Sony's new digital photo frame includes built-in photo printer

It's no secret that there are millions of digital photos that never see the light of day. They languish on hard drives, flash memory cards, photo CDs, and other digital media, never to be printed or shared. And though some lucky shots get distributed via photo sharing and social networking sites, the days of snapshot prints that you can pass around to your friends and family are dwindling.  Sony Electronics is trying to stem the tide with its new S-Frame DPP-F700 digital photo frame.

The DPP-F700 is an all-in-one digital photo frame that not only displays photos on a 7-inch widescreen LCD, but also prints out 4x6-inch snapshots, using a built-in dye-sublimation technology printer. And when Sony says all-in-one, it means all-in-one: you can use the device to do some basic photo editing, such as enlarging, reducing, cropping, and adjusting sharpness, brightness, contrast and hue, as well as print out calendars and other predefiined image templates.

An automatic sensor rotates portrait- or landscape-format images appropriately and offers multiple playback options, such as single images, thumbnails, or slideshows with 10 built-in transitions.

The frame accepts most flash memory formats -- including SD, SDHC, MMC, CompactFlash, xD-Picture Card, and of course Memory Stick Pro and Memory Stick Pro DUO cards -- as well as USB input from your PC.

And if you actually just want your digital snaps to languish, there's a gigabyte of internal storage that automatically downsizes your photos to store up to 2,000 images.

The frame/printer will sell for about $200 when it ships in January and is compatible with SVM-F series photo paper packs for Sony Picture Station printers. The cost of consumables per print varies from about 50 cents a print with the SVM-F40P pack (which includes 40 sheets of 4x6 paper and a printer ribbon for $19.99) to about 30 cents per print with the SVM-F120P (which includes 120 sheets of 4x6 paper and two printer ribbons for $34.99).