Friendships play an important role throughout our lives. They’re a constant and valuable part of our community that offer essential companionship and support. In honor of International Friendship Day, we wanted to talk about the different types of friendships many of us have and how they evolve in adulthood. As we mature and our lives change, it’s natural to have friends that fit different roles or for those roles to change over time. The most important thing is that friends continue to show up for each other in a way only they know how.
Childhood Friends: The First of Many Friendships
Childhood friends are special for all of us. Whether you met as neighbors, in grade school, or at summer camp, these friendships have strong foundations in shared memories and experiencing some of life’s first milestones together. Childhood friends know us in a way many others never will, and they provide a sense of familiarity and unwavering support. Distance, adult responsibilities, and busy schedules may mean we don’t see these friends as much or that we aren’t fully up-to-date on the latest happenings in each other’s lives, but it doesn’t lessen that foundational bond. Time apart just makes reconnecting with childhood friends that much more rewarding and nostalgic.
Shared Hobby Friends: The Friendships With Overlapping Passions
As adults, one of the most cherished types of friends we can have is one with whom we share a hobby. A friend you make via shared interests not only understands that passion, but also actively participates in it with you. Whether it’s spending time outside, playing sports, making music, or any other variety of interesting hobbies, this friend fuels your enthusiasm and is creating memories right alongside you. When you share a bond over a mutual love for an activity, it becomes a powerful connection that deepens your friendship and creates a foundation for a long lasting relationship. Having a friend who loves what you do, makes the things you enjoy that much more meaningful.
Ride or Die Friends: The Best Friendships
If you’re lucky, you have a best friend that is there for you through thick and thin. In adulthood, weeks can pass without catching up, but as soon as you do it’s like you never skipped a beat. The ride or die friends are the type that would drop everything to support us, and probably have at some point or another. They know you better than anyone and have the power to bring joy, comfort and a sense of belonging. They’re who you go to when you need advice or when you just need to vent — and they know the difference between the two.
For many adults, friendships take on different forms and serve different roles. There are many more types of friends than what we can list here, and they’re all essential to forming a well rounded support system. While we might not have the same consistency that we did in the past, it’s now easier than ever to stay in touch. The internet allows us to check in with friends near and far in many different ways. We now have the ability to e-mail friends on different continents or reconnect with ones we haven’t seen in years through social media. Nixplay even offers digital frames that can be updated via shared playlists. So you can gift frames to friends and share photos via the frames that you’ll see everyday. It’s a great way to stay connected and see what everyone is up to, and it might even prompt an extra phone call or text message from time to time. However you choose to keep in touch, we hope you check in with your friends for International Friendship Day.
The arrival of summer brings an explosion of colors, warmth, and joy. It’s the perfect time to create beautiful memories and freeze them in time through the art of photography. Whether you’re lounging on a sandy beach, exploring breathtaking landscapes, or simply enjoying quality time with loved ones, capturing the essence of summer can be a delightful and easy experience. In this blog, we’ll explore some expert tips and tricks to help you take amazing summer photos that will make your memories last a lifetime.
Embrace Natural Light:
One of the key elements that set summer apart is the abundance of natural light. To make the most of it, try shooting during the “golden hour” – the hour after sunrise or before sunset – when the light is softer and creates a warm, flattering glow. If your summer activities necessitate taking photos in the middle of the day, seek out shaded areas to soften harsh shadows and create a more balanced exposure.
Compose with Care:
When framing your summer shots, pay attention to composition. Utilize the “rule of thirds” by mentally dividing your frame into a grid of nine equal parts and placing key elements along the intersecting lines. In beach or landscape shots, incorporate leading lines, such as a shoreline or a road, to guide the viewer’s eye toward the main subject. Experiment with different angles, perspectives, and points of view to add intrigue to your summer photographs.
Tell a story:
Your summer photos should do more than just capture a moment; they should tell a story. Look beyond posed shots and aim to capture candid moments. Whether it’s a niece or nephew building a sandcastle, friends laughing on a picnic blanket, or relatives sharing a meal at a family reunion, these authentic moments are special and sentimental to look back on for years to come. Be observant and ready to capture those fleeting, magical instances that define summer.
Preserve and Share Your Memories:
Now that you’ve preserved precious memories and created an extraordinary visual collection of the season’s magic, it’s time to showcase the beautiful photos you’ve captured. Nixplay digital frames allow you to display entire playlists of photos so you aren’t forced to choose just one. Plus, you can share playlists with friends and family to stay up-to-date on each other’s summer activities. They can even add their own photos to collaborative playlists, making shared memories a treasured part of your summer.
Building out your smart home? With an Alexa at the center of everything, it’s easy to control your smart home devices and turn your house into a smart hub. If you want to make more use of Alexa, we’ve got a selection of some of the best smart home devices to that can be controlled with only the sound of your own voice.
Smart home devices that work with Alexa
There are so many smart home devices that work with Alexa, so it can be difficult to get your head around the ones that will benefit you the most. The hundreds, if not thousands, of Amazon Alexa compatible devices all have their advantages and disadvantages. So we’ve pulled together a list of some of the must-have smart home devices to help you get started.
1. Alexa, turn up the lights
Tired of tripping over your feet or walking into furniture when heading to bed after turning the lights off? A smart bulb is the best solution. Simply hop into bed with the light on, and command Alexa to turn it off once you’re all set for sleep. There are a lot of smart bulbs that work with Alexa, so make sure you do your research to find the right one for you. Some let you dim the lights, change the color and turn them on or off.
2. Alexa, open up Netflix
Lost the controller? We’ve all been there. Whether it’s stuck down the back of the sofa or the batteries have died, with a smart TV and Alexa device, you won’t need one. One of the best Alexa compatible devices will have the software built in, and some smart TVs do. Turn it on and off, switch the channel, increase the volume or adjust the brightness, using nothing but your own voice.
3. Alexa, lock the doors
Gone are the days of dragging yourself back out of bed to bolt the front door. Make your home is secure with Alexa and a smart lock – so you don’t have to wonder if you locked the door when you’re cozy in bed. There are many smart locks to choose from, to suit all budgets. So if you’re tired of losing track of all your keys or don’t want to leave a spare under the mat, a smart lock will give you more control.
4. Alexa, turn up the heating
These smart home devices can make you more comfortable at home, but have a great impact on your bills. Some smart thermostats also come with Alexa built in – meaning you can manage the temperature of your home with ease. Which means no more fussing about with buttons that you can’t quite figure out, because it’s all done with your voice!
5. Alexa, vacuum the floor
The best way to keep your floors clean without lifting a finger? Smart vacuums. These home staples have come a long way, and many now have the capability to work using voice activation – making your life just that little bit easier. With these Alexa compatible devices, you can ask your vacuum to clean, stop and return to its dock. You will still need the app to schedule the cleaning and check the status of your vacuum, but there’s every chance that these actions will be voice activated in the future.
6. Alexa, feed the dog
Running late because your pet needs feeding? Cutting your day short to make sure you’re home on time for dinner? A smart, automatic pet feeder will do the job. Set regular mealtimes, adjust portion sizes and set voice alerts to let your pooch know that it’s time for dinner. Better yet, some of these smart home devices can be used in conjunction with Alexa to dispense food manually, for those days when your furry friend needs an extra feed!
7. Alexa, show me my favorite photos
Experience the latest Alexa software on a Nixplay smart photo frame – letting you share your treasured memories with your family and friends, all with the sound of your own voice. Just ask Alexa to manage your frame and you can display any of your photo playlists and assign a specific playlist to any Nixplay frame (wherever that frame is). So if you’re looking for a gift that keeps you present, or an Amazon Alexa compatible device that displays your favorite memories, a Nixplay digital photo frame is the must-have smart home device for you. Browse the collection online today and order yours to start sharing your best moments with your loved ones.
I am the oldest child in our family. I am a mom of three and a grandma of five. Life can get hectic, and keeping track of photos should not cause stress and headaches for anyone.
The Nixplay frames we have purchased have been one of the best investments we could have made. Let me tell you why.
As I was growing up I was always an organizer; cleaning cupboards, closets, and keeping mementos from trips and important events. I was fortunate to have a large extended family, and listening to their oral history was a wonderful way to spend a lazy summer afternoon on the breezeway eating homemade ice cream. I loved hearing those stories but did not give it much thought to ever write them down. After all, there wasn’t going to be a test at the end, right?
So years passed and the storytellers began to leave this earth, and with them, their stories. I decided I needed to capture them so that I could pass them onto the next generations and incorporate them into my scrapbooks (when I would finally be ready). So I spent several days interviewing my Papa and recalling all the things he told me (I believed them all to be true). Because of this, I will now be able to share my father’s memories with my grandkids, even if I don’t have the pictures to “show” the story.
Fast forward to when my husband and I became parents for the first time and lived over 20 hours away from our families. Of course, we were taking tons of pictures to document our new addition, and Mom would be asking weekly for new photos. So I would dutifully head to the photo store to get double prints and then send one set off to Michigan.
However, this process started to become a burden. Chasing a toddler around took more time than I planned. A lot of times, the photos didn’t get printed or they didn’t get sent.
I tried to keep it up, but it was not a priority for me and the next phase of sharing photos became a calendar for the upcoming year. And the photos were from LAST year. It was at least an easy way to send photos, but it was not very timely. Mom and Dad didn’t seem to care, but I was bothered by the fact that they were now seeing memories from over twelve months ago. It was not a perfect solution, but it was the fix of the day.
Our kids have since graduated, moved out, married, and started having children of their own. Now I was the grandma, and I WANTED those pictures to see my littles doing everyday things. And the funny thing is that we lived within an hour of our kids still, but did not see them on a daily basis. So I would ask them to email me some photos.
Usually, I would not get any (was I that daughter to my mom?). Then I joined Facebook to see the photos they would post (so I can blame my kids for getting me hooked on social media!) and then try to save the ones I felt were memory-worthy. It was a difficult task, as each snapshot fit the bill.
I was trying to keep up with sending photos to our family in Michigan so they could be engaged in our lives, but it was just not the most efficient way to do things.
Then along came Nixplay.
I bought a frame for my parents, set it up, and I kept control over the account so all they had to do was to plug it in and connect to the internet. I shared the email for the frame with my kids, my sister, and her kids. I told them all to send photos when they took them. Now I did not have to be the middle man!
And they did share. Maybe not immediately on the day when the photos were taken, but they would send pics from their phones when they had the chance to sit down and review them. And I was able to scan some older photos from our collection and share them. This was a gamechanger.
I can go into the account from my computer and remove duplicates (because my mom still adds photos she sees on Facebook when they have already been sent to the frame) and make sure photos are showing up on the correct frames. Yes, frames, plural: My family now maintains two frames, one in Michigan at my Mom’s, and one at our home in Indiana. I am able to add captions to the photos if the sender does not–it’s necessary as those little girls all look alike at some point in time. We love being able to sit and watch the frame, and it’s usually better than what is on television. And it was such a wonderful way to keep my parents engaged in the lives if their grandkids and great-grandkids.
When Dad was battling cancer, the frame brought him great joy while it displayed photos of the people he loved, and I felt like my kids did a great job of keeping them updated. Now that he is gone, Mom is able to have family “moving” through her day on the screen.
Our Nixplay is one of the first things our grandkids run to when they arrive at our house. They love to watch the pictures scroll through the collection. And this is how they have been able to learn the names of the members of our family and how they knew about their grandpa. Even though some of them have never met my dad, they know who he is and will talk about him.
I love to watch the kids watching the frame. It makes my heart fill with love. I am so glad I found Nixplay, and it is now like a member of the family. And because of our frame, other family members and friends have also purchased frames of their own and have brought them into their lives.
I am so happy to see that visual history is now being recorded, and that there will always be stories tied to these photos that need to be recorded for future generations. Photos deserve to be displayed–now, think about how many images would still be locked away in phones, online clouds, or boxes if we didn’t have Nixplay.
Jodi is a certified professional photo manager in Indiana. She is also an educator and volunteer emergency medical technician. She understands the importance of human connection and the telling of stories through image and print. When she is not working on client projects, you can find her playing with grandkids and helping others to document their memories.
This is the third Nixplay WiFi photo frame that I have reviewed. I believe there is a good reason why the company is the global market leader for digital photo frames: They just have the best soft- and hardware in the mid-size frame segment that they are in.
In this review, I will take a closer look at the 9.7 inches Nixplay Smart Photo Frame, which is the 2K model of the “Smart” product line. This means that you can expect the screen to be tack-sharp.
What people expect from digital photo frames
With the Coronavirus in 2020, “keeping in touch” became a predominantly virtual matter for some time. Video conference tools gained in popularity because it gave us all a much better feeling of working together than just listening to group phone calls. And yet, easy to set up video-conference software has been around for over twenty years. But only now, they became fully accepted.
I’d like to think that the same is true for digital picture frames. They have been around for ages, but the quality of the hardware and the user-friendliness of the software left a lot to be desired. But recently, they seem to pop up everywhere.
Although different customer segments will have different requirements, the average consumer first and foremost expects ease of use. And since many photo frames are given as a present to parents and grandparents to keep in touch with the family, people expect a way to service them remotely.
This is where many sins have been committed. The software was an afterthought in many companies when it should be the first step in the design.
What Nixplay consistently does right
So it was no surprise that many companies have appeared on this market and quickly left again. The mid-size segment has been especially crowded with brands slapping their logo on some white label “China” frames with no genuine passion for photo frames.
Don’t get me wrong. The best electronics manufacturers are in China and other Asian countries. But if the objective is to bring down costs to the minimum, the quality will suffer.
I currently see only one brand that is starting to become a household name in mid-range wifi photo frames and that is Nixplay.
Personally, I am not even much interested in a digital picture frame that is smaller than 24 inches, and I like to build them myself. But when friends & family ask me which brand to buy in the mid-size segment, I recommend Nixplay.
There are two reasons for my judgement.
One the one hand, they overall have the best software for digital picture frames. It is (relatively) easy to use and has all the bells and whistles that you need. Especially, it can remotely control other frames, i.e., to add pictures and change the settings. This works as long as the other frame is connected to WiFi.
On the other hand, the hardware is solid. Nixplay has come up with a very clever patented solution for the cable problem of picture frames and turned it into a stand. And no USB card can break or is hard to insert. And third, the design is available in several styles, so everyone should find something compatible with their style.
There are two things that you have to be comfortable with: You need a WiFi connection, and your photos are stored in the Cloud. If you don’t like either, you have to look at non-wifi frame models. Nixplay also has those, but they are not available on their homepage but on Amazon.
Only the 9.7 inches version has the ultra-high-resolution 2K display. I guess this is why it’s also just as expensive as the 15.6 inches model which only has a display resolution of 1920 x 1080px.
However, the screen size is only one difference. Just as important is the aspect ratio of these models.
The 2K model has a ratio of 4:3, which is typically what a photo that was taken with a mobile phone has. Since most of today’s photos are taken with a mobile, it makes a lot of sense to have the same screen proportions as otherwise too much of your image would be cropped in full-screen mode.
The 10.1 frame has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is about what a DSLR (3:2) is at. The 13.3. and the 15.6 models both come with 16:9, which is great for videos but not so much for photos. I could talk about hours about this subject but let me just say, there are many reasons why I prefer 16:10 or 4:3 displays.
A tack-sharp display
The funny thing with high-resolution displays is that you don’t notice the difference immediately. But the more you look at a high-resolution (Apple calls them “Retina”) display, the more details you discover. And when you then go back to a low-resolution screen, you’re ready to go to the optician because you think there is something wrong with your eyes.
So, a word of warning here. Once you get used to a high-resolution display, there is no way back. Just try to take an Apple iMac 5K away from someone and give him a 1920×1080 monitor (which used to be considered HD!). Good luck!
The screen of the 2K is super sharp and you will discover many details on your photos. It is glossy but it is not prone to showing reflections.
This frame is currently the best in its class in terms of display quality. And the fact that it has an aspect ratio of 4:3 makes it ideal for family & friends photos taken with a mobile phone.
If you are a photographer and you need a small WiFi photo frame, you may be better served with the 16:10 ratio found in the slightly larger 10.1 model. But then again, in your profession, you would probably want a 40 inches 4K frame anyway.
The 2K screen comes at a premium of about $100. Is it worth it? Maybe not because the other Nixplay models also have great displays but, personally, I can’t have enough pixels!
The Nixplay software is still the industry benchmark
I have talked a lot about the Nixplay software and have even written two articles to get you started with a computer or a mobile device.
The good thing is that Nixplay hasn’t changed much in that software since I first published the articles in 2019. And why should they? It is very user-friendly and offers plenty of options the way it is.
What is especially well thought through is the initial setup process after you first unbox the frame. The only thing you need to have nearby is the password of your WiFi network. Once that is entered via the remote control, you can continue on your mobile phone.
The Nixplay software lets you manage all your Nixplay frames with one account and app. This means that you can share your playlists on all connected frames, regardless of where they are in the world. The only thing that matters is that they are connected to a WiFi signal. They do work without WiFi as the images are downloaded to the frame, but you need the signal for photo updates.
As far as the management of your photos goes, you can either access your phone’s photo app, the Nixplay Cloud Albums, or connect it to Google Photos.
The software still offers the same selection of beautiful image transitions and has many features for customisation.
If I could make a wish for one future software feature, it would be the ability to see the image that is currently being played on a remote frame. Sometimes you may want to share a particular photo with your family and with a feature like this, you could all be sure that you are looking at the same thing.
Conclusion
The Nixplay 2K Nixplay Smart Photo Frame has the potential to spoil you for all other photo frames. The super sharp display is something that you take for granted quickly.
The proven quality of Nixplay’s hard- and software remains the key recipe for the company’s market success. But before you buy, check which display aspect ratio is the right one for your needs. I would argue that this is even more important than pixel density.
