HP's Dandy DreamScreen

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For people who are less concerned with the customization Pandora offers, HP offers a widget, called SmartRadio, for users to connect to more than 10,000 Internet radio stations. And HP integrates its Snapfish photo-sharing service well, letting users download and view their own or friends' digital pics. You can play a slide show with music stored on the DreamScreen or streamed from a PC connection.

Good Digital Organizer

Besides being entertaining, the DreamScreen makes for a good digital organizer. Users can view five-day weather forecasts of cities around the world or view a calendar that HP says later may be able to sync with online planners. I liked using the big screen's built-in clock, which can show time in digital or analog format and can spotlight two different time zones. There's also an alarm function that lets you wake to music or several tones.

For all its advantages, the DreamScreen had a few glitches. On occasion, the clock would disappear and revert to the home screen showing all the widgets. I also found the photo-streaming feature to be the most complicated part of the setup; it should have been the most simple, considering that's a digital frame's raison d'etre. First, you have to give your Windows computer permission to stream photos and video to the DreamScreen. You also need to install software on the computer to drag and drop particular photos in the right orientation for streaming to the DreamScreen.

Otherwise, setup was easy. I'd recommend using a wired Ethernet connection if you have one available. The built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi is perfectly capable of streaming music and photos, but can hit snags if you choose to stream video or are in an area where multiple wireless networks result in radio interference.

There's an included stand to put the DreamScreen on a kitchen countertop, bedroom dresser, or in a dorm room. It can also be wall-mounted, and there's a nice slot in the back to store the tiny remote.

DreamScreen has piqued my interest in digital frames. I've never been a fan of previous iterations since they struck me as too one-note to be useful. HP says it's considering opening the DreamScreen software to developers, and may begin offering access to Twitter, Google's (GOOG) YouTube, and other popular online destinations. As that happens, I'm betting these devices will indeed move from Mom to mainstream.

Edwards is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau.

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