I picked up another Radio Shack Digital Photo Viewer (#63-1078) last night. I described this thing in a previous post. Though MWS said earlier that he wasn't able to find one, I still think there are plenty around. You can quickly search on Radio Shack's web site for stores that still have this device in stock. Go to the product page for the Digital Photo Viewer. Enter in your local zip code and start a stock search. A list of the 10 nearest stores will be returned with green icons marking which stores have the viewer in stock. You can give these places a call to have a clerk verify. If the first 10 stores don't turn up a viewer, note the zip code of the last store in the search results and enter that as a new search to shift to stores located further away. Depending on where you live, you should be able to find at least one of these, especially since there are over 6,800 Radio Shacks in the U.S.

I'm still hot on this gadget because anything that functions even remotely like a digital photo viewer or picture frame costs $200-500. At $49, though the screen quality is average, it's a steal. Since you can mount the CF card in the viewer on your PC desktop via USB, think of this gadget as a CF/SD card reader that also happens to display photo slideshows.

This same product is sold in different case designs as the GigaExpo P350 or Smartparts Digital Photo Viewer. The Smartparts version is all over at places like Amazon, Wolf Camera and CostCo at prices from $108 - $195. What this means to me is that there will be a lot more of these over-priced viewers on deep discount closeout after the new year. Then let the hacking begin.

If you find one of the viewers, read these detailed blog instructions on how to set up your CF card photo files.

- mike lee - baltimore