Hasta La Gadget!

The trend in digital frames is to have them display a lot more than just photos from junior’s school play. Toshiba introduced three digital photo frames today, but the real story is the content you can show on them.

The frames includes a white 8-inch frame (DMF82XWU, $179.99), a black 8-inch frame (DMF82XKU, $179.99), and a black 10-inch frame (DMF102XKU, $229.99). All three will be available in August. The two 8-inch frames offer an acrylic front finish and a reflective trim, and the 10-inch is slim with a faceplace design.

Toshiba’s partnership with FrameChannel, however, turns these frames household information centers. Create a FrameChannel account and you can customize your frame with celebrity news, sports scores, weather forecasts, stock quotes, and much more. All three frames deliver real-time content over WiFi connections.

You can also use these connected frames to easily send or receive photos from friends and family. FrameChannel accounts work with accounts from Flickr, Photobucket, Facebook, and more. Look for them on the Toshiba site when they’re released next month.

Perhaps it’s a bit much to ask, but I’d expect that a protective cover purchased for an expensive device like the Amazon Kindle would, at the very least, not damage the product. Matthew Geise shelled over the extra $30 for his wife’s ebook reader; 3 months later, the Kindle started cracking where the cover fastens via metal clips.

When he reported the problem to Amazon, a company rep told him that it was a common problem and that he’d have to pay $200 to fix it–a healthy chunk of the Kindle’s $359 price tag. Now Guise is leading a $5 million dollar suit against Amazon aimed at repaying the hundreds of people estimated to be having similar issues with the device. Small potatoes when compared to the $35 million and $90 million many class-action suits are getting these days.

Tired of the constant cord tangle? Hate having your power strip filled up with too many power cords? Then the Charge4All Charging Mat might be the answer.

The mat provides a single place to charge up to four devices. It connects to an outlet with one plug, then powers your devices with small adapters. The mat comes with five common plugs–iPod and iPhone, mini USB, micro USB, Samsung SCH, and LG Chocolate–and others are available for $4.95 each.

The mat itself is made of silicon to provide a soft cushion for your electronics, plus it rolls up for easy travel. The charger has an on/off switch and an indicator light. A car adapter is also available for road warriors.

The Charging Mat sells for $39.95. For more info, visit the Charge4All site.

TiVo is teaming up with Best Buy to offer TiVo-brand digital video recorders that integrate Best Buy content.

The two companies will develop a TiVo interface for DVRs sold at Best Buy that will integrate the retailer’s digital content services.

“Best Buy and TiVo will investigate development of a series of consumer tips and insights that can be easily accessed for all kinds of digital home experiences, and Best Buy expects to explore opportunities with TiVo to provide unique Best Buy solutions that enable viewers to take greater advantage of transactional opportunities through the television set,” they said.

What that actually entails has yet to be established, but in July 2008, TiVo teamed up with Amazon to let its customers purchase Amazon.com content from their TVs using the remote, so is a Best Buy purchase widget in the works?

Best Buy also sells MP3 downloads via its Rhapsody-powered digital music store, and offers video game downloads, so those offerings could be purchased through TiVos.

The companies also promised “on-demand access to Best Buy’s trusted perspective in consumer electronics” but whether that means TiVo access to Best Buy’s Geek Squad or just ads touting Best Buy products remains to be seen.

We’ve been following this one closely, waiting for Oregon Scientific’s +ECO Clima Control weather station to be available in the U.S. And today’s the day!

A lot of weather stations aren’t attractive enough for the kitchen counter, so the first thing we love about this model is that it’s so darn cute. With its rounded white design and pastel palette, it looks like a weather station designed by Apple. It offers great functionality, too, showing you the weather forecast as well as the temperature and humidity levels at four locations around your home.

What really sets the +ECO apart, however, is that it runs off solar power. It’s a nice little symmetry: this weather station runs off non-polluting energy, thereby helping to preserve the environment it monitors.

You can grab one from the Oregon Scientific online store for $119.99.