Hasta La Gadget!

Is this a Nikon Android tablet? Well, not quite, but it’s pretty damn close. The NF-300i is a 3D, 7.2-inch digital photo frame that runs the Android 2.1 OS. If it had a touch-screen, then it would be a tablet.

Nikon’s frame, available only in Japan, is as full of gimmicks as you could wish for. Aside from the glasses-free 3D, the “photo-frame” also packs a calendar, a clock and weather screens, and you can even browse the web, although with neither keyboard nor touch-screen, this could be a painful procedure (it does at least come with a remote).

But back to the 3D. The NF-300i uses the same lenticular technology as the Nintendo 3DS. It doubles the horizontal resolution and covers the pixels with tiny cylindrical lenses. These lenses split the stereoscopic picture, sending one part to each eye, while obscuring the other.

So how do you get your pictures onto this device? Buy one, along with some fancy new Nikon 3D camera and you’re done? Oh, no. Nothing so simple. First, you sign up with Nikon for the new My Picturetown 3D service, which costs ¥19,950 per year ($247) or ¥1,995 per month ($25). You then upload any 2D photos to the cloud service where you can choose to have them converted to 3D, via an unspecified method that requires no special effort from you. Then Nikon loans you the display with which you can download and view the photos.

Weird, right? It gets worse. These hefty prices include just three conversions per month. If you want more, you’ll have to pay another ¥300 ($3.70) per image, with a minimum order of four images.

Specs-wise, the frame is pedestrian (not to mention that it is styled after CRT monitors from the 1990s). It has a resolution of 800 x 600 in a 4:3 ratio, 4GB of storage, Ethernet and b/g Wi-Fi and support audio and video (H.264) along with the JPEG and MPO (3D) image files.

It seems doomed, but then I’m taking a western point of view. Even given the famous neophilic attitude the Japanese have towards gadgets, though, this seems like a hard sell. In fact, the best feature might be that Nikon demands the unit’s return when you cancel your subscription, hopefully keeping it out of the landfill. Available December.

NF-300i product page [Nikon via DP Review]

My Picturetown 3D [Nikon]