My mum gave me her old laptop which wasn't working right anyways, so I thought I'd try my hand at making a Digital Picture frame out of it.
My cost to this point is $15. I expect to not exceed $50 total.
All I have done so far was repaired the laptop to operating ability, then tore the thing apart and crammed the LCD into the picture frame, the core system is not been fitted yet, as the frame I bought is too shallow, I will have to extend the frame by about 2" deep.
Currently it can play music with visualization (though I need to get external wireless speakers for optimum output) view pictures, and check the weather. It also automatically does a slide show of my primary picture folder when you let it idle for a few minutes. My biggest issues are currently lag (the interface is almost too fancy for the system, I need to chop my windows down a bit to make it smoother and faster)
It will be able to stream video, audio, and pictures from my primary media center in my living room. Be accessible via remote control (either Bluetooth or IR, not certain yet), potentially be usable as an SNES and NES emulator with a USB gamepad, this is not really a high priority though.
Anyways, all this rambling is all well and good, but I bet your thinking, where's the damn pictures!!!
Interface
What's Left to Fit?
Now, I have a question for you, any of you have an old laptop you'd be willing to sell, I'd like to build between two and three more for family to give as presents. I am looking for something around 1 ghz, 512 mb - 1 gb or ram, OS is uneeded, hardrive needs to be no more than say 10 gb. I discovered I can hook up to a flikr account with this wirelessly and stream pictures from a specific account, so I was going to set one up for my dad's side of the family for his mom, and one for my mom's side of the family for her parents. Then we could all share our photos and get them sent to my grandparents without them even having to ask.
