DreamStream

Developer: Subsplash, Inc.
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0


iPhone Integration [rating:4/5]
User Interface [rating:4/5]
Re-use / Replay Value [rating:4/5]

Overall Rating:

Last week I almost bought a digital picture frame for my desk, but debated its price and necessity within the confines of my own head until I finally gave up and went home. The appearance of DreamStream in the App Store this week makes me very glad that I hesitated. It is a straightforward application for your iPhone or iPod Touch that greatly enhances its utility as a wireless picture frame.

Simply put, DreamStream allows you to customize a digital slide show on your iPhone or iPod touch by accessing and displaying photos from your device's Camera Roll and/or Photo Library, MobileMe iDisk, your and your friends' Facebook albums, Flickr tags, RSS 2.0 photo feeds and Windows Live Framelt. Setup is as easy as tapping the info button in the upper right hand corner to access the 'Settings" page. All of DreamStream's settings are within the app itself, which is convenient. Tapping on "Photo Sources" is where you add pictures from any of the aforementioned supported sources. After signing in to my Facebook account via FB Connect, I was permitted to choose from among my seven albums and all of my friends' albums to display in the slide show. DreamStream does not allow you to choose individual photos however; you must select an entire album to display. With hundreds of friends and thousands of photos to choose from, you can vary the display as often as you like. MobileMe photo access was seamless as well. I found that adding photos from my iPhone itself to be the least convenient in that each picture must be selected individually. That is, unless I'm missing something, you cannot select an entire album for display from within your iPhone's Photo Library---and adding individual photos gets pretty tedious pretty quickly. Once your photo sources are set up, you can choose which of them to display by checking the little box next to each source, a nice customizable touch.

The slide show is able to be tweaked in two further ways. The length of time each photo is displayed can be set from the Settings page. DreamStream also includes a 'Widget' display which can be turned on or off. There are three so-called Widgets, a calendar display (which also includes day and time), time display and customizable weather display. The ability to select individual Widgets for display, rather than all or none, would be appreciated.

DreamStream crashed a few times during setup; after that my slide show ran for hours without a hiccup (turn off screen auto-lock under the iPhone's Settings app). If you don't mind the small screen and have a dock for continuous charging, your iPhone or Ipod Touch can make for a great wireless picture frame. DreamStream offers an affordable way to provide users a near endless, not to mention interesting and fun, source of photos for your viewing pleasure. I highly recommend it.

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