up in the burgeoning smartphone market.

Finally, in mid-December, Microsoft joined chúng tôi an organization opposed to letting Google purchase travel technology developer ITA Software— many travel sites, including Microsoft’s Bing Travel, use the acquisition target’s technologies.

One piece of good news: In October, after a year on sale, Microsoft announced it had sold 240 million Windows 7 licenses.

Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at chúng tôi the news service of chúng tôi the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @stuartj1000.

How To Turn Your Smartphone Into A Security Camera

Do you have an old smartphone or tablet that’s just lying around the house with no purpose? As long as it has a functioning camera, you can turn it into a home security camera. This is perfect for monitoring the inside of your home, office, garage or any other building.

What you’ll need

To create your home security system, you’ll need the following:

A Camera. For the best results, I’d recommend using an old smartphone or tablet that you can set up as a dedicated security camera.

A Viewer. This is the device where you’ll monitor the feed from your security camera. For the best results, use the smartphone you are actively using.

Installing the Alfred Home Security Camera mobile app

To start, install the Alfred app on your old smartphone or tablet. Alfred is cross-platform, so you can install it on any compatible Android or iOS device:

1. Install the Alfred mobile app (available for Android and iOS) on the device you want to use as your camera.

2. Launch the Alfred application. You’ll be prompted to create an account, so tap “Sign Up” and follow the onscreen instructions.

3. Once you’re logged into your account, tap the “Viewer/Camera” item in the toolbar and select “Camera.”

4. When prompted to set up this device as a camera, tap “OK.”

5. Alfred will now request permission to record video and take pictures and permission to record audio. If you’re okay with these requests, tap “Allow.”

Congratulations, your old, unwanted smartphone or tablet is now a fully-functioning security camera!

How to set up your security camera

You can now position your old device so that it’s pointing at the area you want to monitor. This step can take some trial and error, imagination, and potentially also some duct tape or other fixtures!

To get the best results, you should generally:

Place your camera device around one to two meters away from the object(s) you want to monitor.

Avoid pointing your device at reflective surfaces, such as windows and mirrors, as this can result in false motion detection alerts and may also interfere with the picture quality.

Avoid pointing your camera at moving objects such as fans or objects that show movement such as TV and laptop screens.

Once your device is in position, you should avoid pressing the “Power” or “Home” buttons, as this may put the device into sleep mode or close the Alfred app entirely. Instead, allow the screen to dim and then turn off naturally.

Monitor your home from any location

Next, install Alfred on the smartphone or tablet you’re using as your Viewer:

1. Install and launch the Alfred mobile app on your Viewer device.

2. Log into your Alfred account. Make sure it’s the same account you’re using on your Camera device!

3. Alfred will now request various permissions; grant these permissions to proceed to the next screen.

4. Tap the item in the Alfred menu bar and then select “Viewer.”

Once Alfred detects more than one device using the same account, it should link those devices automatically. Whenever you want to view the live feed from your Camera, simply launch the Alfred app on your Viewer, and the feed should appear automatically.

Add motion detection to your home security system

By enabling Alfred’s motion detection, you’ll receive a push notification on your Viewer every time movement is detected:

1. Launch the Alfred app on the device you’re using as your Viewer.

2. Find the camera where you want to set up motion detection.

3. In the upper-left corner of the Camera feed, tap the little cog icon.

4. Find the “Motion Detection” slider and push it into the “On” position.

5. While you’re in the Settings, you may also want to change the sensitivity of the motion detection by tapping “Sensitivity” and then choosing from the available options: “High,” “Medium” or “Low.”

Now every time movement is detected, you’ll receive a push notification on the smartphone or tablet you’re using as your Viewer. You can then launch the Alfred app and see exactly what’s happening in real time.

Accessing and storing Alfred’s security videos

Whenever it detects motion, Alfred will automatically record everything that’s happening and upload the clip to the cloud for safekeeping.

To review all of Alfred’s recordings:

1. On your Viewer, launch the Alfred application.

3. You’ll now be taken to Alfred’s “Events Book.” To play any clip from your “Events Book,” give it a tap. If you want to save a clip, then tap the dotted icon in the clip’s upper-right corner and select “Save to Moments.” Alternatively, you can delete a clip by tapping the “Trash” icon.

Access your security camera from any Internet-enabled device

Don’t have your Viewer at hand? You can drop in on your security feed from any web browser.

1. Head over to the Alfred website and sign in to your account.

2. Select the “Camera” tab.

3. Select the camera that you want to view.

4. You can now view this feed on your laptop or computer.

If you have an old smartphone around, we have shown you a way to repurpose it and use it as a security camera. You can also use it as a dashcam or a smart speaker. If that is not enough, find out more ways to reuse your old Android phone.

Jessica Thornsby

Jessica Thornsby is a technical writer based in Derbyshire, UK. When she isn’t obsessing over all things tech, she enjoys researching her family tree, and spending far too much time with her house rabbits.

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Giant Laptops And Tablets Are Back, But How Large Is Too Large?

At CES this week, we’ve seen a wide array of unique gadgets, some great electric vehicles and whatever this thing is. Shrinking bezels with more screen are certainly all the rage this year, and 17-inch laptops are back in the limelight.

Tablets are also having an evolutionary year. Or… if you even can call this thing a tablet. Take a look at the ASUS ROG Mothership a bit further down below — a 17-inch, ten and a half pound, detachable keyboard laptop / ultra-powerful gaming desktop / portable tablet? We’re not really sure what to classify this thing as, but ASUS describes it as a “portable gaming desktop”.

While in theory you could slide (or shove, perhaps) it into your bag and whip it out at your local café, the rest of the spec sheet cements this monster as designed for heavy-duty enthusiast use only.

It houses a 1080P 144Hz display with NVIDIA G-Sync technology, RTX 2080, a 9th-generation six-core Intel i9 processor, 64GB of RAM, and of course SSD storage for maximum efficiency and performance.

The computer is clearly an ode to the most hardcore gamers, who previously could merely dream of such a product. However, companies taking an extra step to recognize the most niche and enthusiastic customers doesn’t appear to be too uncommon this year…

Though the detachable keyboard isn’t fully mechanical, it still features customizable RGB colors, and an interesting trackpad doubling as a numeric pad.

Alienware announced a similarly ambitious computer — the Area 51m. Its eight and a half pound, 17-inch frame might just look like a big, beautiful laptop, but there’s much more than meets the eye.

The entire laptop has been designed from the ground up to be as user upgradable as possible. Everything from the CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage can easily be accessed. Even the chassis has large screw holes with instructional arrows and numbers to simplify the process as much as possible.

You’ll turn blue fast if you hold your breathe for Apple to ever create a laptop following a similar design language. However, the widespread acceptance and positive embrace of the improved 12.9 iPad Pro certainly has shown there’s a market for tablets and ‘mobile’ devices perhaps a bit larger than originally imagined.

At any rate, it’s clear last year’s obsession with shrinking bezels has carried well into this year, only now we’re seeing lighter and more powerful computers to coincide. Think about it, Alienware’s Area 51m features nearly the same computing power as any top of the line 4K gaming rig. NVIDIA RTX 2080 graphics, Intel i9, 17-inches and all in a package under eight and a half pounds.

While that’s still too hefty to carry daily for most people, consider life back in 2012 when the 15-inch MacBook Pro weighted just under six pounds — a computer many of us carried daily. Alienware’s Area 51m truly packs desktop level power and upgradability in a package about 3 pounds heavier and a display 2+ inches larger. When you consider PC Mag’s top gaming laptop of 2023 was the 15-inch, non-upgradable, nearly 7 pound Alienware 15, you can clearly see manufacturers are able to pack in more battery, more power, more keyboard, more upgradability, and more screen in packages suspiciously lighter and lighter.

If Alienware and ASUS can make near iMac Pro level machines in giant, 17-inch packages under 10 pounds, imagine what Apple could do with a 2023 17-inch or beyond MacBook.

Now, here’s where we want to hear from you! Do you even want to see a 17-inch MacBook anymore? If so, would it need to be a Pro model, or would you accept something even lighter marketed as a 17-inch MacBook or MacBook Air with less power but greater battery life? It’s clear workstations are only getting larger, so why not?

Inside The Crazy Us$6 Billion Plan To Turn Wind Into Gasoline

Former LNG exec Meg Gentle says it’s serious, and some smart money, including from Porsche and Baker Hughes, agrees with her.

Meg Gentle, executive director at HIF Global, is back in her mega project comfort zone. JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES

Near the southernmost tip of Chilean Patagonia, on the wind-buffeted Straits of Magellan, the Haru Oni eFuels Pilot Plant sits at the foot of a wind turbine. The plant produces greener gasoline. It starts by taking wind power to run electrolyzer machines, which separate the hydrogen out of water. The hydrogen is then joined with recycled carbon dioxide, in reactions that generate synthetic hydrocarbons — indistinguishable from fossil-derived gasoline.

To be sure, carbon dioxide still comes out the back of any car running off this manufactured fuel, but it’s a start. Porsche AG, an investor, is excited about the prospect of marketing this chemically identical “efuel” (the e is for electricity) to drivers who want both internal combustion and a cleaner climate conscience. It plans to get maximum publicity per gallon, by first using it to gas up its racing teams.

Why build a novel green fuels plant in remote Patagonia? First off, the strong winds created when Antarctica’s cold air meets the warm air from the Pacific. Turbines there can achieve 75% operating efficiency versus an average of 45% for Texas wind farms. Second, the main shareholder of HIF Global, Santiago, Chile-based AME, already develops vast Atacama Desert solar farms, and is looking to erect thousands of wind turbines in Patagonia. That would be enough to make billions of gallons of fuel a year and turn Chile into the unlikely exporter of millions of gallons a year of greener gasoline made from Patagonia winds — the same ones that 500 years ago blew Magellan’s ships through the strait that bears his name.

But Patagonia is not logistically the easiest place to build, which is why HIF aims to construct its first world-scale plant in Texas–near its chemical plants and refineries. Meg Gentle, HIF’s executive director, was captivated by the concept when she heard about it in 2023 from chairman Cesar Norton. Gentle, 48, had just gotten out of the liquefied natural gas business, having served 15 years at pioneering LNG exporter Cheniere Energy followed by four years as CEO of rival LNG developer Tellurian Energy.

Gentle left Tellurian in late 2023, intending to take it easier and run her family investment office, Gemstone Investments, for a while. She agreed to put some money behind HIF (which stands for Highly Innovative Fuels). “I started as an investor. Soon it was ‘Meg can you help us’ with this or that.” Her job for the last two years has been planning and permitting and contracting for a $6 billion plant in Matagorda County, Texas that will make 200 million gallons of greener fuels a year — equivalent to taking the emissions of 400,000 cars off the road.

Gentle feels back in her element. At Cheniere she had raised $40 billion in capital to build a half dozen plants in Texas and Louisiana that now chill and export some 7 billion cubic feet of gas per day — 60% of U.S. LNG exports, and 5% of total domestic supply. She’s not intimidated by cost or complexity. “So many elements of what we are tying together are exactly the same as LNG.”

Bechtel came up with that $6 billion estimate during front-end-engineering. Even if costs go higher, Gentle doesn’t think HIF will have trouble rounding up sufficient capital to get it built. It’s an irony of the green wave — the world needs to make such enormous investments in low carbon infrastructure that megaprojects might be easier to finance than small ones.

“Demand for these projects is boundless,” says Andrew Ellenbogen, managing director at private equity shop EIG, “and will be much better addressed by projects of this size.” EIG, with $24 billion under management, first invested in HIF’s parent company in 2023 to build solar farms and gas-fired generation in Chile.

Near Patagonia’s wind-buffeted Straits of Magellan, the Haru Oni eFuels Pilot Plant makes gas good enough for Porsche. COURTESY HIF GLOBAL

Ellenbogen has such faith in the potential of efuels “to address hard to abate emissions” that EIG was in even before last year’s passage of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, with its $500 billion or so in green subsidies, including the potential for developers to generate tax credits on qualified green programs that can reach as high as 60% of capital invested. “The impact of the credits is huge,” says Ellenbogen, but it’s gravy on top. “We would invest with or without them.”

So it makes sense that the HIF project is already a who’s who of big names itching to live up to green promises. Porsche has put $100 million into HIF Global. Baker Hughes, another investor, took part in a $260 million equity infusion in 2023. Addressing the biggest foreseeable bottleneck, Gentle already has hundreds of electrolyzers reserved from Siemens. The Patagonia plant tapped ExxonMobil for its methanol-to-gasoline technology. “Figuring out who are your partners and how you are building those blocks together is probably my most valuable lesson across the entire journey of Cheniere and Tellurian,” says Gentle.

Naturally, there’s an element of betting on the come here. Making a gallon of this fuel requires about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. Technology to capture carbon dioxide right out of the air started getting headlines five years ago, but is still expensive, at about $250 a ton.

Baker Hughes last year acquired startup Mosaic Materials in order to speed development of its carbon dioxide-trapping metal-organic frameworks– like air filters engineered at the molecular level to grab carbon dioxide out of the air. According to Alessandro Bresciani, a senior vice president at Baker Hughes, the materials “capture CO2 at ambient conditions and require relatively low energy to release the CO2,” making for a lower cost of ownership.

Cool stuff, but Gentle says costs need to get closer to $100 a ton (before generous federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act). So initially, they’ll use other sources of recycled CO2, says CEO Cesar Norton. Baker Hughes declined to share any projection on how many years of iterations it will take to get to that price point.

Gentle and the HIF team picked the site in Matagorda County, Texas for easy access to their most important ingredient: electricity. The plant will have a continuous 24/7 electricity demand of 2,000 megawatts, enough to power about a million homes. Good thing they are located along a high voltage transmission corridor that was overbuilt in anticipation of an unrealized expansion of the South Texas nuclear power plant.

Securing dedicated supplies of renewable electricity is vitally important if projects like this are to actually reduce emissions rather than increase them, says Cy McGeady, an associate fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. At issue is a trifecta of concerns known as “time matching, additionality and deliverability.” In short, you don’t want to run your electrolyzers when the wind stops blowing because then your electricity is more likely coming from fossil fuel generators. And you don’t want to use existing renewable energy projects to power electrolyzers, because then you’re cannibalizing someone else’s low-carbon energy supply. As for deliverability, “You can’t build a wind farm in Nebraska for your plant in Texas,” says McGeady. Right now the Treasury Department is determining what rules developers will have to follow if they want to access the full lineup of tax credits. Stricter rules would add a lot of costs and slow rollout. Which is why McGeady cautions, “economics are wildly speculative until we get guidance from Treasury.”

To make sure HIF’s share of wind power gets put on the grid, Gentle says they will need to buy the output of wind farms with 5,000 megawatts of peak capacity (recall the wind only blows 45% of the time). That will require the dedicated electric output of 1,000 turbines that stand 500 feet tall. All that to make replacement fuel for just 400,000 cars, when the U.S. has 276 million vehicles on the road. Does it make sense to go to all this trouble to extend the internal combustion era? “It’s worth the effort because with the efuel you can operate the existing car fleet on a CO2 neutral base,” says Porsche spokesman Hermann-Josef Stappen.

Gentle (an alum of James Madison University and a Rice University MBA, who earlier worked at Anadarko Petroleum) figures that it will start off costing about $5 a gallon to make efuel–about twice as much as regular gasoline. That’s pricey, though the fuel will fetch a low-carbon premium. How much? A minimum of 30 cents a gallon considering recent California carbon dioxide cap-and-trade prices of about $30 per metric ton (2,200 lbs). In addition to gasoline, HIF plans to sell a large portion of Matagorda’s initial output as shipping fuel, to fleet owners struggling to satisfy stringent new international rules on emissions. Future plants will make jet fuel, she says.

At first when Gentle left the LNG business, amid stalled progress on Tellurian’s Driftwood LNG project, she says she was looking to invest in hydrogen-based fuels, but soon determined the challenges of transporting raw hydrogen would prove overwhelming. For instance, to put natural gas into a tanker ship for export requires chilling it down to -260 degrees into a liquid. “Being in the LNG business, when I learned that in order to move hydrogen on a vessel it has to be even colder, near absolute zero, I immediately knew that that is not going to happen” because the extra costs and difficulty containing such a small molecule would make it impractical. “The boil off is much higher than LNG. As with anything you have to keep un-atmospherically cold, you have to be reliquefying it or you’re losing it.” That drew her to so-called hydrogen carriers, like ammonia (NH3) or synthetics like efuels which are far easier to transport.

While developing the Matagorda site, HIF Global is also working on one in Tasmania, which will source carbon dioxide from the forest products industry. They’ll add more plants in Patagonia as they build out wind turbines, says Norton, who started his career working at a power station in Buenos Aires and over two decades has been a leader in building out natural gas, wind and solar in South America. Norton envisions tens of billions of dollars invested in southern Chile to capture its “strong and constant winds” as the primary raw material for green products. He calls it the “Power-to-X” paradigm.

Gentle envisions hundreds of billions invested in the technology over the coming decades, with HIF Global aiming for a dozen projects that could remove the emissions impact of 5 million cars. Why not? — that much has been invested in North American LNG projects over the past decade. And even a $6 billion plant making the equivalent of 14,000 barrels per day is a drop in the bucket of the 100 million barrels per day worldwide petroleum market (and once complete would be a tasty acquisition for a big oil company).

“This is a solution now, today, already,” she says. “If you’re trying to deploy large amounts of capital you can’t do it $20 million at a time. You have to have scale.”

This story was first published on chúng tôi and all figures are in USD.

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How To Turn Your Google Or Amazon Display Into A Digital Photo Frame

Standalone digital photo frames made a major splash years ago as a great way to showcase your memories from days gone by. But did you know you could turn your smart display into a digital photo frame?

These devices let you decide which images to show versus just the random slideshow categories you usually see. The only difficult part is choosing which photos you want to use.

Which Devices Can I Turn Into Digital Photo Frames?

Let’s start with Google: both the Google Nest Hub and Google Nest Hub Max let you create photo slideshows. Originally, only the Amazon Echo Show 15 had this functionality built in. But, as of August 2023, all Echo Show displays have this feature. If your Echo display doesn’t, you may want to check for a software update, which should have happened automatically back in August or early September.

Image source: Amazon

Essentially, if you have a Google or Amazon smart display, you should be able to turn it into a digital photo frame.

Currently, you can only set up this feature on Echo Show devices in the US, UK, Canada, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Australia.

Turning Your Amazon Echo Show Into a Digital Photo Frame

Before you start, you’ll need to make sure you have a photo source ready. Choose between Amazon Photos, Facebook, or your uploaded photos from the Alexa app on your phone or tablet. During the setup process, you’ll choose your desired source, including which albums you want to display.

If you want to use Amazon Photos, you can install the app on your phone or tablet and upload pictures to Amazon Photos. This works similarly to Google Photos. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you get free unlimited full-resolution photo storage, along with 5 GB of video storage. If you’re not a Prime member, you get 5 GB of free storage and can upgrade to 100 GB for $19.99/year.

Say “Alexa, start Photo Frame” to start your new digital photo frame on your Echo. It will run for three hours unless you give Alexa another command.

If you’re using Amazon Photos, you can ask Alexa to show you specific albums or dates, such as “Alexa, show photos from last winter.”

The only downside to the Echo Show is that photos only display for three hours before you have to ask Alexa to show photos again. This can get tedious, but hopefully Amazon will fix this in future updates to function more like Google Nest’s continuous photo rotation.

Not sure which Amazon Echo to get? Check out our comparison guide to find the most suitable Amazon Echo.

Turning Your Google Nest Display Into a Digital Photo Frame

Image source: Google

Just like with Amazon, you’ll need to first set up a photo source before your Google Nest display can become a digital photo frame. Obviously, as a Google product, Google prefers that you use Google Photos.

You’ll need to download the Google Photos app to your phone or tablet and add the photos you want to use. Divide them into albums or libraries to make it easier to see only the photos you want.

With Google Photos, you get 15 GB of free photo (and any other files) storage. Plans start at $1.99/month for 100 GB and go up to $9.99/month for 2 TB.

Tip: you can also use Google Nest to find your phone or create reminders.

There are two ways to set up the Photo Frame feature on a Google Nest display. The first is via the Google Home app.

Open your Google Home app on your phone or tablet.

Select your Nest device.

Open Settings (the gear icon).

Tap “Picture Frame” and choose the photos/libraries you want to use.

The second method is via the display itself.

Swipe up from the bottom of your Nest display.

Tap “Settings.”

Tap “Picture Frame” and select the content you want to use.

Alternately, you can simply say “Hey Google, change Picture Frame” to open the Picture Frame settings.

You can let Google Photos create live albums or create your own. Either way, you can have up to 20,000 photos in a single album. This should continue to give you something new to see each time you look at your Nest display.

Frequently Asked Questions Will I still get notifications when using my display as a digital photo frame?

Yes. But, on Echo Show devices, you won’t see the notifications displayed on the screen as normally would. However, you’ll still hear them. You can also swipe down on the screen at any time to check for notifications.

Can I remove individual photos from my displays?

Yes. Simply remove the photo from the album linked to your photo frame. In Google Photos, you can archive the photo or tell Google to remove it (which archives it). You can also move photos that you know you don’t want to see on your display into a separate album or library. Don’t include that particular album in the content you want to see when setting up your digital photo frame, and you’re good to go.

For Google Photos, you can also create a Locked Folder, which hides your photos behind your phone or account’s password. Even if you share your Photos with someone else, they can’t see the Locked Folder.

Can I interact with photos on my display?

Absolutely! Want to know more details about a photo? Simply ask Google or Alexa to tell you when or where the photo was taken. This is a great way to check the date on any photo, though the dates may display at the bottom of the photo anyway.

Image credit: Google

Crystal Crowder

Crystal Crowder has spent over 15 years working in the tech industry, first as an IT technician and then as a writer. She works to help teach others how to get the most from their devices, systems, and apps. She stays on top of the latest trends and is always finding solutions to common tech problems.

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