I caught wind of this amazing review over at Gizmodo from my CIO at my day job – he highlighted the fact that it’s a hilarious gadget, not just because it’s trying to be everything to everyone who might buy it, but because it’s a perfect example of what happens when you get someone who wants to cram as much stuff into the same device as possible and then sell it as probably the one feature it’s not the best at.

Personally, looking over Giz’s review, the D-Link DIR-685 – Wireless Storage Photo Frame isn’t a bad product, it’s just a little over the top. The powerhouse comes with a 4-port switch in it, a wireless router that sports 802.11 N, serves as network storage, an iTunes server, an FTP server, a media server of all types, and that’s just some of its highlight features.

It’s pricey, but not as much as some other products like it that do less (although they may do fewer things better) and it’s definitely less expensive than buying a bunch of different devices to do everything that this one does. It’s not the kind of “wireless photo frame” you’ll sit on your coffee table, unless you really like super-tiny photos; it’s probably the kind you’ll set on your desk in a home office and have it cycle through photos of your family or pets or something.

Still, I’m with Giz on this one – it’s one of those products that reminds you that sometimes engineers are still out there designing products, and while it may look at first glance like a case of classic over-engineering (okay, maybe at second or third glance too), it’s not a bad product for what it does. Maybe it’s trouble is that D-Link’s marketing department simply doesn’t have a catchphrase or a buzzword that describes what it is as a product yet.

[ Gizmodo :: D-Link DIR-685 Wireless Storage Photo Frame Router Review ]